Gary Aston-jones

Biography

Gary Aston Jones is a Professor and the Murray Chair of Excellence in Neuroscience in the Department of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where he is also the Director of the Carolina Primate Center. Previously, he was a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the Laboratory for Neuromodulation and Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Director of the Neuroscience of Addiction Research Center at Penn. Dr. Aston-Jones earned his Ph.D. in neurobiology in 1981 from the California Institute of Technology and his B.A. in 1973 from the University of Virginia. He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow from 1980 to 1982 at the Salk Institute. His recent honors include serving as the current Chairman of the Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior CSR Review Group, receiving a 2003 National Institute on Drug Abuse Merit Award, and being the Keynote Speaker at a 2002 Neuroscience Retreat at Vanderbilt University. Dr Aston Jones primary research interests are in the brain neuromodulatory systems, and their roles in cognitive performance, sleep and waking, drug abuse, and affective disorders. He uses a multidisciplinary approach, primarily involving single unit neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and behavioral neuropharmacology in rats and monkeys. He and his colleagues have recently described a role for the brain noradrenergic locus coeruleus system in decision processes, in the circadian regulation of sleep and waking, and in depression. Other of his lab recent work also reveals a key role for the A1/A2 noradrenergic brain system innervation of the ventral forebrain in the affective response to drug withdrawal, and also indicates an important role of this and related systems in the drug seeking that accompanies protracted opiate withdrawal. Gary Aston Jones is a Professor and the Murray Chair of Excellence in Neuroscience in the Department of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where he is also the Director of the Carolina Primate Center. Previously, he was a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the Laboratory for Neuromodulation and Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Director of the Neuroscience of Addiction Research Center at Penn. Dr. Aston-Jones earned his Ph.D. in neurobiology in 1981 from the California Institute of Technology and his B.A. in 1973 from the University of Virginia. He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow from 1980 to 1982 at the Salk Institute. His recent honors include serving as the current Chairman of the Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior CSR Review Group, receiving a 2003 National Institute on Drug Abuse Merit Award, and being the Keynote Speaker at a 2002 Neuroscience Retreat at Vanderbilt University. Dr Aston Jones primary research interests are in the brain neuromodulatory systems, and their roles in cognitive performance, sleep and waking, drug abuse, and affective disorders. He uses a multidisciplinary approach, primarily involving single unit neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and behavioral neuropharmacology in rats and monkeys. He and his colleagues have recently described a role for the brain noradrenergic locus coeruleus system in decision processes, in the circadian regulation of sleep and waking, and in depression. Other of his lab recent work also reveals a key role for the A1/A2 noradrenergic brain system innervation of the ventral forebrain in the affective response to drug withdrawal, and also indicates an important role of this and related systems in the drug seeking that accompanies protracted opiate withdrawal.

Research Interest

Dr. Aston Jones primary research interests are in the brain neuromodulatory systems, and their roles in cognitive performance, sleep and waking, drug abuse, and affective disorders. He uses a multidisciplinary approach, primarily involving single unit neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and behavioral neuropharmacology in rats and monkeys.