Rate My Professor Mick Watt

Dr. Mick Watt serves as a Research Associate in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago since June 2018. His academic career includes prior roles as Assistant Professor in the Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Dakota from January 2006 to February 2014, and as a doctoral student and assistant lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University from January 1996 to December 2001, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy. Watt's research specializes in neuroscience, neuropharmacology, and neurobiology, with key interests in dopamine, addiction, serotonin, catecholamines, nucleus accumbens, and the physiological impacts of stress on brain function. He has produced 63 publications garnering 2,448 citations, significantly contributing to understanding how early-life adversity influences adult brain chemistry and behavior.

Among his notable publications are 'Sex differences in the effects of mild traumatic brain injury and progesterone treatment on anxiety-like behavior and fear conditioning in rats' (2023), 'GABAA Receptor and Serotonin Transporter Expression Changes Dissociate Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Influence of Sex and Estrus Cycle Phase in Rats' (2023), 'Chronic administration of glucocorticoid receptor ligands increases anxiety-like behavior and selectively increases serotonin transporters in the ventral hippocampus' (2022), 'Prenatal exposure to alcohol impairs responses of cerebral arterioles to activation of potassium channels: Role of oxidative stress' (2022), 'Enhanced dopamine D2 autoreceptor function in the adult prefrontal cortex contributes to dopamine hypoactivity following adolescent social stress' (2018), and 'Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction' (2017). These works explore mechanisms such as social defeat stress effects on monoamines and anxiety, sex-specific brain injury responses, glucocorticoid modulation of serotonin systems, and vascular changes from prenatal alcohol exposure. At the University of Otago, Watt supervises summer research scholarships, including projects on inflammation and anxiety links, and engages in outreach through the NZ Brain Bee Challenge and neuroscience demonstrations at public events. In 2019, he delivered a departmental seminar titled 'Far-reaching consequences of adolescent social stress on brain and behaviour'.