Research

My research focuses on the damaging effects of alcohol on the developing brain, using quantitative neuroanatomy, immunocytochemistry, and behavioral methods (e.g., eyeblink classical conditioning; motor performance; place learning) in an animal model of human fetal exposure. We have shown that early alcohol exposure impairs eyeblink classical conditioning, and are studying underlying deficits in cellular neuroplasticity in the cerebellar-brain stem circuit that mediates eyeblink conditioning. We have also shown that acrobatic motor training in adulthood can stimulate brain synaptic morphological plasticity and ameliorate some of the behavioral deficits results from the brain damage induced by early alcohol exposure. Our long-term objectives are to understand, at the cellular level, how alcohol damages the developing brain, and to establish a neurobiological basis for therapeutic intervention in cases of prenatal alcohol exposure.

Education

• B.S. 1977, University of Kentucky
• M.A. 1981, State University of New York at Binghamton
• Ph.D. 1983, (Biopsychology)