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Full-Text Articles in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
Sex Differences In Mood And Anxiety-Related Outcomes In Response To Adolescent Nicotine Exposure, Tsun Hay Jason Ng
Sex Differences In Mood And Anxiety-Related Outcomes In Response To Adolescent Nicotine Exposure, Tsun Hay Jason Ng
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Nicotine dependence is causally linked to increased risk of mood/anxiety disorders in later life. Females are reported to experience a higher prevalence of anxiety/depressive disorders and challenges in smoking cessation therapies, suggesting a potential sex-specific response to nicotine exposure and mood/anxiety disorder risk. However, pre-clinical evidence of sex-specific responses to adolescent nicotine exposure is unclear. Thus, to determine any sex differences in anxiety/depressive-related outcomes, adolescent male and female Sprague Dawley rats received nicotine (0.4 mg/kg; 3x daily) or saline injections for 10 consecutive days, followed by behavioural testing, in-vivo electrophysiology and Western Blot analyses. Our results revealed that adolescent nicotine …
A Comparison Of Pm-Nato3’S Influence On Neural Progenitors And Mature Dopamine Neurons, Mary E. West
A Comparison Of Pm-Nato3’S Influence On Neural Progenitors And Mature Dopamine Neurons, Mary E. West
Masters Theses
This thesis presents significant findings regarding the role of PM-Nato3 in its interaction with developing neurons in the context of Parkinson's disease (PD) and regenerative medicine. We investigated the effects of PM-Nato3 on dopamine (DA) neurogenesis under different culture conditions, both in vitro and in vivo. In the standard dopaminergic culture condition, PM-Nato3 potentially increased the speed of DA neuron production but did not significantly increase the yield of DA neurons. In a minimal culture condition, there was no notable difference between the control and PM-Nato3 conditions, suggesting minimal impact on DA neurogenesis. In vivo studies using a mouse model …
Role Of Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Receptor Signaling In The Suppression Of Punished Reward Seeking, Grace M. Joyner, Anna Caroline Toburen
Role Of Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Receptor Signaling In The Suppression Of Punished Reward Seeking, Grace M. Joyner, Anna Caroline Toburen
Senior Theses
Previous studies have shown that within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region associated with motivation and reinforcement learning, activity of neurons expressing the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R neurons) act as a “break” on risky behavior associated with negative outcomes. Moreover, when these neurons are stimulated, rats were found to become more risk averse. However, the impact of dopamine signaling through NAc D2R neurons in risk avoidance is still unclear. To further explore the role of NAc dopamine signaling in punished reward-seeking, we tested rats in a novel punished food-seeking paradigm in which subjects are trained to choose between a …