Biography
Dr. Brigman received his B.A. in Psychology from Loyola University Maryland and went on to complete his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from George Washington University. His postdoctoral fellowship was in the Laboratory of Genomic and Behavioral Neuroscience in the NIAAA Intramural Program where he twice won the Fellows Award for Research Excellence. He established his research program in Department of Neurosciences at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 2011. He received a Regents’ Lectureship in 2016 for excellence in research, teaching and service, was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2017 and Professor in 2023.
Personal Statement
The focus of research in the Brigman Lab is to further our understanding of the maladaptive behavioral changes that accompany alcohol exposure, drug addiction and numerous neuropsychiatric disorders. Current theories have proposed that early or repeated alcohol exposure can lead to progressive loss of cortically-mediated executive control. As top-top down control is lost, habitual patterns dominate the behavioral repertoire leading to decreased quality of life. If this maladaptive shift in behavior could be prevented or reversed, it would provide an important therapeutic tool. Our research focuses on developing models that allow us to investigate the role of both genetic factors and molecular mechanisms in mediating executive control behaviors. One potential mechanism of interest due to its established role in the neuro-plasticity underlying learning and memory is the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). The Brigman Lab explores how NMDAR subunit composition and receptor expression is altered both by learning, and exposure. Another major focus of the lab is understanding the optimal organization of neuronal firing in neural circuits in vivo, and how alterations in NMDAR may disrupt these patterns, leading to loss of executive control and poorer functional outcome.
Areas of Specialty
Behavioral Neuroscience
Executive Control
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Translational measures of brain activity
Achievements & Awards
2023-President, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group
2022-2023 Vice President, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group
2021 UNM HSC Excellence in Research Award for Team Science
2021-2022 Treasurer, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group
2019-2021 Secretary, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group
2018 Fellow, International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
2016-2018 Regents Lectureship, University of New Mexico Health Science Center
2011 Fellows Award for Research Excellence, National Institutes of Health
2009 Travel Award, International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
2008 Fellows Award for Research Excellence, National Institutes of Health
2006 Intramural Research Training Award, NIAAA, NIH
Key Publications
Journal Article
Brigman, Jonathan, 2023 Impaired cognitive control after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure corresponds to increased power in neurophysiological recordings during rodent touchscreen measures. Neuropharmacology
Journal Article
Marquardt, K, Josey, M, Kenton, J, A Cavanagh, J, F Holmes, A, Brigman, Jonathan, 2019 Impaired cognitive flexibility following NMDAR-GluN2B deletion is associated with altered orbitofrontal-striatal function. Neuroscience, vol. 404
Journal Article
Marquardt, K, Cavanagh, J, F Brigman, Jonathan, 2020 Alcohol exposure in utero disrupts cortico-striatal coordination required for behavioral flexibility. Neuropharmacology, vol. 162
Journal Article
Brigman, Jonathan, 2021 Electrophysiological biomarkers of behavioral dimensions from cross-species paradigms Translational Psychiatry
Gender
Male
Courses Taught
2012-Present University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program
Course Director: BIOM509 Principles of Neurobiology
Lecturer in Team-Taught Courses: BIOM533 Neurophysiology & Neuroanatomy, BIOM505, Neurobiology of Alcoholism, BIOM505, Statistical Methods.
2012- University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Undergraduate Medical Education
Neuroblock Instructor: Brain Stem Anatomy, Functional Cortical Anatomy,Limbic System & ARAS, Mechanisms of Learning and Conditioning
Director: Neuronatomy Laboratory (1-5)
Research and Scholarship
1. My early research focus was the functional specialization in the mouse brain and how alteration in cortical subregions may underlie behavioral deficits seen in neuropathological disorders. My work helped to establish the validity of mouse models for investigating executive control and the power of touchscreen operant tasks for measuring these behaviors.
2. Beginning during my postdoctoral fellowship and continuing in my own laboratory, I have studied how the loss of specific NMDAR subtypes in the cortex, hippocampus and striatum can alter both associative learning and synaptic plasticity to establish the importance of NMDAR subunit composition in learning and memory processes.
3. The impact of alcohol on cortical function and the executive control processes it underlies is a critical issue as loss of these key processes can lead to a major decline in quality of life. Utilizing in vivo recording techniques I have showed that adult binge EtOH exposure not only altered behavior, but also significantly altered striatal firing during key learning phases. Most recently, we have shown that moderate prenatal EtOH significantly alters cortical firing and recruitment, and dysregulated cortico-striatal coordination required for behavioral flexibility, as measured by efficient reversal learning.
4.As part of a multi-site collaborative project with Dr. Jared Young of UCSD examining neural activity across rodents and humans, my laboratory directed the preclinical arm in order to develop and test novel assays to address translational gaps in treatment development. After demonstrating that performance on a task of attention and cognitive control could be improved in both humans and mice with cognitive enhancers, we tested a series of behavioral assays in humans and mice coupled with EEG recording, and tested the efficacy of amphetamine to alter performance and neural signature.