RUTGERS,THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
New Brunswick, NJ 08903

Mark O. West, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology

Graduate Program In Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychology

Graduate Program In Neuroscience, UMDNJ/Cell Biology & Neuroscience

Degrees:

B.S.  Biological Sciences
University of California, Irvine

Ph.D.  Physiology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine

email: markwest@rci.rutgers.edu       phone 732-445-2419         fax 732-445-2263

Striatal reorganization in parkinsonian model:  Video option #1Video option #2  Press release

Accumbens activation during cue-induced relapse to cocaine seeking: Press release #1 Press release #2

Department of Psychology

Behavioral Neuroscience Graduate Program

UMDNJ  Neuroscience Graduate Program

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

NEUROPHYSIOLOGY LABORATORY

Research Interests

    This laboratory studies the activity of neurons that receive dopaminergic synaptic input, during behaviors correlated with dopamine transmission.  Our long range goal is to better understand the activity of dopamine's target neurons with respect to Parkinson's disease and drug abuse.  We record the activity of arrays of single neurons in the striatum of awake, unrestrained rats, specifically, in the sensorimotor (putamen) and limbic (accumbens) subregions of the striatum. Our present models include

    1)  reversible or irreversible dopamine lesions via microinjection into substantia nigra: effect on somatosensory receptive fields of putamen neurons

    2)  intravenous cocaine self-administration: firing patterns of accumbens neurons in relation to conditioned incentive cues that cause reinstatement of cocaine seeking

    3)  experience dependent changes in movement-related firing of putamen neurons as a function repeated exposure to cocaine and/or behavioral task

IN MEMORIAM:  Dr. Volodymyr Prokopenko
        Research Associate from Bogomoletz Institute for Physiology, Kiev, Ukraine
Our dear colleague died too young of mantle lymphoma in April, 2006.

CURRENT PERSONNEL

Dr. Anthony Fabbricatore
        Research Associate
Studying neurophysiological mechanisms of cocaine addiction

Graduate Students:

David Root droot@eden.rutgers.edu

==========================
Undergraduate researchers:
Smruti Patel

Sang Kim

Ricky Sofo

Karina Gotliboym

Christine Alcobendas

Samir Kumar

===================================

Previous graduate students:

Dr. Regina M. Carelli    Ph.D. 1991  (Honorable Mention: Lindsley Prize, Soc. for Neuroscience)
            Professor
            Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Dr. Martin M. Wolske    Ph.D. 1993;   M.S. 1990
            Manager of Systems Services
Prairienet Community Information Network
University of Illinois, Champaign

Dr. Cathy Pederson     Ph.D. 1996
            Associate Professor
            Department of Biology
Wittenberg University
Springfield, OH

Dr. Jeiwon Cho     Ph.D. 1996;   M.S. 1993
           Professor and laboratory head KIST, Korea

        Dr. Anthony Uzwiak    Ph.D. 1996
            Adjunct Professor
            Department of Cell Biology & Neuroscience
            Rutgers University
            Piscataway, NJ

Taliah Mittler     M.S.  1994
            Lecturer
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel

        Francis Guyette, M.D.         M.S.  1997
Tulane University Medical School
New Orleans, LA

Kathryn Muccino     M.S.  1999
            Acquisitions Editor
            Gordon Breach Publishing
Newark, NJ

        Dr. Anthony Fabbricatore    Ph.D.  2000
            Postdoctoral Fellow
            Department of Psychology
Rutgers University

        Dr. Dawn C. Duke  M.S. 2000
            Department of Neuropathology
Imperial College
London

        Dr. Udi Ghitza    Ph.D.  2004
            National Institute on Drug Abuse
            Intramural Research Program
Baltimore, MD

        Anthony Pawlak  M.S.  2004
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ

        Dr. Chengke Tang  M.S. 2004
North Shore University Hospital
Long Island, NY

Yun Zhu   M.S.  2006
            Research Associate, Merck Pharmaceuticals

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

PUBLICATIONS

Schubert, P., Lee, K., West, M., Deadwyler, S. and Lynch, G. (1976).  Stimulation dependent release of [3-H]-adenosine from central axon terminals to target neurons. Nature (Lond) 260: 541-542.

Deadwyler, S., West, M. and Lynch, G.  (1979a). Synaptically identified hippocampal slow potentials during behavior. Brain Res. 161:  211-225.

Deadwyler, S., West, M. and Lynch, G.  (1979b).  Activity of dentate granule cells during learning:  differentiation of perforant path input.  Brain Res. 169:  29-43.

Deadwyler, S., Biela, J., Rose, G., West, M. and Lynch, G. (1980). An improved miniature microdrive for recording from freely moving rats. Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophys. 47:752-754.

West, M.O. and Deadwyler, S.A.  (1980).  Circadian modulation of granule cell response to perforant path synaptic input in the rat. Neuroscience 5:  1597-1602.

Deadwyler, S.A., West, M.O. and Robinson, J.H.  (1981).  Evoked potentials from the dentate gyrus during auditory stimulus generalization in the rat.  Exp. Neurol. 71:  615-624.

Deadwyler, S.A., West, M.O. and Robinson, J.H.  (1981). Entorhinal and septal inputs differentially control sensory-evoked responses in the rat dentate gyrus.  Science 211:  1181-1183.

West, M.O., Christian, E., Robinson, J.H. and Deadwyler, S.A. (1981).  Dentate granule cell discharge during conditioning:  Relation to movement and theta rhythm.  Exp. Brain Res. 44: 287-297.

West, M.O., Christian, E.P., Robinson, J.J. and Deadwyler, S.A. (1982).  Evoked potentials in the dentate gyrus reflect the retention of past sensory events.  Neurosci. Lett.  28: 319-324.

Deadwyler, S.A., West, M.O. and Christian, E.P.  (1982).  Neural activity in the dentate gyrus of the rat during the acquisition and performance of simple and complex sensory discrimination learning.  In:  Conditioning, (ed) C.D. Woody, Plenum Press, New York, NY, pp. 63-73.

West, M.O. and Woodward, D.J.  (1984).  A technique for microiontophoretic study of single neurons in the freely moving rat.  J. Neurosci. Methods, 11:  179-186.

Deadwyler, S.A., West, M.O., Hampson, R.E., Christian, E.P., and Foster, T.C. (1985).  Sequentially-related changes in sensory evoked potentials in the dentate gyrus:  a mechanism for item-specific information storage in the hippocampus. Behav. Neural. Biol. 44:  201-212.

Christian, E., West, M. and Deadwyler, S. (1986). Opiates and opioid peptides modify sensory evoked potentials and synaptic excitability in the rat dentate gyrus. Neuropharmacol., 24:  607-615.

West, M.O., Chapin, J.K. and Woodward, D.J. (1986)  A computer-based system for control and analysis of iontophoretic studies of single neurons in behaving animals.  In:  Modern Methods in Pharmacology: Electrophysiological Techniques, (ed.) H.M. Geller, New York:  Alan R. Liss, Inc., pp. 35-50.

West, M.O., Michael, A.J., Knowles, S.E., Chapin, J.K. and Woodward, D.J. (1987). Striatal unit activity and the linkage between sensory and motor events.  In:  Basal Ganglia and Behavior:  Sensory Aspects of Motor Functioning, (eds.) J.S. Schneider and T.I. Lidsky, Toronto:  Hans Huber, Inc., pp. 27-36.

Foster, T.C., Hampson, R.E., West, M.O., and Deadwyler, S.A. (1988).  Control of sensory activation of granule cells in the fascia dentata by extrinsic afferents:  septal and entorhinal inputs.
 J. Neurosci. 8: 3869-3878.

West, M.O., Carelli, R.M., Cohen, S.M., Gardner, J.P., Pomerantz, M., Chapin, J.K. and Woodward, D.J. (1990). A region in the dorsolateral striatum of the rat exhibiting single unit correlations with specific locomotor limb movements. J. Neurophysiol. 64: 690-703. JNphys1990.pdf

Carelli, R.M., and West, M.O. (1991). Representation of the body by single neurons in the dorsolateral striatum of the awake, unrestrained rat. J. Comp. Neurol. 309: 231-249. J Comp Neurol.pdf

West, M.O., Peoples, L.L., Wolske, M. and Dworkin, S.I.  (1992)  Psychomotor stimulant effects on single neurons in awake, behaving rats.  In: Brown, R. and Frascella, J. (eds.) The Neurobiology of Brain-Behavior Interactions in Drug Abuse.  Nat'l Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph #124, Washington, DC: Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Printing Off., 57-71.

Wolske, M., Rompre, P-P, Wise, R., and West, M.O.  (1993)  Activation of single neurons in the rat nucleus accumbens during self-stimulation of the ventral tegmental area. J. Neurosci. 13: 1-12. Abstract

Mittler, T. Cho, J., Peoples, L.L. and West, M.O.  (1994)  Representation of the body in the lateral striatum of freely moving rats: single neurons related to licking.  Exp. Brain Res. 98: 163-167.

Peoples, L.L. and West, M.O.  (1996)  Phasic firing of single neurons in the rat nucleus accumbens correlated with the timing of intravenous cocaine self-administration.  J. Neurosci. 16: 3459-3473. View article

West, M.O., Peoples, L.L., Michael, A.J., Chapin, J.K. and Woodward, D.J. (1997)   Low-dose amphetamine elevates movement-related firing of rat striatal neurons.  Brain Res. 745: 331-335. View article

Carelli, R.M., Wolske, M. and West, M.O.  (1997) Loss of lever press-related firing of rat striatal forelimb neurons after repeated sessions in a lever pressing task. J. Neurosci. 17:1804-1814. View article

Cho, J. and West, M.O.  (1997)  Distributions of single neurons related to body parts in the lateral striatum of the rat.  Brain Res. 756: 241-246.   View article

Peoples, L.L., Uzwiak, A.J., Gee, F. and West, M.O.  (1997)  Operant behavior is necessary and sufficient for phasic firing of rat accumbens neurons during sessions of intravenous cocaine infusions.  Brain Res. 757: 280-284.   View article

Pederson, C.L., Wolske, M., Peoples, L.L, and West, M.O.  (1997)  Firing rate dependent effect of cocaine on firing of single neurons in the rat lateral striatum, Brain Res. 760: 261-265.   View article

Uzwiak, A.J., Guyette, F.X., West, M.O. and Peoples, L.L.  (1997)  Neurons in accumbens subterritories of the rat: Phasic firing time-locked within seconds of intravenous cocaine self-infusion. Brain Res. 767: 363-369.   View article

Prokopenko, V.F., Shevko, G.N., Voloshin, M.Ya., and West, M.O.  (1997)  A removable peripheral device for intracerebral microinjection in freely moving rats.  Brain Res. Protocols 2: 31-34.

Peoples, L.L., Uzwiak, A.J., Guyette, F.X., and West, M.O.  (1998) Tonic inhibition of single nucleus accumbens neurons in the rat: a predominant but not exclusive firing pattern induced by cocaine self-administration sessions.   Neurosci. 86: 13-22. View article

Peoples, L.L., Gee, F., Bibi, R., and West, M.O.  (1998)  Phasic firing time-locked to cocaine self-infusion and locomotion: dissociable firing patterns of single nucleus accumbens neurons in the rat.  J. Neurosci. 18: 7588-7598.   View article

West, M.O.  (1998)  Anesthetics eliminate somatosensory-evoked discharges of neurons in the somatotopically organized sensorimotor striatum of the rat.  J. Neurosci.  18: 9055-9068. View article

Peoples, L.L., Uzwiak, A.J., Gee, F., and West, M.O.  (1999)  Tonic firing of rat nucleus accumbens neurons: changes during the first two weeks of daily cocaine self-administration sessions. Brain Res. 822:231-236.   View article

Peoples LL, Uzwiak AJ, Gee F, Fabbricatore AT, Muccino KJ, Mohta BD, West MO  (1999) Phasic accumbal firing may contribute to the regulation of drug taking during intravenous cocaine self-administration sessions. Ann. N.Y. Acad Sci. 877: 781-787.  View article

Cho, J., Manzino, L., Sonsalla, P.K. Duke, D. and West, M.O.  (2002)  Dopamine depletion causes fragmented clustering of neurons in the sensorimotor striatum: evidence of lasting reorganization of corticostriatal input J. Comp. Neurol. 452:24-37. View article

Ghitza U, Fabbricatore AT, Prokopenko VF, Pawlak A, West MO   (2003)  Persistent cue-evoked activity of accumbens neurons following prolonged abstinence from self-administered cocaine.
J. Neurosci. 23: 7239-7245.  View article

Ghitza U, Fabbricatore AT, Prokopenko VF, West MO  (2004)  Differences between accumbens core and shell neurons exhibiting phasic firing patterns related to drug-seeking behavior during a discriminative-stimulus task.  J. Neurophysiol. 92:1608-14. pdf html

Prokopenko VF, Pawlak A, West MO  (2004)  Fluctuations in somatosensory responses and baseline firing rates of neurons in the lateral striatum of freely moving rats: effects of intranigral apomorphine. Neurosci. 125: 1077-1082.   full text pdf

Ghitza UE, Prokopenko VF, West MO, Fabbricatore AT (2005)  Higher magnitude accumbal phasic firing changes among core neurons exhibiting tonic firing increases during cocaine self-administration. Neurosci. 137: 1075-1085.    full text pdf

Tang C, Pawlak AP, Prokopenko, VF, West MO (2007) Changes in activity of the striatum during formation of a motor habit. Eur J Neurosci 25:1212-1227. reprint.pdf

Tang C, Mittler T, Duke DC, Zhu Y, Pawlak AP and West MO Dose- and rate-dependent effects of cocaine on striatal firing related to licking. J Pharmacol & Exper Ther, in press.