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James R. Moyer, Jr., Associate Professor

Prof. James Moyer

Office: Garland Hall, Room 208
Phone: 414-229-3255
e-mail: jrmoyer@uwm.edu

Degree:
Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1992

Research Interests:
Our laboratory is interested in how the brain changes as a function of associative learning and as a function of the aging process. Information obtained from basic research is used to fuel the development and evaluation of novel neurotherapeutics for the treatment of aging-related cognitive decline. Our research focuses on medial temporal lobe brain regions (e.g., the hippocampus, perirhinal cortex)-structures that are vital for learning and memory and are among the earliest to degenerate in Alzheimer's disease. Behavioral (Pavlovian conditioning), immunohistochemical (fluorescence microsocopy), and neurophysiological (field potential, sharp microelectrode, and IR-DIC patch-clamp recordings from neurons in living brain slices) techniques are utilized to integrate information among multiple levels of analysis.

Interested students should contact me or visit the lab website (http://www.uwm.edu/~jrmoyer) for more information about our research or extramurally funded research opportunities.

Recent Publications:
Moyer, J.R., Jr. and Brown, T.H. (2006). Impaired trace and contextual fear conditioning in aged rats. Behavioral Neuroscience 120: 612-624.

Moyer, J.R., Jr. (2004). Effects of training ITI and age on trace fear conditioning. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science 39: 65.

Moyer, J.R., Jr. and Brown, T.H (2002) Patch-clamp techniques applied to brain slices. In: Advanced Techniques for Patch-Clamp Analysis (Walz W, Boulton A.A, and Baker G.B, Eds), pp. 135-194. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.

Moyer, J.R., Jr., McNay, E.C, and Brown, T.H (2002). Three classes of pyramidal cells in layer V of rat perirhinal cortex. Hippocampus 12, 218-234.

McGann, J.P, Moyer, J.R., Jr., and Brown, T.H (2001). Predominance of late-spiking neurons in layer VI of rat perirhinal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 21, 4969-4976.

Moyer, J.R., Jr., Kelsey, S.M, McGann, J.P, and Brown, T.H (2001). Morphology and distribution of calbindin-D28k in adult and aged rat perirhinal cortex. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 27, program number 327.7.

Moyer, J.R., Jr., Power, J.M, Thompson, L.T, and Disterhoft, J.F (2000). Increased excitability of aged rabbit CA1 neurons after trace eyeblink conditioning. Journal of Neuroscience 20, 5476-5482.

Moyer, J.R., Jr. and Brown, T.H (1998). Methods for whole-cell recording from visually preselected neurons of perirhinal cortex in brain slices from young and aging rats. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 86, 35-54.

Moyer, J.R., Jr., Thompson, L.T, and Disterhoft, J.F (1996). Trace eyeblink conditioning increases CA1 excitability in a transient and learning-specific manner. Journal of Neuroscience 16, 5536-5546.