Dr. Robert J. McDonald

Robert McDonald received his PhD in Psychology from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He moved to the Department of Psychology at the University of New Mexico in 1994, completing postdoctoral training on a NSERC post-doctoral fellowship. He accepted a position at the University of Toronto in the Department of Psychology where he received tenure in 2000. He returned to Lethbridge where he is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and a Canada Research Chair. His current research is directed at understanding: interactions among learning and memory systems, the role of memory system dysfunction in the etiology of psychiatric disorder, testing alternative theories of Alzheimer’s disease, co-factors contributing to cognitive and motor deficits following stroke, multiple pathways for memory consolidation.

Devan, B.D., Hong, N.S., and McDonald, R.J. (2011) Parallel associative processing in the dorsal striatum: segregation of stimulus-response and cognitive control subregions. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 96, 95-120.

Craig, L.A., Hong, N.S., and McDonald, R.J. (2011) The cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease revisited. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, 35, 1397-1409.

McDonald, R.J., Yim, T.T., Lehmann, H., Sparks, F., Zelinski, E., Sutherland, R.J. and Hong, N.S. (2010) Acquisition versus expression of a spatial navigation or a conditioned place preference (CPP) task following muscimol-induced inactivations of the hippocampus or amygdala. Brain Research Bulletin, 83, 29-37.

McDonald, R.J., Hong, N.S., and Craig, L. A. (2010) The etiology of Alzheimer’s disease is more complicated than we think. Behavioural Brain Research, 214, 3-11.

Zelinski, E., Hong, N.S., and McDonald, R.J. (2010) Prefrontal cortical contributions during discriminative fear conditioning, extinction, and spontaneous recovery in rats. Experimental Brain Research, 203, 285-297.

Craig, L.A., Hong, N.S., and McDonald, R.J. (2008) Reduced cholinergic status in hippocampus produces spatial memory deficits when combined with kainic acid induced seizures. Hippocampus, 18, 1112-1121.

Craig, L.A., Hong, N.S., and McDonald, R.J. (2008) Cholinergic depletion of the medial septum combined with sub-threshold stress impairs hippocampal memory in rats. European Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 2262-2271.

McDonald, R.J., King, A.L., and Hong, N.S. (2008) Neurotoxic damage to the medial striatum enhances the behavioural influence of a context-specific inhibitory association mediated by the ventral hippocampus. Behavioral Neuroscience, 122, 27-35.

McDonald, R.J., Craig, L.A., and Hong, N.S. (2008) Enhanced cell death in hippocampus and emergence of cognitive impairments following a localized mini-stroke in hippocampus if preceded by a previous episode of acute stress. European Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 2197-2209.

McDonald, R.J., Foong, N., Rizos, Z., Hong, N.S. (2008) Neurotoxic lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex or medial striatum impair multiple-location place learning in the water task: evidence for neural structures with complementary roles in behavioural flexibility. Experimental Brain Research, 187, 419-427.

Craig, L.A., and McDonald, R.J. (2008) Chronic disruption of circadian rhythms impairs hippocampal memory in the rat. Brain Research Bulletin, 76, 141-151.

Yim, T.T., Hong, N.S., McKenna, J., and McDonald, R.J. (2008) Post-training CB1 agonist activation disrupts long-term consolidation of spatial memories in hippocampus. Neuroscience, 151, 929-936.

Driscoll, I., Hong, N.S., Craig, L.A., Sutherland, R.J., and McDonald, R.J. (2007) Enhanced cell death and learning deficits after a mini-stroke in aged hippocampus. Neurobiology of Aging, 29, 1847-1858.

Whishaw, I.Q., Zeeb, F., Erickson, C., and McDonald, R.J. (2007) Acute and chronic impairments in skilled reaching by the rat following quinolinic or ibotenic acid caudate-putamen lesions. Neuroscience, 146, 86-97.

McDonald, R.J., Foong, N., Ray, C., Rios, Z., and Hong, N.S. (2007) The role of medial prefrontal cortex in context-specific inhibition processes. Experimental Brain Research, 177, 509-519.

McDonald, R.J., and Hong, N.S. (2006) A double dissociation of dorsal and ventral hippocampal function on a learning and memory task mediated by the dorso-lateral striatum. European Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 1789-1801.

Antoniadis, E.A., and McDonald, R.J. (2006) Fornix, medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and mediodorsal thalamic nucleus: roles in fear context discrimination. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 85, 71-85.

McDonald RJ, Jones J, Richards B, Hong NS. A double dissociation of dorsal and ventral hippocampal function on a learning and memory task mediated by the dorso-lateral striatum. Eur J Neurosci. 2006 Sep;24(6):1789-801.

Holahan MR, Taverna FA, Emrich SM, Louis M, Muller RU, Roder JC, McDonald RJ.
Impairment in long-term retention but not short-term performance on a water maze reversal task following hippocampal or mediodorsal striatal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade. Behav Neurosci. 2005 Dec;119(6):1563-71.

Featherstone RE, McDonald RJ. Lesions of the dorsolateral striatum impair the acquisition of a simplified stimulus-response dependent conditional discrimination task. Neuroscience. 2005;136(2):387-95. Epub 2005 Oct 13.

McDonald RJ, Hong NS, Craig LA, Holahan MR, Louis M, Muller RU. NMDA-receptor blockade by CPP impairs post-training consolidation of a rapidly acquired spatial representation in rat hippocampus. Eur J Neurosci. 2005 Sep;22(5):1201-13.

Featherstone RE, McDonald RJ. Lesions of the dorsolateral or dorsomedial striatum impair performance of a previously acquired simple discrimination task. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2005 Nov;84(3):159-67. Epub 2005 Sep 13.

Holahan MR, Hong NS, Chan C, McDonald RJ. Post-training intra-amygdala amphetamine injections given during acquisition of a stimulus-response (S-R) habit task enhance the expression of stimulus-reward learning: further evidence for incidental amygdala learning. Brain Res Bull. 2005 Aug 15;66(3):222-8.

Snyder JS, Hong NS, McDonald RJ, Wojtowicz JM. A role for adult neurogenesis in spatial long-term memory. Neuroscience. 2005;130(4):843-52.

Snyder, J.S., Hong, N.S., McDonald, R.J., and Wojtowicz, J.M. (2004) An essential role for adult neurogenesis in long-term memory. Neuroscience, In Press.

McDonald, R.J., Devan, B.D., and Hong, N.S. (2004) Multiple memory systems: the power of interactions. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, In Press.

McDonald, R.J., Hong, N.S., and Devan, B.D. (2004) The challenges of understanding mammalian cognition and memory-based behaviours: an interacting learning and memory systems approach. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, In Press.

McDonald, R.J., Foong, N., and Hong, N.S. (2004) Incidental information acquired by the amygdala during acquisition of a stimulus-response habit task. Experimental Brain Research, July 28 [Epub].

Cain, S.W., Karatsoreos, I., Gautam, N., Konar, Y., Funk, D., McDonald, R.J., and Ralph, M.R. (2004) Blunted cortisol rhythm is associated with learning impairment in aged hamsters. Physiology and Behavior, 82, 339-344.

McDonald, R.J., and Hong, N.S. (2004) A dissociation of dorso-lateral striatum and amygdala function on the same stimulus-response habit task. Neuroscience, 124, 507-513.

Featherstone, R.E., and McDonald, R.J. (2004) Dorsal striatum and stimulus-response learning: lesions of the dorsolateral, but not dorsomedial, striatum impair acquisition of a stimulus-response-based instrumental discrimination task, while sparing conditioned place preference learning. Neuroscience, 124, 23-31.

Featherstone, R.E., and McDonald, R.J. (2004) Dorsal striatum and stimulus-response learning: lesions of the dorsolateral, but not dorsomedial, striatum impair acquisition of a stimulus-response based operant discrimination task, while sparing conditioned place preference learning. Behavioural Brain Research, 150, 15-23.