Faculty & Staff Directory
Theodore Dumas
- Associate Professor
- Director of PhD Program for Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
Contact Info
- Name
- Prof. Theodore Dumas
- Job Title
- Associate ProfessorDirector of PhD Program for Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
- Website
- Phone Number
- Office Number
- Krasnow 109
Affiliations
Departments
- Neuroscience Program (Research Faculty)
- Neuroscience Program (Instructional Faculty)
Other Affiliations
- Psychology Department
Centers
- Institute for Biohealth Innovation
- Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study
Research Areas
- Neuroscience
Education
- B.S. University of Connecticut (Physiology and Neurobiology; Psychology)
- M.S. University of Virginia (Physiological Psychology)
- Ph.D. University of Virginia (Physiological Psychology)
About
Ted Dumas is an Associate Professor of Psychology who balances education and research to discover novel relationships between neural network activities and cognitive abilities and disseminate knowledge to students of all ages. Dr. Dumas received his B.S. degree at the University of Connecticut and double majored in Physiology and Neurobiology (Life Sciences Dept.) and Psychology. Having found his career niche in basic research, he then attended the University of Virginia where he earned his first individual NIH fellowship and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program in the Department of Psychology. He then moved across the country to work as an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University focusing on gene therapy techniques designed to prevent and promote recovery from brain injury. His second postdoctoral fellowship was at the University of Oregon with Dr. Clifford Kentros where he contributed to a large effort to produce novel transgenic mouse lines for the study of learning and memory. Dr. Dumas also delivers 6-hour continuing education seminars for health professionals on a national circuit and is heavily involved in engaging undergraduate and secondary school students in state-of-the art neuroscience. His laboratory has been funded by the Department of Defense, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Institutes of Health.
Current Research
Late postnatal emergence of spatial learning and memory (AMPA and NMDA receptors), real-time neural network activity in relation to spatial navigation (electrophysiological and optical recording in vivo), behavioral and neural regulation of the transition from attentive to automatic task performance, early life stress and adult cognitive ability, tardigrades as a model to understand the necessity for ongoing metabolism in memory storage, Planaria as a model for distributed memory, spatial navigation tracking app development.
Selected Publications
Sanders, E.M., Nyarko-Odoom, A.O., Zhou, K.C., Nguyen, M.A., Liao, H.H., Keith, M., Pyon, J., Kozma, A., Sanyal, M., McHail, D.G., Dumas T.C. (2018) Separate functional properties of NMDARs regulate distinct aspects of spatial cognition. Learn. Mem. In press.
McHail, D.G., Valibeigi, N., Dumas, T.C. (2018) Barnes maze for juvenile rats delineates the emergence of spatial navigation ability. Learn. Mem. 25(3):138-146.
Stoneham ET, McHail DG, Boggs KN, Albani SH, Carty JA, Evans RC, Hamilton KA, Saadat VM, Hussain S, Greer ME, Dumas TC. (2017) Functional perturbation of forebrain principal neurons reveals differential effects in novel and well-learned tasks. Brain Res. 1671:1-13.
Simon DM, Charkhkar H, St John C, Rajendran S, Kang T, Reit R, Arreaga-Salas D, McHail DG, Knaack GL, Sloan A, Grasse D, Dumas TC, Rennaker RL, Pancrazio JJ, Voit WE. (2017) Design and demonstration of an intracortical probe technology with tunable modulus. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. A. 105(1):159-168.
Knaack, G.L., McHail, D.G., Borda, G., Beom, S.K., Peixoto, N., Cogan, S.F., Dumas, T.C., Pancrazio, J.J. (2016) In vivo Characterization of Amorphous Silicon Carbide as a Biomaterial for Chronic Neural Interfaces. Front. Neurosci. Neural Tech. 10:301.
Gardner, R.S., Uttaro, M.R., Fleming, S.E., Suarez, D.F., Ascoli, G.A., Dumas, T.C. (2016) Differential Arc expression in the hippocampus and striatum during the transition from attentive to automatic navigation on a plus maze. Neurobiol. Learn. Mem. 131:36-45.
Charkhkar, H., Knaack, G.L., McHail, D.G., Mandal, H.S., Peixoto, N., Rubinson, J.F., Dumas, T.C., Pancrazio, J.J. (2016) Chronic intracortical neural recordings using microelectrode arrays coated with PEDOT-TFB. Acta Biomaterialia. 32:57-67.
Hawes, S.L., Evans, R.C., Unruh, B.A., Benkert, E.E., Gillani, F., Dumas, T.C., Blackwell, K.T. (2015) Multimodal Plasticity in Dorsal Striatum While Learning a Lateralized Navigation Task. J. Neurosci. 35(29):10535-49.
Albani, S.H., Andrawis, M.M, Abella, R.J., Fulghum, J., Vafamand, N., Dumas, T.C. (2015) Behavior in the elevated plus maze is differentially affected by testing conditions in rats under and over three weeks of age. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 9:31.
Mandal, H.S., Kastee, J., McHail, D.G., Rubinson, J.F., Pancrazio, J.J., Dumas, T.C. (2015) Improved Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) for neural stimulation. Neuromodulation. 18(8):657-63.
McHail, D.G. and Dumas, T.C. Multiple forms of metaplasticity at a single hippocampal synapse during late postnatal development. Dev. Cog. Neurosci. 12:145-154.
Mandal, H.S., Kastee, J., McHail, D.G., Rubinson, J.F., Pancrazio, J.J., Dumas, T.C. (2015) Improved Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) for neural stimulation. Neuromodulation. 18:657-663.
*Albani, S.H., *McHail, D.G., Dumas, T.C. (2014) Developmental studies of the hippocampus and hippocampal-dependent behaviors: Insights from interdisciplinary studies and tips for new investigators. (*authors contributed equally) Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 43C:183-190.
Mandal, H.S., Knaack, G.L., Charkhkar, H., McHail, D.G., Kastee, J., Dumas, T.C., Peixoto, N., Rubinson, J.F., Pancrazio, J.J. (2014) Improving the performance of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) for brain machine interface applications. Acta Biomaterialia, 10:2446-2454.
Gardner, R.S., Uttaro, M.R., Fleming, S.E., Suarez, D.F., Ascoli, G.A., Dumas, T.C. (2013) A secondary working memory challenge preserves primary place strategies despite over-training. Learn. Mem. 20(11):648-56
*Blair, M.G., *Nguyen, N.N-Q., Albani, S.H., L'Etoile, M.M., Andrawis M.M., Owen, L.M., Oliveira, R.F., Johnson, M.W., Purvis, D.L., Sanders, E.M., Stoneham, E.T., Dumas, T.C. (2013) Developmental changes in structural and functional properties of hippocampal AMPA receptors parallels the emergence of deliberative spatial navigation in juvenile rats (*authors contributed equally). J. Neurosci. 33:12218-28.
Sanders, E.M., Nguyen, M.A., Zhou, K.C., Hanks, M.E., Yusuf, K.A., Cox, D.N., & Dumas T.C. (2013) Developmental modification of synaptic NMDAR composition and maturation of glutamatergic synapses: Matching postsynaptic slots with receptor pegs. Biol. Bull. 224:1-13.
Dumas, T.C. (2012) Postnatal alterations in induction threshold and expression magnitude of long-term potentiation and long-term depression at hippocampal synapses. Hippocampus. 22:188-99.
Dumas, T.C., Gillette, T., Ferguson, D., Hamilton, K. & Sapolsky, R.M. (2010) Anti-glucocorticoid gene therapy reverses the impairing effects of elevated corticosterone on spatial memory, hippocampal neuronal excitability, and synaptic plasticity. J. Neurosci. 30:1712-1720.
Stoneham, E.M., Sanders, E.M., Sanyal, M., & Dumas, T.C. (2010) Late postnatal maturation of long-lasting activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Biol. Bull. 219:81-99.
Contact Info
- Name
- Prof. Theodore Dumas
- Job Title
- Associate ProfessorDirector of PhD Program for Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
- Website
- Phone Number
- Office Number
- Krasnow 109