Affiliation: Aston University, College of Health and Life Sciences

Dr. Douglas Caruana, PhD, is a Lecturer in Neuroscience at Aston University and a synaptic neurophysiologist specializing in drug- and disease-related changes in brain chemistry affecting synapses and memory. It is widely accepted that experience-dependent modifications in synaptic function underlie information storage in the brain and that modulatory neurotransmitter systems play a central role in regulating this neuroplasticity. A fundamental problem remains, though, in understanding how dysfunctions in neuromodulation linked to brain pathology (e.g., epilepsy or depression) or drug abuse alter synaptic mechanisms essential to cognition. Dr. Caruana uses electrophysiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, and behavior to determine how modulatory neurotransmitters and nootropic compounds modify synapses in the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortices to affect sensory and mnemonic processing in normal and diseased brains.