Professor Simon Killcross

Professor Simon Killcross

Professor & Head of School

BA, MA, PhD (Cantab)

Contact details

Phone: (02) 9385 3034
Email: Professor Simon Killcross
Fax: (02) 9385 1193

Office: Mathews, Room 1609

• Research Summary
• Publications

• Awards, Fellowships & Grants
• Current Research Students

Research Summary

Research Areas: My main areas of interest concern brain mechanisms underlying learning and cognition. One focus of research is the neural substrates underlying executive function, particularly with reference to animal models of schizophrenia. The approach taken is to use well-defined behavioural procedures drawn from current associative learning theory, as well as novel behavioural paradigms, to allow the systematic investigation of the role played by different brain systems in the executive control of cognition and behaviour, with the intention of informing not only psychopharmacological research on putative treatments for mental disorders such as schizophrenia, but also current theories about the interaction of different systems in the higher level control of cognitive function. I also do research applying these findings in a translational manner to patient populations (mostly schizophrenia) and to studies of the broader schizotypic phenotype in the general population.

Publications

• Chesworth R., Downey L., Logge W., Killcross S., Karl T. (2012). Cognition in female transmembrane domain neuregulin 1 mutant mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 226(1), 218-223. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.09.019
• Haddon J.E., Killcross S. (2011). Inactivation of the infralimbic prefrontal cortex in rats reduces the influence of inappropriate habitual responding in a response-conflict task. Neuroscience, 199, 205-212. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.09.065
• Leung Hiu Tin, Killcross A. S., Westbrook R. Frederick (2011). Additional Exposures to a Compound of Two Preexposed Stimuli Deepen Latent Inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 37(4), 394-406. doi:10.1037/a0023714
• George D.N., Jenkins T.A., Killcross S. (2011). Dissociation of prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens dopaminergic systems in conditional learning in rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 225(1), 47-55. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.06.028
• Koychev I., Barkus E., Ettinger U., Killcross S., Roiser J.P., Wilkinson L., Deakin B. (2011). Evaluation of state and trait biomarkers in healthy volunteers for the development of novel drug treatments in schizophrenia. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(9), 1207-1225. doi:10.1177/0269881111414450
• Haddon J.E., Killcross S. (2011). Rat prefrontal dopamine and cognitive control: Impaired and enhanced conflict performance. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125 (3), 344-349. doi:10.1037/a0023572
• Haddon J.E., George D.N., Grayson L., McGowan C., Honey R.C., Killcross S. (2011). Impaired conditional task performance in a high schizotypy population: Relation to cognitive deficits. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(1), 1-9. doi:10.1080/17470218.2010.529579
• George D.N., Duffaud A.M., Pothuizen H.H.J., Haddon J.E., Killcross S. (2010). Lesions to the ventral, but not the dorsal, medial prefrontal cortex enhance latent inhibition. European Journal of Neuroscience, 31(8), 1474-1482. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07178.x
• Dwyer D.M., Dunn M.J., Rhodes S.E.V., Killcross A.S. (2010). Lesions of the prelimbic prefrontal cortex prevent response conflict produced by action-outcome associations. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(3), 417-424. doi:10.1080/17470210903411049
• Rhodes S.E.V., Creighton G., Killcross A.S., Good M., Honey R.C. (2009). Integration of Geometric With Luminance Information in the Rat: Evidence From Within-Compound Associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 35(1), 92-98. doi:10.1037/0097-7403.35.1.92
• Schmidt- Hansen M., Killcross A.S., Honey R.C. (2009). Latent inhibition, learned irrelevance, and schizotypy: Assessing their relationship. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 14(1), 11-29. doi:10.1080/13546800802664539
• Haddon J.E., George D.N., Killcross S. (2008). Contextual control of biconditional task performance: Evidence for cue and response competition in rats. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(9), 1307-1320. doi:10.1080/17470210701515819
• Iordanova M.D., Killcross A.S., Honey R.C. (2007). Role of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Acquired Distinctiveness and Equivalence of Cues. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121(6), 1431-1436. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1431
• Rhodes S.E.V., Killcross A.S. (2007). Lesions of rat infralimbic cortex result in disrupted retardation but normal summation test performance following training on a Pavlovian conditioned inhibition procedure. European Journal of Neuroscience, 26(9), 2654-2660. doi:10.1111/j.1460- 9568.2007.05855.x
• Wickens J.R., Horvitz J.C., Costa R.M., Killcross S. (2007). Dopaminergic mechanisms in actions and habits. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(31), 8181-8183. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1671-07.2007
• Haddon J.E., Killcross S. (2007). Contextual control of choice performance: Behavioral, neurobiological, and neurochemical influences. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1104(), 250-269. doi:10.1196/annals.1390.000
• Dunn M.J., Killcross S. (2007). Medial prefrontal cortex infusion of α-flupenthixol attenuates systemic d-amphetamine-induced disruption of conditional discrimination performance in rats. Psychopharmacology, 192(3), 347-355. doi:10.1007/s00213-007-0714-2
• Duffaud A.M., Killcross S., George D.N. (2007). Optional-shift behaviour in rats: A novel procedure for assessing attentional processes in discrimination learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60(4), 534-542. doi:10.1080/17470210601154487
• Rhodes S.E.V., Killcross A.S. (2007). Lesions of rat infralimbic cortex enhance renewal of extinguished appetitive Pavlovian responding. European Journal of Neuroscience, 25(8), 2498-2503. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05486.x
• Dunn M.J., Killcross S. (2007). Clozapine, SCH 23390 and α-flupenthixol but not haloperidol attenuate acute phencyclidine-induced disruption of conditional discrimination performance. Psychopharmacology, 190(4), 403-414. doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0605- y
• Marquis J.-P., Killcross S., Haddon J.E. (2007). Inactivation of the prelimbic, but not infralimbic, prefrontal cortex impairs the contextual control of response conflict in rats. European Journal of Neuroscience, 25(2), 559-566. doi:10.1111/j.1460- 9568.2006.05295.x
• Dunn M.J., Killcross S. (2006). Clozapine but not haloperidol treatment reverses sub-chronic phencyclidine-induced disruption of conditional discrimination performance. Behavioural Brain Research, 175(2), 271-277. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2006.08.028
• Iordanova M.D., Westbrook R.F., Killcross A.S. (2006). Dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens modulates blocking in fear conditioning. European Journal of Neuroscience, 24(11), 3265-3270. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.05195.x
• Dunn M.J., Killcross S. (2006). Differential attenuation of d-amphetamine-induced disruption of conditional discrimination performance by dopamine and serotonin antagonists. Psychopharmacology, 188(2), 183-192. doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0488-y
• Haddon J.E., Killcross S. (2006). Both motivational and training factors affect response conflict choice performance in rats. Neural Networks, 19(8), 1192-1202. doi:10.1016/j.neunet.2006.04.004
• Dwyer D.M., Killcross S. (2006). Lesions of the basolateral amygdala disrupt conditioning based on the retrieved representations of motivationally significant events. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(32), 8305-8309. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1647-06.2006
• Balleine B.W., Killcross S. (2006). Parallel incentive processing: an integrated view of amygdala function. Trends in Neurosciences, 29(5), 272-279. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2006.03.002
• Nelson A., Killcross S. (2006). Amphetamine exposure enhances habit formation. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(14), 3805-3812. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4305- 05.2006
• Haddon J.E., Killcross S. (2006). Prefrontal cortex lesions disrupt the contextual control of response conflict. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(11), 2933-2940. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3243-05.2006
• Killcross S., Burton M. (2006). The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Editorial. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(1), 1. doi:10.1080/17470210500459912
• Morris R.W., Westbrook R.F., Killcross A.S. (2005). Reinstatement of extinguished fear by β-adrenergic arousal elicited by a conditioned context. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119(6), 1662-1671. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.119.6.1662
• Haddon J.E., Killcross A.S. (2005). Medial prefrontal cortex lesions abolish contextual control of competing responses. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 84(3), 485-504. doi:10.1901/jeab.2005.81-04
• Ward-Robinson J., Coutureau E., Honey R.C., Killcross A.S. (2005). Excitotoxic lesions of the entorhinal cortex leave gustatory within-event learning intact. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119 (4), 1131-1135. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.119.4.1131
• Dunn M.J., Futter D., Bonardi C., Killcross S. (2005). Attenuation of d-amphetamine-induced disruption of conditional discrimination performance by α-flupenthixol. Psychopharmacology, 177(3), 296-306. doi:10.1007/s00213-004-1954-z

Awards, Fellowships & Grants

Awards and Scholarships:

2001/2 UK Experimental Psychology Society Prize lecturer award. For outstanding contributions to Experimental Psychology.
1999 British Psychological Society Spearman Medal winner. For published work of outstanding scientific merit.
1997 SmithKline Beecham & British Association for Psychopharmacology, Young Psychopharmacologist of the Year Prize.

Recent Research Grants:

International and National Competition (all as PI unless otherwise stated):

Current Research Students

Cardiff based: Amy Reichelt, James Walters