Benjamin Clark

Associate Professor

Photo: Benjamin Clark
Email: 
bnjclark@unm.edu
Office: 
Logan Hall Rm 134
Education: 
Ph.D., Dartmouth College
Lab Website
 

Research Area/s:

Cognition, Brain and Behavior

Research Interests:

  • Developmental alcohol exposure and spatial navigation
  • Neurobiology of spatial navigation and memory
  • Alzheimer's disease and spatial navigation

Profile:

Accepting students?  Dr. Clark is not accepting students for Fall 2025.

My research primarily studies the impact of alcohol exposure on developing neural circuits involved in spatial navigation and memory. Our lab uses a combination of neuroscience techniques to study the neurobiology of spatial navigation and memory, including in vivo electrophysiology and manipulation of neural circuitry.

Selected Publications

  • Acosta G, Trejo Rico K, Madden JT, LaCour A, Wang E, Sanchez LM, Davies S, Maestas-Olguin C, Cox KB, Reyna NC, Hogeveen J, Savage DD, Pentkowski NS, Clark BJ. (2024). The effects of moderate prenatal alcohol exposure on performance in hippocampal-sensitive spatial memory and anxiety tasks by adult male and female Long-Evans rat offspring. Alcohol. In Press.
  • Schaeffer EA, LaCour A, Donaldson TN, Linsenbardt DN, Davies S, Savage DD, Wallace DG, Clark BJ. (2024). Organization of spontaneous spatial behaviors under dark conditions are unaffected in adult male and female Long-Evans rats after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure. Behavioral Neuroscience. In Press.
  • Osterlund Oltmanns JR, Schaeffer EA, Goncalves Garcia M, Donaldson TN, Acosta G, Sanchez LM, Davies S, Savage DD, Wallace DG, Clark BJ. (2022). Sexual dimorphisms in the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the organization of open field behavior. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 46:861-875.
  • Harvey RE, Berkowitz LE, Savage DD, Hamilton DA, Clark BJ. (2020). Altered hippocampal place cell representation and theta rhythmicity following moderate prenatal alcohol exposure. Current Biology. 30(18):3556-3569.
  • Sanchez LM, Goss J, Wagner J, Davies S, Savage DD, Hamilton DA, Clark BJ. (2019). Moderate prenatal alcohol exposure impairs performance in an object-place paired-associate task. Behavioural Brain Research. 360:228-234.
  • Clark BJ, Simmons CM, Berkowitz LE, Wilber AA. (2018). The retrosplenial-parietal network and reference frame coordination for spatial navigation. Behavioral Neuroscience. 132:416-429.
  • Clark BJ, Harvey RE. (2016). Do the anterior and lateral thalamic nuclei make distinct contributions to spatial representation and memory? Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 133:69-78.

Courses Taught

  • PSYC 2250: Brain and Behavior
  • PSYC 344: Human Neuropsychology
  • PSYC 345: Neuroscience of Aging and Dementia
  • PSYC 450: Philosophy of Neuroscience
  • PSYC 450: Neurobiology of Memory
  • PSYC  450: Consciousness

Lab

Graduate Students:

  • Lilliana Sanchez, Project:  Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and brain dynamics during paired-associate learning and memory.
  • Gabriela Acosta, Project: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and thalamic-dependent spatial memory.
  • Kehiry Trejo Rico: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and entorhinal cortical spatial representation.

Please contact me via email If you are interested in obtaining undergraduate research experience or pursuing graduate studies in my laboratory in my laboratory.