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Full-Text Articles in Behavioral Neurobiology
Mapping A Pup-Responsive Pathway From The Medial Preoptic Area To The Ventral Tegmental Area., Matias Andina
Mapping A Pup-Responsive Pathway From The Medial Preoptic Area To The Ventral Tegmental Area., Matias Andina
Masters Theses
Maternal behavior is the complex array of caregiving behaviors females display towards offspring. In rats, the transition to motherhood depends on the action of various hormones, especially estradiol near parturition, which primes the maternal circuitry to respond to pups upon first encounter at parturition with appropriate maternal behavior. Although virgin rats avoid pups, new mothers are highly motivated to interact with pups, and their maternal behavior depends on the functional interaction between the medial preoptic area (mPOA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). However, a precise mapping of the VTA-projecting mPOA neurons remains to be elucidated. To determine whether pup-responsive …
A Precise Steroid-Responsive Centrifugal Feedback Projection To The Accessory Olfactory Bulb, Tal Inbar
A Precise Steroid-Responsive Centrifugal Feedback Projection To The Accessory Olfactory Bulb, Tal Inbar
Masters Theses
The accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) processes pheromonal signals which in turn drive social behaviors. Here we identify a tract of aromatase-expressing (arom+) fibers in the dorsal lateral olfactory tract (dLOT) which terminate in the granule cell layer (GCL) of the AOB. We utilized a retrograde tracer in aromatase reporter animals to delineate the source of these fibers. We show that these input fibers emerge almost exclusively from a contiguous population of arom+ neurons that spans the bed nucleus of the accessory olfactory tract (BAOT) and posterioventral subnucleus of the medial amygdala (MeApv). This population of neurons expresses the estrogen receptor …
Effort-Related Motivational Dysfunctions: Behavioral And Neurochemical Studies Of The Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model Of Depression, Brendan Abbott
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 …