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Jonathan Gewirtz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology E-mail: jgewirtz@umn.edu

Research Interests:

• Biological processes underlying learning and memory
• Producing animal models of human psychopathology
• Neural substrates of fear conditioning

My work concerns the biological substrates of memory, fear, and anxiety, and drug dependence. Fears can be acquired extremely rapidly and once acquired, can last a lifetime. I use Pavlovian conditioning paradigms to produce fearful memories in rats. To test for the presence and strength of those memories, I measure the startle reflex, the size of which is elevated when a rat (or other mammal, including human) is afraid.

"Fear-potentiated startle" provides us with a tool to identify brain structures, and to study pharmacological and molecular mechanisms involved in different aspects of the formation and retrieval of fearful memories. Moreover, dramatic elevations in startle accompany certain forms of anxiety disorder and the anxiety-related symptoms of drug withdrawal. Thus, understanding the mechanisms through which startle is potentiated provides insights into the pathophysiology and treatment of anxiety and drug abuse.

Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

Raman L, Hamilton KL, Gewirtz JC, Rao R. Effects of chronic hypoxia in developing rats on dendritic morphology of the CA1 subarea of the hippocampus and on fear-potentiated startle.
Brain Res. 2007 Nov 28; [Epub ahead of print]

Harris AC, Rothwell PE, Gewirtz JC. Effects of the NMDA receptor antagonist memantine on the expression and development of acute opiate dependence as assessed by withdrawal-potentiated startle and hyperalgesia. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2007 Nov 16; [Epub ahead of print]

Burman MA, Gewirtz JC. Hippocampal activity, but not plasticity, is required for early consolidation of fear conditioning with a short trace interval. Eur J Neurosci. 2007 Apr;25(8):2483-90.

Harris AC, Atkinson DM, Aase DM, Gewirtz JC. Double dissociation in the neural substrates of acute opiate dependence as measured by withdrawal-potentiated startle. Neuroscience. 2006;139(4):1201-

Burman MA, Starr MJ, Gewirtz JC. Dissociable effects of hippocampus lesions on expression of fear and trace fear conditioning memories in rats. Hippocampus. 2006;16(2):103-13.