Benjamin Fry
Dr. Fry is a Behavioral Neuroscientist and expert on the role of midbrain dopaminergic circuitry as it pertains to learning and memory, reward, addiction, and neuropsychiatric illness.
As an Associate Teaching Professor, Dr. Fry’s responsibilities primarily involve the teaching and mentoring of students across a wide range of topics related to both neuroscience and psychobiology.
Much of Dr. Fry’s work has focused on the circuit-specific role of dopamine in motivated behavior, pre-clinical models of schizophrenia, and the use of Pavlovian learning theory to understand the manner in which the brain processes incoming sensory information and gives rise to such phenomena as hallucinations. He is also interested in the unique impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient populations with schizophrenia, and its effect(s) on neuropsychiatric illness more broadly.
In 2024, Dr. Fry was the invited speaker for an evening of the National Science on Screen series, a grant-funded initiative that pairs experts in a given field with films on related topics. Dr. Fry discussed the neurobiology of psychosis and its portrayal in popular media before an audience screening of the 2006 film Bug, directed by William Friedkin.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Fry, B. R., Russell, N., Fex, V., Mo, B., Pence, N., Beatty, J. A., Manfredsson, F. P., Toth, B. A., Burgess, C. R., Gershman, S., & Johnson, A. W. (2025). Devaluing memories of reward: a case for dopamine. Communications Biology. In Press.
Fry, B. R. (2024). Effects of gamification on student success and perception of instruction in neuroanatomy: a retrospective analysis. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 23(1), A1-A8.
Fry, B. R., Fex, V., Sawa, A., Niwa, M., & Johnson, A. W. (2024). The role of midbrain dopamine cells projecting to the insular cortex in mediated performance: Implications for animal models of reality testing. Behavioral Neuroscience, 138(3), 164-177.
Fry, B. R., Roberts, D., Thakkar, K., & Johnson, A.W. (2022). Variables influencing conditioning-evoked hallucinations: overview and future applications. Psychological Medicine, 52(14), 2937-2949.
Fry, B. R., Pence, N. T., McLocklin, A., & Johnson, A.W. (2021). Disruptions in effort-based decision-making following acute optogenetic stimulation of ventral tegmental area dopamine cells. Learning & Memory, 28(4), 104-108.
Fry, B. R., Russell, N., Gifford, R., Robles, C. F., Manning, C. E., Sawa, A., … & Johnson, A. W. (2020). Assessing reality testing in mice through dopamine-dependent associatively evoked processing of absent gustatory stimuli. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 46(1), 54-67.
Zona, L. C., Fry, B. R., LaLonde, J. A., & Cromwell, H. C. (2017). Effects of anandamide administration on components of reward processing during free choice. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 158, 14-21.