Research Interests:

• Behavioral and neurobiological consequences of prenatal ethanol exposure
• Neurobiology of learning and memory
• Social behavior
• Spatial navigation
• Synaptic plasticity and structural plasticity

Profile:

Selected Publications

• Gonçalves-Garcia, M., Segal, M.G., Sneider, J.T., Silveri, M.M., & Hamilton, D.A. (2026). Preference for directional responding in a virtual Morris water task is associated with increased precuneus activation in adolescent humans. Behavioural Brain Research, 497, 115885.
• Candelaria-Cook, F.T., & Hamilton, D.A. (2025). Cannabinoid agonist, WIN 55,212-2, increases in vivo paired-pulse facilitation, long-term potentiation, and Arc expression in the dentate gyrus. Brain Research, 1866, 149937.

• Gonçalves-Garcia, M., Davies, D., Savage, D. D. & Hamilton, D. A. (2024). The histamine H3 receptor inverse agonist SAR-152954 reverses deficits in long-term potentiation associated with moderate prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol, 118, 45-55.  
• Gonçalves-Garcia, M., Barto, D., Reyna, N., Clark, B. J. & Hamilton, D. A. (2024). The prominence of action sequences and behavioral similarity in the Morris water task. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 47, 449-470 
• Rodriguez, C.I., Vergara, V.M., Davies, S., Calhoun, V.D., Savage, D.D., & Hamilton, D.A. (2021). Detection of prenatal alcohol exposure using machine learning classification of resting-state functional network connectivity data. Alcohol, 93, 25-34.
• Hamilton, D.A., & Brigman, J.L. (2015). Behavioral flexibility in rats and mice: Contributions of distinct frontocortical regions. Genes, Brain, and Behavior, 14, 4-20.
• Knierim, J.J., & Hamilton, D.A. (2011). Framing spatial cognition: Neural representations of proximal and distal reference frames and their role in navigation.  Physiological Reviews, 91, 1245-1279.

Courses Taught

• Psychology 240 : Brain and Behavior

• Psychology 260 : Psychology of Learning and Memory

• Psychology 347/547 : Drugs and Behavior

• Psychology 391-392 / 491-492 Junior/Senior Honors

• Psychology 540 : Biological Bases of Behavior

Lab

Postdoctoral fellows:

Monica Goncalves-Garcia, Ph.D.
Alcohol exposure, learning, and synaptic plasticity.

Graduate Students:

Audrey Camacho
Cannabinoids, learning/memory, and synaptic plasticity

Max Segal
Computational models of spatial learning and memory