Dr. Jane Taylor

Biography

Jane Taylor is the Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1985. Her basic research program focuses on the dysfunction of cortico-limbic-striatal circuits that subserve dysfunctional cognitive control, impulsivity, and alterations in reward-related learning, which are relevant to drug addiction, depression, schizophrenia, and Tourette Syndrome. Current studies examine dopamine and protein kinase A-regulated intracellular signaling in neurotrophin molecules in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and accumbens, contributing to motivation, learning, memory processes, and memory reconsolidation. Studies in monkeys have found long-lasting deficits in inhibitory control due to repeated cocaine exposure and alterations in reward-related learning. Additionally, she has developed a novel corticosterone model of depression to examine sex differences in attention, motivation, and impulse control in rodents, focusing on underlying molecular alterations. Her research also explores the effects of addictive and abused drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamine, PCP, THC, nicotine, and alcohol, utilizing drug self-administration models. Taylor employs transgenic mouse models, intracerebral infusion techniques, and viral-vector mediated overexpression of targeted proteins in combination with sophisticated behavioral techniques in mice, rats, and monkeys.

Research Interests