Rate My Professor David Bilkey

Bilkey's general research area is systems neuroscience, with a particular focus on the role of the temporal cortex regions of the brain in memory and learning processes. He employs a combination of electrophysiological and behavioral procedures to study how these temporal areas function and interact with regions such as the prefrontal cortex. A key focus of his laboratory is investigating how the function of the hippocampus and related regions is altered in schizophrenia using an animal model of the disorder. Specific interests include the biological basis of episodic memory—what, where, and when—spatial memory and navigation, hippocampal place cells, and neural coordination during memory retrieval. His research group explores how the hippocampal region processes spatial (“where”) information, the perirhinal cortex encodes object (“what”) information, and the prefrontal cortex integrates this with prior experience and motivation to form coherent episodic memories. Bilkey has authored over 120 articles in high-impact international journals. Key publications include “Neural encoding of competitive effort in the anterior cingulate cortex” with K.H. Hillman (Nature Neuroscience, 2012), “Disorganised phase coding as a mechanism underlying sequential processing deficits in schizophrenia” (AWCBR Proceedings, 2025), “Inflammation in schizophrenia: The role of disordered oscillatory mechanisms” with L.J. Speers (Cells, 2025), and “Maternal immune activation alters bout structure of rat 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations” with K.J. Scott and L.J. Speers (Behavioural Brain Research, 2025).