Behavioral Neurobiology Commons^™

Cerebellum-Seeded Functional Connectivity Changes In Trait-Anxious Individuals Undergoing Attention Bias Modification Training, Katherine Elwell

All NMU Master's Theses

Anxiety and anxiety related disorders are increasing at a drastic rate in the past decade, with the NIMH reporting that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Anxiety is commonly characterized by increased attention bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a new treatment used to reduce individual’s attention bias towards threat. The extent to which ABM leads to underlying neural changes is still unknown. The cerebellum is a neglected brain structure, with new research provides evidence that cerebellum’s functional connectivity and shared networks with threat processing regions has a direct …

Circuits Underlying Serotonin Mediated Sex Differences In Fear Learning, Rebecca Ravenelle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-related disorder characterized by intense fearful memory formation. Women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD, indicating there may be sex differences in the underlying neural circuits. Given that serotonin (5-HT) dysfunction is implicated in PTSD, and 5-HT modulates fear learning, we investigated whether there are sex differences in the modulation of fear learning by 5-HT. We administered the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram (20mg/kg or 10m/kg, i.p.) once to male and female mice prior to auditory fear conditioning and tested the effects on fear memory the next day. We found …

Attentional Dysfunction In Schizophrenia: The Effects Of Dual Orexin Receptor Blockade On An Nmda Receptor Hypofunction Model, Paige Little

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hypofunctionality at the N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) is a commonly used model of the neurodevelopmental disorder schizophrenia due to the complex circuitry changes that follow NMDAR blockade. While these animal models are very popular for modeling the cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia, actual treatments for this disorder remain sparse. Orexins (hypocretins) are neuropeptides that are capable of modulating activity along pathways relevant to attention, but are rarely tested for their efficacy in attenuating attentional dysfunction. This study was conducted to determine if systemic administration of the dual orexin receptor antagonist filorexant (MK-6096) was able to attenuate sustained attentional dysfunction induced …

The Neurobiological Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment And Major Depressive Disorder (Mdd), Morgan Clinton

Global Tides

Childhood maltreatment compromises healthy development, impacts neurobiology, and is associated with lasting alterations to emotional perception, processing, and regulation. Most significantly, childhood maltreatment increases the risk for later development of emotional disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD). The stress associated with both childhood maltreatment and MDD can lead to lasting alterations to the fronto-limbic circuitry. Using functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have observed hippocampal atrophy and amygdala hyperresponsiveness in participants who’ve experienced both childhood maltreatment and MDD. Furthermore, researchers have also observed increased connectivity between the hippocampus and amygdala in victims of childhood maltreatment. Because childhood maltreatment …

Developmental Influences On The Initial Subjective Rewarding Effects Of Etoh, Madison Waldron

Master’s Theses

The present studies were aimed to better understand developmental contributions to the risk for disordered drinking, and facilitate the long-term goal of developing effective interventions for individuals at high risk for alcohol use disorders. Experiment 1 assessed the effect of adolescent pre-exposure to ethanol on adult place preference, as well as, sex- and beta-endorphin(bE)-related contributions. Adolescent C57BL/6J and bE deficient mice were injected with 1.5g/kg of ethanol or saline and put back into their home cages. At the time of adulthood, we employed a single-exposure conditioned place preference paradigm (SE-CPP) to investigate the impact of preexposure on the initial subjective …

The Inevitability Of Collision: Creating Empathy Through Fiction, Danielle Beckman

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

While the stigma for mental illnesses has greatly declined in the last decade, there is still a disconnect between individuals without neurological illnesses and those with neurological illnesses, especially those that cause individuals to lose contact with reality. The goal of this interdisciplinary paper is to create empathy for these individuals, specifically people with schizophrenia, Alzheimer disease, and post-traumatic amnesia. Through a collection of four stories told from the perspective of these unreliable narrators, I used fiction writing techniques from the field of cognitive literary studies such as gapping and defamiliarization to create more empathy in the reader. In reading …

Pharmacokinetics And Reward-Related Behaviors Of Ethanol In Male And Female Japanese Quail (Coturnix Japonica), Shannon Eaton

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Ethanol is one of the most widely used and abused drugs. Problem use is associated with many different health problems and the economic burden is in the billions of dollars. Additionally, many people have difficulty controlling their ethanol consumption and about 5% of adults end up with an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Many people with an AUD often find themselves in a cycle of binge, remission, and relapse.

Following ethanol consumption ethanol enters the bloodstream from the small intestine where it gets distributed to peripheral tissues. Ethanol in the bloodstream is cleared from the system by the liver. The primary …