Our lab is investigating the long-term effects of developmental exposure to organophosphate pesticides on emotional and social behaviour. We have found that mice who were exposed to these substances in the third week of life showed enhanced fear learning as adults and that this effect differed by strain and was accompanied by significant changes in the expression of transcripts for the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is the pesticides' main site of action. Moreover, exposure during pregnancy led to delayed development of motor reflexes and impaired social behaviour. Currently we are investigating gene x environmental interactions affecting behaviours that are commonly used to model autistic-like behaviour in pre-clinical research.

רשימת הפירסומים המעודכנת מפורסמת ב-Google Scholar, ניתן למצוא קישור כאן למעלה ב"קישורים נוספים".

B.A. , Haifa University, Psychology , 1972-1977
M.A, Tel-Aviv University Psychology , 1979- 1982
Ph.D, University of Toronto, Psychology , 1983-1987

Former Positions

2009- Professor Department of Psychology (formerly Behavioral Sciences), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2001-2009 Associate Professor Department of Behavioural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
1995-2001 Senior Lecturer (tenured 1996) Department of Behavioural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
1998-9 Sabbatical – Cognitive Developmental Neurology Unit Kennedy-Krieger Institute Baltimore, MD, USA.
1994-1995 Research Scholar Section of Biochemical Psychiatry Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada