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Behavioral Neurobiology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Behavioral Neurobiology

Influences Of Salvinorin A And Sex Differences On Depressive- And Anxiety-Like Behaviors In A Chronic Mild Stress Paradigm, Sarah Mitchell Apr 2020

Influences Of Salvinorin A And Sex Differences On Depressive- And Anxiety-Like Behaviors In A Chronic Mild Stress Paradigm, Sarah Mitchell

Theses

Kappa opioid receptors are colocalized with dopamine receptors and are frequently associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and drug use and abuse. KOR antagonism has widely been considered anti-depressive and anxiolytic in animal models while agonism is pro-depressive and anxiogenic. However, recent findings suggest that SalvA, a natural kappa agonist derived from a plant in the mint family, can reduce depressive- and anxiety-like behavior in rats. The current study investigated the effects of chronic mild stress on behavior, attenuation by SalvA, and sex differences. 52 Long-Evans rats, 26 males and 26 females, were exposed to six weeks of CMS. Animals received …


Ketamine Pre-Exposure Does Not Influence Later-Life Responses To Reward-Related Stimuli In Female C57bl/6 Mice, Israel Garcia Jan 2020

Ketamine Pre-Exposure Does Not Influence Later-Life Responses To Reward-Related Stimuli In Female C57bl/6 Mice, Israel Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Preclinical work indicates that exposure to traditional antidepressant medications, in adolescent and adult female subjects, alters reward-related behavior later in life. In recent years, the anesthetic ketamine (KET), now used as a fast-acting antidepressant, has shown promising therapeutic efficacy for the management of depression. However, the potential long-term behavioral consequences of KET exposure across development have not been thoroughly assessed. Thus, to address this issue, we examined if KET exposure, during adolescence or early adulthood, results in enduring alterations in responsivity to the rewarding properties of sucrose and cocaine later in life. Specifically, female C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to …


Effort-Related Motivational Dysfunctions: Behavioral And Neurochemical Studies Of The Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model Of Depression, Brendan Abbott Jul 2018

Effort-Related Motivational Dysfunctions: Behavioral And Neurochemical Studies Of The Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model Of Depression, Brendan Abbott

Masters Theses

Depression and related disorders are characterized by motivational dysfunctions, including deficits in behavioral activation and exertion of effort. Animal models of relevance to depression represent a critical starting point in elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying motivational dysfunctions. The present study explored the use of the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) animal model of depression to examine effort-related functions as measured by voluntary wheel running and performance on a mixed fixed ratio 5/progressive ratio (FR5/PR) operant task. Given the known link between activational aspects of motivation and the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system, the behavioral effects of d-amphetamine (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg, IP), a psychostimulant …


Associations Between Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis System Gene Variants And Cortisol Reactivity In Preschoolers: Main Effects And Gene-Environment Interactions, Haroon I. Sheikh Jun 2014

Associations Between Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis System Gene Variants And Cortisol Reactivity In Preschoolers: Main Effects And Gene-Environment Interactions, Haroon I. Sheikh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Exposure to stressful events during early development has consistently been shown to produce long lasting effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which may increase vulnerability to mood and anxiety disorders. Recently reported genetic association studies indicate that these disorders may be influenced, in part, by gene-environment interactions (GxE) involving polymorphisms within the corticotrophin-releasing hormone and monoaminergic system genes. However, little is known about how genetic variants and life stress work to shape children’s neuroendocrine reactivity and emerging symptoms. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to examine main effects of candidate genes and GxE on the neuroendocrine stress response and …