Brian E. Derrick, Ph.D.
Professor of Neurobiology
Office: BSB 3.03.32
Phone: (210) 458-5661
Lab: (210) 458-4273
Brian.Derrick@utsa.edu
| Ph.D. |
1993 Biopsychology, University of California, Berkeley |
| B.S. |
1984 Psychobiology, University of California, Los Angeles |
Research Interests
Neuropharmacology, Neurocomputation, Cognitive Neuroscience, Theoretical Neuroscience
Our laboratory studies information processing in the hippocampal formation, a limbic structure crucial for encoding and the retrieval of episodic and semantic memory. We are interested in hippocampal function from a dynamical and cognitive/systems approach, and are exploring the predictions of current computational theories of brain function using behavioral, neurophysiological, neuropharmacological and molecular approaches. We are interested in the interactions among cortical inputs to the hippocampal CA3 region arising directly from the perforant pathway, and indirectly from the dentate gyrus, and their dynamics during encoding and retrieval in behaving animals. Related to these phenomena, we are also investigating the dual roles of the dentate and CA3 region in novelty detection/encoding, pattern completion/retrieval, as well as investigating the contribution of LTP, LTD, metaplasticity and theta rhythm to hippocampal encoding processes. In addition, we are also investigating the synaptic mechanisms regulating adult granule cell neurogenesis in the dentate, and the possible contribution of newly-generated and surviving dentate granule cells to hippocampal information storage, and their possible role as a temporal marker for episodic memory formation.
Select Publications
Villarreal DM, Gross AL, Derrick BE (2007) Modulation of CA3 afferent inputs by novelty and theta rhythm.
J Neurosci. 27(49):13457-67.
Derrick BE. (2007) Plastic processes in the dentate gyrus: a computational perspective. Prog. Brain Res. 163:417-51.
Derrick, BE (2007) The cellular mechanisms of learning and memory: pattern separation and pattern completion in the hippocampal formation. Cell Science 4(2): 97-130.
Davis CD, Jones FL, Derrick BE. (2004) Novel environments enhance the induction and maintenance of long-term potentiation in the dentate gyrus J Neurosci. 24(29):6497-506.
Villarreal, D., Do, V. Haddad, E, and Derrick, B.E. (2002) NMDA antagonists sustain LTP and spatial Memory: evidence for active processes underlying LTP decay. Nat. Neurosci. 5: 48-52.
Do, V, Martinez, C.O., Martinez, JL. Jr, & Derrick, B.E. (2002) Long-term Potentiation in direct Perforant Path projections to Hippocampal Area CA3 in vivo. J. Neurophys. 87: 669-674.
Derrick, B.E. and J.L. Martinez, Jr. (1996) Associative bidirectional modifications at the mossy fiber synapse. Nature 381:429-434.
Derrick, BE and JL Martinez, Jr. (1994) Frequency-dependent associative LTP at the mossy fiber-CA3 synapse.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 10290-10294.
Select Presentations
Columbia Medical School, Dept of Neuroscience, NY, NY
"Novel Solutions to the Stability-Plasticity Dilemma in the Hippocampus"
Sep 10, 2007
Host: Rene Hen, Ph.D.
Presented by the Neuroscience and Behavior Speaker series.
University of Texas, Austin, TX University of Chicago, Dept of Psychology, Chicago, IL
"Novelty detection and he Hippocampus"
June 7, 2005
Host: Tim Schallert, Ph.D.
Presented by the Program in Neuroscience Symposia
University of Chicago, Dept of Psychology, Chicago, IL
"Novelty and the Hippocampus"
May 7, 2005
Host: Leslie Kay, Ph.D.
Presented by the Committee on Neuroscience Symposia
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL
“LTP: What Learning’s got to do with it”
June 24, 2002.
Host: Donna Korol PhD and Paul Gold, PhD, Department of Psychology.
University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio, TX
“Bidirectional associativity in hippocampal synaptic systems”
October 15, 2001.
Host: Alan Frazier, PhD, Department of Pharmacology.
CalTech (California Institute of Technology), Pasadena, CA
“Bidirectional associativity and local self-organization in hippocampal synaptic systems”
October 3, 1997.
Host: Paul Patterson, PhD, Department of Biology.