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Gephyrin-Lacking Pv Synapses On Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons, Dika A. Kuljis, Kristina D. Micheva, Ajit Ray, Waja Wegner, Ryan Bowman, Daniel V. Madison, Katrin I. Willig, Alison L. Barth Jan 2021

Gephyrin-Lacking Pv Synapses On Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons, Dika A. Kuljis, Kristina D. Micheva, Ajit Ray, Waja Wegner, Ryan Bowman, Daniel V. Madison, Katrin I. Willig, Alison L. Barth

Biology Faculty Publications

Gephyrin has long been thought of as a master regulator for inhibitory synapses, acting as a scaffold to organize γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABAARs) at the post-synaptic density. Accordingly, gephyrin immunostaining has been used as an indicator of inhibitory synapses; despite this, the pan-synaptic localization of gephyrin to specific classes of inhibitory synapses has not been demonstrated. Genetically encoded fibronectin intrabodies generated with mRNA display (FingRs) against gephyrin (Gephyrin.FingR) reliably label endogenous gephyrin, and can be tagged with fluorophores for comprehensive synaptic quantitation and monitoring. Here we investigated input- and target-specific localization of gephyrin at a defined …


Rapid Golgi Stain For Dendritic Spine Visualization In Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex, Maya Frankfurt, Rachel E. Bowman Jan 2021

Rapid Golgi Stain For Dendritic Spine Visualization In Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex, Maya Frankfurt, Rachel E. Bowman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Golgi impregnation, using the Golgi staining kit with minor adaptations, is used to impregnate dendritic spines in the rat hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex. This technique is a marked improvement over previous methods of Golgi impregnation because the premixed chemicals are safer to use, neurons are consistently well impregnated, there is far less background debris, and for a given region, there are extremely small deviations in spine density between experiments. Moreover, brains can be accumulated after a certain point and kept frozen until further processing. Using this method any brain region of interest can be studied. Once stained and cover …


The Bionic Brain: Pragmatic Neuroethics And The Moral Plausibility Of Cognitive Enhancement, Peter A. Depergola Ii Jan 2019

The Bionic Brain: Pragmatic Neuroethics And The Moral Plausibility Of Cognitive Enhancement, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The seemingly infinite possibilities of contemporary neuroscience span from the augmentation of memory, executive function, appetite, libido, sleep, and mood, to the maturation and development of emotional health and personality. These prospects hint at the capacity to alter neurocognitive conceptions of reality. They also mark the unavoidable inculcation of nuanced individual responses, perhaps radical, to these “tailor- made” perceptions. Hence, there exists certain neuroethical, and even more generally, existential risks within this fascinating and expeditious enterprise. The primary question in the context of present-day neurotechnology is not what can be done, but what should be. To that end, this paper …


Ambiguities In The Efficacy Of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors In The Treatment Of Depression, Stephanie Giblin Apr 2018

Ambiguities In The Efficacy Of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors In The Treatment Of Depression, Stephanie Giblin

Writing Across the Curriculum

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most debilitating mental illness worldwide. Primary treatment of MDD is the administration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Deemed as the safest psychotropic drug thus far, SSRIs have been shown to reduce depressive symptoms and enhance the quality of life in youth, adult and geriatric populations. However, with rising numbers of individuals taking maintenance doses of SSRIs for five or more years, researchers are beginning to discover severe adverse side effects associated with prolonged treatment. The overall risks of long-term SSRI therapy include tachyphylaxis, tardive dysphoria, structural neurological abnormalities and suicide. SSRIs also have …


Phantom Limb Pain: It’S Not ‘All In My Mind, It’S In My Neurons!', Meredith Conroy (Class Of 2017) Apr 2017

Phantom Limb Pain: It’S Not ‘All In My Mind, It’S In My Neurons!', Meredith Conroy (Class Of 2017)

Biology Undergraduate Publications

Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a burning, stabbing, shooting, aching, and/or throbbing pain that an amputee feels in his or her amputated limb. According to recent statistics, PLP affects 50-80% of amputees—over one million amputees in the United States alone. With this condition being so widespread and detrimental to patients’ day to day life it is important to understand its mechanisms. However, there is a great deal of debate as to whether PLP is neurological or psychological.


Immunotherapy Against Drugs Of Abuse, Gianna Raimondi (Class Of 2017) Jan 2017

Immunotherapy Against Drugs Of Abuse, Gianna Raimondi (Class Of 2017)

Writing Across the Curriculum

Current treatments for drug addiction involve classical pharmacological therapy, involving the use of competitive or noncompetitive agonists (full, partial, or inverse) and antagonists. Drugs of abuse enter the brain after crossing the blood-brain barrier rapidly and binding to the proper receptor(s). They are able to do so because they are small and lipid soluble, and produce reinforcing effects by increasing levels of dopamine in brain areas associated with reward. This occurs in specific systems associated with addiction. In the mesolimbic system, neuron cell bodies originate in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and project to the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, hippocampus, …


Glyphosate Induces Neurotoxicity In Zebrafish, Nicole M. Roy, Bruno Carneiro, Jeremy Ochs Mar 2016

Glyphosate Induces Neurotoxicity In Zebrafish, Nicole M. Roy, Bruno Carneiro, Jeremy Ochs

Biology Faculty Publications

Glyphosate based herbicides (GBH) like Roundup® are used extensively in agriculture as well as in urban and rural settings as a broad spectrum herbicide. Its mechanism of action was thought to be specific only to plants and thus considered safe and non-toxic. However, mounting evidence suggests that GBHs may not be as safe as once thought as initial studies in frogs suggest that GBHs may be teratogenic. Here we utilize the zebrafish vertebrate model system to study early effects of glyphosate exposure using technical grade glyphosate and the Roundup® Classic formulation. We find morphological abnormalities including cephalic and …


Neonatal Isolation Stress Inhibits Pre-Weaning Weight Gain And Mild-Stressor Induced Locomotor Activity In Early Adolescent Male And Female Rats, Peter Villavecchia, Mindy Miserendino Jul 2015

Neonatal Isolation Stress Inhibits Pre-Weaning Weight Gain And Mild-Stressor Induced Locomotor Activity In Early Adolescent Male And Female Rats, Peter Villavecchia, Mindy Miserendino

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study looked at the effects of neonatal isolation, an early life stress experience, in male and female early adolescent rats, an age which is underrepresented in the early stress literature. Four stress-sensitive indices were assessed: weight gain during the pre-weaning period, open field activity, and locomotor activity in response to two mild stressors: exposure to a novel environment, and a single IP saline injection. Rats in the neonatal isolation condition were removed from dam and littermates on postnatal days 2-9 in accord with the procedure used by Kehoe et al. (1995); behavioral testing occurred on PN25-PN30 during …


Evaluation Of The Developmental Toxicity Of Lead In The Danio Rerio Body, Nicole M. Roy, Sarah Dewolf, Bruno Carneiro Jan 2015

Evaluation Of The Developmental Toxicity Of Lead In The Danio Rerio Body, Nicole M. Roy, Sarah Dewolf, Bruno Carneiro

Biology Faculty Publications

Lead has been utilized throughout history and is widely distributed and mobilized globally. Although lead in the environment has been somewhat mitigated, the nature of lead and its extensive uses in the past prohibit it from being completely absent from our environment and exposure to lead is still a public health concern. Most studies regarding lead toxicity have focused on the brain. However, little is found in the literature on the effects of lead in other tissues. Here, we utilize the zebrafish model system to investigate effects of lead exposure during early developmental time windows at 24, 48 and 72 …


Adolescent Bisphenol-A Exposure Decreases Dendritic Spine Density: Role Of Sex And Age, Rachel E. Bowman, Victoria N. Luine, Hameda Khandaker, Joseph J. Villafane, Maya Frankfurt Nov 2014

Adolescent Bisphenol-A Exposure Decreases Dendritic Spine Density: Role Of Sex And Age, Rachel E. Bowman, Victoria N. Luine, Hameda Khandaker, Joseph J. Villafane, Maya Frankfurt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Bisphenol-A (BPA), a common environmental endocrine disruptor, modulates estrogenic, androgenic, and anti-androgenic effects throughout the lifespan. We recently showed that low dose BPA exposure during adolescence increases anxiety and impairs spatial memory independent of sex. In the current study, six week old Sprague Dawley rats (n=24 males, n=24 females) received daily subcutaneous injections (40 µg/kg bodyweight) of BPA or vehicle for one week. Serum corticosterone levels in response to a 1 h restraint stress and spine density were examined at age 7 (cohort 1) and 11 (cohort 2) weeks. Adolescent BPA exposure did not alter stress dependent corticosterone responses but …


Brief Embryonic Strychnine Exposure In Zebrafish Causes Long-Term Adult Behavioral Impairment With Indications Of Embyronic Synaptic Changes, Nicole M. Roy, Brianna Arpie, Joseph Lugo, Elwood Linney, Edward D. Levin, Daniel Cerutti Nov 2012

Brief Embryonic Strychnine Exposure In Zebrafish Causes Long-Term Adult Behavioral Impairment With Indications Of Embyronic Synaptic Changes, Nicole M. Roy, Brianna Arpie, Joseph Lugo, Elwood Linney, Edward D. Levin, Daniel Cerutti

Biology Faculty Publications

Zebrafish provide a powerful model of the impacts of embryonic toxicant exposure on neural development that may result in long-term behavioral dysfunction. In this study, zebrafish embryos were treated with 1.5mM strychnine for short embryonic time windows to induce transient changes in inhibitory neural signaling, and were subsequently raised in untreated water until adulthood. PCR analysis showed indications that strychnine exposure altered expression of some genes related to glycinergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic neuronal synapses during embryonic development. In adulthood, treated fish showed significant changes in swimming speed and tank diving behavior compared to controls. Taken together, these data show that …


Neural Coding Of Temporal Information And Its Topography In The Auditory Cortex, Thomas A. Terleph, Raphael Pinaud Dec 2010

Neural Coding Of Temporal Information And Its Topography In The Auditory Cortex, Thomas A. Terleph, Raphael Pinaud

Biology Faculty Publications

The article discusses a study that focused on neural coding of temporal information and topography in the auditory cortex. The quest for a thorough understanding how highly complex stimuli are encoded poses a significant challenge for auditory neurosciences, such as human speech and animal vocal signals. The characteristics of cortical neurons have been attributed to the coding of temporal stimulus which features precise spike timing in the coding and firing rate of repetition sounds.


Bilateral Multi-Electrode Neurophysiological Recordings Coupled To Local Pharmacology In Awake Songbirds, Liisa A. Tremere, Thomas A. Terleph, Jin Kwon Jeong, Raphael Pinaud Feb 2010

Bilateral Multi-Electrode Neurophysiological Recordings Coupled To Local Pharmacology In Awake Songbirds, Liisa A. Tremere, Thomas A. Terleph, Jin Kwon Jeong, Raphael Pinaud

Biology Faculty Publications

Here we describe a protocol for bilateral multielectrode neurophysiological recordings during intracerebral pharmacological manipulations in awake songbirds. This protocol encompasses fitting adult animals with head-posts and recording chambers, and acclimating them to periods of restraint. The adaptation period is followed by bilateral penetrations of multiple electrodes to obtain acute, sensory-driven neurophysiological responses before versus during the application of pharmacological agents of interest. These local manipulations are achieved by simultaneous and restricted drug infusions carried out independently for each hemisphere. We have used this protocol to elucidate how neurotransmitter and neuroendocrine systems shape the auditory and perceptual processing of natural, learned …


A Songbird Forebrain Area Potentially Involved In Auditory Discrimination And Memory Formation, Raphael Pinaud, Thomas A. Terleph Mar 2008

A Songbird Forebrain Area Potentially Involved In Auditory Discrimination And Memory Formation, Raphael Pinaud, Thomas A. Terleph

Biology Faculty Publications

Songbirds rely on auditory processing of natural communication signals for a number of social behaviors, including mate selection, individual recognition and the rare behavior of vocal learning - the ability to learn vocalizations through imitation of an adult model, rather than by instinct. Like mammals, songbirds possess a set of interconnected ascending and descending auditory brain pathways that process acoustic information and that are presumably involved in the perceptual processing of vocal communication signals. Most auditory areas studied to date are located in the caudomedial forebrain of the songbird and include the thalamo-recipient field L (subfields L1, L2 and L3), …


Neural Correlates Of Auditory Processing, Learning And Memory Formation In Songbirds, Raphael Pinaud, Thomas A. Terleph, Ryan D. Wynne, Liisa A. Tremere Feb 2008

Neural Correlates Of Auditory Processing, Learning And Memory Formation In Songbirds, Raphael Pinaud, Thomas A. Terleph, Ryan D. Wynne, Liisa A. Tremere

Biology Faculty Publications

Songbirds have emerged as powerful experimental models for the study of auditory processing of complex natural communication signals. Intact hearing is necessary for several behaviors in developing and adult animals including vocal learning, territorial defense, mate selection and individual recognition. These behaviors are thought to require the processing, discrimination and memorization of songs. Although much is known about the brain circuits that participate in sensorimotor (auditory-vocal) integration, especially the “songcontrol” system, less is known about the anatomical and functional organization of central auditory pathways. Here we discuss findings associated with a telencephalic auditory area known as the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). …


Sexually Dimorphic Effects Of Prenatal Stress On Cognition, Hormonal Responses, And Central Neurotransmitters, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Yessenia Sarmiento, Maya Frankfurt, Marisa Gordon, Victoria N. Luine Aug 2004

Sexually Dimorphic Effects Of Prenatal Stress On Cognition, Hormonal Responses, And Central Neurotransmitters, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Yessenia Sarmiento, Maya Frankfurt, Marisa Gordon, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Exposure to stress during gestation results in physiological and behavioral alterations that persist into adulthood. This study examined the effects of prenatal stress on the postnatal expression of sexually differentiated cognitive, hormonal, and neurochemical profiles in male and female rats. Pregnant dams were subjected to restraint stress three times daily for 45 min during d 14-21 of pregnancy. The offspring of control and prenatally stressed dams were tested for anxiety-related and cognitive behaviors, stress and gonadal steroid hormone levels, as well as monoamines and metabolite levels in selected brain regions. Postnatal testosterone levels (measured at 1 and 5 d) did …


Inhibition Of Axonal Growth By Brefeldin A In Hippocampal Neurons In Culture, Mark Jareb, Gary Banker Dec 1997

Inhibition Of Axonal Growth By Brefeldin A In Hippocampal Neurons In Culture, Mark Jareb, Gary Banker

Biology Faculty Publications

The outgrowth of neuronal processes involves a great increase in the surface area of the cell. The supply of membrane material necessarily must be coordinated with the demands for neurite growth. The selective growth of only one or two neurites at any given time during the development of polarity raises the possibility that the production of materials by the soma is limiting for growth (Dotti and Banker, 1987; Dotti et al., 1988; Goslin and Banker, 1990). To examine the role of the availability of membrane components during the development of polarity and axonal elongation, we treated neurons with brefeldin A, …