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PhD (Kent State University), MA (Kent State University)
,
Psychology
2017

I am an internationally-recognised expert on fear, and its inhibition, especially from a developmental and pharmacological perspective. While most of my work involves rodents, I also do research with human populations. In particular, the human-based research is designed to translate basic findings in the rat to various human populations. For example, I have been involved in establishing various pharmacological adjuncts that enhance the inhibition of learned fear in rodents, and then translating those findings to clinical populations. As another example, some of our most recent research has focussed on the effects (both direct and trans-generational) of early-life adversity, and how these deleterious effects can be ameliorated with probiotics (i.e., through repairing the gut microbiome).

Professor, University of New South Wales, 2007-present

Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, 2001-2006

Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, 1994-2000

Fellow – American Psychological Association;

Fellow – Association for Psychological Science;

Member - International Society for Developmental Psychobiology;

Member - Society for Neuroscience;

Member - Society of Biological Psychiatry;

Member – Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society of North America

  1. Graham, B.M., Zagic, D., & Richardson, R. (in press). Low endogenous fibroblast growth factor 2 levels are associated with heightened conditioned fear expression in rats and humans. Biological Psychiatry.
  2. Callaghan, B.L., Cowan, C.S.M., & Richardson, R. (2016). Treating generational stress: Effect of paternal stress on offspring memory and extinction development is rescued by probiotic treatment Psychological Science, 27, 1171-1180.
  3. Baker, K.D., Bisby, M.A., & Richardson, R. (2016). Impaired Fear Extinction in Adolescent Rodents: Behavioural and Neural Analyses. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 70, 59-73.
  4. Callaghan, B.L., Li, S., & Richardson, R. (2014). The elusive engram: What can infantile amnesia tell us about memory? Trends in Neurosciences, 37, 47-53.
  5. Li, S. & Richardson, R. (2013). Traces of memory: Reacquisition of fear following forgetting is NMDAr-independent. Learning & Memory, 20, 174-182.
http://richardsonlab.psy.unsw.edu.au/