Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Claremont Colleges

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 61 - 85 of 85

Full-Text Articles in Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Time Frequency Analysis Of Neural Oscillations In Multi-Attribute Decision-Making, Iris Lieuw Jan 2015

Time Frequency Analysis Of Neural Oscillations In Multi-Attribute Decision-Making, Iris Lieuw

Scripps Senior Theses

In our daily lives, we often make decisions that require the use of self-control, weighing trade-offs between various attributes: for example, selecting a food based on its health rather than its taste. Previous research suggests that re-weighting attributes may rely on selective attention, associated with decreased neural oscillations over posterior brain regions in the alpha (8-12 Hz) frequency range. Here, we utilized the high temporal resolution and whole-brain coverage of electroencephalography (EEG) to test this hypothesis in data collected from hungry human subjects exercising dietary self-control. Prior analysis of this data has found time-locked neural activity associated with each food’s …


Reducing Subjectivity: Meditation And Implicit Bias, Diana M. Ciuca Jan 2015

Reducing Subjectivity: Meditation And Implicit Bias, Diana M. Ciuca

CMC Senior Theses

Implicit association of racial stereotypes is brought about by social conditioning (Greenwald & Krieger, 2006). This conditioning can be explained by attractor networks (Sharp, 2011). Reducing implicit bias through meditation can show the effectiveness of reducing the rigidity of attractor networks, thereby reducing subjectivity. Mindfulness meditation has shown to reduce bias from the use of one single guided session conducted before performing an Implicit Association Test (Lueke & Gibson, 2015). Attachment to socially conditioned racial bias should become less prevalent through practicing meditation over time. An experimental model is proposed to test this claim along with a reconceptualization of consciousness …


Characterizing A Novel Monoclonal Ampa Receptor 1/2/3 Antibody In The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Rat, Monkey, And Human, Sebastian Aguiar Jan 2014

Characterizing A Novel Monoclonal Ampa Receptor 1/2/3 Antibody In The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Rat, Monkey, And Human, Sebastian Aguiar

Pitzer Senior Theses

The excitatory, ionotropic glutamatergic AMPA receptor is the most common membrane-bound receptor in the central nervous system. AMPARs and the NMDA receptors are central to synaptic plasticity, memory, and mechanisms of neurodegeneration. The AMPAR is an obligate heterotetramer, composed of subunits GluA1-4. Subunit permutation determines ion conductance, trafficking and other functional characteristics. Few available antibodies are subunit-specific, disabling researchers from accurately visualizing differential AMPAR subunit distribution in the nervous system. This study sought to visualize a novel monoclonal GluA1/2/3 antibody with functional avidity for three of four receptor subunits and to characterize the ultrastructural localization of these receptors using confocal …


Examining The Intersection Of The Cognitive Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Bilingual Brain, Irina Rabkina Jan 2014

Examining The Intersection Of The Cognitive Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Bilingual Brain, Irina Rabkina

Scripps Senior Theses

Two conflicting findings characterize cognitive processing accompanying bilingualism. The “bilingual advantage” refers to improved cognitive performance for bilingual compared to monolingual participants. Most bilingual advantages fall under the umbrella of cognitive control mechanisms, most frequently demonstrated using the Stroop task and the Simon task (e.g., Bialystok, 2008; Coderre, Van Heuven, & Conklin, 2013). The “bilingual disadvantage,” on the other hand, refers to bilinguals’ diminished performance on tasks that require word retrieval or switching between languages. This study examined the intersection of the bilingual advantage and the bilingual disadvantage to investigate whether they stem from a single cognitive control process. The …


A Dna Computer For Glioblastoma Multiforme Diagnosis And Drug Delivery, Sumaiya F. Hashmi Jan 2013

A Dna Computer For Glioblastoma Multiforme Diagnosis And Drug Delivery, Sumaiya F. Hashmi

CMC Senior Theses

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a debilitating malignant brain tumor with expected patient survival of less than a year and limited responsiveness to most treatments, often requiring biopsy for diagnosis and invasive surgery for treatment. We propose a DNA computer system, consisting of input, computation, and output components, for diagnosis and treatment. The input component will detect the presence of three GBM biomarkers: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), caveolin-1α (CAV), and B2 receptors. The computation component will include indicator segments for each of these genes, and ensure that output is only released if all the biomarkers are present. The output component …


Navigating The Diverse Dimensions Of Stereotypes, With Domain Specific Deficits: Processes Of Trait Judgments About Individuals With Disabilities, Christina G. Boardman May 2012

Navigating The Diverse Dimensions Of Stereotypes, With Domain Specific Deficits: Processes Of Trait Judgments About Individuals With Disabilities, Christina G. Boardman

Scripps Senior Theses

Stereotype groups are interrelated. For example, in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, racial minorities are referred to special education at a much higher rate than are majority racial groups (Tse, Lloyd, Petchkovsky, and Manaia, 2005; Harry, Arnaiz, Klingner, Sturges, 2008). The Stereotype Content Model describes stereotype relationships in terms of an interaction between competence and warmth. Warmth is the more consistent dimension. The nature of competence remains elusive (Fiske, Cuddy, and Glick, 2007; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, and Xu, 2002). Knowledge of relationships between stereotype groups, which themselves may be effects of bias, could factor into observed competence effects. …


Effects Of Cannabidiol On Mk-801-Induced Locomotor Sensitization In Mice, Sara K. Cronin Apr 2012

Effects Of Cannabidiol On Mk-801-Induced Locomotor Sensitization In Mice, Sara K. Cronin

Scripps Senior Theses

Previous research has shown that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound in the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, may be useful in treating drug craving, one of the hallmarks of drug addiction. However, the neural mechanism by which CBD attenuates craving is poorly understood. Studies from other laboratories have shown that neuroplastic changes associated with brain NMDA glutamate systems may at least partially serve as a neural mechanism for craving. In the current study, the noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 maleate was used to induce locomotor sensitization, a form of NMDA glutamate-mediated neuroplasticity, in mice to test the sensitization-attenuating potential of …


Neural Synchrony In The Zebra Finch Brain, Sydney Pia Goings Apr 2012

Neural Synchrony In The Zebra Finch Brain, Sydney Pia Goings

Scripps Senior Theses

I am interested in discovering the role of field potential oscillations in producing synchrony within the song system of the male zebra finch brain. An important function attributed to neural synchrony is sensorimotor integration. In the production of birdsong, sensorimotor integration is crucial, as auditory feedback is necessary for the maintenance of the song. A cortical-thalamic-cortical feedback loop is thought to play a role in the integration of auditory and motor information for the purpose of producing song. Synchronous activity has been observed between at least two nuclei in this feedback loop, MMAN and HVC. Since low frequency field potential …


A Proposal To Test The Effects Of Factor Ecat1 On Pluripotency, From Reprogramming To Differentiation Of Human Somatic Cells, Vritti R. Goel Jan 2012

A Proposal To Test The Effects Of Factor Ecat1 On Pluripotency, From Reprogramming To Differentiation Of Human Somatic Cells, Vritti R. Goel

CMC Senior Theses

The field of stem cell research has been growing more because of the interest in using stem cells to cure diseases and heal injuries. Human embryonic stem cells, because of the controversy surrounding them—and subsequently the difficulties in acquiring samples of the existing aging cell lines—can only be used in limited capacities. While the development of induced pluripotent stem cells in the last decade has allowed the field to progress closer to medical treatments, the low efficiency of reprogramming a somatic cell to a pluripotent state, and the vast molecular and genomic differences between human embryonic stem cells and human …


Neural Responses To Vibration During Wobble Board Balancing, Michael Nguyentat Jan 2011

Neural Responses To Vibration During Wobble Board Balancing, Michael Nguyentat

CMC Senior Theses

Falling, an epidemic most prevalently seen in the elderly population, accounts for the majority of injury-related cases seen by emergency departments across the United States. Unfortunately, with no large-scale institutionalization of a solution, the problem is only expected to exacerbate as our planet’s population approaches the 7 billion mark. In the wake of the recent surge of falls among the elderly, Japan has implemented a program to include unicycling in the physical education curriculum for elementary schools across the country. The goal for this program is to encourage children to establish strong fundamental balancing skills, which could potentially alleviate the …


Affective Decision-Making Predictive Of Chinese Adolescent Drinking Behaviors, Lin Xiao, Antoine Bechara, Jerry L. Grenard, Alan W. Stacy, Paula Palmer, Yonglan Wei, Yong Jia, Xiaolu Fu, C. Anderson Johnson Jan 2009

Affective Decision-Making Predictive Of Chinese Adolescent Drinking Behaviors, Lin Xiao, Antoine Bechara, Jerry L. Grenard, Alan W. Stacy, Paula Palmer, Yonglan Wei, Yong Jia, Xiaolu Fu, C. Anderson Johnson

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The goal of the current investigation was to address whether affective decision making would serve as a unique neuropsychological marker to predict drinking behaviors among adolescents. We conducted a longitudinal study of 181 Chinese adolescents in Chengdu city, China. In their 10th grade (ages 15–16), these adolescents were tested for their affective decision-making ability using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and working memory capacity using the Self-Ordered Pointing Test. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess academic performance and drinking behaviors. At 1-year follow-up, questionnaires were completed to assess drinking behaviors, and the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale was used to examine …


Clustering Neural Spike Trains With Transient Responses, John D. Hunter, Jianhong Wu, John Milton Dec 2008

Clustering Neural Spike Trains With Transient Responses, John D. Hunter, Jianhong Wu, John Milton

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

The detection of transient responses, i.e. nonstationarities, that arise in a varying and small fraction of the total number of neural spike trains recorded from chronically implanted multielectrode grids becomes increasingly difficult as the number of electrodes grows. This paper presents a novel application of an unsupervised neural network for clustering neural spike trains with transient responses. This network is constructed by incorporating projective clustering into an adaptive resonance type neural network (ART) architecture resulting in a PART neural network. Since comparisons are made between inputs and learned patterns using only a subset of the total number of available dimensions, …


Divisions Within The Posterior Parietal Cortex Help Touch Meet Vision, Catherine L. Reed Apr 2007

Divisions Within The Posterior Parietal Cortex Help Touch Meet Vision, Catherine L. Reed

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The parietal cortex is divided into two major functional regions: the anterior parietal cortex that includes primary somatosensory cortex, and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) that includes the rest of the parietal lobe. The PPC contains multiple representations of space. In Dijkerman and de Haan’s (see record 2007-13802-022) model, higher spatial representations are separate from PPC functions. This model should be developed further so that the functions of the somatosensory system are integrated with specific functions within the PPC and higher spatial representations. Through this further specification of the model, one can make better predictions regarding functional interactions between somatosensory …


In Situ Muscle Power Differs Without Varying In Vitro Mechanical Properties In Two Insect Leg Muscles Innervated By The Same Motor Neuron, Anna N. Ahn, Kenneth Meijer, Robert J. Full Sep 2006

In Situ Muscle Power Differs Without Varying In Vitro Mechanical Properties In Two Insect Leg Muscles Innervated By The Same Motor Neuron, Anna N. Ahn, Kenneth Meijer, Robert J. Full

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The mechanical behavior of muscle during locomotion is often predicted by its anatomy, kinematics, activation pattern and contractile properties. The neuromuscular design of the cockroach leg provides a model system to examine these assumptions, because a single motor neuron innervates two extensor muscles operating at a single joint. Comparisons of the in situ measurements under in vivo running conditions of muscle 178 to a previously examined muscle (179) demonstrate that the same inputs (e.g. neural signal and kinematics) can result in different mechanical outputs. The same neural signal and kinematics, as determined during running, can result in different mechanical functions, …


An Optimal Brain Can Be Composed Of Conflicting Agents, Adi Livnat, Nicholas Pippenger Jan 2006

An Optimal Brain Can Be Composed Of Conflicting Agents, Adi Livnat, Nicholas Pippenger

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Many behaviors have been attributed to internal conflict within the animal and human mind. However, internal conflict has not been reconciled with evolutionary principles, in that it appears maladaptive relative to a seamless decision-making process. We study this problem through a mathematical analysis of decision-making structures. We find that, under natural physiological limitations, an optimal decision-making system can involve “selfish” agents that are in conflict with one another, even though the system is designed for a single purpose. It follows that conflict can emerge within a collective even when natural selection acts on the level of the collective only.


Word Association Tests Of Associative Memory And Implicit Processes: Theoretical And Assessment Issues, Alan W. Stacy, Susan L. Ames, Jerry L. Grenard Jan 2006

Word Association Tests Of Associative Memory And Implicit Processes: Theoretical And Assessment Issues, Alan W. Stacy, Susan L. Ames, Jerry L. Grenard

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Word association is one of the most commonly used measures of association in cognitive science. These tests have been used to infer association parameters in normative studies, to derive cues and primes used in diverse paradigms (semantic priming, cued recall, illusory memory), to test implicit memory in experimental studies, and to suggest the operation of implicit processes in nonexperimental work. This chapter briefly outlines some of the historical routes and current controversies about association and summarizes basic cognitive research applying associative tests. The authors then describe benefits and limitations of the tests, as well as implications for theory and interventions …


Human Stick Balancing: Tuning Lèvy Flights To Improve Balance Control, Juan Luis Cabrera, John Milton Sep 2004

Human Stick Balancing: Tuning Lèvy Flights To Improve Balance Control, Juan Luis Cabrera, John Milton

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

State-dependent, or parametric, noise is an essential component of the neural control mechanism for stick balancing at the fingertip. High-speed motion analysis in three dimensions demonstrates that the controlling movements made by the fingertip during stick balancing can be described by a Lévy flight. The Lévy index, , is approximately 0.9; a value close to optimal for a random search. With increased skill, the index does not change. However, the tails of the Lévy distribution become broader. These observations suggest a Lévy flight that is truncated by the properties of the nervous and musculoskeletal system; the truncation decreasing as skill …


Synaptic Transformations Underlying Highly Selective Auditory Representations Of Learned Birdsong, Melissa J. Coleman, Richard Mooney Aug 2004

Synaptic Transformations Underlying Highly Selective Auditory Representations Of Learned Birdsong, Melissa J. Coleman, Richard Mooney

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Stimulus-specific neuronal responses are a striking characteristic of several sensory systems, although the synaptic mechanisms underlying their generation are not well understood. The songbird nucleus HVC (used here as a proper name) contains projection neurons (PNs) that fire temporally sparse bursts of action potentials to playback of the bird's own song (BOS) but are essentially silent when presented with other acoustical stimuli. To understand how such remarkable stimulus specificity emerges, it is necessary to compare the auditory-evoked responsiveness of the afferents of HVC with synaptic responses in identified HVC neurons. We found that inactivating the interfacial nucleus of the nidopallium …


Neurologically Plausible Distinctions In Cognition Relevant To Drug Use Etiology And Prevention, Alan W. Stacy, Susan L. Ames, Barbara J. Knowlton Jan 2004

Neurologically Plausible Distinctions In Cognition Relevant To Drug Use Etiology And Prevention, Alan W. Stacy, Susan L. Ames, Barbara J. Knowlton

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This article outlines several distinctions in cognition and related topics in emotion that receive support from work in cognitive neuroscience and have important implications for prevention: implicit cognition, working memory, nonverbal memory, and neurobiological systems of habit. These distinctions have not been widely acknowledged or applied in drug use prevention research, despite their neural plausibility and the availability of methods to make this link. The authors briefly review the basis for the distinctions and indicate general implications and assessment possibilities for prevention researchers conducting large-scale field trials. Subsequently, the article outlines a connectionist framework for specific applications in prevention interventions. …


Synaptic Heterogeneity And Stimulus-Induced Modulation Of Depression In Central Synapses, John D. Hunter, John Milton Aug 2001

Synaptic Heterogeneity And Stimulus-Induced Modulation Of Depression In Central Synapses, John D. Hunter, John Milton

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Short-term plasticity is a pervasive feature of synapses. Synapses exhibit many forms of plasticity operating over a range of time scales. We develop an optimization method that allows rapid characterization of synapses with multiple time scales of facilitation and depression. Investigation of paired neurons that are postsynaptic to the same identified interneuron in the buccal ganglion of Aplysia reveals that the responses of the two neurons differ in the magnitude of synaptic depression. Also, for single neurons, prolonged stimulation of the presynaptic neuron causes stimulus-induced increases in the early phase of synaptic depression. These observations can be described by a …


Age Differences In Behavior And Pet Activation Reveal Differences In Interference Resolution In Verbal Working Memory, Alan Hartley, John Jonides, Christina Marshuetz, Edward E. Smith, Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, Robert A. Koeppe Jan 2000

Age Differences In Behavior And Pet Activation Reveal Differences In Interference Resolution In Verbal Working Memory, Alan Hartley, John Jonides, Christina Marshuetz, Edward E. Smith, Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, Robert A. Koeppe

Scripps Faculty Publications and Research

Older adults were tested on a verbal working memory task that used the item-recognition paradigm. On some trials of this task, response-conflict was created by presenting test-items that were familiar but were not members of a current set of items stored in memory. These items required a negative response, but their familiarity biased subjects toward a positive response. Younger subjects show an interference effect on such trials, and this interference is accompanied by activation of a region of left lateral prefrontal cortex. However, there has been no evidence that the activation in this region is causally related to the interference …


Age Differences In The Frontal Lateralization Of Verbal And Spatial Working Memory Revealed By Pet, Alan Hartley, Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, John Jonides, Edward E. Smith, Andrea Miller, Christina Marshuetz, Robert A. Koeppe Jan 2000

Age Differences In The Frontal Lateralization Of Verbal And Spatial Working Memory Revealed By Pet, Alan Hartley, Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, John Jonides, Edward E. Smith, Andrea Miller, Christina Marshuetz, Robert A. Koeppe

Scripps Faculty Publications and Research

Age-related decline in working memory figures prominently in theories of cognitive aging. However, the effects of aging on the neural substrate of working memory are largely unknown. Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to investigate verbal and spatial short-term storage (3 sec) in older and younger adults. Previous investigations with younger subjects performing these same tasks have revealed asymmetries in the lateral organization of verbal and spatial working memory. Using volume of interest (VOI) analyses that specifically compared activation at sites identified with working memory to their homologous twin in the opposite hemisphere, we show pronounced age differences in this …


Dynamic Diseases In Neurology And Psychiatry, John Milton, Deborah Black Mar 1995

Dynamic Diseases In Neurology And Psychiatry, John Milton, Deborah Black

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Thirty-two (32) periodic diseases of the nervous system are identified in which symptoms and/or signs recur. In 10/32, the recurrence of a symptom complex is one of the defining features of the illness, whereas in 22/32 oscillatory signs occur in the setting of an ongoing nervous system disorder. We discuss the possibility that these disorders may be dynamic diseases.


Functional Consequences Of Compartmentalization Of Synaptic Input, Melissa J. Coleman, Michael P. Nusbaum Nov 1994

Functional Consequences Of Compartmentalization Of Synaptic Input, Melissa J. Coleman, Michael P. Nusbaum

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Intra-axonal recordings of stomatogastric nerve axon 1 (SNAX1) indicate that there are synaptic inputs onto the SNAX1 terminals in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of the crab Cancer borealis (Nusbaum et al., 1992b). To determine whether this synaptic input only influenced SNAX1 activity within the STG, we identified the SNAX1 soma in the commissural ganglion (CoG). We found that this neuron has a neuropilar arborization in the CoG and also receives synaptic inputs in this ganglion. Based on its soma location, we have renamed this neuron modulatory commissural neuron 1 (MCN1). While intracellular stimulation of MCN1soma and MCN1SNAX has the same …


Complex Motor Dynamics And Control In Multi-Looped Negative Feedback Systems, Anne Beuter, John Milton, Christiane Labrie, Leon Glass Nov 1989

Complex Motor Dynamics And Control In Multi-Looped Negative Feedback Systems, Anne Beuter, John Milton, Christiane Labrie, Leon Glass

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Experiments were performed in normal and Parkinsonian subjects who were asked to maintain a constant finger position using time-delayed visual feedback. The finger position showed complex dynamics, with characteristic differences between normal and Parkinosonian subjects. Here we discuss some of the theoretical issues that must be resolved in order to understand the mechanisms that underlie the generation of these complex signals.