Biography
Sara Morrison received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Columbia University in 2010. Working under C. Daniel Salzman, she studied the neural processing of appetitive and aversive associations in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex of awake, behaving monkeys. Sara subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she worked with Saleem M. Nicola. At Einstein, Sara studied how neural signaling in the rat nucleus accumbens underlies adaptive and impulsive decision-making.
Sara joined the Moghaddam Lab in Fall 2015 where her work at Pitt continues to examine the neural circuitry underlying cost-benefit analysis and other forms of decision-making using electrophysiological, pharmacological, and optogenetic techniques in behaving rats.
Publications
Morrison, S.E., Bamkole M.A., Nicola, S.M. (2015). Sign tracking, but not goal tracking, is resistant to outcome devaluation. Frontiers in Neuroscience. Under review.
Morrison, S.E., Nicola, S.M. (2014). Neurons in the nucleus accumbens promote selection bias for nearer objects. Journal of Neuroscience 34(42): 14147-62.
Zhang, W., Schneider, D.M., Belova, M.A., Morrison, S.E., Paton, J.J., Salzman, C.D. (2013). Functional circuits and anatomical distribution of response properties in the primate amygdala. Journal of Neuroscience 33(2): 722-33.
Barberini, C.L., Morrison, S.E., Saez A., Lau, B., Salzman C.D. (2012). Complexity and competition in appetitive and aversive neural circuits. Frontiers in Neuroscience 26;6: 170.
Morrison, S.E., Saez, A., Lau, B., Salzman, C.D. (2011). Different time courses for learning-related changes in amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. Neuron 71(6): 1127-40.
Rigotti, M., Ben Dayan Rubin, D., Morrison S.E., Salzman, C.D., Fusi, S. (2010). Attractor concretion as a mechanism for the formation of context representations. Neuroimage 52(3): 833-47.
Morrison, S.E., Salzman, C.D. (2009). The convergence of information about rewarding and aversive stimuli in single neurons. Journal of Neuroscience 29(37): 11471-83.
Belova, M.A., Paton, J.J., Morrison, S.E., Salzman, C.D. (2007). Expectation modulates neural responses to pleasant and aversive stimuli in primate amygdala. Neuron 55(6): 970-84.
Paton, J., Belova, M.A., Morrison, S.E., Salzman, C.D. (2006). The primate amygdala represents the positive and negative value of visual stimuli during learning. Nature 439: 865-70.
Review Articles
Morrison, S.E., Salzman, C.D. (2011). Representations of appetitive and aversive information in the primate orbitofrontal cortex. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1239: 59-70.
Morrison, S.E., Salzman C.D. (2010). Re-valuing the amygdala. Current Opinion in Neurobiology20(2):221-30.
Salzman, C.D., Paton, J.J., Belova M.A., Morrison S.E. (2007). Flexible neural representations of value in the primate brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1121: 336-54.