Professor
Phone: 501-686-8040
Fax: 501-686-5510
Email: wengergalenr@uams.edu
Education
Ph.D. – West Virgina University , 1971
Research Interests
My laboratory studied drug effects on aspects of cognitive function in laboratory animals. Most recently, this work included examining the relationship between substance abuse and learning and memory. This included looking at the relationship of alcohol preference and cognitive function in rats that had been selectively bred to exhibit a high alcohol to water preference or a low alcohol to water preference. This project asked the question of whether or not cognitive function influenced the well documented alcohol preference or non-preference in the selectively bred rats. The laboratory also examined cognitive function in a mouse model of Down syndrome. The goals of this project were to fully document the cognitive phenotype of this mouse model and to examine the ability of drugs that have are used clinically in the treatment of human cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Publications
- Whitney KN, Wenger GR. Impulsivity and motor activity in aged, male Ts65Dn mice. Exp. Clin. Psychopharmacolog. 5: 345-354, 2013. PMID: 24099355
- Fowler TW, McKelvey KD, Akel NS, Vander SJ, Bacon AW, Bracey JW, Timothy ST, Skinner RA, Swain FL, Hogue WR, Leblanc DB, Gaddy D, Wenger GR, Suva LJ. Low bone turnover and low BMD in Down Syndrome: Effect of Intermittent PTH treatment. PlusOne. 7(8): e42967, 2012. PMID: 22916188
- McKelvey KD, Fowler TW, Kelsay JA, Akel NS, Gaddy D, Wenger GR, Suva LJ. Low bone turnover and low bone density in a cohort of adults with Down syndrome. Osteoporosis International. 24(4): 1333-8, 2012. PMID: 22903293
- Whitney KN, Wenger GR. Working memory in the aged Ts65Dn mouse, a model for Down syndrome. Behav. Brain Research. 232(1): 202-209, 2012. PMID: 22503781
- Wenger GR. Rate-Dependency Theory. In: Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology, ed. Ian Stolerman, pp. 1120-1124, 1st edition, Springer, 2010.
- Comer SD, Bickel WK, Yi R, de Wit H, Higgins ST, Wenger GR. Symposium Presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Behavioral Pharmacology Society: Human Behavioral Pharmacology, Past, Present and Future. Behav. Pharmacol. 21(4): 251-277, 2010. PMID: 20664330
- Wenger GR, Hall CJ. Rats Selectively Bred for Ethanol Preference or NonPreference Have Altered Working Memory. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 333(2): 430-436, 2010. PMID: 20176684