Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Commons^™

Anti-Inflammatory Effect Of Secoisolariciresinol Diglucoside (Sdg) In Microglia, Kevin B. Seto, Kelly L. Jordan-Sciutto, Beth A. Winkelstein, Bekir Karabucak, Eric J. Granquist

Dental Theses

Secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) is the main plant lignan in flaxseed and has been thoroughly researched in the past decades due to its unique health properties. SDG has been shown to have therapeutic benefits for an array of diseases including breast and prostate cancer, hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and radiation pneumonopathy. With a number of studies recognizing the various health benefits of SDG, few have focused on its potential anti-inflammatory effect and, specifically, its interaction with the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) pathway. Thus, the aim of this study is to elucidate the interaction between SDG and ...

An Analysis Of Neurogenesis In A Mouse Model Of Chemotherapy Related Cognitive Impairment, Maxwell A. Hennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy often experience cognitive decline following treatment. This phenomenon, often dubbed “chemo brain” or “chemo fog” is usually temporary, but for a subset of survivors, these cognitive impairments can be long-lasting (>10 years) and negatively affect patients’ quality of life, career performance, and social fulfillment. While it is unclear what neurobiological mechanisms underlie chemotherapy related cognitive impairment, the majority of the animal literature has focused on adult neurogenesis. One process important for neurogenesis is the proliferation of new neurons within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. It is evident that many chemotherapy agents can negatively ...

Synaptic Plasticity During Learning, Dustin J. Horn

Honors Theses AY 16/17

Memories are formed and stored inside of neural circuits. Synaptic plasticity is the sum of chemical changes occurring within neurons that affect their ability to communicate with one another. This process includes short term potentiation, early long term potentiation, and late long term potentiation. Dendritic plasticity is governed by actin polymerization and the MAPK pathway. Dendritic spines change their shape, volume, and number within seconds. Activation of NMDA receptors by AMPA receptors causes early long term potentiation in the cell and can change the synaptic strength within circuits. Astrocytes communicate with neurons and play an important role in the development ...

The Effect Of Ethanol Consumption And Stress On Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase B Expression., Katie Marie Masters

University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

A Behavioral Prerequisite For The Genetic Analysis Of Auditory Feature Detection Mechanisms In Female Crickets, Rebecca L. Blisko

Senior Honors Projects

Sexual dimorphism is exhibited across all cricket species and is a central aspect of the mating processes of these insects. Only male crickets possess wing structures and pattern generators in the central nervous system that allow them to produce a mating call that is unique to their species in order to attract conspecific females. Conspecific females possess an auditory feature detection circuit in the central nervous system that is capable of detecting the species-specific frequency and temporal pattern of sound pulses within a male call. In order for dimorphic differences in mating behavior to result in successful continuation of a ...

Major Neurotransmitters In The Brain, Amy S. Yu '17

Independent Study

Arguably the most important and powerful organ in the human body, the brain controls virtually everything one does. From chewing gum to running a marathon, the brain dictates one’s physical responses and actions, while also mediating learning, memory, and emotions. These functions are all regulated by neurotransmitter activity in the brain. While the brain works in complex ways, recent discoveries about neurotransmitters allow us to better understand the underlying mechanisms of brain operation. Each neurotransmitter fulfills a distinct role, but they rely on one another to perform certain activities in the brain as well. The purpose of this review ...

Cerebral Lactate Metabolism And Memory: Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, Richard Andrew Harris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by amyloid plaques that are comprised of aggregated amyloid-beta peptides. These toxic proteins promote mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal cell death. A shift in metabolism away from oxidative phosphorylation and toward aerobic glycolysis, with the concomitant production of lactate, affords neurons a survival advantage against amyloid-beta toxicity. Recent evidence now suggests that aerobic glycolysis in the brain plays a critical role in supporting synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. However, the role of aerobic glycolysis and lactate metabolism in AD-mediated cognitive decline is unknown. My objective was to test the hypotheses that aerobic ...

Effects Of Systemic Administration Of 8-Oh-Dpat On Agonistic Social Behaviors In Male Syrian Hamsters, Corey Andrews

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Dietary Emulsifiers On Vasopressin And Oxytocin In Mice, Krishna Mehta

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

The Dreadds Technique Utilized To Control The Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Of Rodents, Hannah Kennedy, Matthew Russ, Brett Lowden

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Stress has been shown to induce adverse effects such as depression, heart disease, and hypertension (Roman et al., 2016, Aschbacher et al., 2016, Ojike et al., 2016). Following a stressful event there is an increase in circulating glucocorticoids, primarily cortisol in humans and corticosterone (CORT) in rodents. CORT is primarily controlled via the PVN, the major regulating structure in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis, Ferguson et al., 2009). Normally, stressful stimuli causes activation of the PVN, triggering the release of CRH from the hypothalamus, subsequently causing the release of ACTH from the anterior pituitary gland, resulting in the production of ...

Use Of Porous Elastomer Foams To Support Long Term Three Dimensional Neuronal Cultures, Richard M. Cukelj, Elda Hegmann, Ernest Freeman, Jennifer Mcdonough, Robert Clements

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In order to effectively study the interactions that occur between neurons found in the brain, spatially and after an extended period of time, it is necessary to have reliable, repeatable studies. This is difficult to accomplish through conventional two-dimensional cell culture techniques, but three dimensional (3D) elastomer foams satisfy these criteria. Here we present a platform to study complex neuronal networks for extended periods in vitro. Elastomer foams were constructed with pore sizes ranging from 150μm to 400μm with 40μm secondary pores which allowed human neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) to adhere and interact with the foam and be sustained for long ...

P32. Altered Sensory Processing In Response To Novel Dreadd-Induced Inactivation Of Gaba In Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus, Niveen Fulcher

Western Research Forum

Niveen Fulcher¹, Cleusa De Oliveira², & Susanne Schmid^1,2

¹Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario

²Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Western Ontario

Altered sensory processing in response to novel DREADD-induced inactivation of GABA in pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus

Background: Sensory processing deficits are associated with certain psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sensory filtering and sensorimotor gating are evolutionarily conserved preattentive responses that filter and block redundant sensory stimuli that would otherwise overwhelm our brains. To date, underlying mechanisms of these deficits are undefined. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the ...

P35. Investigating The Effect Of Maternal Immune Activation On Sensory Filtering, Social Behaviour And Attention, Faraj Haddad

Western Research Forum

Background

Altered brain development is associated with many neuropsychiatric disorders like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia. Environmental insults can interfere with neurodevelopment, and a prominent example is maternal infection during pregnancy. Epidemiological studies show that children born to mothers who were infected during pregnancy display a higher risk of developing ASD and schizophrenia, and this effect is mainly due to the maternal immune response. Polyinosinic-polycytidilic acid (Poly I:C) is a double stranded RNA molecule that mimics viral markers and elicits an immune response. When injected in pregnant rodents, this model produces offspring that exhibit core symptoms of ASD ...

The Sodium Channel Beta4 Auxiliary Subunit Selectively Controls Long-Term Depression In Core Nucleus Accumbens Medium Spiny Neurons, Xincai Ji, Sucharita Saha, Guangping Gao, Amy W. Lasek, Gregg E. Homanics, Melissa Guildford Derner, Andrew R. Tapper, Gilles E. Martin

Psychiatry Publications and Presentations

Voltage-gated sodium channels are essential for generating the initial rapid depolarization of neuronal membrane potential during action potentials (APs) that enable cell-to-cell communication, the propagation of signals throughout the brain, and the induction of synaptic plasticity. Although all brain neurons express one or several variants coding for the core pore-forming sodium channel alpha subunit, the expression of the beta (beta1-4) auxiliary subunits varies greatly. Of particular interest is the beta4 subunit, encoded by the Scn4b gene, that is highly expressed in dorsal and ventral (i.e., nucleus accumbens - NAc) striata compared to other brain regions, and that endows sodium channels ...

Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy, Michael Bradshaw, Jeffrey Brown, Kyril Cole, Whitney Harris, Kody Hasebi, Ysabella Del Rosario, Sara Werner, Bryan Witt, Alonzo Cook

Biomedical Engineering Western Regional Conference

No abstract provided.

Alpha-Synuclein: Insight Into The Hallmark Of Parkinson's Disease As A Target For Quantitative Molecular Diagnostics And Therapeutics, Baggio A. Evangelista

Honors in the Major Theses

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease. With 500,000 individuals currently living with Parkinson’s and nearly 60,000 new cases diagnosed each year, this disease causes significant financial burden on the healthcare system - amassing to annual expenditures totaling 200 billion dollars; predicted to increase through 2050. The disease phenotype is characterized by a combination of a resting tremor, bradykinesia, muscular rigidity, and depression due to dopaminergic neuronal death in the midbrain. The cause of the neurotoxicity has been largely discussed, with strong evidence suggesting that the protein, alpha-Synuclein, is a key ...

Persistent Electrophysiological Identity Of Neurons In The Nucleus Accumbens Shell, Joel Forrest Ayers

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Electrophysiology is an important technique using chronically-implanted electrode arrays, which allow for recording of neural activity in vivo during behavioral tasks that require cue and reward associations. Recordings are used to study how patterns of neural activity encode behaviorally-relevant information and how the disruption of this encoding can occur following cocaine experience. Behavioral testing and acute manipulations (such as chemogenetics) of associative behaviors can take place over several days. To precisely assess the progress of neural encoding over time, it is important to identify single unit neurons across multiple recording sessions. Here, we examined neurons in the nucleus accumbens (NAc ...

The Effect Of Stress, Time Of Day And Adrenal Hormones On Bmal1, Per2 And C-Fos Expression In The Rat Hippocampus And Amygdala, Jeanelle France

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The term circadian rhythm refers to the behavioral and physiological changes an organism exhibits during an approximately 24-hour period. Plants, animals and fungi all maintain circadian rhythms, by part, with a molecular clock system. The molecular clock consists of a positive and negative feedback loop that alter gene transcription and translation. BMAL1 and CLOCK make up the positive transcription arm that stimulates the production of two classes of genes, period (Per 1-3) and cryptochrome (Cry 1-2). PER and Cry protein make up the negative feedback loop of the molecular clock and inhibit their own transcription in the nucleus.

The molecular ...

Oxidative Stress And Proteomic Studies Of Mammalian Models Of Age-Related Metabolic Dysfunction In Neurodegenerative Disorders, Aaron M. Swomley

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Expression proteomics is the field of science wherein proteins that make up the cellular proteome are identified both by name and by fold-change. Depending on the application of proteomics, this change in level could be due to internal cellular stressors or introduction of xenobiotics. Global oxidative stress measures use immunohistochemistry to determine the relative level of oxidative stress of macromolecules within the cell. In this dissertation, both global oxidative stress measures and expression proteomics were used in a variety of mammalian models in order to determine the effects of protein upregulation, intranasal insulin administration, and resveratrol supplementation on the cellular ...

Structural And Functional Alterations In Neocortical Circuits After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Michal Vascak

Theses and Dissertations

National concern over traumatic brain injury (TBI) is growing rapidly. Recent focus is on mild TBI (mTBI), which is the most prevalent injury level in both civilian and military demographics. A preeminent sequelae of mTBI is cognitive network disruption. Advanced neuroimaging of mTBI victims supports this premise, revealing alterations in activation and structure-function of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal systems, which are essential for network processing. However, clinical neuroimaging cannot resolve the cellular and molecular substrates underlying such changes. Therefore, to understand the full scope of mTBI-induced alterations it is necessary to study cortical networks on the microscopic level, where neurons ...