Jane Rebecca Taylor, PhD
Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, of Psychology and of NeuroscienceCards
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About
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Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, of Psychology and of Neuroscience
Biography
Jane Taylor obtained her BSc in Experimental Psychology/Neuroscience from the University of Sussex, UK and went on to receive her PhD at the University of Cambridge in the UK. She then joined the Department of Psychiatry at Yale as a post-doctoral fellow, then an Associate Research Scientist, then Associate Professor 2008 and becoming a full Professor (Charles B.G. Murphy) in 2008, with secondary appointments in the Psychology and Neuroscience departments.
My research program aims to integrate basic with translational neuroscience approaches to understand neurocognition and behavior through collaborate research. The lab studies brain limbic cortico-striatal circuitry involved in decision-making, inhibitory control, habits, motivation, memory and reinforcement learning, and the impact of sex differences on behavior in both normal and pathophysiological states. We combine sophisticated behavioral analyses in rodents with pharmacologic, optogenetic, viral, molecular/cellular, imaging and computational analyses. Our research also focuses on how neurodevelopmental and plasticity processes relate to decision-making, learning, memory, and motivational processes that contribute to addiction, alcoholism, depression, stress and other psychiatric diseases. We are particularly interested in memory plasticity processes (destabilization and restabilization) that are involved in memory reconsolidation, which allows new information to be integrated into memory and cognition. Such processes may be distinct developmentally and also play a role in delusional-like processes, stress-pathology and addictions. Neurocomputational and machine learning approaches also are employed in our studies to assess, for example, how distinct reinforcement learning mechanisms within separable neurocircuits result in individual differences in normative flexible decision-making processes and that are causally related to addiction and psychosis vulnerability and pathology.
Appointments
Psychiatry
ProfessorPrimaryNeuroscience
ProfessorSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Center for Brain & Mind Health
- Center for Nicotine and Tobacco Use Research at Yale (CENTURY)
- Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcohol
- Connecticut Mental Health Center
- Division of Molecular Psychiatry
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
- Neuroscience
- Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP)
- Neuroscience Track
- Psychiatry
- Stress & Addiction Clinical Research Program
- WHRY Pilot Project Program Investigators
- Women's Health Research at Yale
- Wu Tsai Institute
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
- Yale Stress Center
- Yale Ventures
Education & Training
- PhD
- Cambridge University (1985)
- BS
- University of Sussex (1981)
Research
Overview
Jentsch, J.D. and Taylor, J.R. (1999) Impulsivity resulting from frontostriatal dysfunction in drug abuse: Implications for the control over behavior by reward-related stimuli. Psychopharmacology146:373-390.
Jentsch, J.D., Olausson, P., De La Garza, II, R., and Taylor, J.R (2002) Impairments of reversal learning and response perseveration after subchronic cocaine administration to monkeys. Neuropsychopharm, 26:183-190
Jentsch, J.D., Roth, R.H., and Taylor, J.R. (2000) Impaired performance of an object retrieval/detour task by monkeys after subchronic phencyclidine administration: Evidence for frontostriatal dysfunction. Biological Psychiatry, 48:415-424
Hitchcott PK, Quinn JJ, and Taylor JR (2006) Bidirectional modulation of goal-directed actions by prefrontal cortical dopamine, Cerebral Cortex, 17(12):2820-7.
Olausson P, Jentsch, J.D., Krueger DD, Tronson NJ, Nairn AC and Taylor, J.R. (2007) Orbitofrontal cortex and cognitive-motivational impairments in psychostimulants addiction: Evidence from impairments in non-human primates. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Aug 14; [Epub ahead of print].
Torregrossa MM, Quinn JJ, Taylor JR (2008) Impulsivity, Compulsivity, and Habit: The Role of Orbitofrontal Cortex Revisited. Biological Psychiatry. In press
Quinn JJ, Hitchcott PK, Umeda EA, Arnold AP, Burgoyne PS, and Taylor JR. Chromosomal sex determines habit formation: Relevance to addiction. Nature Neuroscience, 10(11):1398-400
Discovered that Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a critical component for cortico-limbic-striatal plasticity, in the nucleus accumbens regulates the ability of reward-associated stimuli (conditioned reinforcers) to motivate and control goal-directed behavior. This paper established BDNF as a novel regulator of cocaine reward. BDNF is now considered critical for cognition and motivation and recent evidence in humans suggests polymorphisms in the BDNF gene in addiction and cognition. Also first established that another molecule involved in neuronal plasticity, Cdk5, also regulated cocaine’s effects on conditioned reinforcers and accumbens plasticity including alterations in dendritic spines. These studies have significantly advanced our understanding of mechanisms associated with neuroadaptive brain responses to cocaine and how drug and reward-associated cues play a role in addiction and relapse.
Horger, B.A., Iyasere, C.A., Berhow, M.T., Messer, C.J., Nestler, E.J., and Taylor, J.R. (1999) Enhancement of locomotor activity and conditioned reward to cocaine by brain-derived neurotrophic factor. J Neuroscience, 19:410-4122.
Bibb, J.A., Chen, J., Taylor, J.R., Svenningsson, P., Nishi A., Snyder, G.L., Yan, Z., Sagawa, Z.K, Huganir, R.L., Nairn. A.C., Nestler, E.J., and Greengard, P. (2001) Cdk5 regulates action of chronic cocaine. Nature 410:376-380
Norrholm, S.D., Bibb, J.A., Nestler, E.J., Ouimet, C.C., Taylor, J.R., and Greengard, P. (2003) Cocaine-induced proliferation of dendritic spines in nucleus accumbens is dependent on the activity of cyclin-dependent kinase-5. Neuroscience, 116(1):19-22
Taylor JR, Lynch WJ, Sanchez H, Olausson P, Nestler E.J and Bibb JA (2007) Inhibition of cyclin dependent kinase 5 in the nucleus accumbens enhances the locomotor activating and incentive motivational effects of cocaine. PNAS, 6:104(10):4147-5
Benevides DR, Quinn JJ, Zhong P, Hawasli AH, DiLeone R, Kansy KW, Olausson P, Yan Z, Taylor JR, and Bibb JA Cyclin dependent kinase 5 modulates cocaine reward, motivation and striatal neuron excitability. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(47):12967-76
Characterized how dysfunction of dopaminergic/cAMP/PKA signaling in cortico-limbic-striatal circuits underlies drug-induced alterations in reward-related learning and motivation. In addition, demonstrated how sex differences, and estrogen, modify in these behaviors in rodent models of addiction. This elegant work on the effects of drug exposure on appetitive Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, conditioned reinforcement and motivation has stimulated intense research in the role of learning and memory processes in drug addiction, and how reward-associated memories can influence motivational processes. Several recent reviews by other influential investigators have found this work important and ground-breaking.
Taylor, J.R. and Jentsch, J.D. (2001) Repeated Intermittent Administration of Psychomotor Stimulant Drugs Alters the Acquisition of Pavlovian Approach Behavior in Rats: Differential Effects of Cocaine, d-Amphetamine and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (‘Ecstasy’). Biological Psychiatry, 50:137-143
Olausson, P., Jentsch, J.D., and Taylor, J.R (2004) Nicotine enhances responding with conditioned reinforcement. Psychopharmacology, 171:173-178Lynch WJ, Kiraly, DD, Caldarone BJ, Picciotto MR, and Taylor JR (2006) Effect of cocaine self-administration on striatal PKA-regulated signaling in male and female rats. Psychopharmacology 191(2):263-71
Olausson, P., Jentsch, J.D., Tronson N., Neve, R.L., Nestler E.J., and Taylor, J.R (2006) ?FosB in the nucleus accumbens regulates food-reinforced instrumental behavior and motivation, J Neurosci, 26(36):9196-204
Identified that cAMP/PKA/CREB-signaling in amygdala-dependent is involved in appetitive memory consolidation in addition to its well-known role in aversive memory and identified a new role for PKA in memory reconsolidation. Memory reconsolidation was recently “re-discovered”, and is now widely considered to be a process by which previously formed memories can be rendered labile and susceptible to disruption. This may provide a great opportunity for treatments of post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias and several psychiatric conditions. Her recent Nature Neuroscience paper was the first to demonstrate that reconsolidation can be enhanced resulting in increased memory strength. This demonstration has a great impact on our understanding mechanisms of this memory process and, it also opens up a number of new avenues for potential clinical applications utilizing manipulations of reconsolidation in a number of mental disorders including understanding the development and treatment of addiction, as hypothesized in her Nature Neuroscience review.
Jentsch, J.D., Olausson, P., Nestler, E.J. and Taylor, J.R (2002) Stimulation of Protein Kinase A Activity in Rat Amygdala enhances Reward-Related Learning Biological Psychiatry, 52:111-118
Tronson N.C., Wiseman, S.L., Olausson, P., and Taylor, J.R (2006) Bidirectional behavioral plasticity of memory reconsolidation depends on amygdalar protein kinase A. Nature Neurosci 9(2):167-9
Tronson N and Taylor JR (2007) Molecular Mechanisms of Memory Reconsolidation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 8(4):262-75.
- Demonstration that dysfunction of dopaminergic/cAMP/PKA signaling in cortico-limbic-striatal circuits underlies increased impulsivity and alterations in reward-related learning that has relevance to addiction. Evidence and models include cellular, molecular and behavioral analyses in rodents and non-human primates.
- Identification of sex differences in cocaine self-administration and other behaviors relevant to addiction and depression.
- Development of a novel persistent stress/corticosterone-induced rodent model of depression and characterization of behavioral and cellular/molecular alterations including reversal by chronic anti-depressants.
- Role of cAMP/PKA/CREB-signaling in amygdala-dependent memory reconsolidation and learning.
- Characterization of prefrontal-cortex striatal interactions in habit learning, and alterations in dopamine function that may contribute to psychiatric disorders associated with compulsive behaviors.
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Publications Timeline
Research Interests
John Elsworth, PhD
Stephanie Groman, PhD
Philip Corlett, PhD
Summer L Thompson, PhD, MS
Amy Arnsten, PhD
John Krystal, MD
Motivation
Behavior
Mental Disorders
Publications
Featured Publications
Reward-Mediated, Model-Free Reinforcement-Learning Mechanisms in Pavlovian and Instrumental Tasks Are Related
Afshar N, Cinotti F, Martin D, Khamassi M, Calu DJ, Taylor JR, Groman SM. Reward-Mediated, Model-Free Reinforcement-Learning Mechanisms in Pavlovian and Instrumental Tasks Are Related. Journal Of Neuroscience 2022, 43: 458-471. PMID: 36216504, PMCID: PMC9864557, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1113-22.2022.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsGoal-tracking behaviorReinforcement learning mechanismInstrumental learning processesSign-tracking behaviorModel-free reinforcementApproach taskInstrumental taskInstrumental behaviorBehavioral proceduresSubjects designLearning mechanismDecision Making TaskModel-based computationLearning processModel-free reinforcement learningPredictive cuesIncentive salienceAssociative learningIndividual differencesComputational mechanismsDecision-making processPavlovianModel-based algorithmValue representationAction valuesExamining sex differences in responses to footshock stress and the role of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5: an [18F]FPEB and positron emission tomography study in rats
Asch RH, Pothula S, Toyonaga T, Fowles K, Groman SM, Garcia-Milian R, DiLeone RJ, Taylor JR, Esterlis I. Examining sex differences in responses to footshock stress and the role of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5: an [18F]FPEB and positron emission tomography study in rats. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022, 48: 489-497. PMID: 36100654, PMCID: PMC9852230, DOI: 10.1038/s41386-022-01441-y.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricDynamic structural equation modeling of the relationship between alcohol habit and drinking variability
DeMartini KS, Gueorguieva R, Taylor JR, Krishnan-Sarin S, Pearlson G, Krystal JH, O'Malley SS. Dynamic structural equation modeling of the relationship between alcohol habit and drinking variability. Drug And Alcohol Dependence 2021, 233: 109202. PMID: 35151022, PMCID: PMC10046111, DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109202.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsReinforcement learning detuned in addiction: integrative and translational approaches
Groman SM, Thompson SL, Lee D, Taylor JR. Reinforcement learning detuned in addiction: integrative and translational approaches. Trends In Neurosciences 2021, 45: 96-105. PMID: 34920884, PMCID: PMC8770604, DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2021.11.007.Peer-Reviewed Reviews, Practice Guidelines, Standards, and Consensus StatementsCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsDecision-making deficitsPathophysiology of addictionDecision-making strategiesBiobehavioral mechanismsAddictionReinforcement learningDecision-making processDrug useTranslational approachComputational componentsDeficitsLearningDifferent componentsBiological mechanismsOutcomesFindingsRecent studiesBehaviorStudyTargeted effects of ketamine on perceptual expectation during mediated learning in rats
Fleming LM, Jaynes FB, Thompson SL, Corlett PR, Taylor JR. Targeted effects of ketamine on perceptual expectation during mediated learning in rats. Psychopharmacology 2022, 239: 2395-2405. PMID: 35389087, PMCID: PMC9296571, DOI: 10.1007/s00213-022-06128-2.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsPerceptual expectationsHallucination-like experiencesMemory representationsExpected cueDevaluation phasePerceptual experienceNeural correlatesAssociative learningLearning taskTask phasesExternal outcomesDirect learningLearningEffects of ketamineExpectationsRetrievalConclusionsThese resultsModerate dosePerceptCausal relationshipCuesExperienceRepresentationTaskRecent workPositive modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the mPFC reduces the spontaneous recovery of fear
Lee B, Pothula S, Wu M, Kang H, Girgenti MJ, Picciotto MR, DiLeone RJ, Taylor JR, Duman RS. Positive modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the mPFC reduces the spontaneous recovery of fear. Molecular Psychiatry 2022, 27: 2580-2589. PMID: 35418600, PMCID: PMC9135632, DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01498-7.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsPosttraumatic stress disorderFear extinctionInfralimbic medial prefrontal cortexFear conditioning modelEnhanced fear extinctionFear-based behaviorsProlonged stress modelMedial prefrontal cortexSpontaneous recoveryIL-mPFCPTSD modelPTSD treatmentStress disorderPrefrontal cortexSPS modelN-methyl-D-aspartate receptor modulatorsBrain-derived neurotrophic factorN-methyl-D-aspartate receptorsBehavioral effectsIncreased attentionMPFCPreclinical findingsPyramidal neuronsNeurotrophic factorMale miceParanoia and belief updating during the COVID-19 crisis
Suthaharan P, Reed EJ, Leptourgos P, Kenney JG, Uddenberg S, Mathys CD, Litman L, Robinson J, Moss AJ, Taylor JR, Groman SM, Corlett PR. Paranoia and belief updating during the COVID-19 crisis. Nature Human Behaviour 2021, 5: 1190-1202. PMID: 34316049, PMCID: PMC8458246, DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01176-8.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsReinforcement Learning during Adolescence in Rats
Afshar N, Keip AJ, Taylor JR, Lee D, Groman SM. Reinforcement Learning during Adolescence in Rats. Journal Of Neuroscience 2020, 40: 5857-5870. PMID: 32601244, PMCID: PMC7380962, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0910-20.2020.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsNovel behavioral protocolReversal-learning performanceAdaptive choice behaviorBehavioral protocolFemale Long-Evans ratsReversal performanceChoice behaviorLong-Evans ratsAdolescent brain functionAge-related improvementsReinforcement-learning mechanismsReversal-learning taskReversal-learning paradigmDecision-making paradigmReinforcement learning mechanismAdolescent ratsLongitudinal designAge-related changesNeurodevelopmental mechanismsAdolescencePositive outcomesBrain functionFunction of circuitsPostnatal day 30AdulthoodDysregulation of Decision Making Related to Metabotropic Glutamate 5, but Not Midbrain D3, Receptor Availability Following Cocaine Self-administration in Rats
Groman SM, Hillmer AT, Liu H, Fowles K, Holden D, Morris ED, Lee D, Taylor JR. Dysregulation of Decision Making Related to Metabotropic Glutamate 5, but Not Midbrain D3, Receptor Availability Following Cocaine Self-administration in Rats. Biological Psychiatry 2020, 88: 777-787. PMID: 32826065, PMCID: PMC8935943, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.06.020.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsCocaine-dependent individualsProbabilistic reversalRelapse-like behaviorTest of motivationReceptor availabilityPersistent drug useMetabotropic glutamate 5Neural mechanismsCompulsive patternsDecision-making processDrug-induced adaptationsSelective impairmentDrug useWeeks of abstinenceCocaine takingCocaine Self-AdministrationBrain regionsDegree of disruptionDays of cocaineAdult male ratsCocaine-induced increasesCocaine-induced changesDrug-induced alterationsRobust alterationsPositron emission tomographyIntroducing the PLOS ONE Collection on the neuroscience of reward and decision making
Groman SM, Ikemoto S, Rushworth M, Taylor JR, Whelan R. Introducing the PLOS ONE Collection on the neuroscience of reward and decision making. PLOS ONE 2020, 15: e0240505. PMID: 33031482, PMCID: PMC7544023, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240505.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsAction-outcome associationsDecision-making deficitsPast experienceDecision makingNeuroscience techniquesNeurobiological mechanismsBehavioral approachNovel inferencesAdaptive decisionDecision-making functionsMechanistic linkParticular actionNeuroscienceAlternative outcomesBiological mechanismsOrganismsComputational functionsRewardNew insightsParticular outcomeNew environmentRecent advancesPredatorsMakingBiology
Links & Media
Media
- Mice homozygous for a floxed bdnf gene infused with adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (EGFP) and Cre recombinase to produce BDNF selective viral-mediated gene knock-down. Shown here is medial bdnf knock-down assessed by EGFP in prefrontal cortex. BDNF knock-down reduces instrumental responding in extinction.
News
- June 14, 2024Source: YaleNews
New Insights Into the Brain Regions Involved in Paranoia
- June 10, 2020Source: Yale News
Unexpected Uncertainty Can Breed Paranoia, Researchers Find
- April 03, 2020
Taylor Lab Donates N95 Masks, Other PPE to Yale New Haven Hospital
- June 26, 2019
How the Brain Helps Us Make Good Decisions — and Bad Ones
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Yale Only Hyojung Seo, PhD - Matthew Girgenti, PhD - Jane Rebecca Taylor, PhD - Laura Marianne Huckins, PhD - George Dragoi, MD, PhD - Arie Kaffman, MD, PhD - Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD - Alfred Kaye, MD, PhD - Monika P. Jadi, PhD - Alicia Y Che, PhD