Dr Clea Warburton

Summary

My research interests are the neural and cellular substrates of learning and memory processes in animals. I am specifically interested in the distinct contributions the perirhinal and prefrontal cortices and the hippocampal formation make to recognition memory processing.

  The work conducted by my research group has involved the use of a number of complementary behavioural, and pharmacological techniques to examine the neural basis of recognition memory.  In some of our recent experiments we have revealed that the perirhinal cortex, hippocampus and  prefrontal cortex are differentially involved in specific components of recognition memory, namely familiairity discrimination (our ability to tell if a stimulus such as an object, is familiar or novel); object-in-place associaitive recognition memory (our ability to tell if an object has changed its location); recency recognition memory (our ability to judge how recently an object has been encountered) . 

By infusing specific pharmacological antagonists directly into selected brain regions we have examined the role of distinct neurotransmitter systems including  glutamate, acetylcholine and dopamine, and intracellular signalling pathways such as CaMK and MAK,  in recognition memory. In addition we have used viral vectors to investigate the role of specific molecules such as CREB (in collaboration with Professor James Uney, Dept of Medicine).

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Activities / Findings

• Long and short term recognition memory depends on different receptor mechanisms (NMDAR and KAR, respectively). Read more >
• Both medial prefrontal and perirhinal cortical regions are required for spatial and temporal associational memory Read more >
• Phosphorylation of CREB is necessary for recognition memory and LTP in the perirhinal cortex

Teaching

• Director of Neuroscience Teaching
• Level 1: Techniques in Neuroscience Unit
• Level 2 : Lectures within the Central Nervous System Unit
• Level 3: Seminars within the Neural Bases of Learning and Memory Unit
• Seminars within the Brain Functions and Disorders Unit

Keywords

• memory
• cannulation
• behaviour
• hippocampus
• perirhinal
• muscarinic
• glutamate receptor
• immunocytochemistry
• imaging

Skills

• Amnesia
• Alzheimer's Disease

Processes and functions

• Learning
• memory

Methodologies

• Behavioural assessment of learning and memory
• immunocytochemistry
• fluorescence microscopy

Memberships

Organisations

School of Physiology and Pharmacology

Other sites

• Neuroscience
• Phys-pharm

Links

•   home page

Selected publications

• Tinsley, C, Narduzzo, K, Ho, J, Barker, G, Brown, M & Warburton, E 2009, ‘A role for calcium-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II in the consolidation of visual object recognition memory’. European Journal of Neuroscience, vol 30(6)., pp. 1128 - 1139
• Garden, D, Massey, P, Caruana, D, Johnson, B, Warburton, E, Aggleton, J & Bashir, Z 2009, ‘Anterior thalamic lesions stop synaptic plasticity in retrosplenial cortex slices: expanding the pathology of diencephalic amnesia’. Brain, vol 132 (7)., pp. 1847 - 1857
• Barker, G & Warburton, E 2009, ‘Critical role of the cholinergic system for object-in-place associative recognition memory’. Learning & Memory, vol 16(1)., pp. 8 - 11
• Massey, P, Phythian, D, Narduzzo, K, Warburton, E, Brown, M & Bashir, Z 2008, ‘Learning-specific changes in long-term depression in adult perirhinal cortex’. J Neuroscience, vol 28(30)., pp. 7548 - 7554
• Barker, G & Warburton, E 2008, ‘NMDA receptor plasticity in the perirhinal and prefrontal cortices is crucial for the acquisition of long-term object-in-place associative memory’. Journal of Neuroscience, vol 28(11)., pp. 2837 - 2844

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Recent publications

• Scott, HL, Tamagnini, F, Narduzzo, KE, Howarth, JL, Bok-Lee, Y, Wong, L, Brown, MW, Warburton, EC, Bashir, ZI & Uney, JB 2012, ‘MicroRNA-132 regulates recognition memory and synaptic plasticity in the perirhinal cortex’. The European journal of neuroscience, vol 36., pp. 2941-8
• Tinsley, CJ, Narduzzo, KE, Brown, MW & Warburton, EC 2012, ‘A role for the CAMKK pathway in visual object recognition memory’. Hippocampus, vol 22., pp. 466-76
• Brown, MW, Barker, GRI, Aggleton, JP & Warburton, EC 2012, ‘What pharmacological interventions indicate concerning the role of the perirhinal cortex in recognition memory’. Neuropsychologia.
• Barker, G & Warburton, E 2011, ‘When Is the Hippocampus Involved in Recognition Memory?’. Journal of Neuroscience, vol 31., pp. 10721 - 10731
• Tinsley, C, Fontaine-Palmer, N, Vincent, M, Endean, E, Aggleton, J, Brown, M & Warburton, E 2011, ‘Differing time dependencies of object recognition memory impairments produced by nicotinic and muscarinic cholinergic antagonism in perirhinal cortex’. Learning and Memory, vol 18., pp. 484 - 492

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Networks & contacts

• Professor Malcolm Brown
• Professor Zafar Bashir
• Professor James Uney
• Professor Elek Molnar