Prof James Ainge

Prof James Ainge

Head of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience

Professor

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 2057
Email
jaa7@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Research areas

The focus of the lab is to try and understand the neural mechanisms that support our ability to remember the things that have happened to us – episodic memory. Most of our work takes a systems neuroscience approach to examine how networks within the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex process memory information.  We use in vivo electrophysiology to examine firing patterns of individual neurons as lab rats carry out memory tasks. We also use molecular and genetic tools to manipulate the network and understand the cellular mechanisms underlying episodic memory.

Complimenting the neuroscientific approach, other lines of research in the lab examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying episodic memory in both human adults and children. Ultimately, we aim to apply this work by using our knowledge of mammalian memory networks to help test therapeutic strategies for disorders of memory such as Alzheimer’s disease.

PhD supervision

  • Benjamin Thompson

Selected publications

 

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