Behavioral Neurobiology Commons^™

Validation Of Metabolic And Immunologic Biomarkers Tnf-A, Igf, Il-6, Crp And Hair Cortisol In The Common Marmoset, Sushmita Adhikari, Mariah Wulf, Aaryn Mustoe Phd, Jeffrey French Phd

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The common marmoset is a good model for research because they are easy to house and have complex social relationships (French et al., 2019). Marmosets are sensitive to social isolation, and when introduced to a stressor, the HPA axis is activated (Saltzman & Abbott, 2011). The purpose of this experiment is to validate marmosets as a translational model for stress due to social relationships in humans. This is done by validating biomarker concentration levels at baseline, then comparing the concentration when introduced to a stressor. The biomarkers IL-6, CRP, IGF-1 and TNF-a were tested using a serum assay, then running …

The Intersection Of Neuroscience And Art, Matilde Mendes Pinto

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The Interaction of Neuroscience and Art will give you an insight into how they interact with each other by analyzing visual art, musical art and theatrical art.

Effects Of Chronic Ethanol Exposure On Stress Coping Style And Genetic States Of Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Alexander Goodman

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Neurotransmitter systems are important in regulating the stress response. If a behavioral response is disproportional to a stressor it is characterized as anxiety-like behavior. Many anxiolytic compounds, such as ethanol, increase stressor engagement, but how these compounds interact with an organism on a neurogenetic level is less understood. In this study, I assessed the impact of chronic ethanol treatment on behavior and gene expression of GABA_Areceptors subunits on two strains of zebrafish. Each strain was selectively bred to display the proactive or reactive stress coping style where proactive individuals will actively engage a stressor more than reactive individuals. …

Investigating Comt Influence On The Proactive-Reactive Stress Coping Axis In Zebrafish, Sean T. Bresnahan, Ryan Y. Wong

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Individuals of the same species often display differences in correlated suites of behaviors which are made conspicuous when challenges – stressful, fear-inducing, etc. – are presented. In many species, a specific suite of behaviors (risk-aversion, aggression, exploration, learning, and memory) characterize an alternative set of stress coping styles (proactive and reactive). Such behaviors are regulated in the brain by specific neurotransmitters along with proteins that regulate them. One neurotransmitter regulator protein, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) shows higher baseline whole-brain expression in proactive relative to reactive animals. However, it is not known whether its expression is a cause or a consequence of the …

Contextual Fear Learning And Memory In Alternative Stress Coping Styles, Matthew R. Baker, Ryan Y. Wong

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Animals frequently must overcome stressors, and the ability to encode and recall these salient experiences is essential to an individual’s survival. Across many taxa, studies have documented two alternative stress coping styles (proactive and reactive) that differ in behavior, cognition, stress physiology, and underlying neuromolecular mechanisms. The role of stress in cognitive traits (e.g. learning and memory) has been well documented, however, the influence of an animal’s stress coping style on learning and memory capabilities is only beginning to be understood. Here, we developed a contextual fear learning paradigm to characterize learning and memory differences between proactive and reactive stress …

Differences In Habenula Kisspeptin Expression And Its Effects On Stress Coping Styles In Zebrafish, Danio Rerio, Andrew Wahl

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Two particular styles of stress coping behaviors have been identified as evolutionarily conserved across vertebrate species and are referred to as proactive and reactive. Reactive and proactive stress coping styles have distinct 5-HT expression profiles with greater expression of 5-HT found in proactive individuals. It was previously shown that kiss1 expression in the ventral habenula (vHb) presynaptically activates kiss-r1 which can alter glutamatergic levels in co-localizing cells in the vHb that terminate in the median raphe (MR). This can directly or indirectly increase 5-HT expression in the MR via glutamate. It is unknown whether kisspeptin expression in the vHb can …

Comparing Consistency Of Stress And Anxiety-Related Behaviors Across Time In Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Matthew R. Baker, Alex Goodman

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Animals are frequently faced with stressors in their environment that they must overcome to survive and reproduce. Across vertebrates, two distinct stress coping styles or ‘personalities’ have been observed known as proactive (bold) and reactive (shy). Animal personalities may be advantageous by limiting individual variation and balancing different trade-offs in unpredictable environments. When identifying animal personalities, behavioral phenotypes must be consistent and repeatable across contexts and time. Here we use selectively bred lines of shy and bold zebrafish, previously shown to have consistent divergent fear- and anxiety-related behaviors across contexts, to test the repeatability and consistency of these behaviors across …

Assessment Of Olfactory-Based Social Recognition: Designing A Paradigm For Marmosets, Stephanie Womack

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Navigation of the social world depends largely on one’s responsiveness to social stimuli and information from a wide range of senses can be used to discriminate between individuals. Mammals use several sensory modes to communicate and respond to their surroundings, but olfaction is the dominant sense across most species. Chemosignals provide a wealth of information including sex, age, reproductive status, and individual identity. Currently, assessment of olfaction is largely limited to the habituation-dishabituation paradigm or the two-choice discrimination task used primarily in rodents. These paradigms are limited by their reliance on inherent reward of interaction with stimuli without providing additional …

The Effect Of Observing Aggressive Interactions On The Personality Traits Of Danio Rerio, Jessica L. Bargstadt

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Social animals are easily influenced by other members of their species. Individuals will adjust their behaviors and actions both when observing another conspecific and when interacting with one. The effect that these social experiences can have on an individual vary in both magnitude and permanence, depending on the type of experience. We seek to examine the lasting effect that observing an aggressive interaction can have on the personality type of an individual.

Personality traits of Danio rerio will be examined in a novel environment setting in which the subject’s movements are recorded to determine their reactivity or proactivity in response …