Behavioral Neurobiology Commons^™

Biophysical Model Of Retraction Motor Neurons And Their Modification By Operant Conditioning, Maria Rasheed

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Operant conditioning (OC) is a form of associative learning in which an animal modifies its behavior based on the consequences that follow that behavior. Despite its ubiquity, the underlying mechanisms of OC are poorly understood. Insights into the mechanisms of OC can be obtained by studying Aplysia feeding behavior as it can be modified by OC. This behavior is mediated by a central pattern generator (CPG) network in the buccal ganglia that contains a relatively small number of neurons. This CPG generates rhythmic motor patterns (BMPs) that move food into the gut by closing a tongue-like structure (i.e., radula) during …

Sleep Duration Is Associated With Caudate Volume And Executive Function, Nicole Jones

Honors Theses

The ineligible role of the caudate nucleus in sleep has been implicated throughout multiple scientific studies. Previous literature has shown that greater caudate volume is associated with longer habitual sleep duration in older adults- ranging from 55 years of age and up. However, the association between sleep duration and caudate volume remains unknown in the younger population. In this study, we examined the caudate volume in youth to older adults (10 to 85 years old) with a greater sample size (N=464) to increase statistical power. The volumetric size of the caudate nucleus showed significantly positive association with habitual sleep duration, …

The Impacts Of Immune Challenges On Fish Behavior And Physiology, Teisha King

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For species living in dominance hierarchies, social rank dictates access to resources and often contributes to reproductive success. To ensure survival, individuals constantly evaluate trade- offs between crucial biological systems, like the reproductive and immune systems, depending on their social rank and physiological state. Little is known about how social species balance interactions between immune system function, fluctuations in social status and reproductive fitness, and the performance of behaviors necessary for maintaining social status when sick, particularly in fishes, the largest and most diverse group of vertebrates. My dissertation research uses a whole animal approach to examine how physiological profiles …

Sense And Sensitivity: Spatial Structure Of Conspecific Signals During Social Interaction, Keshav Ramachandra

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Organisms rely on sensory systems to gather information about their environment. Localizing the source of a signal is key in guiding the behavior of the animal successfully. Localization mechanisms must cope with the challenges of representing the spatial information of weak, noisy signals. In this dissertation, I investigate the spatial dynamics of natural stimuli and explore how the electrosensory system of weakly electric fish encodes these realistic spatial signals. To do so In Chapter 2, I develop a model that examines the strength of the signal as it reaches the sensory array and simulates the responses of the receptors. The …

Oral Contraceptives And Affective Disorders: Neurobiology And Informed Choice, Sophia Mae Drezner

Scripps Senior Theses

Pregnancy prevention and female reproductive freedom have been some of the most contested political issues for decades. Abortion, a fundamental part of women’s healthcare, divides liberals and conservatives on an international scale. The consequences of unintended pregnancy without safe and reliable contraception are widespread, disproportionately impacting women of color, trans and non-binary folks, and poorer communities. The birth control pill is the most common form of oral contraception (OC) globally. Many people with ovaries begin the pill or other hormonal contraceptive (HC) methods as young as 11 years old. Exogenous progesterone and estrogen are known to impact mood, affect, physiology, …

Non-Photic Mechanisms Of Entrainment In Bmal1 Deficient Conditions, Jamie Tran

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Maintaining our internal circadian (i.e. 24 -hour) clock is imperative to our daily biological and mental well-being. Large epidemiological studies have shown that disruptions of our circadian rhythms can lead to poor mental health, metabolic diseases, and various types of cancer. Various external cues that have become a part of the modern times such as electricity, shift -work, rapid travel across various time zones, easier access to nutritionally unbalanced food items, and various rigid social demands have deleterious effects on our internal clock, and generally reduce robustness of the circadian clock. The two following projects aim to examine two fundamental …

Regaining Effort-Based Food Motivation: The Drug Methylphenidate Reverses The Depressive Effects Of Tetrabenazine In Female Rats, Deanna Pietrorazio

Honors Scholar Theses

Tetrabenazine (TBZ), a vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 (VMAT-2) inhibitor, depletes dopamine and induces motivational deficits and other depressive symptoms in humans. Methylphenidate (MPH) is a dopamine transport blocker that is used to enhance motivational function. Previous studies have shown that in male rats, TBZ induces a shift in effort-related choice such that a low-effort bias is induced. In male rats this occurs at a dose range of 0.75-1.0 mg/kg TBZ, and this effect is reversible with co-administration of MPH. Recent studies have shown that females need a higher dose of TBZ (2.0 mg/kg) to show the low-effort bias. The …

Use Of Intramodal Odor Cues In Shelter Recognition By An Amblypygid, Nathan Bostelman

Honors Projects

Amblypygids are nocturnal arthropods which live in cluttered habitats and possess the ability to navigate home after displacements of up to ten meters. Homing amblypygids rely on olfactory and tactile information gathered by their antenniform legs to navigate successfully. Given that odor signals encountered in nature are complex and dynamic, navigation via olfaction presents unique challenges related to signal uncertainty. To understand how amblypygids perceive perceive complex odors and what they learn from them, individuals of the subtropical amblypygid P. marginemaculatus were trained to associate a blend of two odors with a shelter and tested on three treatments: the reinforced …

Alzheimer's And Patient Caregiver Burnout: A Review Of The Literature, Madeline Hekeler

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

The term “silent epidemic” is fitting for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as its negative impact is widely felt but rarely discussed. Burnout among AD caregivers has become an epidemic of its own as caregivers experience an increase in health risks, stress, and financial burden. This literature review focuses on caregiver burnout and how imperative it is that caregivers are better supported in their role. Researchers have developed instruments to assess and intervene in caregiver burnout that have shown effectiveness among caregivers and their families.Nevertheless, further longitudinal research is warranted regarding more effective interventions, including stress management and social support mechanisms.

Self-Conscious Emotions And The Right Fronto-Temporal And Right Temporal Parietal Junction, Adriana Lavarco, Nathira Ahmad, Qiana Archer, Matthew Pardillo, Ray Nunez Castaneda, Anthony Minervini, Julian Keenan

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

For more than two decades, research focusing on both clinical and non-clinical populations has suggested a key role for specific regions in the regulation of self-conscious emotions. It is speculated that both the expression and the interpretation of self-conscious emotions are critical in humans for action planning and response, communication, learning, parenting, and most social encounters. Empathy, Guilt, Jealousy, Shame, and Pride are all categorized as self-conscious emotions, all of which are crucial components to one’s sense of self. There has been an abundance of evidence pointing to the right Fronto-Temporal involvement in the integration of cognitive processes underlying the …

Chronic Adolescent Stress As A Predictive Factor For The Risk Of Developing Ptsd-Like Symptoms In Adulthood, Grace K. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a stress and trauma based psychological disorder that is defined by the DSM-IV as an anxiety disorder that affects approximately 7.8% of people in the United States. PTSD is when those who suffer a traumatic event have intense and distressing feelings, emotions, and memories for a prolonged period of time after the event. A prominent feature of PTSD is the impaired ability to properly extinguish a fear response after a dangerous trigger or stressor is no longer present, also known as safety learning. Stressors are threats perceived within the environment that activate a response within the …

Estrogen Modulation Of Vta Dopamine Neuron Physiology And Behavioral Responsivity To Variable Social Stressors, Mary R. Shanley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The behavioral output of different animals, or even the same animal in different contexts, is remarkably variable in response to the same external stimulus. This behavioral diversity is due to the complex integration of external and internal stimuli, through both neuronal and hormonal signals that selects the best behavioral response. By their nature as long-distance signaling molecules, hormones play a critical role in communicating information about internal states across the organism. Many hormones produced in the periphery target the central nervous system to modulate animal behavior, selecting for behaviors that are appropriate over behaviors that are maladaptive in that specific …

Having A High-Activity Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Allele Is Associated With Elevated Anxiety And Lower Salivary Dehydroepiandrosterone But Also Lower Alpha Amylase In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome., Jessie Beebe

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) results from a hemizygous deletion located on the long arm of chromosome 22. The most common deletion sizes affect between 30 and 90 genes. Individuals with 22q11.2DS may develop serious developmental and psychiatric disorders. The phenotype is highly variable, however, and may be influenced by allelic variation of the retained copies of genes covered by the deletion. I set out to examine the effects of two genes, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and proline dehydrogenase (PRODH), in relation to anxiety in children and adolescents with 22q11.2DS. Individuals with the major COMT allele (higher activity) have significantly higher anxiety …

Neurotranscriptomic Changes Associated With Chick-Directed Parental Care In Adult Non-Reproductive Japanese Quail, Patricia C. Lopes, Robert De Brujin

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

For many species, parental care critically affects offspring survival. But what drives animals to display parental behaviours towards young? In mammals, pregnancy-induced physiological transformations seem key in preparing the neural circuits that lead towards attraction (and reduced-aggression) to young. Beyond mammalian maternal behaviour, knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie young-directed parental care is severely lacking. We took advantage of a domesticated bird species, the Japanese quail, for which parental behaviour towards chicks can be induced in virgin non-reproductive adults through a sensitization procedure, a process that is not effective in all animals. We used the variation in parental responses …

The Neurological Asymmetry Of Self-Face Recognition, Aleksandra Janowska, Brianna Balugas, Matthew Pardillo, Victoria Mistretta, Katherine Chavarria, Janet Brenya, Taylor Shelansky, Vanessa Martinez, Kitty Pagano, Nathira Ahmad, Samantha Zorns, Abigail Straus, Sarah Sierra, Julian Keenan

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

While the desire to uncover the neural correlates of consciousness has taken numerous directions, self-face recognition has been a constant in attempts to isolate aspects of self-awareness. The neuroimaging revolution of the 1990s brought about systematic attempts to isolate the underlying neural basis of self-face recognition. These studies, including some of the first fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) examinations, revealed a right-hemisphere bias for self-face recognition in a diverse set of regions including the insula, the dorsal frontal lobe, the temporal parietal junction, and the medial temporal cortex. In this systematic review, we provide confirmation of these data (which are …

Rhythm Of The Night: Brain Activity And Performance On A Sustained Attention Task Is Modulated By Circadian Typology And Time Of Day, Carly R. Cooper

Honors Thesis

The human circadian system plays an important role in biological and psychological processes in both health and disease. Circadian typology refers to individual differences in circadian rhythm and is categorized into three general chronotypes: morning, evening, and neither. Research suggests that an individual’s diurnal preference may be associated with differences in cognitive abilities, personality traits, and incidence of psychiatric disorders. In the present study, we utilized a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and an electroencephalogram (EEG) in a desynchrony protocol. Morning-type and evening-type participants completed a SART task on two separate occasions during which brain activity was recorded. This …

Corticospinal Excitability During A Perspective Taking Task As Measured By Tms-Induced Motor Evoked Potentials, Elizabeth Murray, Janet Brenya, Katherine Chavarria, Karen J. Kelly, Anjel Fierst, Nathira Ahmad, Caroline Anton, Layla Shaffer, Kairavi Kapila, Logan Driever, Kayla Weaver, Caroline Dial, Maya Crawford, Iso Hartman, Tommy Infantino, Fiona Butler, Abigail Straus, Shakeera L. Walker, Brianna Balugas, Matthew Pardillo, Briana Goncalves, Julian Keenan

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Only by understanding the ability to take a third-person perspective can we begin to elucidate the neural processes responsible for one’s inimitable conscious experience. The current study examined differences in hemispheric laterality during a first-person perspective (1PP) and third-person perspective (3PP) taking task, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Participants were asked to take either the 1PP or 3PP when identifying the number of spheres in a virtual scene. During this task, single-pulse TMS was delivered to the motor cortex of both the left and right hemispheres of 10 healthy volunteers. Measures of TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) of the contralateral abductor …

The Influence Of Autism Linked Gene Topoisomerase 3b (Top3b) On Neural Development In Zebrafish, Sydney Doolittle

Honors College Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a class of developmental disabilities characterized by a spectrum of social, communication, and behavioral impairments in affected individuals. Studies have shown these defects stem from abnormal brain development during critical periods during early development. The underlying genetic cause of these impairments is not well understood but is believed to be a combination of a complex pairing of genetic and environmental factors. One of the genetic factors that has been recognized to influence the phenotypic symptoms of ASD is the enzyme topoisomerase 3β (top3β.) Topoisomerases are responsible for the prevention of supercoiling during DNA replication. Top3β is …

Functional Regionalization In The Fly Eye As An Adaptation To Habitat Structure, Carlos A. Ruiz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With over 150,000 described species, flies constitute one of the most species-rich groups of animals on earth, and have managed to colonize almost every corner of it. Part of their success comes from their amazing flying skills, which are strongly tied to their visual capabilities. To navigate fast and accurately through their habitats, they must be able to process the inordinate amounts of visual information necessary to sort obstacles, avoid predators and remain on course. Surprisingly, despite their tiny brains, flies have no problem in processing all that information to generate correcting maneuvers in just about 30 ms. To this …

Estrogen Disruption Of Hypothalamic Neural Activity, Princess Dickson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The brain is highly dependent on the endocrine system for proper neurodevelopment, as it plays a key role in many biological processes. Bisphenol A is a chemical found in plastics that has the potential to mimic the effects of Estrogen in the body, at least weakly. People interact with plastic that contains BPA regularly, and people are at risk for exposure even before being born. The abundance of BPA, along with other exogenous estrogens, makes examining the relationship between early exposure and changes in brain activity imperative. The current study aims to establish a relationship between disrupted estrogen function and …

Spirituality As A Moderator Between Ptss And Cardiovascular Reactivity, Kriti Sharda

Honors Scholar Theses

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can be distressing and produce robust cardiovascular symptoms, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, which have been implicated in higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Identifying factors that may reduce symptoms may suggest therapeutic strategies. One such potential factor is spirituality, given that spirituality is associated with both reducing PTSS and with preventing or improving CVD. We sampled 63 young college women who indicated being exposed to unwanted sexual contact. We asked them to write about their experience while we took heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) …

The Effects Of Adolescent Chronic Mild Stress: In Female Wistar-Kyoto Rats, Anna Hallowell

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Despite years of research to understand under-lying mechanisms and develop more effective treatment approaches for mood disorders, numerous challenges exist. Many chronic stress models are used to study mood disorders, how-ever the majority have been established with adult males. This is problematic considering that affective disorders are more common in women, and generally develop during late adolescence. Studies have indicated fundamental behavioral, physiological, and neural differences between males and females in response to the same external stressors, furthering a need to develop sex-specific paradigms to accurately model the etiology of mood disorders in females. The Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat strain is …

Preliminary Evidence Of The Role Of Medial Prefrontal Cortex In Self-Enhancement: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study, Birgitta Taylor-Lillquist, Vivek Kanpa, Maya Crawford, Mehdi El Filali, Julia Oakes, Alex Jonasz, Amanda Disney, Julian Keenan

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Humans employ a number of strategies to improve their position in their given social hierarchy. Overclaiming involves presenting oneself as having more knowledge than one actually possesses, and it is typically invoked to increase one’s social standing. If increased expectations to possess knowledge is a perceived social pressure, such expectations should increase bouts of overclaiming. As the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is sensitive to social pressure and disruption of the MPFC leads to decreases in overclaiming, we predicted that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the MPFC would reduce overclaiming and the effects would be enhanced in the presence of …

Wild Mice With Different Social Network Sizes Vary In Brain Gene Expression, Patricia C. Lopes, Barbara König

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Appropriate social interactions influence animal fitness by impacting several processes, such as mating, territory defense, and offspring care. Many studies shedding light on the neurobiological underpinnings of social behavior have focused on nonapeptides (vasopressin, oxytocin, and homologues) and on sexual or parent-offspring interactions. Furthermore, animals have been studied under artificial laboratory conditions, where the consequences of behavioral responses may not be as critical as when expressed under natural environments, therefore obscuring certain physiological responses. We used automated recording of social interactions of wild house mice outside of the breeding season to detect individuals at both tails of a distribution …

Behavioral Ecology Of A Desert Ambush Predator: Assessing Movement Patterns, Habitat And Microhabitat Use, And The Innate Feeding Response Of Eastern Black-Tailed Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Ornatus) In The Northern Chihuahuan Desert, James Emerson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research on the ecology and evolution of rattlesnakes has been sporadic over the past 80 years, but has seen recent expansion into the diverse fields of physiology, physiological ecology, life history, behavioral ecology, ethology, reproductive biology, chemical ecology, venom biochemistry and medicine, conservation, and many other subdisciplines. The development of small, implantable VHF radiotransmitters in the 1980s revolutionized research in the field of behavioral ecology for rattlesnakes, which are uniquely suited for radiotelemetry studies because they possess several morphological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics that are unique among terrestrial vertebrates. The widespread application of radiotelemetry by the mid-1980s advanced the model …

The Role Of Melatonin In Biological Rhythms Of Songbirds, Clifford E. Harpole

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

In vertebrates, melatonin is a hormone that is produced and secreted at night and inhibited by light. This unique “darkness-only” expression profile makes it an intellectually appealing candidate for a means of transmitting temporal information to an individual, both time of day and time of year.

In passerine birds, “time of day” information is certainly transmitted via melatonin secretion. The primary producer of systemic melatonin in this family of birds is the pineal gland, and surgical removal of it causes a bird to become arrhythmic in constant conditions. I find that as pinealectomized house sparrows (Passer domesticus) become …

The Genetics Of Olfactory And Visually Guided Attractive Behaviors In Aedes Aegypti Mosquito, Joshua Ibukun Raji

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mosquitoes detect their hosts and seek suitable resources crucial for survival by integrating chemosensory, thermal, and visual cues. The diversity of the cues involved in mosquito attractive behaviors has made the design of behavioral control strategies a challenge. The genetic basis of mosquito attractive behaviors can now be determined using genome editing. The contribution of the IR8a chemosensory pathway was uncovered by disrupting the IR8a co- receptor in Aedes aegypti using CRISPR/Cas9. Ir8a mutant female mosquitoes are not attracted to lactic acid, a behaviorally active component of human sweat, and lack odor-evoked responses to acidic volatiles. The loss of Ir8a …

Jet Lag: What’S Light Got To Do With It?, Melissa Richardson

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Jet lag results in memory loss and sleepiness. Current treatments for jet lag focus on symptoms and not the cause of jet lag; disrupted light environment. This study in mice, uncovered mechanisms of how light regulates jet lag recovery and memory. This work informs our future studies in humans.

The 5-Ht1a-R Knockout Mouse As A Model Of Later Life Anxiety Disorders: Implications For Sex Differences, Tatyana Budylin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anxiety affects nearly twice as many women as it affects men across all cultures and economic groups. Importantly, girls have a higher chance of inheriting anxiety disorders than boys, and many anxiety disorders appear at a very young age. However, little is known about sex differences in brain and behavioral development and how they relate to anxiety in adulthood. Serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT_1A-R) mediated signaling has been implicated in depression and anxiety, however most studies that focus on the involvement of the 5-HT_1A-R have been conducted in adults. Little is known about how the 5-HT_{1A …}

Law And Biology: Toward An Integrated Model Of Human Behavior, Owen D. Jones

Owen Jones

As first year law students unhappily discover, the meaning of "law" is frustratingly protean, shifting by usage and user. Depending on whom you ask, law is a system of rules, a body of precedents, a legislative enactment, a collection of norms, a process by which social goals are pursued, or some dynamic mixture of these. Law's principal purpose is to define and protect individual rights, to ensure public order, to resolve disputes, to redistribute wealth, to dispense justice, to prevent or compensate for injury, to optimize economic efficiency, or perhaps to do something else. And yet one thing is irreducibly …