Rate My Professor Dorothy E. Oorschot

Professor Dorothy E. Oorschot holds the position of Professor in the Department of Anatomy within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Otago, having been appointed to this full professorship in 2021. She obtained her BSc (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and her PhD from the University of Otago. Throughout her career at Otago, she has advanced quantitative neuroanatomy through pioneering applications of stereological methods to determine absolute numbers of neurons, synapses, and axons in brain regions such as the basal ganglia, thalamus, and ventral tegmental area. Her research investigates the three-dimensional spatial organization of neuronal populations and synaptic connectivity using electron microscopy and connectomics approaches. Oorschot leads the Neuroscience Research Group, focusing on the structure and function of the normal basal ganglia and its alterations following hypoxic injury, particularly during the equivalent of human second trimester or perinatal periods. She has developed rat models simulating extreme prematurity, ADHD-like hyperactivity with impulsivity, and schizophrenia risk factors, demonstrating selective dopaminergic neuron loss, GABAergic-dopaminergic synaptic changes, and behavioral deficits.

A key aspect of her work explores neurorestorative treatments for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, including delayed administration of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, erythropoietin combined with hypothermia, and antioxidants, which rescue striatal medium-spiny neurons, reduce microglial activation, and improve long-term motor function as assessed by the staircase test. Notable publications include her highly cited stereological study 'Total number of neurons in the neostriatal, pallidal, subthalamic, and substantia nigral nuclei of the rat basal ganglia: a stereological study using the cavalieri and optical disector principles' (1996, over 600 citations), 'Cell loss in the motor and cingulate cortex correlates with symptomatology in Huntington’s disease' (2010, over 270 citations), and 'Widespread heterogeneous neuronal loss across the cerebral cortex in Huntington's disease' (2014, 100 citations). Recent contributions encompass 'Absolute number of thalamic parafascicular and striatal cholinergic neurons, and the three-dimensional spatial array of striatal cholinergic neurons, in the Sprague-Dawley rat' (2025) and 'A risk factor for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder induces marked long-term anatomical changes at GABAergic-dopaminergic synapses in the rat ventral tegmental area' (2024). With over 70 peer-reviewed publications, her research has significantly influenced understanding of basal ganglia circuitry, brain injury mechanisms, and therapeutic interventions in neuroscience.