Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine), University of Sydney, 2014
Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), University of California, Berkeley, 2006

Research interests

Adapting to a changing environment means having to update information about predictive cues. This type of predictive learning can be excitatory – where one event predicts the occurrence of another, or they can be inhibitory – where one event predicts the omission of another event. The information provided by the two forms of prediction are equally important and serve the same adaptive function: they allow us to use our past experiences to determine how we should behave in the present. My main research interest is in understanding the neural and behavioural characteristics of inhibitory predictive learning using a combination of different in vivo techniques in animal models. I am particularly interested in the role of the infralimbic cortex in aversive (fear) extinction, appetitive extinction, latent inhibition, conditioned inhibition, as well as other forms of inhibitory learning.

Funding

2021 - 2023: Examining the metabolic and cognitive deficits caused by insulin resistance in the ventral striatum - Vincent Laurent, Beatrice K. Leung, Nura W. Lingawi and Billy C., Chieng - National Health and Medical Research Council, Ideas Grant - Amount: 400,372 AUD

PUBLICATIONs

Park, J., Lingawi, N. W., Crimmins, B. E., Gladding, J. M., Nolan, C. R., Burton, T. J., & Laurent, V. (2024). Stimulus–outcome associations are required for the expression of specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 50(1), 25–38. Read More.

Gladding JM, Lingawi NW, Leung BK, Kendig MD, Chieng BC, Laurent V (2023) High fat diet allows food-predictive stimuli to energize action performance in the absence of hunger, without distorting insulin signaling on accumbal cholinergic interneurons. Appetite, 106769. Read more.

Crimmins BE, Lingawi NW, Chieng BC, Leung BK, Maren S, Laurent V (2022) Basal forebrain cholinergic signaling in the basolateral amygdala promotes strength and durability of fear memories. Neuropsychopharmacology. Read More.

Lingawi, N. W., Berman, T., Bounds, J., & Laurent, V. (2022). Sensory-Specific Satiety Dissociates General and Specific Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 145. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Laurent V, Westbrook RF, Holmes NM (2021) Acquisition and extinction of second-order context conditioned fear: Role of the amygdala. Neurobiol of Learn Mem, 183:107485. Read more.

Lingawi NW, Laurent V, Westbrook RF, Holmes NM (2019) The role of the basolateral amygdala and infralimbic cortex in (re)learning extinction. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 236:303–312. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Holmes NM, Westbrook RF, Laurent V (2018) The infralimbic cortex encodes inhibition irrespective of motivational significance. Neurobiol Learn Mem, 150:64–74. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Andrew E, Laurent V, Killcross S, Westbrook RF, Holmes NM (2018) The conditions that regulate formation of a false fear memory in rats. Neurobiol Learn Mem, 156:53–59. Read More.

Goarin EHF, Lingawi NW, Laurent V (2018) Role Played by the Passage of Time in Reversal Learning. Front Behav Neurosci, 12:75. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Westbrook RF, Laurent V (2017). Extinction of relapsed fear does not require the basolateral amygdala. Neurobiol Learn Mem. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Westbrook RF, Laurent V (2016). Extinction and Latent Inhibition Involve a Similar Form of Inhibitory Learning that is Stored in and Retrieved from the Infralimbic Cortex. Cereb Cortex. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Dezfouli AK, Balleine BW (2016). The psychological and physiological mechanisms of habit formation. In: Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning and Memory. Eds: Rob Honey, Robin Murphy. Read More.

Campbell-Smith E, Holmes NM, Lingawi NW, Panayi M, Westbrook RF (2015). Oxytocin signalling in basolateral and central amygdala nuclei differentially regulates the acquisition, expression and extinction of context conditioned fear in rats. Learning and Memory. Read More.

Dezfouli AK, Lingawi NW, Balleine BW (2014). Habits as action sequences: hierarchical action control and changes in outcome value. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Read More.

Lingawi NW, Balleine BW (2012). Amygdala central nucleus interacts with dorsolateral striatum to regulate the acquisition of habits. Journal of Neuroscience. Read More.