Dr. Brian Hock
Brian Hock, Ph.D.
Professor
Psychology Department
Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN 37044
Office: 215D Clement Hall
Phone: (931) 221-1045
Fax: (931) 221-6267
Email: hockb@apsu.edu
I am originally from Michigan and completed my Bachelor’s at Lake Superior State University. I then moved down to Ohio to attend Kent State University, where I completed my Master’s and Ph.D. working on the role of the dorsal ventral hippocampus in learning and memory. I also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Case Western Reserve University in the Department of Genetics studying the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease using mouse models.
I joined the faculty at APSU starting in the fall of 2005. I teach Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Applied Psychopharmacology, Introduction Nonprofit Grant Writing, Physiological Psychology, Sensory Processes, and Learning and Motivation.
When I am not “working” I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, being outdoors either hiking, scuba diving, hunting, hunting, or volunteering at Walden’s Puddle, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Joelton, TN. I also enjoy watching football, rooting for the Cleveland Browns and Michigan Wolverines.
Research Interests
My current research interests involve investigating novel methods of behaviorally measuring addiction in rodents. Recent findings from our lab (Miller, Littlejohn Diaz, & Hock, 2008) suggest that using a drug of addiction (i.e. caffeine) paired with a substance (apple juice) that previously made a rat sick, will not prevent the rat from still consuming that mixture, even though the apple juice previously made them ill. This concept relies on the principle of Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA) or the Garcia effect, aptly named after John Garcia, who discovered the method. One significant advantage to using CTA to measure addiction in animals is that it can be used to investigate the 7th criteria of the DSM-IV-TR’s definition of dependency, continued use of the drug despite adverse effects. This is important to the field of psychopharmacology as it provides an additional measure for researchers to use, especially when tolerance and withdrawal effects are most measured.
Selected Publications
Cummins, E., Freeman, C., Hughes, A., Stryczek, K., & Hock, B. (2010). The addictive properties of soft drink consumption using a CTA animal model for addiction. Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Research, 8(2), 20-25. You can find this article here.
Freeman, C.N., Cummins, C., Tucker, C., Ostland, J., & Hock, B. (2011). The addictive properties of sweetener consumption using a conditioned taste aversion animal model for dependency. Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Research, 9(1), 1-6. This article can be found here.
Hock, B. & Bunsey, M. (1998). Differential effects of dorsal and ventral hippocampal lesions. The Journal of Neuroscience, 18(17), 7027-7032. This article can be found here.
Hock, B.J. & Lamb, B.T. (2001). Transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Trends in Genetics, 17(10), S7-S12. This article can be found here.
Johnson, L., Talley, A., Warren, S., & Hock, B. (2011). Two experiments using conditioned taste aversion in rats for use in a learning class. Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Research, 9(2), 99-102. This article can be found here.
Schmidt, C., Schmidt, R., & Hock, B. (2008). A novel behavioral paradigm to measure addiction in rats. Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Research, 6, 15-22. This article can be found here.