Dr Paul Dodson
BSc, PhD
Expertise
My lab is trying to understand how different types of neurons encode sensory and motor information and how this goes wrong in diseases like Parkinson's.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience
Contact
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Biography
Paul graduated in Physiology and received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Leicester. He completed his graduate studies in Professor Ian Forsythe's laboratory, examining the roles of presynaptic potassium channels at the calyx of Held in the auditory brainstem. In 2003, he moved to Los Angeles as an HFSP Long-Term Fellow to work with Professor Tom Otis, investigating how alcohol affects GABAA receptors in the cerebellum to cause motor impairment. Paul returned to the UK in 2006 to work with Professor Matt Nolan at the University of Edinburgh, studying how ion channel expression is tuned to control the function of grid cells. He then moved to the University of Oxford in 2011 to work alongside Prof’s. Peter Magill and Paul Bolam at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit as a Career Development Fellow and then Senior Research Fellow of the Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre. In 2018 Paul joined the school of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience at the University of Bristol.
Research interests
To perform an action, one must use sensory information to plan the action, and then execute the required movements to achieve the goal. My lab studies a key part of the brain important for these processes – the basal ganglia. Our research focusses on understanding how different types of neuron in the basal ganglia encode behaviour and how this goes wrong in diseases like Parkinson’s. We use in vivo single-unit recording and labelling, imaging, optogenetic manipulation, and behavioural analyses to link the molecular profile of different neurons with their role in behaviour.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
The Role of cerebellum in dopamine neuron reward prediction error coding
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Physiology, Pharmacology & NeuroscienceDates
03/12/2020 to 02/12/2023
The role of cerebellum in dopamine neuron reward prediction error coding
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Physiology, Pharmacology & NeuroscienceDates
01/12/2020 to 30/11/2023
The role of different midbrain dopamine neuron populations in signalling reward and cost
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Physiology, Pharmacology & NeuroscienceDates
13/08/2018 to 11/02/2021
Thesis supervisions
Defining dopaminergic projections from the midbrain to the ventral lateral and dorsal medial striatum
Supervisors
Monosynaptic Tracing of Cerebellar Nuclei Projections to the Ventral Tegmental Area and Substantia Nigra pars compacta
Supervisors
Reducing the expression of Lap or Zydeco in Drosophila causes phenotypes similar to Alzheimer’s disease
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
23/04/2024Distributional coding of associative learning in discrete populations of midbrain dopamine neurons
Cell Reports
Distributional coding of associative learning within projection-defined populations of midbrain dopamine neurons
Coincidence of cholinergic pauses, dopaminergic activation and depolarisation of spiny projection neurons drives synaptic plasticity in the striatum
Nature Communications
LRRK2 BAC transgenic rats develop progressive, L-DOPA-responsive motor impairment, and deficits in dopamine circuit function
Human Molecular Genetics
Representation of spontaneous movement by dopaminergic neurons is cell-type selective and disrupted in parkinsonism
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America