 | Geoff Schoenbaum,
M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
School of Medicine
410-706-3814
schoenbg@schoenbaumlab.org
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ResearchThe lab studies the cognitive basis of goal-directed behavior using behavioral, pharmacological and neurophysiological techniques in rats. In addition to studying normal behavior, we are also interested in how goal-directed behavior is disrupted in aging and addiction. Please see my main web site for further details.
Schoenbaum Lab Webpage
Lab Techniques
- Behavior: techniques in rats to assess learning and the basis of decision-making including: instrumental tasks, classical conditioning paradigms, and quantification of locomotor behaviors during cocaine sensitization (MOVIES!).
- Brain Lesions: techniques for making neurotoxic lesions using targeted application of specific neurotoxins to remove specific brain regions including subdivisions of orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and ventral striatum based on unique pharmacological profiles of different regions.
- Pharmacology: techniques to create reversible lesions via inactivation of neural tissue using muscimol, lidocaine or other agents administered locally into brain regions such as orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and ventral striatum via chronically implanted cannula.
- Etcetera: rat stereotaxic surgical technique, histology, equipment design and construction,computer programming in c++ and matlab, advanced statistical analysis of behavioral and neurophysiological data.
PublicationsRepresentative List of Publications (link to full list and PDFs)
- Setlow, B., Schoenbaum, G., and Gallagher, M. (2003) Neural encoding in nucleus accumbens during olfactory discrimination learning. Neuron 38: 625-636 (also see commentary)
- Schoenbaum, G., Setlow, B., Nugent, S.L., Saddoris, M.P., and Gallagher M. (2003) Lesions of orbitofontal cortex and basolateral amygdala complex disrupt acquisition of odor-guided discriminations and reversals. Learn Mem 10: 129-140.
- Schoenbaum, G., Nugent, S., Saddoris, M.P., Gallagher, M. (2002) Teaching old rats new tricks: age-related impairments in olfactory reversal learning. Neurobiology of Aging 23: 555-564.
- Schoenbaum, G. and Setlow, B. (2001) Integrating orbitofrontal cortex into prefrontal theory: common processing themes across species and subdivision. Learn Mem 8:134-147.
- Schoenbaum, G., Chiba, A., and Gallagher, M. (2000) Rapid changes in functional connectivity in orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala during learning and reversal. J. Neurosci. 20:5179-5189.
- Gallagher, M., McMahan, R.W., Schoenbaum, G. (1999) Orbitofrontal cortex and representation of incentive value in associative learning. J. Neurosci. 19:6610-6614.
- Schoenbaum, G., Chiba, A., and Gallagher, M. (1999) Neural encoding in orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala during olfactory discrimination learning. J. Neurosci. 19:1876-1884.
- Schoenbaum, G., Chiba, A., and Gallagher, M. (1998) Orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala encode expected outcomes during learning. Nature Neuroscience. 1:155-159.
- Schoenbaum, G., and H. Eichenbaum. (1995) Information coding in the rodent prefrontal cortex. I. Single-neuron activity in orbitofrontal cortex compared with that in pyriform cortex. J. Nphysiol. 74(2):733-750.
- Schoenbaum, G., and H. Eichenbaum. (1995) Information coding in the rodent prefrontal cortex. II. Ensemble activity in orbitofrontal cortex. J. Nphysiol. 74(2):751-762.
Personal HistoryI attended college at the University of Georgia at Athens, where I received my BS in Biology and did research into interactions between endogenous opiates and feeding with Drs David Roane and Roy Martin. From Georgia, I returned to my hometown of Chapel Hill and entered the dual degree program at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
Got married in 1991, huskies in 1992, and completed my PhD in Neurobiology in 1994. For my PhD, I worked with Dr Howard Eichenbaum to characterize the encoding properties of neurons in orbitofrontal and piriform cortices of rats engaged in a complex odor discrimination task. I completed my MD in 1996 and entered the Yale Neuroscience Research Training Program Residency. There we learned to camp in the snow in the White Mountains of New Hampshire)... After one year at Yale, I moved to Baltimore, bought a house, and accepted a position in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University as an Associate Research Scientist with Dr Michela Gallagher.
At Johns Hopkins, I have used single-unit and behavioral techniques to characterize the involvement of orbitofrontal cortex and related areas of amygdala and ventral striatum in goal-directed behavior. This model is now ripe to be extended to study the biological basis of a number of neuropsychiatric conditions. After 4 years at Hopkins, we had a baby boy named Joseph. After 6 years at Johns Hopkins, we had a second baby boy named Ansel, and I joined the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland in 2003. . Laboratory PersonnelI am actively seeking students, techs and post-docs. An empty lab is a terrible thing to waste!
Anyone who is interested in systems neuroscience has the unique opportunity to be part of the birth of a new laboratory rooted in a rich tradition of systems neuroscience. My emphasis on systems level analysis combined with the strengths of the department in the use of neurophysiology and molecular methods to study chemosensory systems should produce an exciting synergy. I am looking foward to a close and enthusiastic collaboration with my future students, and I expect the next period of my career to be immensely exciting and rewarding both for myself and also for people that choose to come into the lab. I promise that life will be fun and exciting, that we will do interesting work, and that I will work to develop you for the next step in your career.
Interested students, post-docs or others may contact Michael Saddoris or Summer Nugent for information on what working with me might be like. Michael and Summer were research technicians with me at Hopkins and were involved in a number of projects culminating with authorship on several recent publications. Michael has continued on with me as a graduate student, and Summer has gone on to medical school in part on the strength of her record in the lab.
Prospective post-docs might also wish to contact Dr Barry Setlow, who collaborated with me at Johns Hopkins to adapt my recording techniques and behavior to investigate encoding and function in ventral striatum. He has recently accepted a position at Texas A&M University. 
http://gpilsinside.umaryland.edu/Web%20files/Neuroscience/gschoenbaum1.JPG |
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