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The role of distal landmarks and individual differences in acquiring spatial representations that support flexible and automatic wayfinding (2024)
Journal Article
Buckley, M. G., Austen, J. M., & McGregor, A. (2024). The role of distal landmarks and individual differences in acquiring spatial representations that support flexible and automatic wayfinding. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 98, Article 102391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102391

Theories of parallel memory systems suggest that flexible wayfinding (e.g., shortcutting) requires knowledge about the spatial structure of an environment, whereas automatic wayfinding (e.g., route-following) does not. Distal landmarks have widely be... Read More about The role of distal landmarks and individual differences in acquiring spatial representations that support flexible and automatic wayfinding.

The well‐worn route revisited: Striatal and hippocampal system contributions to familiar route navigation (2024)
Journal Article
Buckley, M., McGregor, A., Ihssen, N., Austen, J., Thurlbeck, S., Smith, S. P., Heinecke, A., & Lew, A. R. (2024). The well‐worn route revisited: Striatal and hippocampal system contributions to familiar route navigation. Hippocampus, 34(7), 310-326. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.23607

Classic research has shown a division in the neuroanatomical structures that support flexible (e.g., short‐cutting) and habitual (e.g., familiar route following) navigational behavior, with hippocampal–caudate systems associated with the former and p... Read More about The well‐worn route revisited: Striatal and hippocampal system contributions to familiar route navigation.

Knockout of NMDARs in CA1 and dentate gyrus fails to impair temporal control of conditioned behaviour in mice (2023)
Journal Article
Strickland, J., Austen, J., Sprengel, R., & Sanderson, D. (2024). Knockout of NMDARs in CA1 and dentate gyrus fails to impair temporal control of conditioned behaviour in mice. Hippocampus, 34(3), 126-140. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.23593

The hippocampus has been implicated in temporal learning. Plasticity within the hippocampus requires NMDA receptor-dependent glutamatergic neurotransmission. We tested the prediction that hippocampal NMDA receptors are required for learning about tim... Read More about Knockout of NMDARs in CA1 and dentate gyrus fails to impair temporal control of conditioned behaviour in mice.

Reinforcement rate and the balance between excitatory and inhibitory learning: insights from deletion of the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit (2022)
Journal Article
Austen, J. M., Sprengel, R., & Sanderson, D. J. (2022). Reinforcement rate and the balance between excitatory and inhibitory learning: insights from deletion of the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 48(4), 307-314. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000336

Conditioned responding is sensitive to reinforcement rate. This rate-sensitivity is impaired in genetically modified mice that lack the GluA1 subunit of the AMPA receptor. A time-dependent application of the Rescorla–Wagner learning rule can be used... Read More about Reinforcement rate and the balance between excitatory and inhibitory learning: insights from deletion of the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit.

The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems (2021)
Journal Article
Buckley, M. G., Austen, J. M., Myles, L. A., Smith, S., Ihssen, N., Lew, A. R., & McGregor, A. (2021). The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems. Cognition, 214, Article 104802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104802

Some theories of spatial learning predict that associative rules apply under only limited circumstances. For example, learning based on a boundary has been claimed to be immune to cue competition effects because boundary information is the basis for... Read More about The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems.

Cue duration determines response rate but not rate of acquisition of Pavlovian conditioning in mice (2020)
Journal Article
Austen, J. M., & Sanderson, D. J. (2020). Cue duration determines response rate but not rate of acquisition of Pavlovian conditioning in mice. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(11), 2026-2035. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021820937696

The duration of a conditioned stimulus (CS) is a key determinant of Pavlovian conditioning. Rate estimation theory (RET) proposes that reinforcement rate is calculated over cumulative exposure to a cue and the reinforcement rate of a cue, relative to... Read More about Cue duration determines response rate but not rate of acquisition of Pavlovian conditioning in mice.

En route to delineating hippocampal roles in spatial learning (2019)
Journal Article
Poulter, S., Austen, J. M., Kosaki, Y., Dachtler, J., Lever, C., & McGregor, A. (2019). En route to delineating hippocampal roles in spatial learning. Behavioural Brain Research, 369, Article 111936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2019.111936

The precise role played by the hippocampus in spatial learning tasks, such as the Morris Water Maze (MWM), is not fully understood. One theory is that the hippocampus is not required for ‘knowing where’ but rather is crucial in ‘getting there’. To ex... Read More about En route to delineating hippocampal roles in spatial learning.

The NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 fails to impair long-term recognition memory in mice when the state-dependency of memory is controlled (2019)
Journal Article
Chan, M., Austen, J. M., Eacott, M. J., Easton, A., & Sanderson, D. J. (2019). The NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 fails to impair long-term recognition memory in mice when the state-dependency of memory is controlled. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 161, 57-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2019.03.006

NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic plasticity has been proposed to be important for encoding of memories. Consistent with this hypothesis, the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801, has been found to impair performance on tests of memory. In... Read More about The NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 fails to impair long-term recognition memory in mice when the state-dependency of memory is controlled.

GluA1 AMPAR subunit deletion reduces the hedonic response to sucrose but leaves satiety and conditioned responses intact (2017)
Journal Article
Austen, J. M., Sprengel, R., & Sanderson, D. J. (2017). GluA1 AMPAR subunit deletion reduces the hedonic response to sucrose but leaves satiety and conditioned responses intact. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 7424. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07542-9

The GluA1 subunit of the AMPA receptor has been implicated in schizophrenia. While GluA1 is important for cognition, it is not clear what the role of GluA1 is in hedonic responses that are relevant to the negative symptoms of disorders such as schizo... Read More about GluA1 AMPAR subunit deletion reduces the hedonic response to sucrose but leaves satiety and conditioned responses intact.

Memory-dependent effects on palatability in mice (2016)
Journal Article
Austen, J. M., Strickland, J. A., & Sanderson, D. J. (2016). Memory-dependent effects on palatability in mice. Physiology & Behavior, 167, 92-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.09.001

While palatability depends on the properties of particular foods, it is also determined by prior experience, suggesting that memory affects the hedonic value of a substance. Here, we report two procedures that affect palatability in mice: negative co... Read More about Memory-dependent effects on palatability in mice.

Do fetuses move their lips to the sound that they hear? An observational feasibility study on auditory stimulation in the womb (2016)
Journal Article
Reissland, N., Francis, B., Buttanshaw, L., Austen, J., & Reid, V. (2016). Do fetuses move their lips to the sound that they hear? An observational feasibility study on auditory stimulation in the womb. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 2(1), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-016-0053-3

Background: We investigate in this feasibility study whether specific lip movements increase prenatally when hearing a particular sound. We hypothesised that fetuses would produce more mouth movements resembling those required to make the sound stimu... Read More about Do fetuses move their lips to the sound that they hear? An observational feasibility study on auditory stimulation in the womb.

Contexts control negative contrast and restrict the expression of flavor preference conditioning (2016)
Journal Article
Austen, J. M., & Sanderson, D. J. (2016). Contexts control negative contrast and restrict the expression of flavor preference conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 42, 95-105. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000091

Consumption of a high concentration of sucrose can have either a detrimental, negative contrast effect or a facilitatory, preference conditioning effect on subsequent consumption of a low concentration of sucrose, depending on the cues that are prese... Read More about Contexts control negative contrast and restrict the expression of flavor preference conditioning.

The effect of the amount of blocking cue training on blocking of appetitive conditioning in mice (2015)
Journal Article
Sanderson, D. J., Jones, W. S., & Austen, J. M. (2016). The effect of the amount of blocking cue training on blocking of appetitive conditioning in mice. Behavioural Processes, 122, 36-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2015.11.007

Conditioning of a target cue is blocked when it occurs in compound with another cue (blocking cue) that has already received conditioning. Although blocking of appetitive conditioning is commonly used in rodents as a test of selective learning, it ha... Read More about The effect of the amount of blocking cue training on blocking of appetitive conditioning in mice.

Dorsolateral striatal lesions impair navigation based on landmark-goal vectors but facilitate spatial learning based on a "cognitive map" (2015)
Journal Article
Kosaki, Y., Poulter, S., Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2015). Dorsolateral striatal lesions impair navigation based on landmark-goal vectors but facilitate spatial learning based on a "cognitive map". Learning & Memory, 22(3), 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.037077.114

In three experiments, the nature of the interaction between multiple memory systems in rats solving a variation of a spatial task in the water maze was investigated. Throughout training rats were able to find a submerged platform at a fixed distance... Read More about Dorsolateral striatal lesions impair navigation based on landmark-goal vectors but facilitate spatial learning based on a "cognitive map".

Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations (2014)
Journal Article
Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2014). Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations. Learning & Behavior, 42(4), 330-336. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-014-0150-1

Rats were trained in a triangular water maze in which a compound of geometric and landmark cues indicated the position of a submerged platform. Rats that then underwent revaluation of the geometric cues in the absence of the landmarks subsequently fa... Read More about Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations.

Within-compound associations explain potentiation and failure to overshadow learning based on geometry by discrete landmarks (2013)
Journal Article
Austen, J., Kosaki, Y., & McGregor, A. (2013). Within-compound associations explain potentiation and failure to overshadow learning based on geometry by discrete landmarks. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 39(3), 259-272. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032525

In three experiments, rats were trained to locate a submerged platform in one of the base corners of a triangular arena above each of which was suspended one of two distinctive landmarks. In Experiment 1, it was established that these landmarks diffe... Read More about Within-compound associations explain potentiation and failure to overshadow learning based on geometry by discrete landmarks.

Overshadowing of geometry learning by discrete landmarks in the water maze: Effects of relative salience and relative validity of competing cues (2013)
Journal Article
Kosaki, Y., Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2013). Overshadowing of geometry learning by discrete landmarks in the water maze: Effects of relative salience and relative validity of competing cues. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 39(2), 126-139. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031199

The effects of stimulus salience and cue validity in the overshadowing of geometric features of an enclosed arena by discrete landmarks were investigated in rats using the water maze paradigm. Experiment 1 established that in a rhomboid-shaped arena,... Read More about Overshadowing of geometry learning by discrete landmarks in the water maze: Effects of relative salience and relative validity of competing cues.

Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems (2013)
Journal Article
Lew, A., Usherwood, B., Fragkioudaki, F., Koukoumi, V., Smith, S., Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2014). Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(3), 421-434. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21109

Whether animals represent environmental geometry in a global and/or local way has been the subject of recent debate. We applied a transfer of search paradigm between rectangular- and kite-shaped arenas to examine the performance of human adults (usin... Read More about Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems.