Thomas J. Gould, Ph.D. 

Email: tgould@temple.edu

Phone: (215) 204-7495

Interests: Learning-related changes in the strength of neuronal connections in the brain not only underlie memory formation and storage but are also affected by neurological and mental disorders that include addiction. The goal of our research is to use genetic, pharmacological, behavioral, and molecular biological techniques to study the neurobiology of learning and memory and the effects of addiction on it.

Thomas J. Gould, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at Temple University, the Director of the College of Liberal Arts Program in Neuroscience, and head of the Neurobiological Investigations of Learning & Addiction (NILA) lab. He is also a member of the Temple University Neuroscience Program. In addition to affiliations with the psychology department and the neuroscience program, Dr. Gould has a secondary appointment in the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CSAR) at the Temple University School of Medicine, and he is also an investigator and member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Gould received his BS in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. in Psychology and in Neuroscience from Indiana University.

Dr. Gould won the 2010 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and the 2004 Temple University ATTIC Distinguished Teaching Award. He is the author of over 80 scholarly manuscripts, and his research is currently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Gould is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the Research Society on Alcoholism, the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and the Pavlovian Society.

His current research interest is in the neurobiology of learning and memory with a specific focus on identifying the cellular and molecular events that underlie the effects of nicotine and ethanol on learning and memory. To that end, the NILA lab uses neurobiological, behavioral, pharmacological, genetic, and molecular techniques to investigate the effects of drugs of abuse on learning, with a specific emphasis on how those effects change as drug administration transitions from acute to chronic drug use, and then to withdrawal. Current projects in the lab include an examination of the effects of nicotine on hippocampus functioning and hippocampus-dependent learning. This research also examines genetic factors that may contribute to the effects of nicotine on cognitive processes.

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