Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Neuroscience

Research

• Neurochemical control of motivated behaviour and attention; links to addiction and schizophrenia
• Neurochemical basis of conditioning and latent inhibition
• Use of microdialysis and voltammetry for measuring brain chemistry
• In vitro models of cerebral ischaemia
• Analytical methods for measuring neurotransmitters and drugs
• Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic measurements of drugs in brain
• Effects of drug use on attention, in relation to addiction and drug craving

Selected Recent Publications

Sood P, Idris N, Cole S, Grayson B, Neill J, Young AMJ (2011)  PD168077, a D4 receptor agonist, reverses object recognition deficits in rats: potential role for D4 receptor mechanisms in improving cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.  J. Psychopharmacol 25, 792-800.

Young AMJ (2010) High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).  In: (Stolerman IP, ed), Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology.

Davidson C, Chauhan NK, Knight S, Gibson CL, Young AMJ (2011)  Modelling ischaemia in vitro: effects of temperature and glucose concentration on ischaemia-evoked dopamine release in mouse brain slices.  J. Neurosci Meth.  202, 165-172   

Davidson C, Coomber B, Gibson, CL, Young AMJ  (2011) Effect of pre-ischaemic conditioning on hypoxic depolarization of dopamine efflux in the rat caudate brain slice measured in real-time with fast cyclic voltammetry.  Neurochemistry International (in press)

Davidson C, Prados J, Gibson CL, Young AMJ, Barnes D, Sherlock R, Hutchinson CV (2011)  Shedding light on photosensitive behaviour in brown planaria (Dugesia Tigrina).  Perception (in press)

Sood P., Cole S., Fraier D. and Young A.M.J. (2009). Evaluation of Metaquant microdialysis for measurement of absolute concentrations of amphetamine and dopamine in brain: a viable method for assessing pharmacokinetic profile of drugs in the brain.  J. Neurosci. Meth. 185, 39-44

Young A.M.J., Kumari V., Mehrotra R., Hemsley D.R., Andrew C., Sharma T., Williams S.C.R. and Gray J.A. (2005)  Disruption of learned irrelevance in acute schizophrenia in a novel continuous within-subject paradigm suitable for fMRI.  Behav. Brain Res., 156, 277-288

<Full list of publications>

Teaching

PS1003       Introduction to Psychology (Biological Psychology)
PS2014/8    Biological Psychology
PS3010       Behavioural Pharmacology
PS3013       Clinical Psychology
PS7089       Advanced Research Methods (M.Sc. Research Methods)
BS3033       Brain and Behaviour
Medicine      Special Study Module (Cell Signalling and Brain Disorders)