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Shawn K. Acheson, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Division: 
Translational Neuroscience
Category: 
Faculty
Office: PO Box 108, Waynesville, NC 28786
Campus Mail: DUMC PO Box 108, Waynesville, NC 28786

In collaboration with Dr. Scott Swartzwelder, research in our lab has focused on the neurodevelopmental effects of alcohol and other drugs of abuse. In particular, we have been interested in how and why adolescents are more sensitive to some effects of ethanol and THC (e.g., learning and memory) and less sensitive to other effects (e.g., sedation). Beginning in Fall 2011, my lab will begin a new line of research focused on potential pharmacotherapies for TBI and the basic underlying mechanisms of recovery of function following acquired brain injury. This work is funded by a Career Development Award from the Veterans Administration Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development service.

Education and Training

  • Ph.D., Southern Illinois University, 1997

Selected Grants

Publications

Risher, Mary-Louise, Rebekah L. Fleming, W Christopher Risher, K. M. Miller, Rebecca C. Klein, Tiffany Wills, Shawn K. Acheson, et al. “Adolescent intermittent alcohol exposure: persistence of structural and functional hippocampal abnormalities into adulthood.” Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research 39, no. 6 (June 2015): 989–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.12725.

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Swartzwelder, H Scott, Shawn K. Acheson, Kelsey M. Miller, Hannah G. Sexton, Wen Liu, Fulton T. Crews, and Mary-Louise Risher. “Adolescent Intermittent Alcohol Exposure: Deficits in Object Recognition Memory and Forebrain Cholinergic Markers.” Plos One 10, no. 11 (2015): e0140042. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140042.

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Centanni, Samuel W., Tara Teppen, Mary-Louise Risher, Rebekah L. Fleming, Julia L. Moss, Shawn K. Acheson, Patrick J. Mulholland, Subhash C. Pandey, L Judson Chandler, and H. S. Swartzwelder. “Adolescent alcohol exposure alters GABAA receptor subunit expression in adult hippocampus.” Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research 38, no. 11 (November 2014): 2800–2808. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.12562.

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Klein, Rebecca C., Shawn K. Acheson, Brian E. Mace, Patrick M. Sullivan, and Scott D. Moore. “Altered neurotransmission in the lateral amygdala in aged human apoE4 targeted replacement mice.” Neurobiol Aging 35, no. 9 (September 2014): 2046–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.02.019.

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Swartzwelder, H. S., A. Hogan, M-Louise Risher, Rita A. Swartzwelder, Wilkie A. Wilson, and Shawn K. Acheson. “Effect of sub-chronic intermittent ethanol exposure on spatial learning and ethanol sensitivity in adolescent and adult rats.” Alcohol 48, no. 4 (June 2014): 353–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2014.02.003.

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Klein, Rebecca C., Shyla Saini, M-Louise Risher, Shawn K. Acheson, Rebekah L. Fleming, Hannah G. Sexton, H Scott Swartzwelder, and Scott D. Moore. “Regional-specific effects of ovarian hormone loss on synaptic plasticity in adult human APOE targeted replacement mice.” Plos One 9, no. 4 (2014): e94071. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094071.

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Li, Qiang, Rebekah L. Fleming, Shawn K. Acheson, Roger D. Madison, Scott D. Moore, Mary-Louise Risher, Wilkie A. Wilson, and H Scott Swartzwelder. “Long-term modulation of A-type K(+) conductances in hippocampal CA1 interneurons in rats after chronic intermittent ethanol exposure during adolescence or adulthood.” Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research 37, no. 12 (December 2013): 2074–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.12204.

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Fleming, Rebekah L., Qiang Li, Mary-Louise Risher, Hannah G. Sexton, Scott D. Moore, Wilkie A. Wilson, Shawn K. Acheson, and H Scott Swartzwelder. “Binge-pattern ethanol exposure during adolescence, but not adulthood, causes persistent changes in GABAA receptor-mediated tonic inhibition in dentate granule cells.” Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research 37, no. 7 (July 2013): 1154–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.12087.

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Wang, Haichen, Lauren G. Anderson, Christopher D. Lascola, Michael L. James, Talaignair N. Venkatraman, Ellen R. Bennett, Shawn K. Acheson, Michael P. Vitek, and Daniel T. Laskowitz. “ApolipoproteinE mimetic peptides improve outcome after focal ischemia.” Exp Neurol 241 (March 2013): 67–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2012.11.027.

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Acheson, Shawn K., Craig Bearison, M Louise Risher, Sabri H. Abdelwahab, Wilkie A. Wilson, and H Scott Swartzwelder. “Effects of acute or chronic ethanol exposure during adolescence on behavioral inhibition and efficiency in a modified water maze task.” Plos One 8, no. 10 (2013): e77768. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077768.

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