Staff

Dr Alex Easton

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 43257

Room number: 60

(email at alexander.easton@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I have research interests in the way in which different contexts affect learning and memory, and the mechanisms involved. Recently this has involved focusing on the way in which contexts influence memory, and using this as a way of developing an animal model of episodic memory.

Other interests include the way in which reward outcomes affect learning (for example, do we learn quicker for larger rewards than small rewards and do rewards drive learning faster than punishment)and the way in which social context affects learning and memory.

In addition I have a keen interest in the role of the cholinergic cells of the basal forebrain in learning and memory. These cells are intricately linked to the memory loss in Alzheimer's disease, and I have shown they may also be involved in other types of amnesia (such as medial temporal lobe amnesia).

Research Interests

Animal Models of Episodic Memory
Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning and Memory
Learning and its relation to reward outcomes
Role of the Cholinergic Basal Forebrain in Learning and Memory
The ways in which social context modulate learning and memory

Indicators of Esteem

2007: Chair a sympoisum for EBBS: Organised and chairing a symposium for the European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting on "Episodic memory in animals"
2007: Seminar at the University of Edinburgh: Invited to give seminar to the Behavioural Neuroscience laboratory at the Department of Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh
2005: Media Coverage of Research: In 2005 two regional newspapers published articles on Eacott, Easton & Zinkivskay (2005) where we showed rats to have recollection of episodic-like memory for the first time.
2004: Invited speaker at Mini-Symposium: In 2004 I was invited as a speaker in a mini-symposium entitled "Learning and Plasticity in the adult visual system" at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego
2001: Invited lecturer at Oxford Autumn School in Cognitive Neuroscience: In 2001 I was invited to give a lecture at the Oxford Autumn School in Cognitive Neuroscience on the role of the primate amygdala in reward processing. The Oxford Autumn School is aimed at postgraduates and postdoctoral scientists and brings together leading researchers to discuss recent findings.
Invited symposium speaker: Invited to give a talk in a symposium at the ICP Congress 2008 meeting in Berlin on my work on the differential outcome effect

Selected Publications

Books: edited

Dere, E, Easton, A, Nadel, L & Huston, JP 2008. Handbook of Episodic Memory. Handbook of Behavioural Neuroscience. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (Additional information)
Easton, A. & Emery, N.J. 2005. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Behaviour. Hove: Psychology Press.

Edited works: contributions

Easton, A & Eacott, M.J. 2008. A new working definition of episodic memory: replacing 'when' with 'which'. In Handbook of Episodic Memory. Dere, E, Easton, A, Nadel, L & Huston, JP Amsterdam: Elsevier. 185-196.
Easton, A. & Gaffan, D. 2000. Amygdala and the memory of reward: the importance of fibres of passage from the basal forebrain. In The Amygdala: A Functional Analysis. Aggleton, J.P. Oxford: OUP. 569-586.

Journal papers: academic

Easton, A., Zinkivskay, A. & Eacott, M.J. 2009. Recollection is impaired, but familiarity remains intact in rats with lesions of the fornix. Hippocampus (Additional information) (View publication online)
Wilson, CR, Baxter, MG, Easton, A & Gaffan, D 2008. Addition of fornix transection to frontal-temporal disconnection increases the impairment in object-in-place memory in macaque monkeys. European Journal of Neuroscience 27: 1814-1822.
Browning, PGF, Easton, A & Gaffan, D 2007. Frontal-temporal disconnection abolishes object discrimination learning set in macaque monkeys. Cerebral Cortex 17(4): 859-864. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Eacott, MJ & Easton, A 2007. On familiarity and recall of events by rats. Hippocampus 17: 890-897.
Eacott, M. J., Easton, A. & Zinkivskay, A. 2005. Recollection in an episodic-like memory task in the rat. Learning & Memory 12: 221-223. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Browning PGF, Easton A, Buckley MJ & Gaffan D 2005. The role of prefrontal cortex in object-in-place learning in monkeys. European Journal of Neuroscience 22: 3281-3291. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Easton, A. 2004. Differential reward outcome learning in adult humans. Behavioural Brain Research 154: 165-169. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Easton, A., Parker, K., Derrington, A.M. & Parker, A. 2003. Behaviour of marmoset monkeys in a T-maze: comparison with rats and macaque monkeys on a spatial delayed non-match to sample task. Experimental Brain Research 150: 114-116. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Easton, A. & Parker, A. 2003. cholinergic explanation of dense amnesia. Cortex 39: 813-826. (Additional information)
Easton, A. & Gaffan, D. 2002. Insights into the nature of fronto-temporal interactions from a biconditional discrimination task in the monkey. Behavioural Brain Research 136: 217-226. (Additional information)
Gaffan, D., Easton, A. & Parker, A. 2002. Interaction of inferior temporal cortex with frontal cortex and basal forebrain: Double dissociation in strategy implementation and associative learning. Journal of Neuroscience 22(16): 7288-7296. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Easton, A., Ridley, R.M., Baker, H.F. & Gaffan, D. 2002. Unilateral lesions of the cholinergic basal forebrain and fornix in one hemisphere and inferior temporal cortex in the opposite hemisphere produce severe learning impairments in rhesus monkeys. Cerebral Cortex 12(7): 729-736. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Easton, A., Parker, A. & Gaffan, D. 2001. Crossed unilateral lesions of the medial forebrain bundle and either inferior temporal or frontal cortex impair object recognition memory in Rhesus monkeys. Behavioural Brain Research 121: 1-10. (Additional information)
Easton, A. & Gaffan, D. 2001. Crossed unilateral lesions of the medial forebrain bundle and either inferior temporal or frontal cortex impair object-reward association learning in Rhesus monkeys. Neuropsychologia 39(1): 71-82. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Gaffan, D., Parker, A. & Easton, A. 2001. Dense amnesia in the monkey after transaction of fornix, amygdala and anterior temporal stem. Neuropsychologia 39: 51-70. (Additional information)
Easton, A. & Gaffan, D. 2000. Comparison of perirhinal cortex ablation and crossed unilateral lesions of the medial forebrain bundle from the inferior temporal cortex in the rhesus monkey: effects on learning and retrieval. Behavioral Neuroscience 114: 1041-1057. (Additional information)

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Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

Memory and brain function: Learning and Memory
Neuroscience: Learning and Memory
Psychology: Learning and Memory
Biological and Biomedical Sciences: Learning and Memory

Grants Awarded and Grant Applications

2005: BBSRC grant "Episodic memory and memory for what, where and when in the rat"