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Professor Shane O'Mara

Professor of Experimental Brain Research (Psychology)

 Shane.OMara@tcd.ie

 3531896

Professor of Experimental Brain Research (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))

 (3531896) 8447


Biography

I am Professor of Experimental Brain Research in Trinity College Dublin, and am a Principal Investigator in, and was the Director of, the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience from 209-2016; I am a member of the academic staff of the School of Psychology. I was an undergraduate and postgraduate at NUI Galway (BA, MA). I undertook my doctoral work (DPhil) at the University of Oxford. I am a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin (FTCD) and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (FAPS). I was also elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA). Research Focus: My academic research concerns the brain systems supporting learning and memory, and how they are affected by stress and depression; I also explore the intersection of psychology and neuroscience with policy, evidence-based policy-making and related areas. To borrow a phrase, I am interested in understanding how `the brain meets the world". I have published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers since 1993 in leading international journals, in addition to having written 4 full-length monographs. I have also edited many special issues of journals and books. Research Support and Research Funding: My research work has been or currently is supported by the Wellcome Trust; Science Foundation Ireland; the Health Research Board; the European Commission; GlaxoSmithKline; Alkermes. I blog at www.brainpizza.com, mostly on neuroscience-, psychology-, science- and public policy-related themes (and maybe the intersection of all of these themes, but sometimes on other things entirely).

Research Tags

  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

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

Memberships

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
Alanezi, S.T. and Almutairi, W.M. and Cronin, M. and Gobbo, O. and O'Mara, S.M. and Sheppard, D. and O'Connor, W.T. and Gilchrist, M.D. and Kleefeld, C. and Colgan, N., Whole-brain traumatic controlled cortical impact to the left frontal lobe: Magnetic resonance image-based texture analysis, Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 83, (2), 2024, p94-106 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Aggleton, J.P. and Vann, S.D. and O'Mara, S.M., Converging diencephalic and hippocampal supports for episodic memory, Neuropsychologia, 191, (108728), 2023, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Richie-Halford, A. and Cieslak, M. and Ai, L. and Caffarra, S. and Covitz, S. and Franco, A.R. and Karipidis, I.I. and Kruper, J. and Milham, M. and Avelar-Pereira, B. and Roy, E. and Sydnor, V.J. and Yeatman, J.D. and Abbott, N.J. and Anderson, J.A.E. and Gagana, B. and Bleile, M.L. and Bloomfield, P.S. and Bottom, V. and Bourque, J. and Boyle, R. and Brynildsen, J.K. and Calarco, N. and Castrellon, J.J. and Chaku, N. and Chen, B. and Chopra, S. and Coffey, E.B.J. and Colenbier, N. and Cox, D.J. and Crippen, J.E. and Crouse, J.J. and David, S. and Leener, B.D. and Delap, G. and Deng, Z.-D. and Dugre, J.R. and Eklund, A. and Ellis, K. and Ered, A. and Farmer, H. and Faskowitz, J. and Finch, J.E. and Flandin, G. and Flounders, M.W. and Fonville, L. and Frandsen, S.B. and Garic, D. and Garrido-Vásquez, P. and Gonzalez-Escamilla, G. and Grogans, S.E. and Grotheer, M. and Gruskin, D.C. and Guberman, G.I. and Haggerty, E.B. and Hahn, Y. and Hall, E.H. and Hanson, J.L. and Harel, Y. and Vieira, B.H. and Hettwer, M.D. and Hobday, H. and Horien, C. and Huang, F. and Huque, Z.M. and James, A.R. and Kahhale, I. and Kamhout, S.L.H. and Keller, A.S. and Khera, H.S. and Kiar, G. and Kirk, P.A. and Kohl, S.H. and Korenic, S.A. and Korponay, C. and Kozlowski, A.K. and Kraljevic, N. and Lazari, A. and Leavitt, M.J. and Li, Z. and Liberati, G. and Lorenc, E.S. and Lossin, A.J. and Lotter, L.D. and Lydon-Staley, D.M. and Madan, C.R. and Magielse, N. and Marusak, H.A. and Mayor, J. and McGowan, A.L. and Mehta, K.P. and Meisler, S.L. and Michael, C. and Mitchell, M.E. and Morand-Beaulieu, S. and Newman, B.T. and Nielsen, J.A. and O†Mara, S.M. and Ojha, A. and Omary, A. and Ã-zarslan, E. and Parkes, L. and Peterson, M. and Pines, A.R. and Pisanu, C. and Rich, R.R. and Sacchet, M.D. and Sahoo, A.K. and Samara, A. and Sayed, F. and Schneider, J.T. and Shaffer, L.S. and Shatalina, E. and Sims, S.A. and Sinclair, S. and Song, J.W. and Hogrogian, G.S. and Tamnes, C.K. and Tooley, U.A. and Tripathi, V. and Turker, H.B. and Valk, S.L. and Wall, M.B. and Walther, C.K. and Wang, Y. and Wegmann, B. and Welton, T. and Wiesman, A.I. and Wiesman, A.G. and Wiesman, M. and Winters, D.E. and Yuan, R. and Zacharek, S.J. and Zajner, C. and Zakharov, I. and Zammarchi, G. and Zhou, D. and Zimmerman, B. and Zoner, K. and Satterthwaite, T.D. and Rokem, A., Author Correction: An analysis-ready and quality controlled resource for pediatric brain white-matter research (Scientific Data, (2022), 9, 1, (616), 10.1038/s41597-022-01695-7), Scientific Data, 10, (1), 2023, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Fischer, V. and O'Mara, S.M., â€~They deserve it for what they're doing†: dehumanising rhetoric as a facilitator of the recourse to violence against the defenceless, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 51, (101280), 2023, Notes: [cited By 2], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Yanakieva, S. and Mathiasen, M.L. and Amin, E. and Nelson, A.J.D. and O'Mara, S.M. and Aggleton, J.P., Collateral rostral thalamic projections to prelimbic, infralimbic, anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices in the rat brain, European Journal of Neuroscience, 56, (10), 2022, p5869-5887 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Aggleton, J.P. and Nelson, A.J.D. and O'Mara, S.M., Time to retire the serial Papez circuit: Implications for space, memory, and attention, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 140, (104813), 2022, Notes: [cited By 1], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Rizzello, E. and Martin, S.K. and Rouine, J. and Callaghan, C. and Mathiasen, M.L. and O'Mara, S.M., Place cells in the claustrum remap under NMDA receptor control, European Journal of Neuroscience, 56, (2), 2022, p3825-3838 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
O'Mara, S.M., Preface: Collective memory comes of age, Progress in Brain Research, 274, (1), 2022, pxiii-xiv , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Fischer, V. and O'Mara, S.M., Neural, psychological, and social foundations of collective memory: Implications for common mnemonic processes, agency, and identity, Progress in Brain Research, 274, (1), 2022, p1-30 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Bubb, E.J. and Aggleton, J.P. and O'Mara, S.M. and Nelson, A.J.D., Chemogenetics Reveal an Anterior Cingulate-Thalamic Pathway for Attending to Task-Relevant Information, Cerebral Cortex, 31, (4), 2021, p2169-2186 , Notes: [cited By 7], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Mullally, SM, Roche, RAP, Laing, J, Robertson, IH & O'Mara, SM., A virtual lesion of the Human Hippocampus: Anteceding n-Back performance inhibits subsequent hippocampal-dependent memory function, Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting 2005, New York, USA. , 2005, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
Roche, RAP, Mullally, SL, Hayden, J, Brennan, P, Fitzsimons, M, McMackin, D, McNulty, J, Prendergast, J, Sukumaran, S, O'Mara, SM & Robertson, IH, Effects of Prolonged Rote Rehearsal on Learning and Hippocampal Metabolism in the Aged, Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting , San Francisco, USA. , 2004, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
Mullally, SL, Roche, RAP, Laing, J, Robertson, IH, & O'Mara, SM , Does Performance of a Working-Memory N-Back Task Impact on Episodic Verbal Learning, Recall and Recognition? , Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA. , 2004, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
O'Mara, S.M., Mangaoang, M.A., McMackin, D.M., Quigley, J., Relationship Of Language Disorder To Mnemonic Deficits After Unilateral Hippocampectomy In Human Patients, 2003, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
Roche, RAP & O'Mara, SM, Event-related potentials during response inhibition in normal absentmindedness and traumatic brain injury, Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis, EBBS 2003, Barcelona, Spain, 63 (Suppl), 2003, pp27-, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
Roche, RAP & O'Mara, SM , Learning, attention and executive control in visuomotor association learning., EURESCO conference on Action and Perception in Three-Dimensional Space, Aquafredda di Maratea, Italy., 2003, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
O'Mara, S.M., Hippocampal-Cortical Interaction - The Role Of The Subiculum. Behavioural Pharmacology, 2001, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
O'Mara, S.M., Shaw, K.N., Commins, S., Broad-Spectrum Cyclooxygenase Inhibition Reversibly Blocks Long-Term Potentiation And Spatial Learning Via A Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor-Dependent Mechanism. Society For Neuroscience Abstracts, 2001, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
OMARA, SM, THE EFFECTS OF THE ENDOTOXIN LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE ON SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION AND PLASTICITY IN THE CA1-SUBICULUM PATHWAY IN VIVO, unknown, 2000, 12, ISI Web of Science, 2000, pp250 - 250, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED
SHAW, K, STRESS: HOW IT AFFECTS SPATIAL LEARNING AND BDNF EXPRESSION, unknown, 2000, 12, ISI Web of Science, 2000, pp330 - 330, Meeting Abstract, PUBLISHED

  

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Awards and Honours

Award Date
FAPS 2010
MRIA 2011

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

Research: My research concerns the brain systems supporting learning and memory, and how they are affected by stress and depression; to borrow a phrase, I am interested in understanding how `the brain meets the world". One major focus of my research are the cognitive and memory systems of the brain and how these are impacted by stress and depression. This work resulted in many publications, including a landmark paper (Aggleton and O"Mara, 2022) positing a `tripartite model" of the brain systems supporting episodic memory. My other major research focus concerns the behavioural and brain sciences and public policy. I have focused particularly on the neuroscience of torture, where I can apply my knowledge of brain, cognitive, and physiological function. This work started with a high-profile paper (O"Mara, 2009), which led to many interviews and press pieces. Many other papers followed, and a Harvard University Press monograph: Why Torture Doesn't Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation, widely reviewed as a landmark work in torture by philosophers, lawyers, political scientists, and practitioners. It is cited in evidence in cases involving torture, most particular in Guantanamo Bay, and the Reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. 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.