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Full-Text Articles in Cell and Developmental Biology

Bk Channels Mediate Synaptic Plasticity Underlying Habituation In Rats, Tariq Zaman, Cleusa De Oliveira, Mahabba Smoka, Chakravarthi Narla, Michael O. Poulter, Susanne Schmid Apr 2017

Bk Channels Mediate Synaptic Plasticity Underlying Habituation In Rats, Tariq Zaman, Cleusa De Oliveira, Mahabba Smoka, Chakravarthi Narla, Michael O. Poulter, Susanne Schmid

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Habituation is a basic form of implicit learning and represents a sensory filter that is disrupted in autism, schizophrenia, and several other mental disorders. Despite extensive research in the past decades on habituation of startle and other escape responses, the underlying neural mechanisms are still not fully understood. There is evidence from previous studies indicating that BK channels might play a critical role in habituation. We here used a wide array of approaches to test this hypothesis. We show that BK channel activation and subsequent phosphorylation of these channels are essential for synaptic depression presumably underlying startle habituation in rats, …


Motor And Hippocampal Dependent Spatial Learning And Reference Memory Assessment In A Transgenic Rat Model Of Alzheimer's Disease With Stroke, Jennifer L. Au, Nina Weishaupt, Hayley J. Nell, Shawn N. Whitehead, David F. Cechetto Mar 2016

Motor And Hippocampal Dependent Spatial Learning And Reference Memory Assessment In A Transgenic Rat Model Of Alzheimer's Disease With Stroke, Jennifer L. Au, Nina Weishaupt, Hayley J. Nell, Shawn N. Whitehead, David F. Cechetto

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease that results in neurodegeneration and memory loss. While age is a major risk factor for AD, stroke has also been implicated as a risk factor and an exacerbating factor. The co-morbidity of stroke and AD results in worsened stroke-related motor control and AD-related cognitive deficits when compared to each condition alone. To model the combined condition of stroke and AD, a novel transgenic rat model of AD, with a mutated form of amyloid precursor protein (a key protein involved in the development of AD) incorporated into its DNA, is given a small …


Nicotine Receptors Mediating Sensorimotor Gating And Its Enhancement By Systemic Nicotine, Farena Pinnock, Daniel Bosch, Tyler Brown, Nadine Simons, John R. Yeomans, Cleusa Deoliveira, Susanne Schmid Feb 2015

Nicotine Receptors Mediating Sensorimotor Gating And Its Enhancement By Systemic Nicotine, Farena Pinnock, Daniel Bosch, Tyler Brown, Nadine Simons, John R. Yeomans, Cleusa Deoliveira, Susanne Schmid

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle occurs when intensity stimuli precede stronger startle-inducing stimuli by 10–1000 ms. PPI deficits are found in individuals with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, and they correlate with other cognitive impairments. Animal research and clinical studies have demonstrated that both PPI and cognitive function can be enhanced by nicotine. PPI has been shown to be mediated, at least in part, by mesopontine cholinergic neurons that project to pontine startle neurons and activate muscarinic and potentially nicotine receptors (nAChRs). The subtypes and anatomical location of nAChRs involved in mediating and modulating PPI remain unresolved. We tested the …


Habituation And Prepulse Inhibition Of The Acoustic Startle In Rodents, Bridget Valsamis, Susanne Schmid Sep 2011

Habituation And Prepulse Inhibition Of The Acoustic Startle In Rodents, Bridget Valsamis, Susanne Schmid

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

The acoustic startle response is a protective response, elicited by a sudden and intense acoustic stimulus. Facial and skeletal muscles are activated within a few milliseconds, leading to a whole body flinch in rodents. Although startle responses are reflexive responses that can be reliably elicited, they are not stereotypic. They can be modulated by emotions such as fear (fear potentiated startle) and joy (joy attenuated startle), by non-associative learning processes such as habituation and sensitization, and by other sensory stimuli through sensory gating processes (prepulse inhibition), turning startle responses into an excellent tool for assessing emotions, learning, and sensory gating. …