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

Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons

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

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Assessing The Impact Of Lipopolysaccharide On Learning And Memory In Rats, Anahat Luthra Aug 2022

Assessing The Impact Of Lipopolysaccharide On Learning And Memory In Rats, Anahat Luthra

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The immune system and the central nervous system (CNS) have a bi-direction relationship, modulating one another.4 Proinflammatory cytokines released from CNS immune cells have an impact on cognitive processes such as learning and memory.1 Liposaccharide (LPS), a cell wall component of Gram-negative bacteria, which is used to activate proinflammatory cytokine release has been found to impact learning and memory processes, such as in the anticipatory nausea paradigm (ANP).2 Anticipatory nausea and vomiting is that which may occur before a chemotherapy treatment session begins in a patient who has had chemotherapy before. It is caused by triggers like …


Memoir Dataset: Quantifying Image Memorability In Adolescents, Gal Almog, Yalda Mohsenzadeh Aug 2021

Memoir Dataset: Quantifying Image Memorability In Adolescents, Gal Almog, Yalda Mohsenzadeh

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Every day, humans observe and interact with hundreds of images and scenes; whether it be on a cellphone, on television, or in print. Yet a vast majority of these images are forgotten, some immediately and some after variable lengths of time. Memorability is indeed a property intrinsic to all images that can be extracted, as well as predicted. While memory itself is a process that occurs in the brain of an individual, the concept of memorability is an intrinsic, continuous property of a stimulus that can be both measured and manipulated. We selected images from the MemCat data set that …


The Role Of Histone Demethylases In Learning And Memory In The Mushroom Body Of Drosophila Melanogaster, Crystal Keung Apr 2020

The Role Of Histone Demethylases In Learning And Memory In The Mushroom Body Of Drosophila Melanogaster, Crystal Keung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intellectual disability (ID) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with many epigenetic regulators and chromatin modifying enzymes like histone lysine methyltransferases (KMTs) and demethylases (KDMs). Here, I systematically investigate the role of 7 KDMs: Su(var)3-3, KDM2, Lid, CG2982, UTX, KDM4B, JHDM2, and 1 KMT: trr in the context of learning and memory using Drosophila melanogaster. Genetic knockdown of each gene in the mushroom body (MB) of flies are tested for short- and long-term memory impairment using courtship conditioning. Knockdown of 6 KDMs and trr resulted in memory loss. MB morphology was analyzed to determine potential cause of memory loss. …


Investigating The Role Of Atrx In Glutamatergic Hippocampal Neurons, Renee Tamming Jun 2019

Investigating The Role Of Atrx In Glutamatergic Hippocampal Neurons, Renee Tamming

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mutations in ATRX, a Snf2-type chromatin remodeler, frequently lead to intellectual disability. However, the function of ATRX within the brain in cognition and synaptic transmission are incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of ATRX in the adult mouse brain. While complete loss of ATRX in the embryonic mouse brain results in perinatal lethality, mosaic expression of ATRX stunted growth and perturbed circulating IGF-1 levels. Mosaic expression of ATRX also impaired adult cognition, specifically recognition memory and spatial learning and memory. However, there were confounding factors that led me to a new model in …


Effect Of Atrx Inactivation On Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity In Mice, Radu Gugustea Apr 2019

Effect Of Atrx Inactivation On Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity In Mice, Radu Gugustea

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The ATRX gene encodes an ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling factor and gene mutations cause developmental defects and intellectual disability. Conditional ablation of Atrx in mouse postnatal forebrain excitatory neurons (ATRX-KO) leads to spatial learning and memory impairments. Thus, we hypothesized that hippocampal synaptic transmission and plasticity are disrupted in ATRX-KO mice. Long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular correlate of memory, and input-output relation of paired-pulse responses were studied in urethane-anesthetized mice in vivo. Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) of stratum oriens induced robust basal dendritic LTP in CA1 of both ATRX-KO and control mice, while paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) during baseline was lower in ATRX-KO …


The Role Of H3k4 Methyltransferases In Drosophila Memory, Nicholas Raun Jan 2019

The Role Of H3k4 Methyltransferases In Drosophila Memory, Nicholas Raun

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gene transcription required for long-term memory requires the modification of histones. However, there are still many uncertainties about the identity and spatial expression of genes regulated by histone modifications during memory related processes. In this project I examined the role of Drosophila melanogaster methyltransferases Set1 and trx in courtship memory. Genetic knockdown of Set1 and trx in the mushroom body (MB) revealed that Set1 was necessary for short- and long-term memory, while trx was only required for long-term memory. Transcriptional profiling of MBs following trx-knockdown revealed expression changes in MB-enriched genes and genes involved in RNA processing. Among the …


Mechanisms Involved In The Assessment Of Cumulative Long-Term Familiarity Of Object Concepts: An Erp Study, Haopei Yang Aug 2017

Mechanisms Involved In The Assessment Of Cumulative Long-Term Familiarity Of Object Concepts: An Erp Study, Haopei Yang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We investigated the sensitivity of ERP components implicated in recognition memory to degree of experimentally controlled and lifetime cumulative exposures during explicit memory judgements. A parietally distributed ERP component spanning both the FN400/N400 and the LPC time windows tracked both types of judgements. This effect appears to be an LPC effect with an early onset, and differs from previously reported effects of repetition linked to implicit memory. Based on recent evidence, we interpreted it as response-related evidence accumulation processes that are in line with both single-process models and continuous dual-process models. We also observed more positive ERPs in the left …


Cerebral Lactate Metabolism And Memory: Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, Richard Andrew Harris Apr 2017

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 glycolysis …


Pearls And Perils Of Pupillometry Using A Webcam, Mason Kadem, Rhodri Cusack Jan 2017

Pearls And Perils Of Pupillometry Using A Webcam, Mason Kadem, Rhodri Cusack

Undergraduate Honors Posters

Current methods to measure infants’ cognitive repertoire (i.e., collection of cognitive abilities) are limited. Previous testing paradigms required acquisition of non-age contextualized responses, and relied on measures that involved acquisition of other functions (e.g., language, motor). In addition to response limitations, cognitive functions may be difficult to observe in infants due to the difficulty in infant recruitment. Online testing has increased infant recruitment efforts and physiological responses have bypassed the motor, behavioural and linguistic limitations of infants. Recently, it has been shown that heart rate measures can be acquired through a webcam. Another feasible and reliable physiological measure is pupillometery, …


Category-Specific Item Recognition And The Medial Temporal Lobe, Christopher B. Martin Apr 2015

Category-Specific Item Recognition And The Medial Temporal Lobe, Christopher B. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Much neuropsychological and neuroimaging research has been focused on the contributions of different medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures to recognition memory. The majority of these studies have linked perirhinal cortex (PrC) to item recognition, whereas the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex (PhC) have primarily been associated with the recollection of contextual detail pertaining to a specific prior stimulus encounter. Here, I report results from three fMRI studies that examined the neural correlates of item recognition with a specific focus on the relationship between such signals and category-specific effects in the MTL. In Chapter 2, I reveal that category-specific representations in both …


Contribution Of Trpm2 To Memory Loss In An Alzheimer's Mouse Model, Megan M. Chen Dec 2013

Contribution Of Trpm2 To Memory Loss In An Alzheimer's Mouse Model, Megan M. Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive deterioration of memory and other intellectual abilities. Accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide, the major contributor to the senile plaques central to AD, is thought to mediate neurotoxicity by inducing oxidative stress and calcium dysregulation. Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin type 2 (TRPM2) is a calcium permeable, non-selective cation channel activated under oxidative stress and ultimately induces cell death. The APPSWE/PSEN1ΔE9 double transgenic mouse model carries the human APPswe (Swedish mutations K594N/M595L) and PS1 mutations with a deletion in exon 9 (PS1-dE9), and is one of the most commonly used AD …