Dr. Barry Setlow

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. University of California, Irvine


Department of Psychology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4235

Office: 287 Psychology Building
email: bsetlow@psych.tamu.edu
Phone: (979) 845-2507
Fax: (979) 845-4727



Area(s) of Specialization
Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience

Research Interests

• Behavioral, pharmacological, and neural mechanisms of decision-making
• Interactions between addiction and decision-making
• Effects of drugs of abuse on cognition and motivation
• Neural mechanisms of learning and memory

Current Research

Much of the research in my laboratory is focussed on decision-making processes. Some projects address the pharmacological and neural basis of different aspects of decision-making (e.g. – Simon et al., 2009). Other projects examine how drugs of abuse , such as cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol, cause long-lasting alterations in decision-making, as well as other aspects of cognition and motivation (e.g. – Setlow et al., 2009; Mendez et al., 2009; Mendez et al., 2008; Simon et al. 2007). I am also interested more generally in neural mechanisms of learning and memory (Setlow et al., 2003; Schoenbaum & Setlow, 2003). Finally, I am involved in several collaborative projects with other laboratories across campus. For example, I work with Dr. Jennifer Bizon to investigate factors responsible for cognitive deficits in aging (e.g. – LaSarge et al., 2007; Simon et al., in press).

Representative Publications

Simon, N. W., LaSarge, C. L., Montgomery, K. S., Williams, M. T., Mendez, I. A., Setlow, B., & Bizon, J. L. (in press). Good things come to those who wait; attenuated discounting of delayed rewards in aged Fischer 344 rats. Neurobiology of Aging.
Setlow, B., Mendez, I. A., Mitchell, M. R., & Simon, N. W. (2009). Effects of chronic administration of drugs of abuse on impulsive choice (delay discounting) in animal models. Behavioural Pharmacology. 20, 380-389.
Simon, N. W., Gilbert, R. J., Mayse, J. D., Bizon, J. L., & Setlow, B. (2009). Balancing risk and reward: a rat model of risky decision making. Neuropsychopharmacology. 34, 2208-2217.
Mendez, I. A., Williams, M. T., Bhavsar, A., Lu, A. P., & Setlow, B. (2009). Long-lasting sensitization of reward-directed behaviour by amphetamine. Behavioural Brain Research. 201, 74-79.
Simon, N. W., Mendez, I. A., & Setlow, B. (2009). Effects of prior amphetamine exposure on approach strategy in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning in rats. Psychopharmacology. 202, 699-709.

Mendez, I. A., Montgomery, K. S., LaSarge, C. L., Simon, N. W., Bizon, J. L., & Setlow, B. (2008). Long-term effects of prior cocaine exposure on Morris water maze performance. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 89, 185-191.

Simon, N. W., Mendez, I. A., & Setlow, B. (2007). Cocaine exposure causes long-term increases in impulsive choice behavior. Behavioral Neuroscience. 121, 543-549.

LaSarge, C. L., De Souza, K., Tucker, C., Slaton, S., Setlow, B., & Bizon, J. L. (2007). Cognitive impairments in Morris water maze and odor discrimination learning in a subset of aged Fisher 344 rats. Neurobiology of Aging. 28, 928-936.

Setlow, B., Schoenbaum, G., & Gallagher, M. (2003). Neural encoding in ventral striatum during olfactory discrimination learning. Neuron, 38, 625-636.

Schoenbaum, G., & Setlow, B. (2003). Lesions of nucleus accumbens disrupt acquisition of odor-guided discriminations and reversals. The Journal of Neuroscience. 23, 9833-9841.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate
PSYC/NRSC 332 - Neuroscience of Learning and Memory
PSYC/NRSC 340 - Psychology of Learning

Graduate
PSYC 689 – Neuroscience of Learning and Memory

Link to Vita

Link to Vita

Research Interest Groups
Emotion Research Focus Group


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