Dr Nick Wright
Research Summary
I am interested in using neuroanatomical pathway tracing techniques to explore the connectivity of the limbic system and its associated structures. Theses anatomical connections show how information is conveyed either separately or to converge at certain sites within a system of direct and indirect pathways between the hippocampal formation and the anterior thalamic nuclei.
Previously, I have worked on the synaptic mechanisms involved in experience dependent plasticity seen in the barrel cortex of rodents following whisker deprivation. These changes in potentiation or depression of neuronal activity are considered to be the basis for learning and memory processes.
Teaching Summary
I have co-supervised final year project students.
Selected Publications (2008 onwards)
Amin, E., Wright, N., Poirier, G.L., Thomas, K.L., Erichsen, J.T., Aggleton, J.P. Selective lamina dysregulation in granular retrosplenial cortex (area 29) after anterior thalamic lesions: an in situ hybridization and trans-neuronal tracing study in rats. Journal of neuroscience, in press.
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, in press.
Wright, N. F., J. T. Erichsen, et al. (2010). "Parallel but separate inputs from limbic cortices to the mammillary bodies and anterior thalamic nuclei in the rat." J Comp Neurol 518(12): 2334-2354.
Wright, N. and K. Fox (2010). "Origins of cortical layer V surround receptive fields in the rat barrel cortex." J Neurophysiol 103(2): 709-724.
Wilbrecht, L., A. Holtmaat, et al. (2010). "Structural plasticity underlies experience-dependent functional plasticity of cortical circuits." J Neurosci 30(14): 4927-4932.
Tsanov, M., S. D. Vann, et al. (2009). "Differential regulation of synaptic plasticity of the hippocampal and the hypothalamic inputs to the anterior thalamus." Hippocampus.
Wright, N., S. Glazewski, et al. (2008). "Laminar analysis of the role of GluR1 in experience-dependent and synaptic depression in barrel cortex." Nat Neurosci 11(10): 1140-1142.
Hardingham, N., N. Wright, et al. (2008). "Sensory deprivation unmasks a PKA-dependent synaptic plasticity mechanism that operates in parallel with CaMKII." Neuron 60(5): 861-874.