Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

A Preliminary Report: The Hippocampus And Surrounding Temporal Cortex Of Patients With Schizophrenia Have Impaired Blood-Brain Barrier, Eric L. Goldwaser, Randel L. Swanson, Edgardo J. Arroyo, Venkat Venkataraman, Mary C. Kosciuk, Robert G. Nagele, L. Elliot Hong, Nimish K. Acharya

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Schizophrenia (SZ) is one of the most severe forms of mental illness, yet mechanisms remain unclear. A widely established brain finding in SZ is hippocampal atrophy, and a coherent explanation similarly is lacking. Epidemiological evidence suggests increased cerebrovascular and cardiovascular complications in SZ independent of lifestyle and medication, pointing to disease-specific pathology. Endothelial cell contributions to blood-brain barrier (BBB) compromise may influence neurovascular unit and peripheral vascular function, and we hypothesize that downstream functional and structural abnormalities may be explained by impaired BBB.

Morphine-Induced Hyperactivity Is Attenuated By Intra-Accumbens Administration Of The Highly-Selective Dopamine D3 Receptor Antagonist Vk4-40, Mansi Patel, Desta M. Pulley, Daniel Manvich

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Opioids exert their abuse-related effects by enhancing dopamine (DA) neurotransmission within the brain’s mesolimbic reward system, a neural projection involving DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) that project to medium spiny neurons within the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Mu (MOR) are expressed by several populations of GABAergic neurons that tonically inhibit VTA DA neurons. By inhibiting these GABAergic neurons in a MOR-dependent manner, opioids indirectly enhance DA neurotransmission via disinhibition of DAergic neurons. Accumulating evidence indicates that selective pharmacological antagonism of the dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) attenuates the abuse-related effects of several opioids, but the neurobiological mechanisms mediating this …

Examining Levels Of Catecholamine Neurotransmitter Regulatory Proteins Within The Prefrontal Cortex Of Rodents Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Eleni Papadopoulos, Christopher P. Knapp, Claire M. Corbett, Jessica Loweth, Rachel L. Navarra

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting from impact to the head can cause long lasting impairments of cognitive processes that lead to increased risk-taking behavior in clinical populations. Our laboratory has recently shown that female, but not age-matched male, rats increase preference for risky choices after multiple experimentally-induced mild TBI’s. Our overarching goal is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying TBI-induced increases in risk-taking behavior.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a prominent role in risk-based decision making. Sub[1]regions of the PFC include the medial PFC (mPFC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and these sub[1]regions play specific …

Neural Substrates Of Homing Pigeon Spatial Navigation: Results From Electrophysiology Studies, Gerald E. Hough

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

Over many centuries, the homing pigeon has been selectively bred for returning home from a distant location. As a result of this strong selective pressure, homing pigeons have developed an excellent spatial navigation system. This system passes through the hippocampal formation (HF), which shares many striking similarities to the mammalian hippocampus; there are a host of shared neuropeptides, interconnections, and its role in the storage and manipulation of spatial maps. There are some notable differences as well: there are unique connectivity patterns and spatial encoding strategies. This review summarizes the comparisons between the avian and mammalian hippocampal systems, and the …

Investigating The Role Of The Basolateral Amygdala Plays In The Incubation Of Cue-Induced Cocaine Seeking Behavior, Claire Marie Corbett

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Cocaine use disorder is a chronic, relapsing brain disease. Sex and ovarian hormones are known to influence cocaine addiction liability and relapse vulnerability. However, little is known regarding the cellular and synaptic mechanisms contributing to sex differences in relapse vulnerability, including how these measures are influenced by hormonal fluctuations. To investigate sex differences in relapse vulnerability we use a rodent model of cocaine craving and relapse called the incubation model in which cue-induced seeking progressively increases or “incubates” during the first month of withdrawal from extended-access cocaine self-administration. Using this model, we have recently shown that females in the estrus …