Department of Psychological Sciences

Charles Pickens, Ph.D.

Charles Pickens, PhDContact Information

Office: BH 469

E-mail: pickens@ksu.edu

Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity (CNAP)

Research Interests

Dr. Pickens is interested in how the brain compensates for dysfunction of one brain area by changing the strategy used to a different strategy that depends upon other brain areas. Please see https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.18.456813v1 for an example. Our primary focus is on thalamocortical circuits involved in this compensation and we examine this in models of several disorders affecting prefrontal cortex function, including psychostimulant- (https://www.imrpress.com/journal/JIN/23/4/10.31083/j.jin2304083 )and opioid- use disorder (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37977341/). The lab studies these compensatory mechanisms with functional neuroanatomy, brain lesions/temporary inactivations, pharmacology and behavioral approaches.

Student Involvement

Dr. Pickens involves undergraduate and graduate students in all areas of his research to the highest degree that they are capable.

For graduate students, Dr. Pickens's students have presented their research at regional, national, and international conferences each year and are first-authors on journal articles currently under review. Dr. Pickens is accepting applications for students for entry into his lab for Fall 2025.

For undergraduates, the students have learned skills ranging from animal handling, feeding, injections (i.p. and s.c.), stereotaxic procedures, and analysis of brains and behavioral data after the experiments. Several students have won undergraduate research awards from the department, the College of Arts and Sciences, or the University. In addition, several undergraduate students have presented their research at regional or international conferences and have been co-authors on published research articles. Lab alumni have taken post-bac positions at the National Institutes of Health, entered graduate school at Boston College and the Ohio State University, and entered medical school at the St. Louis University School of Medicine. The lab is recruiting undergraduates for Spring 2025.

Lab publications

(* = KSU undergraduate students, # = KSU graduate students)

  1. Pickens, C.L., Fisher, H.#, Bright, N.*, Gallo, M.*, Ray, M.H.*, Anji, A., & Kumari, M. (2016). Prior alcohol consumption does not impair go/no-go discrimination learning, but causes over-responding on go trials, in rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 312, 272-278.
  2. Pickens, C.L., Aurand, L.*, Hunt, J.*, & Fisher, H.#. (2017). Subchronic anesthetic ketamine injections in rats impair choice reversal learning, but have no effect on reinforcer devaluation. Behavioral Pharmacology, 28, 294-302.
  3. Fisher, H.#, Bright, N.*, Gallo, M.*, Pajser, A.#, & Pickens, C.L. (2017). Effects of low-dose adolescent/early adult voluntary alcohol consumption on behavioral flexibility. Behavioral Pharmacology, 28, 531-544.
  4. Pajser, A.#, Fisher, H.#, Breen, M.*, & Pickens, C.L. (2018). Individual differences in conditioned fear are associated with levels of adolescent/early adult alcohol consumption and instrumental extinction. Behavioural Brain Research, 349, 145-157.
  5. Ray, M.H.*, Hite, T.*, Gallo, M.*, & Pickens, C.L (2018). Operant over-responding is more sensitive than reversal learning for revealing behavioral changes after withdrawal from alcohol consumption. Physiology & Behavior, 196, 176-184.
  6. Pajser, A.#, Limoges, A.*, Long, C.*, & Pickens, C.L. (2019). Individual differences in low-dose adolescent/early adult voluntary alcohol consumption predict conditioned fear in the fear incubation procedure, Behavioural Brain Research, 362, 299-310.
  7. Pickens, C.L., Kallenberger, P.*, Fisher, H.#, & Pajser, A.# (2019). Voluntary alcohol access during adolescence/early adulthood, but not during adulthood, causes faster omission contingency learning. Behavioural Brain Research, 370, 111918.
  8. Fisher, H.#, Pajser, A.#, & Pickens, C.L. (2020). Pre-training inactivation of basolateral amygdala and mediodorsal thalamus, but not orbitofrontal cortex or prelimbic cortex, impairs devaluation in a multiple-response/multiple-reinforcer cued operant task. Behavioural Brain Research, 378, 112159.
  9. Pickens, C,L., Cook, A.*, & Gaeddert, B.* (2020). Dose-dependent effects of alcohol injections on omission-contingency learning have an inverted-U pattern. Behavioural Brain Research, 392, 112736.
  10. Pajser, A.#, Fisher, H.#, & Pickens, C.L. (2021). Pre-training naltrexone increases conditioned fear learning independent of adolescent alcohol consumption history229, 113212
  11. Pickens, C.L., Gallo, M.*, Fisher, H.#, Pajser, A.#, & Ray, M.H.* (2021). Alcohol consumption during adulthood does not impair later go/no-go reversal learning in male rats, NeuroSci, 2, 166-176.
  12. Pajser, A.#, Foster, C.*, Gaeddert, B.*, & Pickens, C.L. (2021). Extended operant training increases infralimbic and prelimbic cortex Fos regardless of fear conditioning experience. Behavioural Brain Research, 414, 113476.
  13. Ma, X.*, Bracciano, B.*, Hoppas, N.*, Zimmerman, S.* & Pickens, C.L. (2023). Longer duration intertrial intervals without visual stimuli have reinforcement value and increase the rate of reinforcement and punishment learning in computer-based discriminations in humans. Learning & Motivation, 81, 101867.
  14. Pickens, C.L., Hougham, A.*, Kim, J.*, Wang, C., Leder, J.*., Line, C.*, McDaniel, K.*, Micek, L.*, Miller, J.*, Powell, K.*, Waren, O., Brenneman, E.* & Erdley, B.* (2024). Impairments in expression of devaluation in a Pavlovian goal-tracking task, but not a free operant devaluation task, after fentanyl exposure in female rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 458, 114761.