Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Structural And Functional Effects Of Pediatric Hydrocephalus On The Hippocampus, Lili Meng

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Hydrocephalus is one of the most common pediatric neurological problems that requires brain surgery in children. Pediatric hydrocephalus is characterized as an abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) buildup in the brain’s ventricles due to ineffective CSF reabsorption. When this fluid builds up in these cavities, it increases intracranial pressure and has a direct mass effect on the surrounding brain tissue and structures. Ultimately, various functions are affected including—but not limited to—vision, learning, memory, motor control, and hearing. Despite current literature suggesting that hydrocephalus may be associated with reduced hippocampal volume among rats and human adults, findings remain limited in the human …

In-Vitro Validation Of Intratumoral Modulation Therapy For Glioblastoma, Abdulla Elsaleh

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Intratumoral modulation therapy (IMT) is a novel electrotherapy used to treat brain cancer tumours using electric fields applied directly to the tumours through implanted electrodes. Previous research has validated IMT's effectiveness and provided computer-simulated optimizations for IMT electric fields. This work validates these computer optimizations in-vitro, using a PCB construct to deliver electric fields, and bioluminescence imaging to assess cell viability.

We found electric field strength to correlate with cell viability, and found that rotating (phase-shifted) electric fields did not produce significant improvements in IMT efficacy. Future work will investigate different IMT frequencies and other parameters, while providing biological replicates …

Auditory Sensory Filtering And Development In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Hiruthika Ravi, Ala Seif, Ryan A. Stevenson

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Sensory filtering is the process of separating and distilling relevant sensory information from irrelevant, which in turn greatly reduces the quantity of sensory information that is fully processed and leads to significant increases in efficiency. Atypical sensory filtering can result in sensory hypo- or hypersensitivity — atypical sensory filtering and hypo/hypersensitivity have been observed in people with autism. Atypical sensory filtering contributes to canonical symptoms in Autism.

Sensory filtering can be measured in a few different ways, one of which is the Acoustic Startle Response (ASR). ASR is a reflexively produced muscular reaction to sudden auditory stimuli.

Our study aims …

Investigating Gene-Environment Interaction In A Double-Hit Model For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Melvin Maroon

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

With the exponential advancements seen in the field of sequencing technology, the science community has come to identify hundreds of potential genetic risk factors for neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite our knowledge that such risk factors exist, we have yet to understand their specific influences on the behavioral profile of an individual. In addition, maternal infection during pregnancy can have longstanding detrimental outcomes on a child’s development. This is especially impactful with the present threat of viral infection during the pandemic. Our study aims to understand the influence of a specific genetic and environmental factor on a preclinical rodent model’s behavioral development. …

Depression & Anxiety In Brain Vs. Body Trauma Patients, Olivia Mercier

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

Mouse Performance On A Novel Touchscreen Continuous Performance Task Is Dependent On Signaling In The Prelimbic Cortex, Tyler D. Dexter, Daniel Palmer, Amy C. Reichelt, Anita Taksokhan, Lisa M. Saksida, Tim J. Bussey

Western Research Forum

Attention is the cognitive processing that facilitates the ability to target and attend to relevant environmental stimuli, while filtering out irrelevant or distracting stimuli. Control over selective attention is theorized to be dependent on organized neural communication that stems from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). To evaluate selective and sustained attention, mice were trained on the novel touchscreen rodent continuous performance task (rCPT), a task designed to emulate the human CPT. In the rodent version, images are continuously presented on a touchscreen, where mice have been trained to selectively respond to one image type while suppressing responses to all others. …

Exercise To Combat Neurocognitive Decline In Older Adults, Joyla Furlano

Western Research Forum

Background: Older adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) experience cognitive decline and neural atrophy, and therefore are at high risk for developing dementia. Consequently, older adults at-risk for developing T2D (i.e., overweight or pre-diabetic individuals) are at higher risk for cognitive decline, and intervening at this point may prevent or delay the onset of such decline. One promising lifestyle intervention that may improve neurocognitive function is exercise. For example, 6 months of aerobic training improves cognitive function in overweight or pre-diabetic older adults, but research has not examined whether resistance training (RT) can produce comparable results in this population.

Hypothesis: …

Differentiating Midbrain Structures In Parkinson’S Disease Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Erind Alushaj

Western Research Forum

Background: This study aims to differentiate two midbrain structures: substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in patients with early-stage Parkinson’s Disease (PD) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The SNc degenerates earlier in PD causing motor symptoms; whereas, VTA degeneration occurs later leading to non-motor symptoms. Conventionally, the SNc and VTA project to the dorsal and ventral striatum respectively. Evidence suggests this model may be overly simplistic since the dorsal striatum has uneven dopamine loss in PD. So, the dorsal striatum was segmented into six functional subregions and only the caudal motor subregion showed early changes …

Clarifying Dopaminergic Projections Of The Ventral Tegmental Area And Substantia Nigra In Humans Using Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nicholas Handfield-Jones

Western Research Forum

Background

Dopaminergic (DA) pathways from the human midbrain to the striatum mediate movement, decision making, learning, and reward processing. Classically, the scientific consensus has been that there are two main DA pathways: the nigrostriatal and the mesolimbic pathways. In the nigrostriatal pathway, the substantia nigra par compacta (SNc) sends DA to the dorsal striatum (DS), and in the mesolimbic pathway, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) sends DA to the ventral striatum (VS) as well as prefrontal and limbic cortices. Recent findings, however, cast doubt on the accuracy of this model. It seems likely these DA projections are more overlapping and …

P03. Role Of Prefrontal Cortical Dopamine Transmission In Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Opiate Addiction Vulnerability, Jingjing Li

Western Research Forum

Background

PTSD and opiate addiction share strong co-morbidity and the inability to suppress obtrusive memory recall related to either stressful or rewarding experiences may be an underlying neuropsychological feature triggering PTSD and/or addiction. Our previous research has shown that dopamine (DA) transmission in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) strongly modulates emotional memory formation: activation of the DA D4 receptor (D4R) strongly potentiates the emotional salience of normally non-salient fear memories whereas DA D1 receptor (D1R) activation blocks the behavioural recall of fear memory. Thus, while intra-PFC D4 transmission strongly controls the acquisition of emotional memory, D1 transmission is selectively involved in …