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 …

Automatic Analysis Of The Frequency, Vigor, And Complexity Of Spontaneous Locomotion Bouts Of Mice With Loss And Gain Of Function Of The G Protein-Coupled Receptor Smoothened In Cholinergic Neurons, Aleksandra Feshchenko

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Locomotion, a fundamental behavior, is classically assessed using simple metrics of velocity and total distance moved in an open field. This behavior however offers rich data about the organization and breadth of actions an animal can take while only facing limitations due to the bio-mechanical constraints of the organism. Importantly, these actions are not biased towards a particular task-solution space imposed by many behavioral paradigms. Here, to analyze motor complexity in freely ambulating mice, we developed a method for the automatic and unbiased identification of locomotor bouts which we call Bout Finder (BF). This analysis utilizes Open Feld data to …

Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modelling Of Healthy Swallowing, Chris R. Tilton

Honors Theses and Capstones

A quantitative, voxel-wise meta-analysis was performed to investigate the brain regions involved in healthy human swallowing. Studies included in the meta-analysis (1) examined water swallowing, saliva swallowing, or both, (2) included healthy, normal subjects, and (3) reported stereotaxic brain activation coordinates in standard space. Following these criteria, a systematic literature review identified 8 studies that met the criteria. An activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis and meta-analytic connectivity modelling (MACM) analysis were performed with BrainMap software. Ten clusters with high activation likelihood were found in the bilateral precentral gyri, right insula, left declive, right medial frontal gyrus, right dorsal nucleus of …

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 …

Sex-Specific Effects Of Chaperone And Glial Defenses On Experimental Lewy Body Disease, Tarun Bhatia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lewy body disorders are a group of neurodegenerative conditions characterized by the pathological misfolding and aggregation of the abundant protein, α-synuclein. The most common Lewy body disorders are Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Apart from ageing, male sex is a major risk factor for Lewy body disorders, as men are at ~1.5-fold higher risk for these diseases than women. Yet, preclinical studies on Lewy body disorders rarely examine sex as a biological variable, and the mechanisms underlying sex-skewedness in disease risk remain undetermined.

Here, we developed a sex-stratified model of Lewy body disorders by exposing primary neurons harvested …

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 …

The Effects Of Venlafaxine And Voluntary Exercise On Chronic Unpredictable Stress Induced Anxiety, Marly Mcgowan

Senior Independent Study Theses

Anxiety disorders can impair cognition and emotional control, particularly in the face of novel situations, which is concerning due to the high prevalence of such diagnoses. Exposure to unpredictable chronic stress can provide a way to induce anxiety-like behaviors in rodents by disrupting the stress response systems, including the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system. Pharmacological treatments, including SNRIs like venlafaxine, and voluntary exercise are both anxiolytic treatments that can alleviate the impacts of chronic stress. Using unpredictable chronic stress to mimic the human condition, and exposure to venlafaxine and exercise to mitigate the stress, the open field and elevated …

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 …

Psychedelics Can Save: The Scientific And Social Case For Rescheduling Psychedelic Compounds, Galen M. Fader

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

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 …

Targeting The Cerebrovasculature In Sepsis: A Focus On The Brain Microvascular Endothelium, Divine C. Nwafor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a critical interface between the systemic circulation and the brain. It is a specialized multicellular unit composed of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs), pericytes, a basement membrane, and astrocytic end foot processes. BMECs are a principal component of the BBB that provide the structural framework needed for the stringent transport of molecules into the brain. BMEC dysfunction permits the trafficking of neurotoxins from systemic circulation into the brain, which ultimately exacerbates BBB dysfunction and neuroinflammation. Studies have shown that BBB dysfunction is a key determinant of cognitive decline in sepsis. However, there are critical knowledge …

Historical Trauma Response Scores As A Function Of Unresolved Grief And Substance Use Disorder In American Indian Populations, Andrew R. Saunders

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Abstract

Researchers are interested in the outcomes of interventions, specifically, measuring historical trauma (HT) among American Indian/Alaska Native communities and the long-term distress and substance abuse as a result of historical trauma response (HTR). Previous literature has implicated limitations in the clinical conceptualization of the relationship between intergenerational transfer of HTR and substance abuse. The aim of the current study is to examine treatment efficacy of 50 homosexual, American Indian males randomized to a culturally-adapted juxtaposition of (1) Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), (2) Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and (3) Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief Intervention (HTUG), or (4) waitlisted on …

Sexually Dimorphic Oxytocin Receptor-Expressing Neurons In The Anteroventral Periventricular Nucleus Regulates Maternal Behavior, Kaustubh Sharma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The neurohypophysial hormone oxytocin is involved in the regulation of social behaviors, including social recognition, pair bonding, and sex-specific parental behaviors in a variety of species. Oxytocin triggers these social behaviors by binding to oxytocin receptors (OXTR) in various parts of the brain. Oxytocin-induced sex-typical behavior, therefore, suggests a sexual dimorphic distribution of OXTR in the brain. In recent years, the oxytocin system in the brain received tremendous attention as a potential pharmacological target for treatment of many psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, autism spectrum disorders, and even sex-specific psychiatric disorder like postpartum depression (PPD). An important problem and a …

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 …

Detection Of Tinnitus In Cba/Caj Mice Using The Active Avoidance Shuttle Box Test, Grace Nichols

University Scholar Projects

Tinnitus is a neurological condition that involves the perception of a sound that is not actually there. Individuals affected with tinnitus describe the condition as a ringing, buzzing, or whooshing sound in their ears. One-third of the population is estimated to have tinnitus, and for many individuals, the condition negatively impacts quality of life. Difficulty falling asleep, trouble with hearing and concentrating, and in some cases, depression, have all been observed to occur with tinnitus.

Tinnitus has been extensively studied in animals, and behavioral tests are the primary method of evaluating the presence of tinnitus in animals. This study evaluates …

Detection Of Tinnitus In Cba/Caj Mice Using The Active Avoidance Shuttle Box Test, Grace Nichols

Honors Scholar Theses

Tinnitus is a neurological condition that involves the perception of a sound that is not actually there. Individuals affected with tinnitus describe the condition as a ringing, buzzing, or whooshing sound in their ears. One-third of the population is estimated to have tinnitus, and for many individuals, the condition negatively impacts quality of life. Difficulty falling asleep, trouble with hearing and concentrating, and in some cases, depression, have all been observed to occur with tinnitus.

Tinnitus has been extensively studied in animals, and behavioral tests are the primary method of evaluating the presence of tinnitus in animals. This study evaluates …

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 …

Sensory Perception, Adrian Rodriguez-Contreras

Open Educational Resources

Different types of sensory systems with their functional modalities will be presented. The biological bases for how these functions are generated and modified will then be described. As vision is the principal means of perception, we will focus in this course most on visual processing. Scientific data will be integrated into the lectures, such that students develop critical skills in analyzing data and proposing hypotheses.

Development Of An Intrahippocampal Kindling Model Of Epilepsy, Carter F. Jones

Senior Theses and Projects

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects about 1% of the global population. This debilitating condition is associated with overexcitation and ineffective inhibition of neuronal pathways in the brain causing serious and a diverse set of symptoms, most prominently seizures. While some antiepileptic drug (AED) regimes have been proven to be effective in treating this condition, there are many cases where the drugs do not do enough. The ketogenic diet (KD) has been used for decades as an effective anticonvulsant. Its powerful and natural processes result in some patients becoming seizure-free. Sometimes, these patients remain free of seizures even after …

Getting A Grip On Memory: Unilateral Hand Clenching Alters Episodic Recall, Ruth E. Propper, Sean E. Mcgraw, Tad T. Brunyé

Ruth Propper

Unilateral hand clenching increases neuronal activity in the frontal lobe of the contralateral hemisphere. Such hand clenching is also associated with increased experiencing a given hemisphere’s “mode of processing.” Together, these findings suggest that unilateral hand clenching can be used to test hypotheses concerning the specializations of the cerebral hemispheres during memory encoding and retrieval. We investigated this possibility by testing the effects of a unilateral hand clenching on episodic memory. The hemispheric Encoding/Retrieval Asymmetry (HERA) model proposes left prefrontal regions are associated with encoding, and right prefrontal regions with retrieval, of episodic memories. It was hypothesized that right-hand clenching …

Contextually Modulated Avoidance Behavior In Rats Post-Pavlovian Extinction, Lauren Branigan

Theses and Dissertations

The following study sought to examine the psychological substrates of renewal (e.g.., context dependent extinction processes) for conditioned avoidance behaviors in rats. Using signaled active avoidance conditioning, rats acquired two-way shuttle responding, to two different auditory stimuli. These behaviors were then extinguished through exposure to the auditory stimuli where shuttling behavior was now without consequence. Subjects were then tested for renewal of avoidance in three distinct renewal sequences (e.g., ABA vs ABB, AAB vs AAA, and ABC vs ABB) in three separate groups of rats. It was found that subjects showed more responding to a stimulus presented outside of its …

Discrimination And Behavioral Responses To Communication Signals Compared Across Apteronotids., Danielle Leigh Dillon-Seeger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Sensory systems are often uniquely tailored to encode behaviorally relevant signals and comparative studies across species can thus reveal how evolutionary changes shape sensory functions. The structure of communication signals varies widely between ghost knifefish species. Recent findings suggest that the nervous system co-adapted to the various signal structures observed across species to support different sensory behaviors. The aim for this thesis was to compare the sensory behavior of 3 species of ghost knifefish to contrast their behavioral performance with the known differences in neurophysiology. We hypothesize that for the different signal types and species, the ability to discriminate small …

White Matter Inflammation And Executive Dysfunction: Implications For Alzheimer Disease And Vascular Cognitive Impairment, Alexander Levit

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

White matter integrity is crucial to healthy executive function, the cognitive domain that enables functional independence. However, in the ageing brain, white matter is highly vulnerable. White matter inflammation increases with age and Alzheimer disease (AD), which disrupts the normal function of white matter. This may contribute to executive dysfunction, but the relationship between white matter inflammation and executive function has not been directly evaluated in ageing nor AD. White matter is also particularly vulnerable to cerebrovascular disease, corresponding with the common presentation of executive dysfunction in vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). Thus, white matter may be an important substrate by …

Modeling And Mapping Addiction In The Zebrafish, Danio Rerio, Bradley Serpa

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Driven by the communication of dopamine, the vertebrate reward system has been evolutionarily conserved to maintain survival and optimize fitness. The neural circuits governing this system integrate sensory stimuli to produce appropriate, self-preserving responses that underlie experience-based learning. In the most primitive vertebrates, dopamine release in neuronal circuits drives homeostatic behaviors, such as seeking nutrients, finding a mate, or avoiding danger. From agnathans to mammals, dopaminergic synthesis and signaling genes and molecules, along with neuronal pathways and reward system-based behaviors, remain highly conserved. Dopamine signaling proteins include two classes of metabotropic G-Protein Receptor Coupled Dopamine Receptors, D1-like (DRD1) and D2-like …

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 …

Chemosensory Communication And Neural Substrates Of Social Behavior In The African Cichlid Fish, Astatotilapia Burtoni, Karen Elizabeth Field

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social animals must constantly assess their environment to make appropriate decisions. In several fish species, chemosensory signaling is crucial for social communication, conveying information on sex, reproductive state, and social status. Despite its importance in fishes, relatively little is known about how they employ chemical signaling, with only a few of the over 30,000 extant species investigated thus far. Further, there is a scarcity of information about where and how socially-relevant chemosensory signals are processed in the brain of fishes, or how chemosensory signals are integrated with other senses to elicit appropriate behaviors. For my doctoral research, I examined the …

The Ush2a Gene: An Analysis Of Ultrasonic Vocalizations In A Mouse Model Of Usher Syndrome Type 2, Kiana R. Akhundzadeh

Honors Scholar Theses

Usher syndrome type 2 is a complex autosomal recessive genetic disorder that is characterized by moderate to severe congenital sensorineural hearing loss, the onset of retinitis pigmentosa in the second decade of life, and in some cases, vestibular dysfunction. Mutations in the USH2A gene account for 85% of cases of type 2. The USH2A gene is responsible for encoding the protein usherin, which has an important role in the development and function of inner ear hair cells and retinal photoreceptors. Until recently, it has been believed that carriers of the USH2A mutation were phenotype free. However, recent data has suggested …