Faculty Profile

Allen Butt
Associate Professor

Ph.D., University of New Mexico
General Experimental Psychology
Behavioral Neuroscience

Contact Information:

Office:SB-510
Phone:909.537.7486
Fax:909.537.7003
Email:abutt@csusb.edu

Research and Teaching Interests:

Behavioral neuroscience, learning and memory. Animal research on basal forebrain and acetylcholine involvement in cortical plasticity, learning, and memory.  Research examines changes in learning and memory in a rat model of Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized by pathology of the cholinergic basal forebrain system.

Honors and Awards:

 2005 Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching & Instruction, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, CSUSB

2004 Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, Deptartment of Psychology, CSUSB

2003 Young Investigator of the Year Award in Life and Social Sciences, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society (North Central Region)

1996 National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health

1995 Programme Québécois de Bourses d'Excellence Stage Postdoctorale (Postdoctoral Fellowship), Québec Ministry of Education, Québec, Canada

Representative Publications:

Cabrera, S., Chavez, C., Corley, S., Kitto, M., & Butt, A.E. (2006). Selective lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis impair cognitive flexibility. Behavioral Neuroscience, 120, 298-306.

Butt, A.E., Shultz, J. Arnold, L.L., Garman, E.E., George, C.L., & Garraghty, P. (2003). 192 IgG-saporin lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis do not affect appetitive or aversive operant conditioning, but cause impairments in appetitive-to-aversive transfer learning. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 38, 253-271.

Butt, A.E., Noble, M.M.., Rogers, J.L., & Rea, T.E. (2002). Impairments in negative patterning but not simple discrimination learning in rats with 192 IgG-saporin lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis. Behavioral Neuroscience, 116(2), 241-255.

Butt, A.E., & Bowman, T.D. (2001). Transverse patterning reveals a dissociation of simple and configural association learning impairments in rats with 192 IgG-saporin lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 77, 211-233.

Testylier, G., Maalouf, M., Butt, A.E., Myasnikov, A., & Dykes, R.W. (1999). Evidence for homeostatic adjustments of rat somatosensory cortical neurons to changes in extracellular acetylcholine concentrations produced by iontophoretic administration of acetylcholine and by systemic diisopropylfluorophosphate treatment. Neuroscience, 91(3), 843-870.

Butt, A.E., & Hodge, G.K. (1997). Simple and configural association learning in rats with bilateral quisqualic acid lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis. Behavioural Brain Research, 89, 71-85.

Butt, A.E., Testylier, G., & Dykes, R.W. (1997). Acetylcholine release in rat frontal and somatosensory cortex is enhanced during tactile discrimination learning. Psychobiology, 25(1), 18-23.

Markham, M.R., Butt, A.E., & Dougher, M.J. (1996). A computer touch-screen apparatus for training visual discriminations in rats. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 65, 173-182.

Butt, A.E., & Hodge, G.K. (1995). Acquisition, retention, and extinction of operant discriminations in rats with nucleus basalis magnocellularis lesions. Behavioral Neuroscience, 109, 699-713.