Dr David Tait
Senior Research Fellow
Research areas
My research interests lie in seeking to understand the cognitive processes that allow us to adapt our behaviour to changes in our environment. To that end, I employ a variety of neuroscientific techniques – such as psychopharmacology and chemogenetics – to manipulate frontal cortical and/or basal ganglia function in experimental animals using bespoke behavioural tasks: to explore how attentional focus facilitates learning under some circumstances, and hinders it under others – forcing attentional adaptation; and to understand the means – both psychological processes and neurological underpinnings – by which the brain mediates such attentional shifting.
Selected publications
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Open access
“Blocking-like” effects in attentional set-shifting: redundant cues facilitate shifting in male rats with medial prefrontal cortex inactivation
Knott, T., Whyte, A., Dhawan, S. S., Tait, D. S. & Brown, V. J., 13 Sept 2024, In: Neuroscience. 555, p. 134-144 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Escitalopram restores reversal learning impairments in rats with lesions of orbital frontal cortex
Tait, D. S., Bowman, E. E., Miller, S., Dovlatyan, M., Sanchez, C. & Brown, V. J., 29 May 2021, Concepts, frames and cascades in semantics, cognition and ontology. Löbner, S., Gamerschlag, T., Kalenscher, T., Schrenk, M. & Zeevat, H. (eds.). Cham: Springer, p. 389-409 21 p. (Language, cognition and mind; vol. 7).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Open access
Exacerbation of the credit assignment problem in rats with lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex is revealed by Bayesian analysis of behavior in the pre-solution period of learning
Wang, J., Tait, D. S., Brown, V. J. & Bowman, E. M., 17 Oct 2019, In: Behavioural Brain Research. 372, 112037.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
More rapid reversal learning following overtraining in the rat is evidence that behavioural and cognitive flexibility are dissociable
Dhawan, S. S., Tait, D. S. & Brown, V. J., 2 May 2019, In: Behavioural Brain Research. 363, p. 45-52Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Precocial juvenile lizards show adult level learning and behavioural flexibility
Szabo, B., Noble, D. W. A., Byrne, R. W., Tait, D. S. & Whiting, M. J., Aug 2019, In: Animal Behaviour. 154, p. 75-84 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Assessment of intradimensional/extradimensional attentional set-shifting in rats
Tait, D. S., Bowman, E. M., Neuwirth, L. S. & Brown, V. J., Jun 2018, In: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 89, p. 72-84 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
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Open access
Oral dosing of rodents using a palatable tablet
Dhawan, S. S., Xia, S., Tait, D. S., Bundgaard, C., Bowman, E. & Brown, V. J., May 2018, In: Psychopharmacology. 235, 5, p. 1527-1532 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Subproblem learning and reversal of a multidimensional visual cue in a lizard: evidence for behavioural flexibility?
Szabo, B., Noble, D. W. A., Byrne, R. W., Tait, D. S. & Whiting, M. J., Oct 2018, In: Animal Behaviour. 144, p. 17-26 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Effects of lesions of the subthalamic nucleus/zona incerta area and dorsomedial striatum on attentional set-shifting in the rat
Tait, D. S., Phillips, J. M., Blackwell, A. D. & Brown, V. J., 14 Mar 2017, In: Neuroscience. 345, p. 287-296 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Attentional set-shifting across species
Brown, V. J. & Tait, D. S., 1 Jan 2016, Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences. Springer-Verlag, p. 363-395 33 p. (Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences; vol. 28).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter