Prof John P Aggleton - BA MA Cantab DPhil Oxon
Research Summary
My research examines how brain regions interact to support different forms of memory. This systems level analysis of memory is ultimately concerned with understanding the human brain, and so includes clinical studies of people with memory problems, e.g. amnesia. A major part of my work, however, involves animal models of amnesic conditions. An integral part of this endeavour is to compare and contrast different forms of memory, e.g. the recall of day-to-day events versus the recognition of events, along with the brain systems that appear to support these forms of memory. A particular goal is to relate the amnesias associated with damage to different regions of the brain, and to test various models that explain their similarities and differences.
Research Group: Behavioural Neuroscience
Teaching Summary
I am currently the module leader for the Year 2 course on Abnormal Psychology (PS2008). I also lecture on a Year 3 module that examines the neuropsychology of memory (Memory Processes and Memory Disorders, PS3208).
Selected Publications (2008 onwards)
Poirier, G.L., Amin, E., Good, M.A., Aggleton, J.P. Early-onset metabolic changes in retrosplenial cortex precedes overt amyloid plaque deposition in Tg2576 mice. Neurobiology of Disease, ms. submitted.
Aggleton, J.P., O’Mara, S.M., Vann, S.D., Wright, N.F., Tsanov, M., Erichsen, J.T. Hippocampal - anterior thalamic pathways for memory: Uncovering a network of direct and indirect actions. European Journal of Neuroscience, ms. submitted.
Aggleton, J.P., Amin, E., Jenkins, T.A., Pearce, J.M., Robinson, J. Lesions in the anterior thalamic nuclei of rats do not disrupt acquisition of stimulus sequence learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, ms. submitted.
Horne, M.R., Iordanova, M.D., Albasser, M.M., Aggleton, J.P., Honey, R.C., Pearce, J.M. Lesions of the perirhinal cortex do not impair integration of visual and geometric information in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, in press.
Wright, N., Erichsen, J.T., Vann, S.D., O’Mara, S. Aggleton, J.P. Parallel but separate inputs from limbic cortices to the mammillary bodies and anterior thalamic nuclei in the rat. Journal of Comparative Neurology, in press.
Aggleton, J.P. Understanding retrosplenial amnesia: Insights from animal studies. Neuropsychologia, in press.
Tsanov, M., Wright, N., Vann, S.D., Erichsen, J., Aggleton, J.P., O’Mara, S.M. Differential regulation of synaptic plasticity of the hippocampal and the hypothalamic inputs to the anterior thalamus. Hippocampus, in press.
Vann, S.D., O’Mara, S., Erichsen, J.T., Aggleton, J.P. Disconnecting the mammillary bodies from the hippocampal formation only mildly impairs spatial memory. Hippocampus, in press.
Aggleton, J.P., Albasser, M.M., Aggleton, D.J., Poirier, G.L. & Pearce, J.M. (2010). Lesions of the rat perirhinal cortex spare the acquisition of a complex configural visual discrimination yet impair object recognition. Behavioral Neuroscience, 124, 55-68.
Pothuizen, H.J., Davies, M., Aggleton, J.P. & Vann, S.D. (2010). Effects of selective granular retrosplenial cortex lesions on spatial working memory in rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 208, 566-575, 2010.
Albasser, M., Poirier, G.L., Aggleton, J.P. (2010). Qualitatively different modes of perirhinal-hippocampal engagement when rats explore novel vs, familiar objects as revealed by c-Fos c-fos imaging. European Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 134-147.
Iordanova, M.D., Burnett, D., Good, M., Aggleton, J.P., Honey, R.C. (2009). The role of the hippocampus in mnemonic integration and retrieval: Complementary evidence from lesion and inactivation studies. European Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 2177-2189.
Robinson, J., Sanderson, D.J., Aggleton, J.P., Jenkins, T.A.(2009). Suppression to visual, auditory and gustatory stimuli habituates normally in rats with excitotoxic lesions of the perirhinal cortex. Behavioral Neuroscience, 123, 1238-1250.
Vann, S.D., Aggleton, J.P., Maguire, E. A.(2009). What does the retrosplenial cortex do? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 792-802.
Pothuizen, H.J, Davies, M., Albasser, M.M., Aggleton, J.P. & Vann, S.D. (2009). Granular and dysgranular retrosplenial cortices provide qualitatively different contributions to spatial working memory: evidence from immediate-early gene imaging in rats. European Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 877-888.
Garden, D., Massey, P.V., Caruana, D.A., Johnson, B., Warburton, E.C., Aggleton, J.P., Bashir, Z.I. (2009). Anterior thalamic lesions stop synaptic plasticity in retrosplenial cortex slices: expanding the pathology of diencephalic amnesia. Brain, 132, 1847-1857.
Vann, S. D., Tsivilis, D., Denby, C.E, Quamme, J., Yonelinas, A.P., Aggleton, J.P., Montaldi. M., Mayes, A. R. (2009). Impaired recollection but spared familiarity in patients with extended hippocampal system damage: convergence across three methods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 5442-5447.
Aggleton, J. P., Poirier, G. L., Aggleton, H. S., Vann, S. D., & Pearce, J. M. (2009). Lesions of the fornix and anterioir thalamic nuclei dissociate different aspects of hippocampal-dependent spatial learning: Implications for the neural basis of scene learning. Behavioral Neuroscience, 123, 504-519. [pdf]
Poirier, G.L., Aggleton, J.P. (2009). Post-surgical interval and lesion location within the limbic thalamus determine extent of retrosplenial cortex hypoactivity. Neuroscience, 160, 452-469.
Albasser, M.M., Davies M., Futter J.E., Aggleton J.P. (2009) Magnitude of the object Recognition Deficit Associated with perirhinal Cortex damage in Rats: Effects of varying the lesion Extent and the Duration of the Sample Period. Behavioral Neuroscience, 123 (1), 115-124. [pdf]
Denby, C, S. D. Vann, S.D., Tsivilis, D., Aggleton, J.P., Roberts, N., Montaldi, D., Mayes, A.R. (2009). Mammillary body volume estimation in healthy control subjects and colloid cyst surgery patients. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 30, 736-743.
Denby, C.E., Vann, S.D., Tsivilis, D., Mayes, A.R., Montaldi, D., Aggleton, J.P. (2008). Neuroimaging of the fornix: present and future. Neuroscience Imaging, 2, 135-148.
Denby, C., Vann, S.D., Tsivilis, D., Aggleton, J.P., Sluming, V., Roberts, N., Mayes, A., Montaldi, D (2008). MRI measurement of fornix pathology: evidence of extensive fornix damage following surgical removal of colloid cysts in the third ventricle. Neuroscience Imaging, 2, 109-126.
Shires, K.L. and Aggleton, J.P. (2008). Mapping immediate-early gene activity in the rat after place learning in a water-maze: The importance of matched control conditions. European Journal of Neuroscience, 28, 982-996.
Tsivilis, D., Vann, S.D., Denby, C., Roberts, N., Mayes, A.R., Montaldi, D. & Aggleton, J.P. (2008). A disproportionate role for the fornix and mamillary bodies in recall versus recogntion memory. Nature Neuroscience, 11 (7), 834- 842.[pdf]
Pothuizen, H.J., Aggleton, J.P. and Vann, S.D. (2008). Do rats with retrosplenial cortex lesions lack direction? Behavioural Neurosience, 28, 2486-2498.[pdf]
Aggleton, J.P. (2008). Understanding anterograde amnesia: disconnections and hidden lesions. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 1441-1471.[pdf]
Poirier, G.L., Amin, E. & Aggleton, J.P. (2008). Qualitatively Different Hippocampal Subfield Engagement Emerges with Mastery of a Spatial Memory Task by Rats. The Journal of Neuroscience, 28(5):1034 –1045.[pdf]
Poirier, G.L., Shires, K.L., Sugden, D., Amin, E., Thomas, K.L., Carter, D.A. & Aggleton, J.P. (2008). Anterior thalamic lesions produce chronic and profuse transcriptional deregulation in retrosplenial cortex: a model of retrosplenial hypoactivity and covert pathology. Thalamus and Related Systems, 4 (1), 59-77.[pdf]
Aggleton, J.P., Saunders, R.C. & Vann, S. D. (2008). Using hippocampal amnesia to understand the neural basis of diencephalic amnesia. In Dere, E., Easton, A., Nadel, L. & Huston, J.P. (Eds). Handbook of Episodic Memory Vol. 18. Elsevier, pp 503-519.