Dr Andrew Nelson
Lecturer
- nelsona5@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5048
- Tower Building, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT
Overview
Research summary
My research interests are in the neurobiology of learning and memory. I am currently involved in projects testing non-spatial functions of the retrosplenial cortex as well as examining the contribution of the rostral thalamus to cognition.
Teaching summary
Levels 1 and 2: I Introductory lectures on biological psychology (PS2017). Cognitive practicals and tutorials on perception, cognition and abnormal/clinical psychology.
Level 3 Final year project supervision on a variety of topics.
Biography
Undergraduate education
1995 BA University of Bristol, History
2003 BSc University of Nottingham, Psychology
Postgraduate education
2007 PhD. Cardiff University, Thesis: Behavioural and Neurochemical Analysis of Stimulus-Response Habits in Rats.
Supervisor: Professor Simon Killcross.
BBSRC Studentship.
Employment
2015-present: Lecturer, School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
2011-2015: Behavioural Neuroscience Research Group, School of Psychology, Cardiff University. BBSRC and Wellcome Trust funded post-doc positions
2008-2010 – School of Psychology, University of Nottingham. Wellcome Trust funded post doc position.
Honours and awards
Awards/external committees
2006 Hadyn Ellis Prize for Outstanding Dissertation
Publications
2024
- Yanakieva, S., Frost, B. E., Amin, E., Nelson, A. J. D. and Aggleton, J. P. 2024. Disrupting direct inputs from the dorsal subiculum to the granular retrosplenial cortex impairs flexible spatial memory in the rat. European Journal of Neuroscience 59(10), pp. 2715-2731. (10.1111/ejn.16303)
2022
- Yanakieva, S., Mathiasen, M. L., Amin, E., Nelson, A. J. D., O'Mara, S. M. and Aggleton, J. P. 2022. Collateral rostral thalamic projections to prelimbic, infralimbic, anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices in the rat brain. European Journal of Neuroscience 56(10), pp. 5869-5887. (10.1111/ejn.15819)
- Aggleton, J. P., Nelson, A. J. D. and O'Mara, S. M. 2022. Time to retire the serial Papez circuit: Implications for space, memory, and attention. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 140, article number: 104813. (10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104813)
2021
- Aggleton, J. P., Yanakieva, S., Sengpiel, F. and Nelson, A. J. 2021. The separate and combined properties of the granular (area 29) and dysgranular (area 30) retrosplenial cortex. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 185, article number: 107516. (10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107516)
- Mathiasen, M. L., Nelson, A. J., Amin, E., O’Mara, S. M. and Aggleton, J. P. 2021. A direct comparison of afferents to the rat anterior thalamic nuclei and nucleus reuniens: overlapping but different. eNeuro 8(5), article number: 103. (10.1523/ENEURO.0103-20.2021)
- Nelson, A. J. D. 2021. The anterior thalamic nuclei and cognition: a role beyond space?. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 126, pp. 1-11. (10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.047)
- Bubb, E. J., Aggleton, J. P., O'Mara, S. M. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2021. Chemogenetics reveal an anterior cingulate-thalamic pathway for attending to task-relevant information. Cerebral Cortex 31(4), pp. 2169-2186. (10.1093/cercor/bhaa353)
2020
- Bubb, E. J., Nelson, A. J. D., Cozens, T. C. and Aggleton, J. P. 2020. Organisation of cingulum bundle fibres connecting the anterior thalamic nuclei with the rodent anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices. Brain and Neuroscience Advances 4, pp. 1-22. (10.1177/2398212820957160)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Kinnavane, L., Amin, E., O’Mara, S. M. and Aggleton, J. P. 2020. Deconstructing the direct reciprocal hippocampal-anterior thalamic pathways for spatial learning. Journal of Neuroscience 40(36), pp. 6978-6990. (10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0874-20.2020)
- Powell, A. et al. 2020. Stable encoding of visual cues in the mouse retrosplenial cortex. Cerebral Cortex 30(8), pp. 4424-4437. (10.1093/cercor/bhaa030)
- Aggleton, J. and Nelson, A. 2020. Distributed interactive brain circuits for object-in-place memory: a place for time?. Brain and Neuroscience Advances 4, pp. 1-11. (10.1177/2398212820933471)
2019
- Mathiasen, M., Louch, R., Nelson, A., Dillingham, C. and Aggleton, J. P. 2019. Trajectory of hippocampal fibres to the contralateral anterior thalamus and mammillary bodies in rats, mice, and macaque monkeys. Brain and Neuroscience Advances 3, pp. 1-18. (10.1177/2398212819871205)
- Mathiasen, M. L., Amin, E., Nelson, A. J. D., Dillingham, C. M., O'Mara, S. M. and Aggleton, J. P. 2019. Separate cortical and hippocampal cell populations target the rat nucleus reuniens and mammillary bodies. European Journal of Neuroscience 49(12), pp. 1649-1672. (10.1111/ejn.14341)
- Kinnavane, L., Amin, E., Aggleton, J. P. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2019. Do the rat anterior thalamic nuclei contribute to behavioural flexibility?. Behavioural Brain Research 359, pp. 536-549. (10.1016/j.bbr.2018.10.012)
- Morgan, J., Harper, P., Knight, V., Artemiou, A., Carney, A. and Nelson, A. 2019. Determining patient outcomes from patient letters: A comparison of text analysis approaches. Journal of the Operational Research Society 70(9), pp. 1425-1439. (10.1080/01605682.2018.1506559)
2018
- Cassaday, H. and Nelson, A. 2018. The neuropharmacology of what, where, when: How dopamine modulates recognition memory for objects and their contexts. In: Ennaceur, A. and de Souza Silva, M. eds. Handbook of object novelty recognition: Handbook of behavioral neuroscience., Vol. 26. Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 359-369.
- Powell, A., Hindley, E., Nelson, A., Davies, M., Amin, E., Aggleton, J. and Vann, S. 2018. Lesions of retrosplenial cortex spare immediate-early gene activity in related limbic regions in the rat. Brain and Neuroscience Advances 2, pp. 1-15. (10.1177/2398212818811235)
- Nelson, A., Hindley, E., Vann, S. and Aggleton, J. 2018. When is the rat retrosplenial cortex required for stimulus integration?. Behavioral Neuroscience 132(5), pp. 366-377. (10.1037/bne0000267)
- Nelson, A., Powell, A., Kinnavane, L. and Aggleton, J. 2018. Anterior thalamic nuclei, but not retrosplenial cortex, lesions abolish latent inhibition in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience 132(5), pp. 378-387. (10.1037/bne0000265)
- Vann, S. and Nelson, A. 2018. Anterior thalamic nuclei lesions have a greater impact than mammillothalamic tract lesions on the extended hippocampal system: a reply. Hippocampus 28(10), pp. 691-693. (10.1002/hipo.22953)
- Mitchell, A. S., Czajkowski, R., Zhang, N., Jeffery, K. and Nelson, A. 2018. Retrosplenial cortex and its role in spatial cognition. Brain and Neuroscience Advances 2, pp. 1-13. (10.1177/2398212818757098)
- Kinnavane, L., Vann, S. D., Nelson, A. J. D., O'Mara, S. M. and Aggleton, J. P. 2018. Collateral projections innervate the mammillary bodies and retrosplenial cortex: A new category of hippocampal cells. eNeuro 5(1), article number: e0383-17.2018. (10.1523/ENEURO.0383-17.2018)
2017
- Powell, A. L., Nelson, A., Hindley, E., Davies, M., Aggleton, J. P. and Vann, S. D. 2017. The rat retrosplenial cortex as a link for frontal functions: a lesion analysis. Behavioural Brain Research 335, pp. 88-102. (10.1016/j.bbr.2017.08.010)
- Nelson, A. J. D. and Vann, S. D. 2017. The importance of mammillary body efferents for recency memory: towards a better understanding of diencephalic amnesia. Brain Structure and Function 222(5), pp. 2143-2156. (10.1007/s00429-016-1330-x)
- Powell, A. L. et al. 2017. The retrosplenial cortex and object recency memory in the rat. European Journal of Neuroscience 45(11), pp. 1451-1464. (10.1111/ejn.13577)
2016
- Patitucci, E., Nelson, A. J. D., Dwyer, D. M. and Honey, R. C. 2016. The origins of individual differences in how learning is expressed in rats: a general-process perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 42(4), pp. 313-324. (10.1037/xan0000116)
- Nelson, A., Olarte-Sanchez, C., Amin, E. and Aggleton, J. P. 2016. Perirhinal cortex lesions that impair object recognition memory spare landmark discriminations. Behavioural Brain Research 313, pp. 255-259. (10.1016/j.bbr.2016.07.031)
- Aggleton, J. P., Pralus, A., Nelson, A. J. D. and Hornberger, M. 2016. Thalamic pathology and memory loss in early Alzheimer’s disease: moving the focus from the medial temporal lobe to Papez circuit. Brain 139(7), pp. 1877-1890. (10.1093/brain/aww083)
2015
- Dillingham, C. M., Frizzati, A., Nelson, A. J. D. and Vann, S. D. 2015. How do mammillary body inputs contribute to anterior thalamic function?. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 54, pp. 108-119. (10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.07.025)
- Aggleton, J. P. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2015. Why do lesions in the rodent anterior thalamic nuclei cause such severe spatial deficits?. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 54, pp. 131-144. (10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.08.013)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Powell, A., Holmes, J. D., Vann, S. D. and Aggleton, J. P. 2015. What does spatial alternation tell us about retrosplenial cortex function?. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9, article number: 126. (10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00126)
- Wright, N. F., Vann, S. D., Aggleton, J. P. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2015. A critical role for the anterior thalamus in directing attention to task-relevant stimuli. Journal of Neuroscience 35(14), pp. 5480-5488. (10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4945-14.2015)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Hindley, E., Pearce, J. M., Vann, S. D. and Aggleton, J. P. 2015. The effect of retrosplenial cortex lesions in rats on incidental and active spatial learning. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9, article number: 11. (10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00011)
- Vann, S. D. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2015. The mammillary bodies and memory: more than a hippocampal relay. In: O'Mara, S. and Tsanov, M. eds. Progress in Brain Research. The Connected Hippocampus Elsevier, pp. 163-185.
- Vann, S. D. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2015. The mammillary bodies and memory. In: Progress in Brain Research., Vol. 219. Elsevier, pp. 163-185., (10.1016/bs.pbr.2015.03.006)
2014
- Thur, K. E., Nelson, A. J. D. and Cassaday, H. J. 2014. Ro 04-6790-induced cognitive enhancement: No effect in trace conditioning and novel object recognition procedures in adult male Wistar rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior 127, pp. 42-48. (10.1016/j.pbb.2014.10.006)
- Cassaday, H. J., Nelson, A. J. D. and Pezze, M. A. 2014. From attention to memory along the dorsal-ventral axis of the medial prefrontal cortex: some methodological considerations. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 8, article number: 160. (10.3389/fnsys.2014.00160)
- Nelson, A. J. D. and Vann, S. D. 2014. Mammilliothalamic tract lesions disrupt tests of visuo-spatial memory. Behavioral Neuroscience 128(4), pp. 494-503. (10.1037/bne0000001)
- Hindley, E., Nelson, A. J. D., Aggleton, J. P. and Vann, S. D. 2014. The rat retrosplenial cortex is required when visual cues are used flexibly to determine location. Behavioural Brain Research 263, pp. 98-107. (10.1016/j.bbr.2014.01.028)
- Hindley, E. L., Nelson, A. J. D., Aggleton, J. P. and Vann, S. D. 2014. Dysgranular retrosplenial cortex lesions in rats disrupt cross-modal object recognition. Learning and Memory 21(3), pp. 171-179. (10.1101/lm.032516.113)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Hindley, E. L., Haddon, J. E., Vann, S. D. and Aggleton, J. P. 2014. A novel role for the rat retrosplenial cortex in cognitive control. Learning and Memory 21(2), pp. 90-97. (10.1101/lm.032136.113)
2013
- Nelson, A. J. D. and Killcross, S. 2013. Accelerated habit formation following amphetamine exposure is reversed by D1, but enhanced by D2, receptor antagonists. Frontiers in Neuroscience 7, article number: 76. (10.3389/fnins.2013.00076)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2013. Paradoxical effects of low dose MDMA on latent inhibition in the rat. Neuropharmacology 67, pp. 331-336. (10.1016/j.neuropharm.2012.11.012)
2012
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E. and Cassaday, H. J. 2012. Dopamine D1 receptor involvement in latent inhibition and overshadowing. The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 15(10), pp. 1513-1523. (10.1017/S1461145711001751)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2012. Opposing effects of 5,7-DHT lesions to the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens on the processing of irrelevant stimuli. The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 15(4), pp. 485-496. (10.1017/S1461145711000599)
2011
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K., Marsden, C. and Cassaday, H. 2011. Dopamine in nucleus accumbens: salience modulation in latent inhibition and overshadowing. Journal of Psychopharmacology 25(12), pp. 1649-1660. (10.1177/0269881110389211)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E., Spicer, C., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2011. Catecholaminergic depletion in nucleus accumbens enhances trace conditioning. Advances in Medical Sciences 56(1), pp. 71-79. (10.2478/v10039-011-0014-2)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Cooper, M. T., Thur, K. E., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2011. The effect of catecholaminergic depletion within the prelimbic and infralimbic medial prefrontal cortex on recognition memory for recency, location, and objects. Behavioral Neuroscience 125(3), pp. 396-403. (10.1037/a0023337)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E., Horsley, R. R., Spicer, C., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2011. Reduced dopamine function within the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens enhances latent inhibition. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior 98(1), pp. 1-7. (10.1016/j.pbb.2010.11.025)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Kantini, E. and Cassaday, H. J. 2011. An associative analysis of Tourette Syndrome. In: Haselgrove, M. and Hogarth, L. eds. Clinical Applications of Learning Theory. Psychology Press, pp. 179-201.
2010
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2010. Dissociable roles of dopamine within the core and medial shell of the nucleus accumbens in memory for objects and place. Behavioral Neuroscience 124(6), pp. 789-799. (10.1037/a0021114)
- Nelson, A. J. D., Thur, K. E., Marsden, C. A. and Cassaday, H. J. 2010. Catecholaminergic depletion within the prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex enhances latent inhibition. Neuroscience 170(1), pp. 99-106. (10.1016/j.neuroscience.2010.06.066)
2008
- Haselgrove, M., Robinson, J., Nelson, A. J. D. and Pearce, J. M. 2008. Analysis of an ambiguous-feature discrimination. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 61(11), pp. 1710-1752. (10.1080/17470210701680746)
2006
- Killcross, A. S. and Nelson, A. J. D. 2006. Amphetamine exposure enhances habit formation. Journal of Neuroscience 26(14), pp. 3805-3812. (10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4305-05.2006)
- Nelson, A. J. 2006. Behavioural and neurochemical analysis of stimulus-response habits in rats. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
2005
- Cassaday, H. J., Nelson, A. J. D. and Norman, C. 2005. Haloperidol can increase responding to both discrete and contextual cues in trace conditioned rats. Behavioural Brain Research 158(1), pp. 31-42. (10.1016/j.bbr.2004.08.014)
Funding
BBSRC Research Grant “Stimulus processing and cognitive control by the retrosplenial cortex”.(with John Aggleton, Seralynne Vann, Frank Sengpiel; 3 years from October 2014; £554,000)
Research collaborators
Prof John Aggelton, Cardiff University
Dr Seralynne Vann, Cardiff University
Dr Helen Cassaday, University of Nottingham
Supervision
Postgraduate research interests
If you are interested in applying for a PhD, or for further information regarding my postgraduate research, please contact me directly (contact details available on the 'Overview' page), or submit a formal application.
Media activities
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