OTTO LABORATORY

Tim Otto, Ph.D.

New Brunswick, NJ 08903

Current Research | Publications | Personnel | Vita

Current Research:

Broadly defined, the primary focus of our work is to explore the biological basis of memory formation and storage in the mammalian brain. Many of these studies involve an examination of the neural substrates of olfactory (odor) memory in the rat. Briefly, we focus mainly on olfactory memory for two reasons. First, rats exhibit a remarkable facility in learning when trained in tasks which use odors as stimuli. Second, the brain areas participating in the detection and analysis of odors are intimately and reciprocally connected with several brain areas known to play a prominent role in learning, including the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the rhinal cortical areas (perirhinal and entorhinal cortex).

These studies span several levels of neurobiological analysis. We are currently examining the relationship between specific genes, neural plasticity, and memory through the use of immunohistochemical, neuropsychological (lesion), and molecular biological techniques. Our primary focus is on the hippocampus, and much of our research seeks to characterize the dissociable roles of the CA1, CA3, and dentate gyrus within both dorsal and ventral hippocampus in a variety of different “types” of memory. We have also examined the extent to which, following experimentally-induced damage, regeneration of olfactory receptor neurons and the subsequent reinnervation of the olfactory bulb is related to a recovery of function, and whether this regeneration and recovery of function can be pharmacologically enhanced. Many of these findings are explained in more detail under the Publications link.

These studies have been supported by grants IBN0316247, IBN9514526 and IBN9817145 from the National Science Foundation, a Discovery Award from Johnson & Johnson Inc., and the Busch Grant Program at Rutgers University.

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Publications: Feel free to Email me if you would like a reprint of any of the following publications.

Journal Articles: The abstracts for many of these publications are available by clicking on the "Abstract" link at the end of the reference.

Czerniawski, J., Ree, F., Chia, C. Ramamoorthi, K., Kumata, Y, & Otto, T. (2011). The Importance of Having Arc: Expression of the Immediate Early Gene Arc is Required for Hippocampus-dependent Fear Conditioning and Blocked by NMDA Receptor Antagonism. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 11200-11207. Full Text

Czerniawski, J., Ree, F., Chia, C., & Otto, T. (2011). Dorsal vs. ventral hippocampal contributions to trace and contextual conditioning: Differential effects of regionally selective NMDA receptor antagonism on acquisition and expression. Hippocampus, In Press.

Ramamoorthi, K., Fropf, R., Fitzmaurice, H.L., McKinney, R.M., Belfort, G.M., Neve, R.L., Otto, T., & Lin, Y. (2011). Npas4 regulates a transcriptional program in CA3 required for contextual memory formation. Science, In Press.

Parsons, T.C., & Otto, T. (2010). Time-limited involvement of dorsal hippocampus in unimodal discriminative contextual conditioning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 94, 481-487. Full Text

Czerniawski, J., Yoon, T., & Otto, T. (2009). Dissociating space and trace in dorsal and ventral hippocampus. Hippocampus, 19, 20-32. Full Text

Parsons, T., & Otto, T. (2008). Temporary inactivation of dorsal hippocampus attenuates explicitly nonspatial, unimodal, contextual fear conditioning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 90, 261–268. Full Text

Yoon, T., & Otto, T. (2007). Differential contributions of dorsal vs. ventral hippocampus to auditory trace fear conditioning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 87, 464-475. Full Text

Otto, T., & Poon, P. (2006). Dorsal hippocampal contributions to unimodal contextual conditioning. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 6603-6609. Full Text

Nicot, A., Otto, T., Brabet, P., & DiCicco-Bloom, E.M. (2004). Altered social behavior in pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide Type-I receptor-deficient mice. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 8786-8795.

Cousens, G., & Otto, T. (2003). Contributions of orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdaloid complex to olfactory discrimination learning with auditory secondary reinforcement. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 38, 272-294.

Herzog, C.D., & Otto, T. (2002). Administration of transforming growth factor alpha enhances anatomical and behavioral recovery following olfactory nerve transection. Neuroscience, 113, 569-580.

Schettino, L.F. , & Otto, T. (2001). Patterns of Fos expression in the amygdala and ventral perirhinal cortex induced by training in an olfactory fear conditioning paradigm. Behavioral Neuroscience, 115(6), 1257-1272.

Otto, T., & Giardino, N. (2001). Pavlovian conditioning of emotional responses to olfactory and contextual stimuli: A potential model for the development and expression of chemical intolerance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 933, 291-309.

Otto, T., Cousens, G., & Herzog, C.D. (2000). Behavioral and neuropsychological foundations of olfactory fear conditioning. Behavioural Brain Research, 110, 119-128.

Herzog, C.D., & Otto, T. (1999). Regeneration of olfactory receptor neurons following chemical lesion: Time course and enhancement with growth factor administration. Brain Research, 849, 155-161. Full Text (pdf format)

Cousens, G., & Otto, T. (1998). Both pre- and post-training lesions of the basolateral amygdala abolish the expression of olfactory and contextual fear conditioning. Behavioral Neuroscience, 112, 1092-1103.

Herzog, C.D., & Otto, T. (1998). Contributions of anterior perirhinal cortex to olfactory and contextual fear conditioning. Neuroreport, 9, 1855-1859.

Flaherty, C.F., Coppotelli, C., Hsu, D., & Otto, T. (1998). Excitotoxic lesions of the hippocampus disrupt instrumental but not consummatory contrast. Behavioural Brain Research, 93, 1-9.

Cousens, G., & Otto, T. (1998). Long-term potentiation and its transient suppression in the rhinal cortices induced by theta-related stimulation of hippocampal field CA1. Brain Research, 780, 95-101. Full Text (pdf format)

Otto, T., & Garruto, D. (1997). Rhinal cortical lesions impair simultaneous olfactory discrimination learning in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111, 1-5.

Otto, T., Cousens, G., & Rajewski, K. (1997). Odor-guided fear conditioning. I. Acquisition, retention, and latent inhibition. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111, 1257-1264.

Herzog, C.D., & Otto, T. (1997). Odor-guided fear conditioning. II. Lesions of anterior perirhinal cortex disrupt fear conditioned to the explicit CS but not to the training context. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111, 1265-1274.

Otto, T., Wolf, D., & Walsh, T. (1997). Combined lesions of perirhinal and entorhinal cortex impair rats' performance in two versions of the spatially-guided radial arm maze. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 68, 21-31.

Young, B.J., Otto, T., Fox, G., & Eichenbaum, H. (1997). Memory representation in the parahippocampal region. Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 5183-5195.

Eichenbaum, H., Otto, T., & Cohen, N.J. (1996). The hippocampal system: Dissociating its functional components and recombining them in the service of declarative memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19, 762-776.

Zyzak, D.R., Otto, T., Eichenbaum, H., & Gallagher, M. (1995). Cognitive decline associated with normal aging in rats: A neuropsychological approach. Learning & Memory, 2, 1-16.

Nagahara, A. H., Otto, T., & Gallagher, M. (1995). Entorhinal lesions impair performance in two versions of place learning in the Morris water maze. Behavioral Neuroscience 109, 3-9.

Eichenbaum, H., Otto, T., & Cohen, N.J. (1994). Two functional components of the hippocampal memory system. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17(3),449-517.

Otto, T., & Eichenbaum, H. (1992). Neuronal activity in the hippocampus during delayed non-match to sample performance in rats: Evidence for hippocampal processing in recognition memory. Hippocampus, 2(3), 324-334.

Otto, T., & Eichenbaum, H. (1992). Complementary roles of orbital prefrontal cortex and the perirhinal/entorhinal cortices in an odor-guided delayed non-matching to sample task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 106, 763-775.

Eichenbaum, H., Otto, T. & Cohen, N.J. (1992). The Hippocampus - What Does It Do? Behavioral and Neural Biology, 57, 1-35.

Otto, T., Schottler, F., Staubli, U., Eichenbaum, H., & Lynch, G. (1991). The hippocampus and olfactory discrimination learning: Effects of entorhinal cortex lesions on odor memory in a successive-cue, go, no-go task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 105, 111-119.

Otto, T., Eichenbaum, H. Wiener, S.I., & Wible, C.G. (1991). Learning-related patterns of CA1 spike trains parallel stimulation parameters optimal for inducing hippocampal long-term potentiation. Hippocampus 1, 181-192.

McCollum, J., Larson, J., Otto, T., Schottler, F., Granger, R., & Lynch, G. (1991). Short-latency single unit processing in olfactory cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 3, 293-299.

Granger, R., Staubli, U., Powers, H., Otto, T., Ambros-Ingerson, J., & Lynch, G. (1991). Behavioral tests of a prediction from a cortical network simulation. Psychological Science, 2, 116-118.

Mair, R.G., Otto, T.A., Knoth, R., Rabchenuk, S., & Langlais, P. (1991). An analysis of aversively conditioned learning and memory in rats recovered from pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency. Behavioral Neuroscience, 105, 351-359.

Fuld, K., Otto, T.A., & Slade, C.W. (1986). The spectral responsivity of the white-black channel. Journal of the Optical Society of America, A, 3, 1182-1188.

Fuld, K., & Otto, T.A. (1985). Colors of monochromatic lights that vary in contrast-induced brightness. Journal of the Optical Society of America, A, 2, 76-83.

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Chapters and Commentaries:

Otto, T. (1997). Long-term potentiation in the hippocampus of the anesthetized rat. In C.A. Paul, B. Beltz, & J. Berger-Sweeney (Eds.), Discovering Neurons.Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Otto, T., & Eichenbaum, H. (1994). The hippocampus, long-term potentiation, and memory: Enhancing the connection. In M. Baudry & J. Davis (Eds.), Long-Term Potentiation, Vol.2. Cambridge: MIT Press (pp 305-334).

Otto, T., & Eichenbaum, H. (1992). Toward a comprehensive account of hippocampal function: Studies of olfactory learning permit an integration of data across multiple levels of neurobiological analysis. In Neuropsychology of Memory, N. Butters & L.R. Squire (Eds.). New York: Guilford (pp. 415-428).

Otto, T., & Eichenbaum, H. (1992). Olfactory learning and memory in the rat: A "model system" for studies of the neurobiology of memory. In The Science of Olfaction, K. Chobor & M. Serby, (Eds.). New York: Springer-Verlag (pp. 213-244).

Eichenbaum, H., & Otto, T. (1993). Odor-guided learning and memory in rats: Is it 'special'? Trends in Neurosciences, 16, 22-24.

Eichenbaum, H., & Otto, T. (1993). Where perception meets memory: functional coding in the hippocampus. In Brain Mechanisms of Perception and Memory: From Neuron to Behavior, T. Ono, L.R. Squire, D. Perret, & M.E. Raichle (Eds.).

Eichenbaum, H., & Otto, T. (1993). LTP and memory: Can we enhance the connection?. Trends in Neurosciences, 16, 163-164.

Eichenbaum, H., & Otto, T. (1992). The hippocampus and the sense of smell. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates VI, R. Doty (Ed.), Plenum Press, NY. (pp. 67-77).

Eichenbaum, H., Otto, T., Wible, C., & Piper, J. (1991). Building a model of the hippocampus in olfaction and memory. In Olfaction as a Model for Computational Neuroscience, J. Davis & H. Eichenbaum, (Eds.) Cambridge: MIT Press (pp. 167-210).

Eichenbaum, H., Cohen, N.J., Otto, T., & Wible, C. (1991). Memory representation in the hippocampus: Functional domain and functional organization. In Memory: Organization and Locus of Change, L.R. Squire, G. Lynch, N.M. Weinberger, & J.L. McGaugh, (Eds). Oxford University Press.