Neuroscience & Mental Health Research Institute

Prof. Mark Good

Based at the Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology

Research Keywords

Hippocampus, memory, emotion, Alzheimer’s disease, synaptic plasticity

Research Interests and Facilities

My research interests fall into three main areas: (1) Investigation of the role played by the hippocampus and related cortical areas in learning, memory and emotion in rodents; (2) The role played by synaptic plasticity mechanisms in learning and memory in rodents; (3) Characterisation of murine models of Alzheimer’s disease and evaluation of putative therapeutic interventions.

My multi-disciplinary laboratory is equipped with: computer-controlled operant chambers for mice and rats (including standard operant chambers, 9-hole boxes and fear conditioning chambers); access to three state-of-the-art watermaze testing facilities and standard maze testing environments, two histology and immunohistochemistry facilities, two surgical facilities (each with 4 work stations); in vivo field recording and unit recording facilities; histology microscopes, PCR and ELISA facilities.

Available PhD Projects

1. Investigating the effects of exercise on cognitive impairments and pathology in amyloid and tau mouse models of dementia.
2. Investigating the effects of tau mutations on neural network activity during memory formation and retrieval.
3. Investigating the effects of antibodies against the amyloid precursor protein pathology on cognition and pathology in APP transgenic mice.
4. Synaptic plasticity and the formation of configural memory in rodents.

Publications

1. Lelos MJ, Good MA. (2012) c-Fos expression reveals aberrant neural network activity during cued fear conditioning in APPswe transgenic mice. Neurobiol Learn Mem., in press
2. Thomas RS, Lelos MJ, Good MA, Kidd EJ. (2011) Clathrin-mediated endocytic proteins are upregulated in the cortex of the Tg2576 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease-like amyloid pathology. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 415(4):656-61.
3. Falinska, A.M; Bascoul-Colombo, C.; Guschina, I.A., Good, M. and Harwood, J.L. (2011) The role of n-3 dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids in brain function and ameliorating Alzheimer's disease: opportunities for biotechnology in the development of nutraceuticals New Biotechnology, in press.
4. Poirier, G.L, Amin E, Good MA, Aggleton JP. (2011) Early-onset dysfunction of retrosplenial cortex precedes overt amyloid plaque formation in Tg2576 mice. Neuroscience, 174:71-83.
   Iordanova, M.D., Good, M.A., & Honey, R.C. (2011) Retrieval-mediated learning involving episodes requires synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(19), 7156-62.
5. Iordanova MD,Burnett, D.J., Good MA, Honey RC. (2011) Pattern memory involves both elemental and configural processes:Evidence from the effects of hippocampal lesions. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125(4), 567-77,
   Lelos, M, Thomas, R, Kidd, E. & Good, MA. (2011) Outcome-specific satiety reveals a deficit in context-outcome, but not stimulus- or action-outcome, associations in aged Tg2576 mice. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125(3), 412-25
6. Reichelt, A.C., Lin, T.E., Harrison, J.J., Honey, R.C. & Good, M.A. (2011) Differential role of the hippocampus in response-outcome and context-outcome learning: Evidence from selective satiation procedures. Neurobiology of Learning & Memory, 96(2), 248-53.
7. Dachtler, J, Fox, K & Good MA (2011) Gender specific requirement of GluR1 receptors in contextual conditioning but not spatial learning. Neurobiology of Learning & Memory, 96(3), 461-7
8. Palmer, A & Good, M.A (2011) Hippocampal synaptic activity, pattern separation and episodic-like memory: Implications for mouse models of Alzheimer’s pathology. Biochemical Society Transactions, 39(4), 902-9
9. Thomas RS, Lelos MJ, Good MA, Kidd EJ. (2011) Clathrin-mediated endocytic proteins are upregulated in the cortex of the Tg2576 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease-like amyloid pathology. Biochem Biophys Res Commun., 415(4), 656-61.
   Honey R.C , Iordanova, M, Good, M (2010) Latent inhibition and habituation: evaluation of an associative analysis. In Latent Inhibition: Cognition, Neuroscience and Applications to Schizophrenia, Ed. Lubow R & Weiner I Cambridge University Press.
10. Sanderson DJ, McHugh SB, Good MA, Sprengel R, Seeburg PH, Rawlins JN, Bannerman DM. (2010) Spatial working memory deficits in GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit knockout mice reflect impaired short-term habituation: Evidence for Wagner's dual-process memory model. Neuropsychologia, 48(8) 2303-2315.