About

Dora Epstein Jones, Ph.D., is a theorist and teacher of architectural culture with a focus on the discipline of architecture, including its boundaries and operations through examinations of tectonics, practice, and pedagogy. Her work is uniquely tuned to matters of design and has been published in various compilations related to design, such as Possible Mediums, The Building, Speculative Coolness, and Purple Architecture. Her doctoral work concentrated on the history of prefabrication. She is engaged in projects including collections for Morphosis and Stray Dog Cafe, notably the Morphosis Model Monograph. Epstein Jones holds a Ph.D. in Architectural History, Theory and Criticism from UCLA, an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a B.S. in Applied Behavioral Sciences (Community Studies) from UC Davis. She has served as a principal with Jones, Partners: Architecture, the Coordinator of General Studies and History & Theory at SCI-Arc, the Executive Director of the A+D Architecture and Design Museum, and the Chair of Architecture at Texas Tech University. Her awards include fellowships from ACLS/Luce, Getty, Siff, Regents, and AIA. Currently, she is working on a forthcoming book titled The Order of the Orders, a work of fiction called Dorothy, and essays related to architectural pedagogy, artificial intelligence, and architectural technology.

Research topics

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Anatomy

Selected publications

• Neurodegeneration Produced by Rotenone in the Mouse Retina: A Potential Model to Investigate Environmental Pesticide Contributions to Neurodegenerative Diseases

  Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health · 2006-07-24 · 62 citations

  article

  Rotenone is a widely used pesticide and fish toxin that inhibits complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Complex I dysfunction is linked to the degeneration of retinal ganglion cells in Leber's optic neuropathy. To study the association between environmental mitochondrial toxin exposure and neurodegeneration, mice were intravitreally microinjected with rotenone in one eye and with the vehicle dimethyl sulfoxide in the contralateral eye, as a within-subject control. The retinal ganglion cell layer (GCL) of eyes injected with rotenone became significantly thinner than that of the control eyes after 24 h, but not as early as 0.5 h. This reduction was observed using complex I histochemistry and with Nissl staining of cell bodies. After 24 h, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was reduced by 89% and the number of GCL cells was reduced by 21% in rotenone-treated eyes. Cellular morphometric data (soma area, perimeter, and diameter) did not show overall differences, but there was a preferential reduction in the proportion of larger cells. Therefore, the reduction in GCL thickness 24 h after rotenone microinjection could be accounted for by cell loss and nerve fiber shrinkage, but not by overall soma size change. Rotenone-induced degeneration of the ganglion cell layer may be used as a convenient way to (1) evaluate mechanisms and treatments for the neurodegeneration produced by mitochondrial dysfunction and (2) investigate environmental pesticide contributions to neurodegenerative diseases.

  PublisherDOI

• Metabolic Mapping of Mouse Brain Activity after Extinction of a Conditioned Emotional Response

  Journal of Neuroscience · 2003-07-02 · 146 citations

  articleOpen access

  Metabolic mapping with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a radiolabeled glucose analog, was used to assess regional activity changes in the mouse brain that result from extinction of a conditioned emotional response (CER). In the extinction group, Pavlovian tone-foot shock conditioning, followed by repeated tone-alone presentations, resulted in the reduction of the CER (freezing behavior). A second group underwent CER acquisition alone (nonextinction group), and a third group showed no CER after pseudorandom training. Then mice were injected with FDG, and tone-evoked brain activity was mapped. In the auditory system, increased activity resulted from the associative effects of acquisition training. Effects common to extinction and nonextinction groups, presumably reflecting the tone-foot shock association independently of CER expression, were found in the medial geniculate, hippocampus, and subiculum. In the extinction group, a major finding was the elevated activity in prefrontal cortex regions. In addition, brain-behavior correlations between FDG uptake and freezing behavior confirmed that subjects with higher prefrontal activity were more successful at inhibiting the CER. Interregional activity correlations showed extensive functional coupling across large-scale networks in the extinction group. The increased activity of the prefrontal cortex and its negative interactions with other regions within the extinction group suggest a functional network inhibiting the CER composed of prefrontal cortex, medial thalamus, auditory, and hippocampal regions. This is the first time that such a functional network resulting from Pavlovian extinction has been demonstrated, and it supports Pavlov's original hypothesis of extinction as the formation of cortical inhibitory circuits, rather than unlearning or reversal of the acquisition process.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mouse model of optic neuropathy caused by mitochondrial complex I dysfunction

  Neuroscience Letters · 2002-06-01 · 62 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A Potential Model for Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy: Rotenone Effects on Retinal Ganglion Cells

  Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science · 2002-12-01 · 4 citations

  article
  Publisher

• <i>The Behavioral Neuroscience of the Septal Region</i>. Robert Numan

  The Quarterly Review of Biology · 2001-09-01

  review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Mapping Pavlovian Conditioning Effects on the Brain: Blocking, Contiguity, and Excitatory Effects

  Journal of Neurophysiology · 2001-08-01 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Pavlovian conditioning effects on the brain were investigated by mapping rat brain activity with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) autoradiography. The goal was to map the effects of the same tone after blocking or eliciting a conditioned emotional response (CER). In the tone-blocked group, previous learning about a light blocked a CER to the tone. In the tone-excitor group, the same pairings of tone with shock US resulted in a CER to the tone in the absence of previous learning about the light. A third group showed no CER after pseudorandom presentations of these stimuli. Brain systems involved in the various associative effects of Pavlovian conditioning were identified, and their functional significance was interpreted in light of previous FDG studies. Three conditioning effects were mapped: 1) blocking effects: FDG uptake was lower in medial prefrontal cortex and higher in spinal trigeminal and cuneate nuclei in the tone-blocked group relative to the tone-excitor group. 2) Contiguity effects: relative to pseudorandom controls, similar FDG uptake increases in the tone-blocked and -excitor groups were found in auditory regions (inferior colliculus and cortex), hippocampus (CA1), cerebellum, caudate putamen, and solitary nucleus. Contiguity effects may be due to tone-shock pairings common to the tone-blocked and -excitor groups rather than their different CER. And 3) excitatory effects: FDG uptake increases limited to the tone-excitor group occurred in a circuit linked to the CER, including insular and anterior cingulate cortex, vertical diagonal band nucleus, anterior hypothalamus, and caudoventral caudate putamen. This study provided the first large-scale map of brain regions underlying the Kamin blocking effect on conditioning. In particular, the results suggest that suppression of prefrontal activity and activation of unconditioned stimulus pathways are important neural substrates of the Kamin blocking effect.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associative effects of Pavlovian differential inhibition of behaviour

  European Journal of Neuroscience · 2001-12-01 · 20 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The associative inhibitory control of behaviour is a major component of Pavlovian learning theory, but little is known about its functional neuroanatomy. The associative effects of differential inhibition of conditioned behaviour were investigated by mapping learning-related changes in brain activity of the rat with fluorodeoxyglucose autoradiography. Of interest was how a tone is processed in auditory and extra-auditory systems of the rat brain under similar behavioural, but different associative conditions. Conditioned emotional suppression to drink was used to assess training, and summation tests were used to verify that the tone became an inhibitor of conditioned behaviour. In the Inhibitor group, presentations of a tone stimulus alone were intermixed with presentations of a light stimulus followed by footshock. In the Pseudorandom group, the same numbers of tone, light and footshock presentations were used, but they were presented in a pseudorandom fashion. After training, fluorodeoxyglucose uptake was measured during tone presentations. Behavioural responding to the tone was similar during fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in the two groups, yet associative effects were found in brain activity. In the auditory system, the tone produced reduced fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in major relay nuclei (cochlear nucleus and inferior colliculus) in the Inhibitor group relative to the Pseudorandom group. The tone inhibitor produced similar decreases in the septohippocampal system and the retrosplenial cortex. In contrast, the tone inhibitor produced activity increases in somatosensory and reticulocerebellar systems. The findings provide the first detailed map of neural regions involved in the learned associations controlling differential inhibition of conditioned behaviour.

  PublisherDOI

• Classical conditioning modifies cytochrome oxidase activity in the auditory system

  European Journal of Neuroscience · 1998-10-01 · 74 citations

  article

  The effects of excitatory classical conditioning on cytochrome oxidase activity in the central auditory system were investigated using quantitative histochemistry. Rats in the conditioned group were trained with consistent pairings of a compound conditional stimulus (a tone and a light) with a mild footshock, to elicit conditioned suppression of drinking. Rats in the pseudorandom group were exposed to pseudorandom presentations of the same tone, light and shock stimuli without consistent pairings. Untrained rats in a naive group did not receive presentations of the experimental stimuli. The findings demonstrated that auditory fear conditioning modifies the metabolic neuronal responses of the auditory system, supporting the hypothesis that sensory neurons are responsive to behavioural stimulus properties acquired by learning. There was a clear distinction between thalamocortical and lower divisions of the auditory system based on the differences in metabolic activity evoked by classical conditioning, which lead to an overt learned behavioural response versus pseudorandom stimulus presentations, which lead to behavioural habituation. Increases in cytochrome oxidase activity indicated that tone processing is enhanced during associative conditioning at upper auditory structures (medial geniculate nucleus and secondary auditory cortices). In contrast, metabolic activation of lower auditory structures (cochlear nuclei and inferior colliculus) in response to the pseudorandom presentation of the experimental stimuli suggest that these areas may be activated during habituation to tone stimuli. Together these findings show that mapping the metabolic activity of cytochrome oxidase with quantitative histochemistry can be successfully used to map regional long-lasting effects of learning on brain systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Functional Mapping of Learning-Related Metabolic Activity with Quantitative Cytochrome Oxidase Histochemistry

  1998-01-01 · 13 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Metabolic Effects of Blocking Tone Conditioning on the Rat Auditory System

  Neurobiology of Learning and Memory · 1997-09-01 · 31 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• F. Gonzalez‐Lima

  The University of Texas at Austin

  11 shared

• Amy Poremba

  National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

  3 shared

• Xian Zhang

  Jinan University

  2 shared

• F. Gonzales-Lima

  The University of Texas at Austin

  1 shared

• Douglas W. Barrett

  The University of Texas at Austin

  1 shared

• X Zhang

  The University of Texas at Austin

  1 shared

• Jason Shumake

  The University of Texas at Austin

  1 shared

• Bennett G. Galef

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• ACLS/Luce scholar
• Getty scholar
• Siff fellow
• Regents fellow
• AIA scholar