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Contact Details

Email
robert.munn@otago.ac.nz

University Links

Position
Senior Lecturer and Director (Neuroscience Teaching Programme), Faculty of Biomedical Sciences
Department
Department of Anatomy
Qualifications
BSc MSc PhD
Research summary
Neurobiology of memory

Research

How do we remember? What is it to remember? These questions, which are so central to our sense of agency and self, remain incompletely answered. My lab uses single-neuron electrophysiology and imaging in behaving rodents to address these questions.

We study the inherently fascinating cells of the hippocampal formation – place cells, grid cells, head direction cells and others that seem to encode “cognition”, or ongoing thought. We are especially interested in the intersection of these regions: how they cooperate to produce the construct some might consider “consciousness”. We take a systems approach; we record the activity of single neurons, as well as local field potential, and employ computational methods to attempt to uncover the basis for function.

Publications

Culshaw, I., Jones, O., Ward, R., & Munn, R. (2025). GLP-1 receptor agonism modulates local. In A. Banstola (Ed.), Proceedings of the 41st International Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research (AWCBR). 11.16, (pp. 62). Retrieved from https://www.awcbr.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Munn, R. G. K., Dickerson, D., & Bilkey, D. (2024). Hippocampal-prefrontal coherence is altered during behavioural strategy transitions, and is compromised in the maternal immune activation model of schizophrenia. In K.-L. Horne (Ed.), Proceedings of the 40th International Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research (AWCBR). (pp. 66). Retrieved from https://www.awcbr.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Friedlander, H., Pedone, G., Ward, R. D., Reynolds, J. N., & Munn, R. G. K. (2024). The central amygdala's involvement in processing appetitive stimuli. In K.-L. Horne (Ed.), Proceedings of the 40th International Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research (AWCBR). (pp. 66). Retrieved from https://www.awcbr.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Peattie, G., Culshaw, I., Ward, R. D., & Munn, R. G. K. (2024). Ketamine induces changes in hippocampal activity recapitulating changes seen in animal models of schizophrenia. In K.-L. Horne (Ed.), Proceedings of the 40th International Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research (AWCBR). (pp. 56). Retrieved from https://www.awcbr.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Tashakori-Sabzevar, F., Munn, R. G. K., Bilkey, D. K., & Ward, R. D. (2024). Basal forebrain and prelimbic cortex connectivity is related to behavioral response in an attention task. iScience, 27, 109266. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109266 Journal - Research Article

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