Research Output per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Memory is a highly complex cognitive function that involves interactions between numerous brain structures, proteins and signalling molecules. Indeed, experience-dependent changes in the strength of synaptic connections between neurons are thought to underlie information storage in the brain. Thus, understanding the highly elastic nature — or the 'plasticity' — of synapses is critical to uncovering how the brain converts our individual experiences into lasting memories. To this end, modulatory neurotransmitter systems play a central role in shaping synaptic processes involved in the encoding and retention of information within neural circuits. A fundamental problem remains, though, in understanding how extrinsic factors recruit, mimic or even hijack these endogenous regulatory signals to affect the development of brain systems critical to cognitive and mnemonic function. The primary focus of my research is in determining how the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortices integrate signals from multiple sensory modalities during the encoding of new memories, as well as in determining how neuromodulatory transmitter systems regulate the synaptic mechanisms required to retain these memories over time. My long-term goal is to understand how environmental factors (e.g., caffeine intake) influence the development of synaptic function critical to cognition and behaviour.
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Research Output 2005 2015
- 12 Article
Role of the vasopressin 1b receptor in rodent aggressive behavior and synaptic plasticity in hippocampal area CA2
Pagani, J. H., Zhao, M., Cui, Z., Avram, S. K. W., Caruana, D. A., Dudek, S. M. & Young, W. S., 1 Apr 2015, In : Molecular Psychiatry. 20, 4, p. 490-499 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Dopaminergic enhancement of excitatory synaptic transmission in layer II entorhinal neurons is dependent on D1-like receptor-mediated signaling
Glovaci, I., Caruana, D. A. & Chapman, C. A., 31 Jan 2014, In : Neuroscience. 258, p. 74-83 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Caffeine-induced synaptic potentiation in hippocampal CA2 neurons
Simons, S. B., Caruana, D. A., Zhao, M. & Dudek, S. M., 1 Jan 2012, In : Nature Neuroscience. 15, 1, p. 23-25 3 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Induction of activity-dependent LTD requires muscarinic receptor activation in medial prefrontal cortex
Caruana, D. A., Warburton, E. C. & Bashir, Z. I., 14 Dec 2011, In : Journal of Neuroscience. 31, 50, p. 18464-18478 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Anterior thalamic lesions stop synaptic plasticity in retrosplenial cortex slices: expanding the pathology of diencephalic amnesia
Garden, D. L. F., Massey, P. V., Caruana, D. A., Johnson, B., Warburton, E. C., Aggleton, J. P. & Bashir, Z. I., 1 Jul 2009, In : Brain. 132, 7, p. 1847-1857 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article