Robert L. Spencer

Psychology; Member of the Center for Neuroscience

Department of Psychology, Campus Box 345
Muen. D465B
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309-0345

email: spencer@psych.colorado.edu
Phone: 303-492-0854
FAX: 303-492-2967
Website: http://psych.colorado.edu/~spenlab/ and http://psych-www.colorado.edu/users/spencer/home.html

Dr. Spencer received his Ph.D. in Biopsychology in 1986 from the University of Arizona. He was a recipient of an individual National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship and carried out his postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller University, where he continued on as an assistant professor from 1991-1993. He joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder as an assistant professor in 1994 and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. He currently is a recipient of an NIH Independent Investigator Award (K02).

Dr. Spencer's research has focused on understanding the regulation of a neuroendocrine system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and how that system contributes to stress adaptation. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis controls the secretion of the glucocorticoid hormones (cortisol and corticosterone) and is activated by stress. Dr. Spencer's laboratory is currently studying mechanisms by which glucocorticoids affect the expression of certain stress responsive genes in various brain regions that may be especially critical to an organism's ability to adapt to repeated stress. Dr. Spencer's research has also examined mechanisms of corticosteroid receptor regulation and glucocorticoid regulation of the immune system.

Dr. Spencer has co-authored over 60 research papers and his research program has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the McArthur Foundation.

Selected Publications:

Girotti, M, Pace, TWW, Gaylord, RI, Rubin, BA, Herman, JP and RL Spencer. Habituation to repeated restraint stress is associated with lack of stress-induced c-fos expression in primary sensory processing areas of the rat brain. Neuroscience, 138: 1067-1081, 2006.


Ginsberg, AB, Frank, MG, Francis, AB, Rubin, BA, O’Connor, KA and RL Spencer. Specific and time-dependent effects of glucocorticoid receptor agonist RU28362 on stress-induced POMC hnRNA, c-fos mRNA and zif268 mRNA in the pituitary. Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 18:129-138, 2006.


*Pace, TWW, *Gaylord, R, Topczewski, F, Girotti, M, Rubin, B and RL Spencer. Immediate early gene induction in hippocampus and cortex as a result of novel experience is not directly related to the stressfulness of that experience. European Journal of Neuroscience, 22:1679-1690, 2005. *T.W.W.P and R.G contributed equally to this work.


Pace, TWW and RL Spencer. Disruption of mineralocorticoid receptor function increases corticosterone responding to a mild, but not moderate, psychological stressor. American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, 288: 1082-1088, 2005.