Lecturer in Behavioural Neuroscience
School of Psychology
University of Ulster,
Coleraine BT52 1SA, UK
Email; d.shaw@ulster.ac.uk
Tel.: 0044-28- 70323020
1. Research Interests
Research on behaviour pharmacology and animal models of psychiatric disorders. The potential of novel treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
Ongoing projects;
Identify the temporal relationship of glutamatergic and GABAergic mediated neural processes in operant extinction and to test the hypothesis that extinction is neurally mediated by a two-stage process; identify the glutamatergic and GABAergic receptor subtypes mediating operant extinction using subtype selective compounds and knock-in transgenic mice lines; evaluate the ability of naturally occurring substances to treat psychiatric disorders.
2. Research Funding
2005-2008 £232,476 from BBSRC (for work on neural mechanisms of operant extinction).
3. Research Collaborations
Ongoing collaboration with Prof. Julian Leslie UUC, Dr. Christian Hölscher UUC.
4. List of recent publications
Leslie, J. C., Boyle, C., and Shaw, D. (2000). Effects of reinforcement magnitude and ratio values on behaviour maintained by a cyclic ratio schedule of reinforcement. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53B, 289-308.
McCabe, C., Shaw, D., Atack, J.R., Street , L.J., Wafford , K.A., Dawson , G.R., Reynolds, D., & Leslie, J.C. (2004). Subtype-selective GABAergic drugs facilitate extinction of mouse operant behaviour. Neuropharmacology, 46 (2), 171-178.
O'Hare, E., Shaw, D.L., Tierney, K.J., Kim, E-M., Levine, A.S. and Shephard, R.A. (2004). Behavioural and neurochemical mechanisms of action of mild stress in the enhancement of feeding. Behavioral Neuroscience, 118, 173-177.
Shaw, D., Dawson, G. R., Reynolds, D. S., McCabe, C., & Leslie, J.C. (2004). Effects of chlordiazepoxide on extinction and re-acquisition of operant behavior in mice. Behavioural Pharmacology, 15(3), 225-232.
Leslie, J.C., Shaw, D., McCabe, C., Reynolds, D. S., & Dawson, G. R. (2004). Effects of drugs that potentiate GABA on extinction of positively-reinforced operant behaviour. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 28(3), 229-238.
Leslie, J.C., Shaw, D, Gregg, G, McCormick, N, Reynolds, D.S & Dawson, G.R. (2005). Effects of reinforcement schedule on facilitation of operant extinction by Chlordiazepoxide. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 84(3), 327-338.
Shaw, D., Annett, J.M.., Doherty, B., and Leslie J.C. (2007). Anxiolytic effects of lavender oil inhalation on open-field behaviour in rats. Phytomedicine, doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2007.0.007.