Life Sciences Commons^™

Exercise, Learning And Emotional Health: Interdisciplinary Approaches To Translational Action, Tessa L. Koschel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Exercise positively effects physical, psychological and neurological wellbeing. Though the population at large is becoming increasingly aware of the multi-faceted benefits of exercise, the majority of people fail to meet daily exercise recommendations. Largely, demands of everyday life such as work, school and family take priority over fitness. The issue therefore becomes a matter of time. In a world of media multi-tasking and immediate gratification, the challenge to health professionals becomes incorporation and manipulation of these consistencies to improve exercise uptake and adherence. Focus must shift from the idea of making additional time for exercise, to adding exercise to time …

The Effects Of Sports Related Head Impact On Balance And Neurocognitive Functions, Shaquanda D. Ross-Simmons, Michelle L. Vieyra, Abhishek Jain, Keri Weed

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of sports-related head injury on balance, attention, and memory. Reliable differences have been found using measures that directly tap into brain functioning, such as the auditory oddball task combined with EEG recording. We hypothesized that athletes reporting a diagnosed concussion or participation in high-risk sports would have compromised balance and neurocognitive functioning compared to athletes in low risk sports. Forty-five undergraduate participants were identified as either concussed, non-concussed in high-risk sports, or non-concussed in low-risk sports using a survey of athletic history, head trauma and demographics. The Biopac MP36 system, …

Clinically Silent Alzheimer's And Vascular Pathologies Influence Brain Networks Supporting Executive Function In Healthy Older Adults, Brian T. Gold, Christopher A. Brown, Jonathan G. Hakun, Leslie M. Shaw, John Q. Trojanowski, Charles D. Smith

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Aging is associated with declines in executive function. We examined how executive functional brain systems are influenced by clinically silent Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology and cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). Twenty-nine younger adults and thirty-four cognitively normal older adults completed a working memory paradigm while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. Older adults further underwent lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) draw for assessment of AD pathology and FLAIR imaging for assessment of WMHs. Accurate working memory performance in both age groups was associated with high fronto-visual functional connectivity (fC). However, in older adults, higher expression of fronto-visual fC was linked …

Acute Treatment With Doxorubicin Affects Glutamate Neurotransmission In The Mouse Frontal Cortex And Hippocampus, Theresa Currier Thomas, Joshua A. Beitchman, Francois Pomerleau, Teresa Noel, Paiboon Jungsuwadee, D. Allan Butterfield, Daret K. St. Clair, Mary Vore, Greg A. Gerhardt

Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center Faculty Publications

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a potent chemotherapeutic agent known to cause acute and long-term cognitive impairments in cancer patients. Cognitive function is presumed to be primarily mediated by neuronal circuitry in the frontal cortex (FC) and hippocampus, where glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter. Mice treated with DOX (25 mg/kg i.p.) were subjected to in vivo recordings under urethane anesthesia at 24h post-DOX injection or 5 consecutive days of cognitive testing (Morris Water Maze; MWM). Using novel glutamate-selective microelectrode arrays, amperometric recordings measured parameters of extracellular glutamate clearance and potassium-evoked release of glutamate within the medial FC and dentate gyrus (DG) …

Characterization And Reversal Of Doxorubicin-Mediated Changes In Sensory Neurons, Brittany L. Coughlin

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Chemotherapeutic agents impair memory in humans as well as in animal models. Such memory impairments can be persistent, lasting years after exposure to chemotherapy. Doxorubicin (DOX), a common chemotherapeutic agent, has been associated with memory impairments in humans and induces memory deficits in rodent models. DOX also impairs serotonin (5-HT)-induced long-term synaptic facilitation (LTF) in Aplysia sensorimotor co-cultures, a cellular analog of long-term memory formation. In addition, DOX leads to dynamic activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), consisting of an immediate and a delayed phase of activation, and to transient activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) in Aplysia …

Functional Human Grin2b Promoter Polymorphism And Variation Of Mental Processing Speed In Older Adults, Yang Jiang, Ming Kuan Lin, Gregory A. Jicha, Xiuhua Ding, Sabrina L. Mcilwrath, David W. Fardo, Lucas S. Broster, Frederick A. Schmitt, Richard J. Kryscio, Robert H. Lipsky

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

We investigated the role of a single nucleotide polymorphism rs3764030 (G > A) within the human GRIN2B promoter in mental processing speed in healthy, cognitively intact, older adults. In vitro DNA-binding and reporter gene assays of different allele combinations in transfected cells showed that the A allele was a gain-of-function variant associated with increasing GRIN2B mRNA levels. We tested the hypothesis that individuals with A allele will have better memory performance (i.e. faster reaction times) in older age. Twenty-eight older adults (ages 65-86) from a well-characterized longitudinal cohort were recruited and performed a modified delayed match-to-sample task. The rs3764030 polymorphism was …

Cerebral Lactate Metabolism And Memory: Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, Richard Andrew Harris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by amyloid plaques that are comprised of aggregated amyloid-beta peptides. These toxic proteins promote mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal cell death. A shift in metabolism away from oxidative phosphorylation and toward aerobic glycolysis, with the concomitant production of lactate, affords neurons a survival advantage against amyloid-beta toxicity. Recent evidence now suggests that aerobic glycolysis in the brain plays a critical role in supporting synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. However, the role of aerobic glycolysis and lactate metabolism in AD-mediated cognitive decline is unknown. My objective was to test the hypotheses that aerobic glycolysis …

Thujone Inhibits The Function Of Α7-Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors And Impairs Nicotine-Induced Memory Enhancement In One-Trial Passive Avoidance Paradigm, Ahmed Sultan, Keun-Hang Susan Yang, Dmytro Isaev, Eslam El Nebrisi, Nurulain Syed, Nadia Khan, Christopher F. Howarth, Bassem Sadek, Murat Oz

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Effects of thujone, a major ingredient of absinthe, wormwood oil and some herbal medicines, were tested on the function of α7 subunit of the human nicotinic acetylcholine (α7 nACh) receptor expressed in Xenopus oocytes using the two-electrode voltage-clamp technique. Thujone reversibly inhibited ACh (100 μM)-induced currents with an IC50 value of 24.7 μM. The effect of thujone was not dependent on the membrane potential and did not involve Ca2+-dependent Cl- channels expressed endogenously in oocytes. Inhibition by thujone was not reversed by increasing ACh concentrations. Moreover, specific binding of [125I] -bungarotoxin was not altered by thujone. Further experiments in SH-EP1 …

Neuroimaging Biomarkers Of Caloric Restriction On Brain Metabolic And Vascular Functions, Ai-Ling Lin, Ishita Parikh, Jared D. Hoffman, David Ma

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Purpose of Review

Non-invasive neuroimaging methods have been developed as powerful tools for identifying in vivo brain functions for studies in humans and animals. Here, we review the imaging biomarkers that are being used to determine the changes within brain metabolic and vascular functions induced by caloric restriction (CR) and their potential usefulness for future studies with dietary interventions in humans.

Recent Findings

CR causes an early shift in brain metabolism of glucose to ketone bodies and enhances ATP production, neuronal activity, and cerebral blood flow (CBF). With age, CR preserves mitochondrial activity, neurotransmission, CBF, and spatial memory. CR also …

A Cognitive Electrophysiological Signature Differentiates Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment From Normal Aging, Juan Li, Lucas S. Broster, Gregory A. Jicha, Nancy B. Munro, Frederick A. Schmitt, Erin L. Abner, Richard J. Kryscio, Charles D. Smith, Yang Jiang

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Background: Noninvasive and effective biomarkers for early detection of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) before measurable changes in behavioral performance remain scarce. Cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs) measure synchronized synaptic neural activity associated with a cognitive event. Loss of synapses is a hallmark of the neuropathology of early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that ERP responses during working memory retrieval discriminate aMCI from cognitively normal controls (NC) matched in age and education.

Methods: Eighteen NC, 17 subjects with aMCI, and 13 subjects with AD performed a delayed match-to-sample task specially designed not only to be …

A Behavioral And Neuroimmune System Model Of The Effects Of Chronic Low-Level Lead Exposure In Young Male C57bl/6j Mice, Mayra Gisel Flores-Montoya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Chronic low-level lead exposure reduces memory in children however the brain mechanisms mediating these effects are not known. In previous studies we showed that early lead exposure reduced olfactory memory and exploratory behavior in young mice, and reduced microglia cell density in hippocampus/dentate gyrus. The present studies aimed to identify additional behavioral tests that were sensitive to early low-level lead exposure in young mice; and to examine whether microglia upregulated factors known to promote cell migration. Seventy-two C57BL/6J male mice were exposed to 0 ppm (controls), 30 ppm (low-dose), or 430 ppm (high-dose) of lead acetate via dams' milk from …