University of Santa Barbara, 1991
Office: McGuinn 525
Phone: (617) 552-2999
Email: jon.horvitz@bc.edu
Website: http://www2.bc.edu/~horvitjo/
Scholarly Interests: Jon Horvitz and his laboratory examine the neurochemistry of learning and motivation, and in particular the role of brain dopamine activity in these functions. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter released to a number of brain regions. Some of these regions are implicated in learning about rewarding and aversive outcomes (e.g., learning to recognize the smell of a dish that you love), others in learning about movements (e.g., acquiring an expert tennis stroke without conscious awareness), and still others in working memory processes (e.g., remembering where you parked your car today). We are interested in the changes in brain activity that accompany these various forms of learning and memory. In order to do so, we examine the learning and memory abilities of mice with genetic abnormalities, rats administered particular drugs, and humans with diseases such as Parkinson's who have undergone changes in normal dopamine function within particular brain regions.
Academic Profile: Professor Horvitz was an assistant (1995-2000) and associate (2000-2003) professor at Columbia University before coming to Boston College in 2003. His laboratory uses techniques of intracranial drug injection and neurophysiology in behaving rats, behavioral genetics in mice, and work with Parkinson's patients in order to ask fundamental questions regarding the role of dopamine activity, within mesolimbic, mesocortical, and nigrostriatal target sites, in learning and motivation.
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