The Disproportionate Impact Of Covid-19 On Women, 2021 University of Connecticut
The Disproportionate Impact Of Covid-19 On Women, Ava Stallone
Honors Scholar Theses
The impact of COVID-19 is placing a large strain on women. This can be seen through reports of mental health and financial concerns. Women are more vulnerable to COVID-19 related economic effects due to existing gender inequalities, which in turn may also have a negative effect on mental health. Through this study gender disproportion is looked at between mental health and COVID-19 financial concerns among women and men. The aim is to asses how COVID-19 financial concerns may be contributing to stress, anxiety, and depression. It is hypothesized that; women will report worse mental health and greater economic concerns than …
Modulation Of Gabaa Receptor By Neurosteroids And Protein Kinases In Health And Disease, 2021 The University of Western Ontario
Modulation Of Gabaa Receptor By Neurosteroids And Protein Kinases In Health And Disease, Jaymin Jeong
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABAA receptors) underlie the majority of inhibitory synaptic transmission in the brain. Modulation of GABAergic activity occurs in development and normal physiological functioning of the brain, and changes to GABAergic function has been implicated in numerous neurological disorders including epilepsy. Neurosteroids, metabolites of steroid hormones, and kinases are known to modulate GABAA receptor mediated currents in health and disease. This thesis aims to investigate the effects of kinases and neurosteroids on modulating GABAA receptor-mediated currents in cortical pyramidal cells and their effects on the piriform cortex (PCtx) circuit in naïve rats and …
Scaling Up Information Sharing On Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder: Raising Awareness And Knowledge Among Key Stakeholders, 2021 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Scaling Up Information Sharing On Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder: Raising Awareness And Knowledge Among Key Stakeholders, Renato M. Liboro, Paul A. Shuper, Lori E. Ross
Psychology Faculty Research
Although the majority of specialists and researchers in the field of HIV/AIDS are aware and knowledgeable about HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) as a condition that affects as much as 50% of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH), research has documented that many health care and service providers who work directly with PLWH are either unaware of HAND or believe they do not know enough information about HAND to effectively support their clients experiencing neurocognitive challenges. Based on the findings of a qualitative study that interviewed 33 health care and service providers in HIV/AIDS services to identify and examine their awareness and …
Sulfide Catabolism Ameliorates Hypoxic Brain Injury, 2021 Massachusetts General Hospital
Sulfide Catabolism Ameliorates Hypoxic Brain Injury, Eizo Marutani, Masanobu Morita, Shuichi Hirai, Shinichi Kai, Robert M.H. Grange, Yusuke Miyazaki, Fumiaki Nagashima, Lisa Traeger, Aurora Magliocca, Tomoaki Ida, Tetsuro Matsunaga, Daniel R. Flicker, Benjamin Corman, Naohiro Mori, Yumiko Yamazaki, Annabelle Batten, Rebecca Li, Tomohiro Tanaka, Takamitsu Ikeda, Akito Nakagawa, Dmitriy N. Atochin, Hideshi Ihara, Benjamin A. Olenchock, Xinggui Shen, Motohiro Nishida, Kenjiro Hanaoka, Christopher G. Kevil, Ming Xian, Donald B. Bloch, Takaaki Akaike, Allyson G. Hindle
Life Sciences Faculty Research
The mammalian brain is highly vulnerable to oxygen deprivation, yet the mechanism underlying the brain’s sensitivity to hypoxia is incompletely understood. Hypoxia induces accumulation of hydrogen sulfide, a gas that inhibits mitochondrial respiration. Here, we show that, in mice, rats, and naturally hypoxia-tolerant ground squirrels, the sensitivity of the brain to hypoxia is inversely related to the levels of sulfide:quinone oxidoreductase (SQOR) and the capacity to catabolize sulfide. Silencing SQOR increased the sensitivity of the brain to hypoxia, whereas neuron-specific SQOR expression prevented hypoxia-induced sulfide accumulation, bioenergetic failure, and ischemic brain injury. Excluding SQOR from mitochondria increased sensitivity to hypoxia …
Exercise, Cognition, And Cannabis Use In Adolescents, 2021 Florida International University
Exercise, Cognition, And Cannabis Use In Adolescents, Ileana Pacheco-Colón
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Heavy and/or chronic cannabis use has been associated with neurocognitive impairment and decline, often in domains such as memory and executive functioning. On the other hand, exercise has been linked to positive effects on brain and cognitive health across the lifespan, as well as to better substance use outcomes. Despite this, little is known about the ways in which exercise could help prevent or ameliorate adverse cannabis-related outcomes among adolescents.
Through three separate studies, the current dissertation examines interrelations among exercise, cognition, and cannabis use in children and adolescents in an effort to determine whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate …
Exploring Tactile Art-Making With Deafblind Students And Their Families: An Opportunity For Creative Play, 2021 Lesley University
Exploring Tactile Art-Making With Deafblind Students And Their Families: An Opportunity For Creative Play, Alice Rodgers
Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses
The impact of a deafblind diagnosis on an individual’s mental health and the well-being of the family involved can be profound. However, current research and available literature for the mental health treatment and therapy practices of deafblind persons and their families is limited (Kyzar et al., 2016; “WFDB Global Report 2018,” n.d.). This thesis used the Leeds Family Psychology and Therapy Service principles (Leeds FPTS) and the Expressive Therapies Continuum with established deafblind teaching strategies to facilitate an original arts-based community project entitled: “Things We Like.” This project provided an opportunity for deafblind students (ages three to 22) and their …
Inflammatory Regulation Of Cns Barriers After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Tale Directed By Interleukin-1, 2021 University of Kentucky
Inflammatory Regulation Of Cns Barriers After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Tale Directed By Interleukin-1, Colleen N. Bodnar, James B. Watson, Emma K. Higgins, Ning Quan, Adam D. Bachstetter
Neuroscience Faculty Publications
Several barriers separate the central nervous system (CNS) from the rest of the body. These barriers are essential for regulating the movement of fluid, ions, molecules, and immune cells into and out of the brain parenchyma. Each CNS barrier is unique and highly dynamic. Endothelial cells, epithelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes, and other cellular constituents each have intricate functions that are essential to sustain the brain’s health. Along with damaging neurons, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) also directly insults the CNS barrier-forming cells. Disruption to the barriers first occurs by physical damage to the cells, called the primary injury. Subsequently, during …
Cnd-1/Neurod Is Required For Rme Head Neuron Cell Fate Specification In The Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans., 2021 Kennesaw State University
Cnd-1/Neurod Is Required For Rme Head Neuron Cell Fate Specification In The Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans., Genevieve Doxakis
Symposium of Student Scholars
cnd-1/NeuroD is required for RME head neuron cell fate specification in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
Genevieve Doxakis (1), Illyana Weitzel (2), Amber Baldwin (1), Davron Hanley (1), and Martin L. Hudson (1)
(1) Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Kennesaw State University
(2) STEM Magnet Program, Wheeler High School
Transcription factors are proteins that control gene transcription. NeuroD is a deeply conserved transcription factor that regulates neuronal differentiation and pancreatic development. Mutations in this gene correlate with several neurological disorders, creating an imperative for further study. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has a NeuroD ortholog, cnd-1, which means we can use …
Igf1-Stimulated Posttraumatic Hippocampal Remodeling Is Not Dependent On Mtor, 2021 University of Kentucky
Igf1-Stimulated Posttraumatic Hippocampal Remodeling Is Not Dependent On Mtor, Erica L. Littlejohn, Anthony J. Desana, Hannah C. Williams, Rudy T. Chapman, Binoy Joseph, Jelena A. Juras, Kathryn E. Saatman
Physiology Faculty Publications
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is stimulated acutely following traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, many hippocampal neurons born after injury develop abnormally and the number that survive long-term is debated. In experimental TBI, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) promotes hippocampal neuronal differentiation, improves immature neuron dendritic arbor morphology, increases long-term survival of neurons born after TBI, and improves cognitive function. One potential downstream mediator of the neurogenic effects of IGF1 is mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which regulates proliferation as well as axonal and dendritic growth in the CNS. Excessive mTOR activation is posited to contribute to aberrant plasticity related to posttraumatic epilepsy, …
Monolingual And Bilingual Language Networks In Healthy Subjects Using Functional Mri And Graph Theory, 2021 CUNY City College
Monolingual And Bilingual Language Networks In Healthy Subjects Using Functional Mri And Graph Theory, Qiongge Li, Luca Pasquini, Gino Del Ferraro, Madeleine Gene, Kyung K. Peck, Hernán A. Makse, Andrei I. Holodny
Publications and Research
Bilingualism requires control of multiple language systems, and may lead to architectural differences in language networks obtained from clinical fMRI tasks. Emerging connectivity metrics such as k-core may capture these differences, highlighting crucial network components based on resiliency. We investigated the influence of bilingualism on clinical fMRI language tasks and characterized bilingual networks using connectivity metrics to provide a patient care benchmark. Sixteen right-handed subjects (mean age 42-years; nine males) without neurological history were included: eight native English-speaking monolinguals and eight native Spanish-speaking (L1) bilinguals with acquired English (L2). All subjects underwent fMRI with gold-standard clinical language tasks. Starting from …
Identifying The Cell Composition And Clonal Diversity Of Supratentorial Ependymoma Using Single Cell Rna-Sequencing, 2021 University of Connecticut
Identifying The Cell Composition And Clonal Diversity Of Supratentorial Ependymoma Using Single Cell Rna-Sequencing, James He
University Scholar Projects
Ependymoma is a primary solid tumor of the central nervous system. Supratentorial ependymoma (ST-EPN), a subtype of ependymomas, is driven by an oncogenic fusion between the ZFTA and RELA genes in 70% of cases. We introduced this fusion into neural progenitor cells of mice embryos via in utero electroporation of a non-viral binary piggyBac transposon system containing ZFTA-RELA. From preliminary data in the LoTurco lab, inducing the expression of ZFTA-RELA into different neural progenitor cells produces tumors of varying lethality and cellular composition. To define the cellular composition and subclonal diversity of ST-EPN tumors, we used single cell RNA-sequencing to …
Identifying The Cell Composition And Clonal Diversity Of Supratentorial Ependymoma Using Single Cell Rna-Sequencing, 2021 University of Connecticut
Identifying The Cell Composition And Clonal Diversity Of Supratentorial Ependymoma Using Single Cell Rna-Sequencing, James He
Honors Scholar Theses
Ependymoma is a primary solid tumor of the central nervous system. Supratentorial ependymoma (ST-EPN), a subtype of ependymomas, is driven by an oncogenic fusion between the ZFTA and RELA genes in 70% of cases. We introduced this fusion into neural progenitor cells of mice embryos via in utero electroporation of a non-viral binary piggyBac transposon system containing ZFTA-RELA. From preliminary data in the LoTurco lab, inducing the expression of ZFTA-RELA into different neural progenitor cells produces tumors of varying lethality and cellular composition. To define the cellular composition and subclonal diversity of ST-EPN tumors, we used single cell RNA-sequencing …
Hippocampal Functional Activity Following Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, 2021 University of New Mexico - Main Campus
Hippocampal Functional Activity Following Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, Ryan E. Harvey
Psychology ETDs
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is among the most common developmental insults to the nervous system and is characterized by spatial memory disruption. There is a pressing need to identify physiological alterations that help explain this memory impairment. The hippocampal (HPC) formation and connected regions are a compelling candidate for this purpose as they are vital for navigation, spatial memory, and memory consolidation. This document is broken up into 3 main parts, a detailed review of the prior literature followed by several experiments. First, It starts out with a comprehensive review on spatial behavioral impairments following PAE and the synaptic & …
The Role Of Enampt-Mediated Systemic Nad+ Biosynthesis In Aging And Lifespan, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
The Role Of Enampt-Mediated Systemic Nad+ Biosynthesis In Aging And Lifespan, Mitsukuni Yoshida
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Aging is a systemic decline in tissue functions that occurs during the course of our life leading to the development of age-associated health deteriorations and ultimately to the expiration of life. Over the past few decades, population aging has become increasingly evident in many parts of the world, leading to increased prevalence of age-related disabilities and diseases. Because age is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, extensive research effort has been spent to identify common age-associated molecular changes contributing to the pathogenesis and progression of these health issues. One such molecule identified to play a central role in …
Sex Differences In The Role Of Cornichon Homolog-3 On Spatial Memory And Synaptic Plasticity, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
Sex Differences In The Role Of Cornichon Homolog-3 On Spatial Memory And Synaptic Plasticity, Hannah Elizabeth Frye
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Cornichon homolog-3 (CNIH3) is an AMPA receptor (AMPAR) auxiliary protein highly expressed in the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC), a region where AMPARs are critical for spatial memory and synaptic plasticity. A 2016 genome-wide association study (GWAS) by Nelson et al. identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene CNIH3 to be associated with reduced individual risk for the development of opioid use disorder (OUD) in individuals with prior opioid exposure. We previously demonstrated a key role for AMPARs in the dHPC in opioid-associated learning and memory, therefore we hypothesized that CNIH3 in the dHPC may mediate learning and memory processes through …
Transcriptional And Epigenetic Regulation Of Cerebellar Development And Function, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
Transcriptional And Epigenetic Regulation Of Cerebellar Development And Function, Shahriyar Majidi
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Compensation among paralogous transcription factors (TFs) confers genetic robustness of cellular processes. Despite the prevalence of this phenotypic phenomenon, an in vivo genome-scale understanding of how TFs dynamically respond within the chromatin context to paralog depletion is still lacking. We explore this question in the mammalian brain by studying the highly conserved MEF2 family of TFs, which confer phenotypic robustness for neuronal processes across multiple brain regions. The paralogous TFs MEF2A and MEF2D are strongly co-expressed in granule neurons of the cerebellum, the most abundant neurons in the brain. Employing single and double conditional knockout of MEF2A and MEF2D in …
Cortical Organization In Humans And Nonhuman Primates: The Evolution Of Cognitive Areas And Circuits, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
Cortical Organization In Humans And Nonhuman Primates: The Evolution Of Cognitive Areas And Circuits, Chad Joseph Donahue
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Similarities in organization of cerebral cortex in humans and nonhuman primates offer the promise of leveraging data from invasive animal studies to better understand the complexities of the human brain, particularly those related to higher cognitive function (e.g. attention, working memory, language). Such comparisons necessitate the identification of convincing cortical homologues (areas or regions presumed to have derived from a common ancestor), requiring an accurate interspecies mapping of cortical areas and features. To this end, I describe (i) a survey of connectivity and its measures across primate species, particularly retrograde tracing and diffusion tractography, (ii) a morphometric analysis of cognitive …
Dedicated Interneuronal Microcircuits Regulated By Behavioral State, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
Dedicated Interneuronal Microcircuits Regulated By Behavioral State, Moises William Arriaga
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The hippocampus is a critical brain structure for learning and memory. Neuronal inhibition within the hippocampus, performed by a wide variety of inhibitory interneuron subtypes, is required to organize and regulate the cell activity and circuit operations which underly memory formation. Despite the importance of inhibitory interneurons to the function of the hippocampus, detailed descriptions of the role of interneurons in the regulation of network activity have been limited by difficulties associated with identifying and recording from these cells using traditional electrophysiology techniques, especially in awake, behaving animals. To better investigate the function of hippocampal interneurons in awake, behaving animals, …
The Feeling Mind, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
The Feeling Mind, Maria Doulatova
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
According to standard conceptions of agency, our reasons and intentions guide our actions. That is, goal-directed intentions play a key role in practical deliberation, planning, and execution of action. Furthermore, purposeful, goal-directed behavior warrants attributions of responsibility or “reactive attitudes” like resentment, anger, gratitude and forgiveness. However, recent developments of the dual-process theory of mind cast doubt on the empirical adequacy of this picture. While people take themselves to be responding to relevant reasons, they are often bypassed by irrelevant affective or automatic reactions. In this work I go beyond the dual-process theory of mind to offer a mechanistic account …
Retinal Ganglion Cells Underlying Visual Perception And Predation In Mice, 2021 Washington University in St. Louis
Retinal Ganglion Cells Underlying Visual Perception And Predation In Mice, Keith Patrick Johnson
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The spike trains of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole source of visual information to the brain. In mice, more than 40 RGC types send signals to more than 50 brain areas. RGCs that perform nonlinear operations to extract specific visual features (e.g., the motion of an object against a background) are called feature detectors. Those that linearly integrate local changes in light inten-sity are known as pixel encoders. Most mouse RGC types are feature detectors. In the first part of my dissertation, I discovered a pixel encoder RGC type in mice, the PixON-RGC. I revealed how the unique …