Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Palmitoylation As A Regulator Of Maguk Proteins Postsynaptic Localization, Rozena Shirvani-Arani, Santiago Balderas, Yonghong Zhang, Xioaqian Fang

Research Symposium

Synaptic plasticity is the ability of the brain to make changes and the changes occur at synapses. To achieve the complicated functions, a good number of proteins are present at synapse and are called synaptic proteins. To stabilize these proteins at synapses, proteins are modified through posttranslational modifications (PTMs). The most studied PTMs include phosphorylation, acetylation, ubiquitination, glycosylation, palmitoylation, etc. Palmitoylation is a type of lipid modification and has received more attention recently for its contribution to protein trafficking, localization, and interaction in various synaptic plasticity. The membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK) family includes PSD-95, PSD-93 (also known as chapsyn-110), SAP102, …

Understanding The Resources, Barriers, Facilitators And Interests About Aging And Dementia Research Of Community Members From The Rio Grande Valley, Karla Daniela Lopez Lorenzo, Rosa V. Pirela Mavarez, Gabriela Osuna, Kendra Stine, Nahalie Chacon De Alvarez, Noe Garza, Gladys E. Maestre

Research Symposium

Background: One of ten people aged 65 develops Alzheimer’s Disease and it is one of the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is mostly constituted by Hispanic/Latinos (93%), a population that has a 1.5X increased risk of AD onset. Nevertheless, there are not enough resources to support people living with dementia and their care partners. This study will leverage research efforts deployed by the RGV Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research to understand the social representations about the resources, barriers, facilitators, and interests of the RGV community about dementia and Alzheimer’s …

Prenatal Cafeteria Diet Exposure Promotes Lymphocyte Infiltration Into The Brain And Autism-Like Behavior In The Offspring Of C57bl6 Mice, José Alfredo Castillo Luna, Martín García Juárez, Diana Reséndez Pérez, Alberto Camacho Morales

Research Symposium

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with an array of etiological causes, including environmental, genetic, and immunological triggers. High-energy diets activate the immune system during prenatal stages favoring infiltration of peripheral immune cells and cytokines into the brain by the choroid plexus and circumventricular regions and altering microglial activity. Accumulation of immune entities and microglia activation in brain have been reported to disrupt social behavior. However, the interplay between prenatal exposure to high-energy diets, neuroinflammation and defective social behavior has not been reported.

Methods: Female C57BL6 mice were exposed to cafeteria diet during pregnancy and lactation. The …

Differential Cortical Monoamines Release During Exercise In Rats Chronically Implanted With Microdialysis Probes, Christine G. Gerin

Research Symposium

Physical exercise is known to positively influence mood, to reduce anxiety and to improve reaction to stress. Cerebral monoaminergic systems are thought to underly the neurochemical influence of exercise on mood and behavior. We hypothesized that beneficial effects of exercise can be shown by variations of neurotransmitters release in the cerebral cortex. We aimed at demonstrating that there is a temporal relationship between release of plasma and cerebral monoamines (A, NA, 5-HT, DA) and spontaneous running exercise in rats. Ten Spague Dawley rats (250 g) were chronically implanted (for up to 39 days) with a left common carotid cannula and …

Measuring The Emotional Impact Of Climate Change Images On Tourists: A Neuromarketing Study., Carmen Kraaijkamp, Patricia Picazo Peral, Sergio Moreno Gil

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

No abstract provided.

Computing Brain Networks With Complex Dynamics, Anca R. Radulescu

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Gap Junctions And Synchronization Clusters In The Thalamic Reticular Nuclei, Anca R. Radulescu, Michael Anderson

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Physiological Rationale For Fixation Eye-Movements, Qasim Zaidi

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Task-Driven Influences On Fixational Eye Movements, Jonathan Victor, Yen-Chu Lin, Michele Rucci

MODVIS Workshop

There is now compelling evidence that the spatiotemporal remapping carried out by fixational eye movements (FEMs) is an essential step in visual processing. Moreover, the overall Brownian-like statistics of FEMs are calibrated to map fine spatial detail into the temporal frequency range to which retinal circuitry is tuned. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the detailed spatial characteristics of FEMs can be adjusted to task demands via cognitive influences that operate even in the absence of a visual stimulus. We examined FEMs in a task that required subjects (N=6) to report which of two letters was displayed. Trials were blocked; …

Active Encoding Of Space Through Time, Michele Rucci, Jonathan D. Victor

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Extracting Edges In Space And Time During Visual Fixations, Lynn Schmittwilken, Marianne Maertens

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Automated Delineation Of Visual Area Boundaries And Eccentricities By A Cnn Using Functional, Anatomical, And Diffusion-Weighted Mri Data, Noah C. Benson, Bogeng Song, Toshikazu Miyata, Hiromasa Takemura, Jonathan Winawer

MODVIS Workshop

Delineating visual field maps and iso-eccentricities from fMRI data is an important but time-consuming task for many neuroimaging studies on the human visual cortex because the traditional methods of doing so using retinotopic mapping experiments require substantial expertise as well as scanner, computer, and human time. Automated methods based on gray-matter anatomy or a combination of anatomy and functional mapping can reduce these requirements but are less accurate than experts. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are powerful tools for automated medical image segmentation. We hypothesize that CNNs can define visual area boundaries with high accuracy. We trained U-Net CNNs with ResNet18 …

Toward A Manifold Encoding Neural Responses, Luciano Dyballa, Andra M. Rudzite, Mahmood S. Hoseini, Mishek Thapa, Michael P. Stryker, Greg D. Field, Steven W. Zucker

MODVIS Workshop

Understanding circuit properties from physiological data presents two challenges: (i) recordings do not reveal connectivity, and (ii) stimuli only exercise circuits to a limited extent. We address these challenges for the mouse visual system with a novel neural manifold obtained using unsupervised algorithms. Each point in our manifold is a neuron; nearby neurons respond similarly in time to similar parts of a stimulus ensemble. This ensemble includes drifting gratings and flows, i.e., patterns resembling what a mouse would “see” running through fields.

Regarding (i), our manifold differs from the standard practice in computational neuroscience: embedding trials in neural coordinates. Topology …

Constraining The Binding Problem Using Maps, Zhixian Han, Anne Sereno

MODVIS Workshop

We constrained the binding problem by creating maps of different attributes. We compared the performance of different models with different maps in our current study. Our preliminary results showed that the performance of the model is the highest when location maps were used. These results suggest that the optimal way to constrain the binding problem is to create location maps of different attributes.

From Image Gradients To A Perceptual Metric Space, Alan Johnston

MODVIS Workshop

How do we achieve a sense of spatial dimension from a sense of location? There are three predominant ideas about how we achieve this; spatial isomorphism, in which what we see reflects differences in distance or size in the brain; that spatial extent depends upon motor sensations or intentions related to eye movements; and that distance is computed from the degree of correlation in neural activity between adjacent locations, with distance inversely proportional to the correlation. There are problems with each of these approaches, for example, neural correlation may depend more on image structure than adjacency - consider the case …

V1 Saliency Hypothesis And Central-Peripheral Dichotomy (Cpd), Li Zhaoping Prof. Dr.

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

A Dynamical Model Of Binding In Visual Cortex During Incremental Grouping And Search, Daniel Schmid, Daniel A. Braun, Heiko Neumann

MODVIS Workshop

Binding of visual information is crucial for several perceptual tasks. To incrementally group an object, elements in a space-feature neighborhood need to be bound together starting from an attended location (Roelfsema, TICS, 2005). To perform visual search, candidate locations and cued features must be evaluated conjunctively to retrieve a target (Treisman&Gormican, Psychol Rev, 1988). Despite different requirements on binding, both tasks are solved by the same neural substrate. In a model of perceptual decision-making, we give a mechanistic explanation for how this can be achieved. The architecture consists of a visual cortex module and a higher-order thalamic module. While the …

Efficient Coding Of Local 2d Shape, James Elder, Timothy D. Oleskiw, Ingo Fruend, Gerick M. Lee, Andrew Sutter, Anitha Pasupathy, Eero Simoncelli, J Anthony Movshon, Lynne Kiorpes, Najib Majaj

MODVIS Workshop

Efficient coding provides a concise account of key early visual properties, but can it explain higher-level visual function such as shape perception? If curvature is a key primitive of local shape representation, efficient shape coding predicts that sensitivity of visual neurons should be determined by naturally-occurring curvature statistics, which follow a scale-invariant power-law distribution. To assess visual sensitivity to these power-law statistics, we developed a novel family of synthetic maximum-entropy shape stimuli that progressively match the local curvature statistics of natural shapes, but lack global structure. We find that humans can reliably identify natural shapes based on 4^th and …

Extravasated Brain-Reactive Autoantibodies Perturb Neuronal Surface Protein Expression In Alzheimer's Pathology, Wardah Bajwa, Mary Kosciuk, Randel L. Swanson, Anuradha Krishnan, Venkat Venkataraman, Robert Nagele, Nimish Acharya

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: Increased blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability is reported in both the neuropathological and in vivo studies in both Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and age matched cognitively normal, no cognitive impairment (NCI), subjects. Impaired BBB allows various vascular components such as immunoglobulin G (IgG) to extravasate into the brain and specifically bind to various neuronal surface proteins (NSP), also known as brain reactive autoantibodies (BrABs). This interaction is predicted to further enhance deposition of amyloid plaques.

Hypothesis: Interaction between extravasated BrABs and its cognate NSPs lower the expression of that NSPs in AD patients.

Methods: We selected Western blotting technique to study …

Swallowing Disrupts Tongue-Jaw Coordination During Chewing In A Rat Model Of Parkinson's Disease, Meejan Palhang, N. Charles, Francois Gould

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The primary motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, including bradykinesia, rigidity, and tremor, are associated with difficulties regulating transitions between motor behaviors due to basal ganglia dysfunction. Chewing and swallowing, which are disordered in most patients with Parkinson’s disease, are two complex motor behaviors which overlap in time and share some neuromuscular components. The objective of this study is to identify how Parkinson’s disease affects the coordination of chewing and swallowing. We hypothesize that as a result of impaired regulation of shift between motor patterns, chewing cycles that occur with a swallow will be more affected that chewing cycles occurring in …

Perinatal Experiences Of People With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Scoping Review, Tanvi Shah, Andrea Iannuzzelli, Venkateswar Venkataman

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that is diagnosed in early childhood, typically in people who are assigned male at birth. However, this diagnosis and the sensory and behavioral divergence that comes with ASD stay with people throughout their lives. Based on the DSM-V diagnostic criteria and the history of how Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders were first identified, many people who do not identify as male and/or present atypically do not receive a formal diagnosis until later in life or self-diagnose. This in turn has led to a lack of research in both populations that do not …

Discovering Distinct Patterns Of Alpha Activity In Adults With Inattentive Adhd Using Electroencephalography, Lucy Salter '23

Senior Research Symposium

According to data collected and analyzed by researchers, it has been estimated that roughly 8.7 million adults live with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), resulting in an estimated $122.8 billion in excess societal costs due to increased healthcare costs, unemployment, and loss of productivity all of which are linked to ADHD symptoms (Schein et al., 2022). Additionally, literature suggests that adult ADHD is associated with increased risk of imprisonment and substance abuse, decreased educational achievement, increased comorbid psychiatric conditions, and poorer clinical outcomes (Ginsberg et al., 2014). Although there is a relatively clearer understanding about ADHD in adolescents, particularly the hyperactive ADHD …

Music & Synesthesia: An Exploration Of Synesthesia And Its Relation To Musical Perception, Raquel S. Johnson

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

This research investigates synesthesia and its impact on musical perception. Synesthesia is the multimodal sensory phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sensory modality generates the experience of a second, otherwise unrelated sense. Discussed topics include: a description of synesthesia and its neurophysiological and perceptual characteristics, the historical conceptualization and documentation of synesthesia beginning with the ancient Greeks, and present-day scientific inquiry. This research explores three varying types of auditory synesthesia - chromesthesia (sound-to-color synesthesia), auditory-tactile synesthesia, and sound-gustatory/sound-olfactory synesthesia - and their multimodal sensory characteristics in relation to music. Prominent neurophysiological hypotheses regarding the existence of synesthesia are examined, …

345 - The Effects Of Alcohol And Ketogenic Diet On Working Memory In Mice, Kaitlyn Dufresne, Sophia Azurin, Allison Bechard

GREAT Day Posters

The ketogenic diet (KD) is a high fat, low carb diet which is growing in popularity as a possible method to improve working memory and prevent alcohol use disorder (AUD). We used a mouse model where half of the mice were fed a standard diet (SD) while the other half were fed the KD. All mice experienced a 7 week drinking period where they were introduced to alcohol for 2 hours, 3 days a week. We then tested the mice in a working memory task. We modeled working memory using the Barnes maze. Mice escaped to a target hole in …

116 - The Effects Of Tetrahydrocannabinol On Circadian Rhythmicity And The Response To Nicotine In Long-Evans Rats, Lauren Mac Taggart, Anna Hendricks, Joey Morgan, Vincent Markowski

GREAT Day Posters

The marijuana legalization trend promotes the notion that cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can be safe and effective medications for conditions such as insomnia. Unfortunately, exposure to THC during development has been shown to impair cognition and motor behavior in humans and laboratory animals. The current study used VitalView software and cage-top infrared activity monitors to quantify the effects of a range of THC doses on activity and circadian rhythms in adult rats that were exposed to THC throughout adolescence. Rats were further administered acute nicotine drug challenges to determine if THC altered the development of the acetylcholine neurotransmitter system. …

129 - Analysis Of Corpus Callosum And Ventricles In Brain Tissue Of Mk801/Cdppb Treated C57bl6/J Mice, Ryan Pelkey, Noah Massey, Evan Eshenaur, Zander Purcell, Vincent Markowski

GREAT Day Posters

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis depicts schizophrenia as a long-term consequence of aberrant development of the glutamate and dopamine neurotransmitter systems during the perinatal period. The drug MK-801 is a glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that produces schizophrenia-like symptoms in laboratory rodents when administered early in development. Our laboratory has been investigating whether CDPPB, a positive allosteric modulator of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5), would reverse the effects of MK-801. To test this, mice were first administered 0.25 mg/kg MK-801 as neonates, and later given 10.0 mg/kg CDBBD or saline during their juvenile period. Previously, our lab found that MK-801 produced …

126 - The Effects Of Perinatal Or Peripubertal Exposure To Tetrahydrocannabinol On Developmental Milestones, Motor Behavior, And Somatosensation In Rats, Anna Hendricks, Lindsey Toole, Allyson Surowick, Danielle Roemer, Vincent Markowski

GREAT Day Posters

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the primary psychoactive agent in marijuana, one of the most popular recreational drugs in the world. As the legalization trend in the U.S. expands, more women are consuming THC during pregnancy and more teens are experimenting with the drug. Unfortunately, the effects of THC on fetal and adolescent brain development are poorly understood. The current study was designed to identify the developmental and somatomotor effects of THC exposure. Long-Evans rats were assigned to one of two cohorts: prenatal exposure where pregnant rats were administered THC from gestational day 1 to postnatal day 21 or juvenile exposure where …

178 - Ketogenic Diet And Social Behavior In A Mouse Model Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Macy Kuebler, Abigail Grzeskowiak, Emily Trabulsi, Abigail Schwartzman, Gabrielle Skiba

GREAT Day Posters

Impaired social interaction is one of three key diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Other criteria for ASD include repetitive behavior and impaired communication skills. This developmental condition is increasing within the United States, yet no cure is currently available. Ketogenic diet (KD) is a high fat, low carb diet proven to help many neurological issues in humans and reduce repetitive behavior in the mouse model. This study uses a FVB mouse model predisposed to developing stereotypical behaviors, specifically, repetitive circling to investigate the effects of KD on social and repetitive behavior. Subjects were old and young mice fed …

Evaluation Of Concussion Assessment Tools For Collegiate Athletes, Jacqueline D. Villanueva Arevalo, Emily R. Brown

Student Scholar Showcase

BACKGROUND: Due to the increase in sports-related concussions in the United States, there is a rising concern about concussion assessments in collegiate athletes with regard to long term vestibular ocular motor dysfunction and post-concussion syndrome.

PURPOSE: Due to varying practices in concussion diagnosis, this systematic review analyzed three concussion diagnostic instruments, The King Devick, Screening Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT-5), and Vestibular Oculomotor Screening Tool (VOMS), to determine the most appropriate instrument(s) for reducing vestibular ocular-motor dysfunction and post-concussion symptoms in collegiate athletes.

METHODS: Nested Knowledge was used to identify articles from PubMed, Europe Pubmed Central, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. Key search …

Intellectual Disability Related To De Novo Germline Loss Of The Distal End Of The P-Arm Of Chromosome 17: A Case Report, Eden Pope, Matthew Huertas, Amar Paul, Braden Cunningham, Matthew Jennings, Ryan Perry, Stephanie Chavez, John A. Kriak, Kyle B. Bills, David W. Sant

Annual Research Symposium

Hypothesis/Purpose: In this report we present a case of a 20-year-old female with congenital intellectual disability, stunted growth, and hypothyroidism. Competitive genetic hybridization (CHG) revealed a loss of 17p13.3, and the deletion was not present in either parent. This deletion has not previously been characterized, but mutations on the p-arm of chromosome 17 are responsible for Miller-Dieker Syndrome and Isolated Lissencephaly Sequence, both of which share symptoms in common with the patient.

Methods: Peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were used for karyotyping and competitive genetic hybridization (CHG). Bioinformatic analysis was carried out using the Genome Data Viewer (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/gdv).

Results: Karyotype was …