Robert W. Stackman, Jr.

Education

Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Postdoctoral Fellow, Dartmouth College

Research Interests

• Cellular and circuit mechanisms of long-term memory
• Spatial navigation and limbic system networks
• Behavioral (in-vivo) neurophysiology
• Hippocampal and cortical interactions and coding of object memory

Research Description

Research in our lab focuses on a number of related projects seeking to understand the brain circuits and cellular mechanisms that support long-term memory in mammals. The work follows an overarching hypothesis that individual significant experiences or events are organized in the nervous system as memories about items or objects and the spatial location or context where they were experienced. Fundamental to the organization of such event memories is the integration of parallel streams of information within the hippocampus or the broader hippocampal formation. One project explores the contribution of specific cortical regions to memory for objects and context, and how the consolidation of these memories is enhanced by novel experience. Another project maps neurons within regions of the memory circuit, by examining the behavioral correlates of their firing properties. Another project examines the degree to which neurons coding spatial location and directional heading, guide spatial problem solving. A final project examines SK-type potassium channel influence on behavior and behaviorally-triggered synaptic plasticity in young healthy animals and in a pharmacological model of schizophrenia-like behavior. Taken together, these projects will provide novel insights into memory organization and how neurophysiological representations of memory attributes guide memory retrieval and problem solving.

Current students:
Madelyn Campbell, Ph.D. student in Experimental Psychology,
Alcira Munchow, Ph.D. student in Integrative Biology
Anastasia Tyulmenkova, Ph.D. student in Integrative Biology

Recent Publications (* denotes undergraduate author)

• Cinalli Jr, DA, Cohen SJ, *Calubag M, *Oz G, *Zhou L and Stackman Jr RW (2023) DREADD-inactivation of dorsal CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice impairs retrieval of object and spatial memories. Hippocampus, 33(1): 6-17. doi: 10.1002/hipo.23484
• Bunner W, Wang J, Cohen SJ, Bashtovyy D, Perry R., Shookster D, Landry T, Harris EM, Stackman Jr RW, Tran T, Yasuda R and Szatmari EM (2023) Behavioral and transcriptome profiling of Rab10 knockout mice. eNeuro,10(5): ENEURO.0459-22.2023 doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0459-22.2023
• Cohen SJ, Cinalli Jr DA, Ásgeirsdóttir HN, Hindman B, Barenholtz E and Stackman Jr RW (2022) Mice recognize 3D objects from recalled 2D pictures, support for picture-object equivalence. Scientific Reports, 12(1): 4184. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07782-4 
• Cinalli Jr DA, Cohen SJ, Guthrie K and Stackman Jr RW (2020) Object recognition memory: Distinct yet complementary roles of the mouse CA1 and perirhinal cortex. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 13: 527543. doi/10.3389/fnmol.2020.527543
• Szatmari E, Moran C, Cohen SJ, Jacob A, Parra-Bueno P, Kamasawa N, Guerrero-Given D, Klein M, Stackman Jr RW, and Yasuda R (2020) ADAP1/Centaurin-α1 negatively regulates dendritic spine function and memory formation in the hippocampus. eNeuro, Nov 2: ENEURO.0111-20.2020. doi/10.1523/ENEURO.0111-20.2020
  
• Ásgeirsdóttir HN, Cohen SJ and Stackman Jr RW (2020) Object and place information processing by CA1 hippocampal neurons of C57BL/6J mice. Journal of Neurophysiology,  123(3): 1247-1264. doi/full/10.1152/jn.00278.2019
• Song Y, Zhu J-S, Hua R, Du L, Huang S-T, Stackman Jr RW, Zhang G and Zhang Y-M (2018) Small conductance Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channel 2 (SK2) in spinal dorsal horn participates in visceral hypersensitivity induced by neonatal colorectal distension in rats. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 9(840) https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2018.00840
• Zhang G, Cinalli Jr DA and Stackman Jr RW (2017) Effect of a hallucinogenic serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonist on visually-guided hippocampal-dependent spatial cognition in C57BL/6J mice. Hippocampus, 27(5): 558-569. doi/full/10.1002/hipo.22712
• Stackman Jr RW, Cohen SJ, Lora JC and Rios LM (2016) Temporary inactivation reveals that the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus plays an equivalent role in the retrieval of long-term object memory and spatial memory. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 133: 118-128. doi/10.1016/j.nlm.2016.06.016
• Zhang G, Cinalli Jr DA, Cohen SJ, *Knapp KD, Rios LM, Martinez-Hernandez J, Lujan R and Stackman Jr RW (2016). Examination of the hippocampal contribution to serotonin 5-HT2A receptor-mediated facilitation of object memory in C57B/6J mice. Neuropharmacology,  109: 332-340. doi/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2016.04.033
• Cohen SJ and Stackman Jr RW (2015). Assessing rodent hippocampal involvement in the novel object recognition task. A review. Behavioural Brain Research, 285: 105-117. doi/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.08.002
• Cohen SJ, Munchow A, Rios LM, Zhang G, Ásgeirsdóttir HN and Stackman Jr RW (2013). The rodent hippocampus is essential for non-spatial object memory. Current Biology. 23: 1685-1690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.002

Scholarly Activites

• Google Scholar profile
• See all publications
• Podcast interview given with the UT San Antonio Neuroscience Institute
• FAU Brain Institute description of research interest