Dr Jo Haddon
I am interested in the role that contextual or environmental cues play in the control of both goal-directed and reflexive behaviours. The contextual control of behaviour has been implicated in a wide variety of situations from drug addiction to the formation of episodic memories. My focus is on the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying the contextual modulation of behaviour, with particular emphasis on the involvement of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampal formation. In addition, I am also interested in how dysfunction to contextual processes may contribute to neuropsychological disorders such as schizophrenia.
Selected Publications
Haddon, J.E & Killcross, A.S. (2005) Medial prefrontal cortex lesions abolish contextual control of competing responses. Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Special Issue: The Relation of Neuroscience and Behavior, Vol. 84, 485-504.
Haddon, J.E. & Killcross, A.S. (2006) Prefrontal cortex lesions disrupt the contextual control or response conflict. Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 26, 2933-2940.
Haddon, J.E. & Killcross, A.S. (2006) Both motivational and training factors affect response conflict choice performance in rats. Neural Networks, (Special Issue on the Neurobiology of Decision Making), Vol. 19, 1192-1202.
Haddon, J.E. (2006) Response conflict, prefrontal cortex and dopamine: a rat model of Stroop-like performance. British Neuroscience Association Bulletin, Issue 54, 18-20.
Marquis, J-P, Killcross, A.S., & Haddon, J.E. (2007). Inactivation of the prelimbic cortex, but not infralimbic cortex, impairs the contextual control of response conflict in rats. European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 25, 559-566.
Haddon, J.E & Killcross, A.S. (in press) Contextual control of choice performance: behavioural, neurobiological and neurochemical influences. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Special Volume: Reward and Decision Making in Cortico-basal Ganglia Networks.
Haddon, J.E., George, D.N. & Killcross, A.S. (in press) Contextual control of biconditional task performance in rats: an analogue of the Stroop task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Research Projects
Nov 2006 - Present: BSRC - Project title: “Actions and habits: the relation between cognitive control and behavioural autonomy”
Aug 2004 - Nov 2006: NARSAD - Project title: “Cue and response conflict: hippocampal and prefrontal contributions in schizophrenia”