Staff
| Personal Information | ||
| Name | O'Mara, Shane Michael | |
| College Address | Psychology, Aras An Phiarsaigh |
|
| Main Department | Psychology | |
| College Title | Professor of Experimental Brain Research | |
| shane.omara@tcd.ie | ||
| College Tel | +353 1 896 8447 | |
| Web | http://people.tcd.ie/smomara | |
| Biography | |
| Professor Shane O’Mara is a BA and MA of NUIG and a DPhil of Oxford University. His research concerns the investigation of the relations between synaptic plasticity (the mechanisms by which the brain changes as a result of experience), cognition (the abstract psychological processes by which we know, represent and understand the external world), and changes in learned behaviour. He has had a particular research focus on understanding the mechanisms responsible for memory and depression. His laboratory conducts experiments at different levels of analysis (single cells and cell populations) combining behavioural, electrophysiological, pharmacological, anatomical, and immunohistochemical techniques in order to investigate the brain structures concerned with memory and depression. He has c. 95 publications. He has graduated c. 20 PhD students to date, and his current lab group consists of 10 members, including four Postdoctoral Fellows. He has is Director of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and serves on many panels and committees for a wide variety of agencies, e.g., Wellcome Trust; European Commission; Academy of Medical Sciences; National Academy of Sciences. Additionally, he serves as a reviewer and editor for many international journals, and for international grant agencies. He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and of the Association for Psychological Science, and has a Personal Chair in Experimental Brain Research from Trinity College Dublin. | |
| Teaching interests and responsibilities | |
| • Fundamentals of Neuroscience and Behaviour (JF/SF), with accompanying practicals on brain structure and function, research methods and psychophysiological measurement. • Behavioural Neuroscience (SS) • Cognitive Neuroscience (SS: 1995-2003) • Memory, synaptic plasticity and the brain (SS) | |
| Professional Qualifications | |
| Qualification | Institution | Class of Degree | Title of Dissertation | Date Conferred |
| Fellow, Trinity College Dublin - FTCD | Trinity College Dublin | 2001 | ||
| D.Phil. | University of Oxford | 1994 | ||
| M.A. (Hons by thesis) | University College, Galway | 1988 | ||
| B.A. | University College, Galway | 2i | 1986 | |
| Fellow | Association of Psychological Science | 2010 |
| Representations |
| Details | Date |
| Major Conference Organization: The European Brain and Behaviour Society meeting Sept 2005. I was the Chair and Chief Organiser of this conference; I led the successful bid to bring this conference to Dublin and to have it hosted by the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. This was a major international meeting of some 450 delegates. | 2005 |
| Administrative Functions | |
| Details | Level | Date From | Date To |
| Director, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (2009 - ) |
| Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies |
| Details | Date From | Date To |
| Association for Psychological Science; Society for Neuroscience; European Brain and Behaviour Society; Neuroscience Ireland |
| Education Details | |
| School/College | Date From | Date To |
| University of Oxford | 1990 | 1993 |
| University College, Galway | 1986 | 1988 |
| University College, Galway | 1983 | 1986 |
| Research Institutes / Centres / Groups | |
| Research Institutes / Centres / Groups | Description of Role | Date From | Date To |
| Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience | 14-JUL-06 | 14-JUL-06 |
| Employment Details | |
| Position Held | Job Description | Where | Date From | Date To |
| Professor of Experimental Brain Research | Personal Chair | School of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, University of Dublin, Trinity College | June 1 2010 | |
| Director, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, | Trinity College Dublin | 2009 | ||
| Director of Research | School of Psychology, University of Dublin, Trinity College | 2005 | 2008 | |
| Lecturer | School of Psychology, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin 2 | 1st June 1995 | 30th September 2004 | |
| Health Research Board Post-Doctoral Research Fellow | Department of Physiology, Trinity College, Dublin | 1993- | 1995 | |
| More Employment Details>>> | ||||
| Description of Research Interests |
| Biology of learning and memory; mechanisms of brain repair; drug action in CNS; synaptic plasticity; visualising in vivo neuronal activity; defining distribution of bioactive agents in CNS; imaging human brain during learning and memory; models of neurodegeneration; models of secondary depression and their treatment; organic disorders of memory. Key Research Question: How does the brain change as a result of experience? To investigate this general problem, I have adopted multidisciplinary techniques from diverse disciplines (e.g. neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, behavioural analysis, neuroimmunology). Techniques routinely used in my research group include: in vivo neurophysiology in freely-moving/anaesthetised rat (field potentials/action potential recordings of single neurons/neuronal ensembles); neurobehavioural assays (automated water, radial, open field; object exploration, odour discrimination, etc.); brain protein assays (BDNF; prostaglandins); radioimmunoassays; neurohistology. |
| Research Interests | |||
| ACTIVATED PROTEIN-KINASE | ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE | AMINO-ACID RECEPTORS | AMMONS HORN |
| ANATOMICAL DATA | ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX | ANTERIOR THALAMIC NUCLEI | ARACHIDONIC-ACID |
| AREA CA1 | BDNF | BDNF PROTECTS | BEHAVIORAL STRESS |
| Biology of learning, memory and cognition | CA1 | CALCIUM | CHRONIC NEUROINFLAMMATION |
| COGNITIVE MAPS | COMPLEX-SPIKE CELLS | CORTEX | CUE CONTROL |
| CYTOKINES | DENTATE GYRUS | DEPOTENTIATION | DISORIENTATION |
| EFFERENT CONNECTIONS | ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICALLY-DEFINED CLASSES | ENTORHINAL CORTEX | ENVIRONMENT |
| FIRING PATTERNS | FIRING PROPERTIES | FREELY-MOVING | FRONTAL-CORTEX |
| GYRUS IN-VITRO | HEAD DIRECTION CELLS | HIGH-FREQUENCY STIMULATION | HIPPOCAMPAL |
| HIPPOCAMPAL AREA CA1 | HIPPOCAMPAL FORMATION | HIPPOCAMPAL SLICES | HIPPOCAMPUS |
| IN-VIVO | LASTING POTENTIATION | LEARNING AND MEMORY | LESIONS |
| LONG-TERM POTENTIATION | MESSENGER-RNA | METHYL-D-ASPARTATE | NEURONS |
| PAIRED-PULSE FACILITATION | PARIETAL CORTEX | PATH INTEGRATION | PLACE NAVIGATION |
| PLASTICITY | POTENTIATION | RAT | RAT HIPPOCAMPUS |
| RATS | SLICES | SPATIAL MEMORY | SUBICULUM |
| SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION | WATER MAZE |
| Publications |
| Peer Reviewed |
| Cowley TR, Fahey B, O'Mara SM, COX-2, but not COX-1, activity is necessary for the induction of perforant path long-term potentiation and spatial learning in vivo, European Journal of Neuroscience, 27, (11), 2008, p2999 - 3008 Url DOI |
|
| Kelly, AM, Larkin, A, Fahey, B, Gobbo, O, Callaghan, CK, Cahill, E, O'Mara, S.M. , Blockade of NMDA receptors pre-training, but not post-training, impairs object displacement learning in the rat, Brain Research, 1199, 2008, p126 - 132 | |
| O’Mara S.M., The Subiculum: What It Does, What It Might Do, And What Neuroanatomy Has Yet To Tell Us, Journal of Anatomy, 207, 2005, p271 - 282 Url |
|
| Anderson MI, O'Mara SM, Analysis of recordings of single-unit firing and population activity in the dorsal subiculum of unrestrained, freely moving rats, JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY, 90, 2 , (AUG), 2003, p655 - 665 Url |
|
| More Publications>>> | |
| ; |
Last updated 15 May 2013 .