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Examining The Neuronal Dopaminergic Pathway Underlying Sleep Behavior And Related Dopamine Sleep Disorders, Mary Beth Putz
Examining The Neuronal Dopaminergic Pathway Underlying Sleep Behavior And Related Dopamine Sleep Disorders, Mary Beth Putz
Undergraduate Honors Theses
The human brain is an extremely complex organ with approximately 100 billion different neurons that are constantly sending and receiving messages. These messages are sent using the chemical messengers of the brain: neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Mechanisms of neural control of sleep are substantially conserved across species. Evidence from multiple animal models including flies, zebrafish, and mice shows that the arousal, or wake phase, is regulated by conserved neuromodulators such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Since these neurotransmitter systems are distributed throughout the brain and sub-serve many functions in addition to sleep, the precise circuit mechanisms by which these neurotransmitters regulate …
Effects Of Sleep-Deprivation On Decision-Making And Action Selection, Shalin N. Shah
Effects Of Sleep-Deprivation On Decision-Making And Action Selection, Shalin N. Shah
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis addresses neuroscience research focusing on the brain’s mechanisms underlying behavioral choice, or prioritization, and decision-making. The research has been conducted with Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly – a good model from both the behavioral and neural perspectives. This project specifically observes the co-regulation of sleep with two other behaviors – courtship and oviposition. The overlap between the sleep and courtship circuits in the brain should provide a good model for behavioral prioritization, and the interaction between sleep and ovipositional preference should provide a model for understanding the effects of sleep on decision-making. All three of these adaptive behaviors …