Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

The Effect Of Exercise On Inhibitory Control To Images Of High And Low Calorie Food, Cory Pettit, Michael J. Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise on the neural correlates of response inhibition to high and low calorie foods. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether engaging in forty-five minutes of moderate intensity exercise affects brain activity that denotes inhibitory control while a person withholds practiced responses to pictures of high or low calorie food. We quantified inhibitory control by measuring the amplitude of the N2 event related potential (ERP; described below) using electroencephalogram (EEG) technology.

Induction Of Neuromelanin In Live Tissue, Corrine Morrison, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An estimated seven to ten million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and about 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease each year (Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, 2013). The underlying cause of the movement disorders in PD is dopamine (DA) neuron degeneration in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). A proposed mechanism behind DA cell death is additional oxidative stress that occurs in early stages of the disease state. NM is believed to be a protective agent against reactive oxygen species (ROS), but as NM depigmentation is a distinctive feature of PD, it is likely that there is a …

The Effect Of Exercise On Inhibitory Control To Images Of High And Low Calorie Food, Cory Pettit, Michael J. Larson, Phd

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise on the neural correlates of response inhibition to high and low calorie foods. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether engaging in forty-five minutes of moderate intensity exercise affects brain activity that denotes inhibitory control while a person withholds practiced responses to pictures of high or low calorie food. We quantified inhibitory control by measuring the amplitude of the N2 event related potential (ERP; described below) using electroencephalogram (EEG) technology.

Anatomy Academy: The Impact On Nursing Students, Gaye L. Ray, Jane H. Lasseter

Journal of Undergraduate Research

1. 1. Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met and description of the results/findings of the project.

We studied the impact on student nurse mentors who volunteered to teach an anatomy based childhood obesity prevention program in area elementary schools. Student nurse mentors’ self-perceived communication, teaching and collaboration skills were measured at pre-and post-participation in the AA program. From the quantitative data collected, descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using SPSS versions 21 (IBM Corp, 2012). Data were reviewed for outliers and data entry errors using descriptive statistics, histograms, and box plots. None were identified. Means …

Do D2 Receptors On Blood Lymphocytes Adapt To Chronic Ethanol?, Joseph Linzey, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Research concerning whether or not D2 receptors can be used as an accurate biomarker for drug addiction is still currently underway. Unfortunately, this semester I was unable to engage in research nearly as much as I had planned. I spent a lot of time this semester interviewing at medical schools. The majority of my time at BYU was spent catching up on work and material covered in lectures I missed while I was interviewing. However, the interview session is nearly complete (with wonderful results) and I will be devoting a substantial amount of time this coming semester towards completing this …

Association Between Heavy-Metal Exposure And The Digit-Symbol Substitution Test In Us Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study, Parker Woody, Dawson Hedges

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Heavy metals in the environment are a serious concern. One of the most widely known and studied neurotoxins is lead. For many years it was put into gasoline and paint in the US until it was discovered that it lead to developmental defects and affected cognitive functioning. There is a concern that other heavy metals could have adverse effects as well. Much research has focused on exposure to heavy metals in those exposed to abnormally high levels, such as those found in occupational exposures. Very little has been done examining heavy metal levels in the body such as those that …

Error Processing And Generalized Anxiety Disorder, David Walker, Dr. Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

General anxiety disorder (GAD) affects approximately 5% of the U.S. population (Stein, 2009) and is the second-most frequent psychiatric disorder, after depression, in primary care settings (Wittchen & Hoyer, 2001). Although diagnosis requirements for GAD are extensive, common characteristics are hyper-vigilance, which is manifested as excessive or unreasonable worry, along with tension, fatigue and headaches (National Institute of Mental Health, 2010). These symptoms of excessive anxiety have been associated with increased rates of physical illness (Bowen, Barale, & Senthilselvan, 2000), a decline in cognitive processing abilities (Castaneda, Lonnqvist, Marttunen, Suvisaari, & Tuulio-Henriksson, 2008), and can become disabling (National Institute of …

Word Quality And Memory, Marshall Roedel, Dr. C. Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Current memory theory suggests that two separate processes contribute to recognition memory. Recollection is when recognition is accompanied by contextual information regarding the encoding event. Familiarity is when recognition is only a companied by a vague sense of having encountered something previously.

The Effects Of Mindfulness Of Error Processing, Kevin Voisin, Dr. Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Mindfulness is the process of bringing one’s body functions, attention, feelings and content of consciousness to the experiences of the present. (Greeson, 2009). Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress in order to improve quality of life along with many other benefits such as reducing blood pressure, anxiety, depression, and anger (Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, Walach, 2004). We sought to substantiate these claims with EEG and blood pressure data.

Attracting Female Students To Science: An Interdisciplinary Stress-Psychobiology Mentored Experience, Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Women have made considerable progress in education and the workplace; however, progress in science and technology fields continues to lag behind. Females remain underrepresented in science majors at the university level and, subsequently, represent less than a quarter of full professors in scientific fields. Increasing female representation in science is considered a national priority. Studies indicate women who receive a mentored scientific experience are more likely to choose careers in science and research than peers who are not exposed to scientific research in a mentored environment. Thus, our grant focused on attracting female students to the academic and scientific environment …

Dimorphic Expression Of Medial Basal Hypothalamic-Preoptic Area Calbindin-D28k Mrna During Perinatal Development In Sprague-Dawley Rats, Emily Briton, Dr. Edwin D. Lephart

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Calbindin-D28K (CALB), a calcium binding protein, is one of the most abundant proteins found in neurons of certain brain areas. It is potentially important in neuron formation and may play a protective role against programmed cell death [1]. CALB helps regulate the amount of calcium in neurons. An over-abundance of intracellular calcium leads to cell degeneration and eventually cell death. Brain sites that are exposed to toxic amounts of calcium experience less neurodegeneration where calcium-binding proteins are present than in areas where the protein is less abundant [4]. It is hypothesized that decreased levels of CALB lead to patterns of …

Orca Scholarship Report, Andrew Moore

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I received an ORCA award in December of 1999. At the time, my proposal dealt with family dynamic influences on EEG neurofeedback treatement of adolescents with ADHD. This was a multidisciplinary effort, and, to my knowledge, research of this sort had not been conducted before. Though I felt a genuine excitement at the beginning, I soon realized that I had bitten off a coordination and research effort bigger than I could chew. I had to rely on a local psychologist that I was working with for help in recruiting patients, as well as for use of his facilities and equipment, …

Are There Memory Deficits Among High School Participants From Heading Soccer Balls?, John R. Dayton, Dr. Donovan E. Fleming

Journal of Undergraduate Research

A unique aspect of soccer is the use of the player’s head to direct the ball. Participants can “head” the ball to score a goal, pass to a teammate or gain control of possession. Studies performed on soccer players at the international^2,5,7,10,12 and Olympic¹ levels have shown memory^{2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12}, attention^3,6,11,12, concentration^2,3,6,11,12, and judgment²⁴ deficits. Is such damage due to practice schedule and necessitated drills, or is it the cumulative result of lifelong soccer participation? If due to lifelong participation, are high school participants at risk?

Myelin Basic Protein And Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Antibodies In Autism, Edward Stevenson, Dr. Erin Bigler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Autism is a developmental disorder. There has been an increasing trend in the diagnosis of autism in the past 15 years. After years of research there is still little agreement as to the causes of autism. It has been hypothesized that autistics could be the result of the body’s immune system attacking the brain through cytotoxicity and antibody mediated responses.2 Studies between immune factors and autism have had some interesting results, yet due to the complexities of the central nervous system and immune system, solid conclusions have not been reached.

Title, Jordan Yorgason

Journal of Undergraduate Research

We had four main objectives when I applied for the mentoring grant: to measure locomotor habituation to an environment, acoustic prepulse/startle inhibition, memory with a morris land maze, and to present findings in a neuroscience journal and on a poster for a convention. The results are as follows:

Visual-Motor Development In South Indian School Children: Environmental Complexity’S Relationship With Cortical Development, Christine H. Walton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Previous neurological studies have found the degree of environmental complexity influences the acquisition and development of motor skills in human infants as well as animal models. During a critical period in human development, which is believed to span the first 6-10 years for human visual-motor development, neurons grow and solidify appropriate connections. Signals sent from cell to cell are insulated by additional protective cells in a process called myelination. These postnatal cognitive developments are influenced by sensory input and experience. It appears that deprivation of appropriate stimuli in a subject’s surroundings at this time results in decreased cognitive development as …

The Effects Of Anesthesia On Midbrain Gaba Neurons, Stuart Layton, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Consciousness has perplexed neuroscientists for decades. What is consciousness and how is it obstructed by anesthesia? Every year doctors expose thousands of people to general anesthesia. Anesthesia does several things, it prevents the perception of pain, renders a patient unconscious, inhibits the formation of memory, and paralyzes the subject; all of which as desired during a medical procedure. The mechanism by which anesthesia accomplishes these many tasks are unknown, including its ability to render a subject unconscious. The goal of this study was to study the effects of anesthesia on -aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) …

Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Model For Clinical Addiction Treatment, Jordan Davies, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The goal in my proposal was to study the effects of light stimulation in human brains on the action of the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), in order to determine its efficacy as a non-invasive method for inducing long-term potentiation of dopamine neurons, restoring homeostasis, and its possible use in clinical treatment for addiction. It was dependent upon research that was being done on mice in Dr. Steffensen’s lab to determine the optimum frequency and wavelength of light stimulation to bring baseline dopamine levels back up to normal. Unfortunately, there haven’t been any conclusive results that merit …

Low-Dose Alcohol Self-Administration In Freely-Moving Rats And Its Effect On The Firing Rate Of Ventral Tegmental Area Gaba Neurons, Stuart Thomas, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Each year, more and more people become the slaves of addiction to narcotics, alcohol, and nicotine. These addictions destroy families and ruin lives. The brain’s chemistry is influenced by these drugs. This study aimed to evaluate how alcohol and other drugs affect the brain’s chemistry and identify potential avenues for therapy.

Modification Of Experimental Objective And Protocol To An Assessment Of The Effects Of Electroacupuncture On Vta Gaba Neurons In The Context Of Acute Alcohol, Christine H. Walton, Dr. Scott C. Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Although my proposal for the ORCA grant involved the effects of nicotine on neurons in the VTA, preliminary data showed little to no promise and my mentor and I decided to go in a different direction.

Addicts Seeing Blue: Color Processing Differences In The Opiate Dependent State, Cary Crall, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Opiate use in Utah has grown faster than that of any other substance in the past year (Duda, 2008). In 2007, total opiate abuse (e.g., heroin, Oxycodones, etc.) accounted for 15.3% of overall substance abuse in male clients and 18.1% in female clients (see Payne, 2007). [I’m expecting you to say what the usage rates are in 2010 (or at least 2009) here.]. By October 2008, it was reported that prescription drugs had killed more people than car accidents in Utah, with 6.5% of fatalities caused by using prescription painkillers—most opiate based—for nonmedical reasons (Stryker, 2008). In many cases, opiate …

Resolving Disulfide Bond Patterns In Snap25b Cysteine-Rich Region Using Lc Mass Spectrometry, Nozomi Ogawa

Theses and Dissertations

A global analysis of the human proteome demonstrates that there are ~5500 tryptic fragments that contain four cysteines in close proximity. Elucidating whether they form disulfide bonds in vivo under different conditions is particularly important because cysteines are known to be a vital cellular redox sensor as well as a catalytic site for important biochemical reactions. However, currently there are no methods that can resolve disulfide patterns in closely-packed cysteine residues from a complex sample. In order to address this problem, we have developed a novel mass-spectrometry-based method to identify the different disulfide bonding patterns possible, using SNAP25B cysteine-rich region …

The Putative Cannabinoid Receptor Gpr55 Modulates Synaptic Plasticity In The Hippocampus, Corinne Marie Badgley

Theses and Dissertations

Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are small molecules that are capable of modulating synaptic plasticity of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses in the brain. While eCBs bind to transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) and cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) in the central nervous system, we recently identified a form of non-CB1, non-TRPV1 mediated long term depression activated by the eCB anandamide at CA1 hippocampal stratum radiatum interneurons. GPR55, an orphan G-protein receptor, has been identified in the hippocampus and is capable of activation by eCBs, making it a good candidate for mediating this non-CB1, non-TRPV1 form of synaptic plasticity. Here we performed whole-cell …

A Parametric Investigation Of Pattern Separation Processes In The Medial Temporal Lobe, Sarah E. Motley

Theses and Dissertations

The hippocampus is thought to be involved in memory formation and consolidation, with computational models proposing the process of pattern separation as a means for encoding overlapping memories. Previous research has used semantically related targets and lures to investigate hippocampal responses to mnemonic interference. Here, we attempted to define the response function of the hippocampus and its inputs during pattern separation by parametrically varying target-lure similarity in a continuous recognition task. We also investigated the effect of task demands (intentional versus incidental encoding) on pattern separation processes. We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants were shown a …

Association Between Academic Performance And Electrocortical Processing Of Cognitive Stimuli In College Students, Mary Menn Wolf

Theses and Dissertations

Because event-related potentials (ERPs) can reflect individual differences in intellectual ability, individual differences in college grade-point average (GPA) may be associated with specific individual ERP waves, such as the P300. However, P300 amplitude is higher in women than in men and varies across the menstrual cycle, factors that could confound the association between GPA and ERPs. In this regard, our objective was to determine whether differences in GPA are reflected in ERPs while standardling for sex and menstrual phase. After participants provided informed consent, we obtained GPAs from 22 right-handed college students (11 male, age range 22 to 26 and …

Gender And Color Specific Differences In Event Related Potentials, Abhishek Trikha

Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzed gender and color-specific differences in event-related potentials (ERPs). Previous studies have shown that males process color differently than females. In a recent study, sex differences were found in ERPs during a visual object recognition task. There were higher EEG amplitudes in females (especially P300) than males. Significant sex and color-specific differences have been found in diseases involving altered dopamine (DA) machinery. Thus, we analyzed differences between ERPs in males vs females during a color task. We also compared the color-specific differences in ERPs between males and females. Males and females participated in EEG recording sessions for 2 …

12-Month-Olds’ Discrimination Of Monkey Faces: Evidence For Perceptual Narrowing?, Jacob C. Jones, Scott Stevens, Melissa Wright, Amanda Phillippi

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

It is well known from birth that faces are salient, preferred over other stimuli, and are readily discriminated. It has also been shown that over the course of development infants’ proclivity for face discrimination is influenced by their social environment. Pascalis, deHann, andNelson (2002), for example, demonstrate that 6-month-olds are able to discriminate various monkey faces as well as human faces whereas 9-month-olds can only discriminate different human faces. Importantly, however, if 6-month-olds receive 1-2 minutes per day of familiarization with photographs of monkey faces three months later the now 9-month-olds can still discriminate unfamiliar and familiar monkey faces. Like …

Decreasing Temperature Below Tt Or Increasing Cholesterol Enhance Vesibcle-Bilayer Membrane Fusion, David E. Lee, Reed A. Doxey, Kevin J. Tuttle, Dixon J. Woodbury

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Lipid composition plays an important role in fusion of vesicles to membranes, an essential process for exocytosis. Lipid head group, tail structure, and sterol content all impact the complex phase behavior of membranes. To determine the effect of lipids on fusion, we utilized the nystatin/ergesterol (nys/erg) fusion assay and stimulated fusion with a salt (osmotic) gradient. With this assay, vesicles containing nys and erg fuse with a planar membrane producing characteristic spike increases in membrane conductance.Using PE/PC (7:3) membranes, we varied cholesterol from 0-40 mol% and observed significant increases in fusion rates. In one series of experiments, membranes were formed …

Cocaine And Mefloquine-Induced Acute Effects In Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine And Gaba Neurons, David Wilbanks Allison

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of the two studies presented here was to evaluate the effects of cocaine and mefloquine (MFQ) on γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Cocaine: In vivo, lower doses of intravenous cocaine (0.25-0.5 mg/kg), or methamphetamine (METH), enhanced VTA GABA neuron firing rate via D2/D5 receptor activation. Higher cocaine doses (1.0-2.0 mg/kg) inhibited their firing rate. Cocaine and lidocaine inhibited the firing rate and spike discharges induced by stimulation of the internal capsule (ICPSDs) at dose levels 0.25-2 mg/kg (IC50 1.2 mg/kg), but neither DA nor METH reduced ICPSDs. In VTA …

The Role Of Connexin-36 Gap Junctions In Alcohol Intoxication And Reward, Kathryn Diane Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis project was to examine the function of connexin-36 (Cx36) gap junctions (GJs) in producing alcohol's intoxicating and rewarding effects. GABA neurons are thought to inhibit dopamine (DA) neurotransmission in the mesocorticolimbic system, which originates in the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projects to limbic structures such as the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). The mesolimbic DA system is believed to be the neural substrate of alcohol intoxication and addiction (Tepper, Paladini, & Celada, 1998). Alcohol suppresses the firing rate of GABA neurons in the VTA (Gallegos, Criado, Lee, Henriksen, & Steffensen, 1999) and presumably disinhibits DA …