Michael W. Shiflett

Education

Ph.D., Psychology, Cornell University 2003

Advisor: Dr. Timothy J. Devoogd 

B.A., Psychology, University of California, Berkeley 1997

Distinction and High Honors in Research
         

Positions Held

Research Associate; Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, Department of Psychology 2009-pres

Post-doctoral Scholar; University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology; Advisor: Dr. Bernard W. Balleine 2006-2008

Adjunct Assistant Professor; Occidental College, Department of Psychology 2008

Post-doctoral Scholar; University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neurobiology; Advisor: Dr. Edda Thiels 2003-2006

Honors and Awards

Sage Fellowship, Cornell University 1998, 2000Honorable Mention, Frank Beach Award for Outstanding Publications in the Journal of Comparative Psychology 1998, 2000

Warner Brown Prize for Undergraduate Research in Psychology, UC Berkeley 1997

Kraft Scholar, UC Berkeley 1994

Grant Support 

Current

PI, National Institute on Drug Abuse Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition (B/START) R03 DA026559 “Pavlovian Influences on Reward-seeking Behavior”. 05/15/2009-04/30/2010 $61,445

Previous

National Institute on Drug Abuse Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Post-doctoral Fellows 2006-2007

National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Training in the Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Disease, Post-doctoral fellowship 2003-2005

National Institute of Mental Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Pre-doctoral Fellows 2001-2003

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Shiflett, M.W., Brown, R.A., and Balleine, B.W.  Acquisition and performance of goal-directed instrumental actions depends on ERK signaling in distinct regions of dorsal striatum in rats. Journal of Neuroscience in press.

Shiflett, M.W., Mauna, J.C., Chipman, A.M., Peet, E. and Thiels, E. (2009) Appetitive Pavlovian conditioned stimuli increase CREB phosphorylation in the nucleus accumbens. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 92(3): 451-4

Shiflett, M.W., Martini, R.P., Mauna, J., Foster, R.L., Peet, E. and Thiels, E. (2008) Cue-elicited reward seeking requires Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase activation in the Nucleus Accumbens. Journal of Neuroscience 28(6): 1434-43

Shiflett, M.W., Rankin, A.Z., Tomaszycki, M.L., and DeVoogd, T.J. (2004) Cannabinoid antagonism in the hippocampus improves memory in food-storing birds, but with a cost. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 271(1552):2043-8 

Shiflett, M.W., Tomaszycki, M.L., Rankin, A.Z., DeVoogd, T.J. (2004) Long-term memory for spatial locations requires NMDA-receptor activation in the hippocampus of a food-storing bird. Behavioral Neuroscience 118(1):121-130. 

Shiflett, M.W., Smulders, T.V., Benedict, L., DeVoogd, T.J. (2003) Reversible inactivation of the hippocampal formation in food-storing black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus). Hippocampus 13(4):437-44.

Shiflett, M.W., Gould, K.L., Smulders, T.V., DeVoogd, T.J. (2002) Septum volume and food-storing behavior are related in parids. Journal of Neurobiology 51(3):215-22. 

Smulders, T.V., Shiflett, M.W., Sperling, A.J., DeVoogd, T.J. (2000) Seasonal changes in neuron numbers in the hippocampal formation of a food-hoarding bird: the black-capped chickadee. Journal of Neurobiology 44(4):414-22. 

Jacobs, L.F., and Shiflett, M.W. Spatial orientation on a vertical maze by free-ranging fox squirrels. (1999) Journal of Comparative Psychology 113(2) 116-27. 

Lavenex P., Shiflett, M.W., Lee, R.K., Jacobs, L.F. (1998) Spatial versus non-spatial relational learning in free-ranging fox squirrels (Sciurus niger). Journal of Comparative Psychology 112(2) 127-36. 

Submitted manuscripts 

Shiflett, M.W., Balleine, B.W. Disconnection of basolateral amygdala from nucleus accumbens reveals dissociable components of incentive behavior in rats.

Abstracts and Presentations

Shiflett, M.W., Balleine, B.W. Disconnection of basolateral amygdala and nucleus accumbens dissociates the effects of expected and experienced reward on instrumental performance in rats.  39^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Chicago IL

Zimmerman, E.K., Mauna, J.C., Shiflett, M.W., Chipman, A.M., Foster, R.L., Peet, E., Thiels, E. CREB phosphorylation in the nucleus accumbens: regulation by NMDA receptors and ERK activation.  38^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Washington DC

Shiflett, M.W., and Balleine, B.W. MAPK/ERK activation in the dorsomedial striatum is necessary for action-outcome encoding during instrumental conditioning.  37^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. San Diego CA.

Shiflett, M.W., Mauna, J. and Thiels, E. Reward-paired conditioned stimuli activate CREB in the nucleus accumbens. 36^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Atlanta GA

Thiels, E, Palmatier, M.I., Shiflett, M.W., Caggiula, A.R., Sved, A.F. ERK activation during drug primed reinstatement of nicotine self-administration. 35^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Washington DC 

Shiflett, M.W., Martini, R.P., Golden, S., Thiels, E. Exposure to a reward-paired stimulus increases striatal ERK activation: implications for cue-induced drug craving. 35^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Washington DC. 

Shiflett, M.W., Martini, R.P., Golden, S., Thiels, E. Increased striatal ERK activation following exposure to an appetitive conditioned stimulus. 7th annual Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory meeting for Learning and Memory. Cold Spring Harbor NY 

Shiflett, MW, Rabinowitz JS, Tarr, BA, Buchan ZR, DeVoogd TJ Captivity causes hippocampal shrinkage in a food-storing bird. 34^th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. San Diego CA 

Shiflett, MW, Rankin, AZ, and DeVoogd, TJ Opposing effects of NMDA-R and cannabinoid (CB1-R) inactivation on spatial memory in food-storing birds. 32^ndAnnual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Orlando FL 

Shiflett, MW, Gould, K.L., Smulders, T.V. and DeVoogd, T.J. Septum Volume and Food-storing Behavior are related in Parids. 31st Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. San Diego CA 

Shiflett, M.W., Gould-Beierle, K.L., Smulders, T.V. and DeVoogd, T.J. Volume of the avian septal nucleus increases in relation to food-storing behavior. 6th International Congress of Neuroethology. Bonn, Germany. 

Shiflett, M.W., Smulders, T.V., Benedict, L. and DeVoogd, T. J. Inactivation of the hippocampus impairs spatial but not visual memory in food-storing black capped chickadees (Poecile Atricapillus). 30^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. New Orleans LA 

Jacobs, L.F. and Shiflett, M.W. Memory in an arboreal environment: Spatial orientation on a vertical maze in free-ranging fox squirrels. 29^th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Los Angeles CA 

Invited Talks

“Neural Mechanisms Underlying Pavlovian and Instrumental Incentive Learning” Psychology Department Colloquium, Rutgers University Newark, Newark NJ                        

“Spatial memory and the hippocampus in food-storing Black-capped Chickadees” Animal Cognition Symposium, University of Western Ontario, London ON

Professional Memberships

Society for Neuroscience

Pavlovian Society

Ad-hoc Journal Reviews

Journal of Neuroscience

Teaching Experience

Courses taught

Psychological Statistics, Occidental College 2008

Guest Lectures

“Addiction”, Foundations of Neuroscience, Rutgers University Newark 2009

Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Biopsychology, Cornell University 

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Cornell University 

Perception, Cornell University 

Undergraduate Research Supervision

Current:

Jeniffer Rodriguez: Undergraduate student, Rutgers University

Roxana Morales: Undergraduate student, Rutgers University

Former:

Rebecca Foster: currently PhD student, CU Boulder

Jessica Levine: currently Research assistant, Caltech

Sam Golden: currently Post-baccalaureate researcher, NIDA

Ross Martini: currently MD student, Brown University

Jeremy Rabinowitz: currently PhD student, University of Rochester

Alex Rankin: currently MD student, Rosalind Franklin Medical School

Mike Kalogiannis: currently PhD student, New York Medical College

Lauryn Benedict: currently Post-doctoral fellow, UC Berkeley