Behavioural Neuroscience

Our aim is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying behaviour and cognition. We are interested in how animals acquire information about the environment, process that information, and then select an action that leads to a particular goal. We also investigate how animals respond to novelty and rewards, and how animals learn about their environments. Our research investigates how behaviour and cognition develop across the lifespan.

Our research covers most of the neuroaxis, including the cerebral cortex, thalamus, midbrain and hippocampus, while taking into account how these structures operate within functional systems. We also have interests in a variety of neurochemical and neuroendocrine systems. Our research focuses on the neural functioning of rodents and birds. However, our results have important implications for understanding human neurological and psychiaric illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and drug addiction.

The research conducted by the Behavioural Neuroscience group has received strong financial support from several organisations, including the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust, BBSRC, EPSRC and industrial partners.

The work is carried out, in state-of-the art laboratories. The experimental techniques used in our laboratories include a range of conditioned and unconditioned behavioural tests for rodents (such as operant tests, open field, plus-maze and radial-maze), neurophysiological analysis of single neurons in alert rats, psychopharmacological techniques, histological techniques (including immunohistochemistry and microscopy), and enzyme-immunoassay of steroid hormones.

Within St Andrews, the Behavioural Neuroscience group constitutes part of the Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences , which involves researchers from the Schools of Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Medicine.

Our group members also have links with a number of industrial partners (including Merck Schering-Plough and Lundbeck) and other universities in the UK and abroad.

James Ainge

is interested in the underlying neural mechanisms of spatial and episodic memory. His research examines the internal spatial representations (cognitive maps) that animals form of familiar environments and how these may be used to encode information about experiences that occur in those places. Specific research interests include how and where contextual information is represented in the brain and how this is used to guide ongoing behaviour and plan future responses.

Eric Bowman

is interested in the relationship between dopamine neural activity and reward, reinforcement learning and motivation. A secondary focus is the behavioural neuroscience of microeconomic decision making. Future plans include broadening the neurophysiological research to include EEG recordings in rats of evoked potentials that are impaired in schizophrenia.

Gillian Brown

is interested in how hormones influence behaviour and the development of the brain, with particular emphasis on sex differences in exploration and novelty-seeking in adolescent rodents. Other interests include behavioural development in primates and evolutionary perspectives on behaviour.

Verity Brown

is interested in how the brain organizes responses and controls movement. Current research focuses on the neural substrates of the processes whereby "will" is translated into action.

Sue Healy

has several avenues of research currently underway all stemming from an interest in relationships between behaviour and the correlated neural processing, specifically the processing of spatial information; adaptive specialisation of memory; effects of behavioural experience on the development of the avian hippocampus, particularly in migrant songbirds; field tests of spatial memory and context-dependent choice in hummingbirds.