Adam G. Walker , Ph.D.
Research Fellow
B.A. Psychology, University of Northern Colorado, 2005
Ph.D Neuroscience, Psychology Indiana University, 2010
Biosketch and Research Interests
Adam Walker is a postdoctoral research fellow who joined the Conn lab in September 2010. Adam did his graduate work at Indiana University under the mentorship of Dr. George Rebec studying neuronal dysfunction in mouse models of Huntington’s disease (HD). Because HD patients and animal models exhibit a variety of cognitive and psychiatric disturbances, his early graduate work focused on evaluating activity in prefrontal cortex (PFC) using in vivo, single-unit electrophysiology in behaving HD mice. Results from that study demonstrated that firing patterns in both individual neurons and neuronal populations are severely altered relative to control animals. Adam’s dissertation work extended these findings by using behavioral, anatomical, and pharmacological techniques to evaluate PFC function in HD mice.
In addition to his work on HD, Adam also pursued side projects investigating the neurobiology of learning and memory. He investigated the role of hippocampus and PFC in acquisition and maintenance in behavioral tasks such as classical eyeblink conditioning and extinction of conditioned fear.
One of Adam’s dissertation projects investigated the role of mGluR2/3 in PFC dysfunction in HD, which has implications for the cognitive symptoms experienced by patients. This lead Adam to become interested in the therapeutic potential of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in neurological and psychiatric conditions. In the Conn lab, Adam will be pursuing studies on the functional effects of novel GPCR ligands. Initial, these studies will use in vitro electrophysiology to characterize the ability of these compounds to regulate neuronal function in brain areas such as PFC, which have implications for the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Schizophrenia.
Selected Publications
Walker, A.G. & Steinmetz, J.E. (2008). Hippocampal lesions in rats differentially affect long- and short-trace eyeblink conditioning. Physiology & Behavior. 93(3): 570-8.
Walker, A.G., Miller, B. R., Fritsch, J. N., Barton, S. J., & Rebec, G. V. (2008). Altered information processing in the prefrontal cortex of Huntington's disease mouse models. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(36): 8973-8982.
Miller, B. R., Walker, A. G., Shah, A. S., Barton, S. J., & Rebec, G. V. (2008). Dysregulated information processing by medium-spiny neurons in striatum of freely behaving mouse models of Huntington's disease. Journal of Neurophysiology. 100:2205-2216
Miller, B.R., Walker, A.G., Fowler, S.C., von Hörsten, S., Reiss, O., Johnson, M.A., & Rebec, G.V. (2010) Dysregulation of coordinated firing patterns in striatum of freely behaving transgenic rats that model Huntington’s disease. Neurobiology of Disease. 37(1): 106-13
