Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

The Posterior Hypothalamus Exerts Opposing Effects On Nociception Via The A7 Catecholamine Cell Group In Rats, Y. Jeong, J. R. Moes, M. Wagner, J. E. Holden

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Stimulation of the posterior hypothalamic area (PH) produces antinociception in rats and humans, but the precise mechanisms are unknown. The PH forms anatomical connections with the parabrachial area, which contains the pontine A7 catecholamine cell group, a group of spinally projecting noradrenergic neurons known to produce antinociception in the dorsal horn. The aim of the present study was to determine whether PH-induced antinociception is mediated in part through connections with the A7 cell group in female Sprague-Dawley rats, as measured by the tail flick and foot withdrawal latency. Stimulation of the PH with the cholinergic agonist carbachol (125nmol) produced antinociception …

The Posterior Hypothalamus Exerts Opposing Effects On Nociception Via The A7 Catecholamine Cell Group In Rats, Y. Jeong, J. R. Moes, M. Wagner, J. E. Holden

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Stimulation of the posterior hypothalamic area (PH) produces antinociception in rats and humans, but the precise mechanisms are unknown. The PH forms anatomical connections with the parabrachial area, which contains the pontine A7 catecholamine cell group, a group of spinally projecting noradrenergic neurons known to produce antinociception in the dorsal horn. The aim of the present study was to determine whether PH-induced antinociception is mediated in part through connections with the A7 cell group in female Sprague-Dawley rats, as measured by the tail flick and foot withdrawal latency. Stimulation of the PH with the cholinergic agonist carbachol (125nmol) produced antinociception …

Chronic Stress Elevates Telomerase Activity In Rats, Annaliese K. Beery, Jue Lin, Joshua S. Biddle, Darlene D. Francis, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Elissa S. Epel

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

The enzyme telomerase lengthens telomeres—protective structures containing repetitive DNA sequences at chromosome ends. Telomere shortening is associated with diseases of ageing in mammals. Chronic stress has been related to shorter immune-cell telomeres, but telomerase activity under stress may be low, permitting telomere loss, or high, partially attenuating it. We developed an experimental model to examine the impacts of extended unpredictable stress on telomerase activity in male rats. Telomerase activity was 54 per cent higher in stressed rats than in controls, and associated with stress-related physiological and behavioural outcomes. This significant increase suggests a potential mechanism for resilience to stress-related replicative …

Effects Of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury On Spatial Working Memory, Amanda L. Smith

Master's Theses

Children born prematurely or at very low birth weight (VLBW) have an increased risk for hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HI). HI refers to a lack of adequate blood and oxygen flow in the brain. HI can also occur in the term infant due to birth complications such as prolonged labor, placental dysfunction, or cord prolapse. In both populations (though exact patterns of neuropathology vary) brain damage is likely to occur in the form of decreased hippocampal and cortical volume, and enlargement of the ventricles (Kesler et al., 2004, Nagy et al., 2009). Resulting neuropathology can in turn lead to cognitive …

Autonomic And Behavioral Reactivity To An Acute Laboratory Stressor, Jeremy C. Peres

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the …

Adenosine Deaminase Enhances The Immunogenicity Of Human Dendritic Cells From Healthy And Hiv-Infected Individuals, Víctor Casanova, Isaac Isaac Naval-Macabuhay, Marta Massanella, Marta Rodríguez-García

Dartmouth Scholarship

ADA is an enzyme implicated in purine metabolism, and is critical to ensure normal immune function. Its congenital deficit leads to severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). ADA binding to adenosine receptors on dendritic cell surface enables T-cell costimulation through CD26 crosslinking, which enhances T-cell activation and proliferation. Despite a large body of work on the actions of the ecto-enzyme ADA on T-cell activation, questions arise on whether ADA can also modulate dendritic cell maturation. To this end we investigated the effects of ADA on human monocyte derived dendritic cell biology. Our results show that both the enzymatic and non-enzymatic activities of …

Biological Motion And Gender Recognition: Visual Fixation On The Inversion Effect, Andrey P. Borisyuk, Rachel J. Garland, Alysse M. Feldman, Abigail R. Marchese

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Gender recognition of point-light animations replicated an inversion effect. Participants identified the gender of thirty-two (half upright and half inverted, half male and half female) moving point-light human figures. Male figures were more accurately recognized in upright animations whereas female figures were more accurately recognized in inverted animations. Eye gaze of both genders was identical in both the upright animations (predominantly waist and shoulders) and inverted animations (predominantly waist but more distributed across body parts).

Septohippocampal Gabaergic Neurons Mediate The Altered Behaviors Induced By N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Antagonists., Jingyi Ma, Siew Kian Tai, L Stan Leung

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

We hypothesize that selective lesion of the septohippocampal GABAergic neurons suppresses the altered behaviors induced by an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, ketamine or MK-801. In addition, we hypothesize that septohippocampal GABAergic neurons generate an atropine-resistant theta rhythm that coexists with an atropine-sensitive theta rhythm in the hippocampus. Infusion of orexin-saporin (ore-SAP) into the medial septal area decreased parvalbumin-immunoreactive (GABAergic) neurons by ~80%, without significantly affecting choline-acetyltransferase-immunoreactive (cholinergic) neurons. The theta rhythm during walking, or the immobility-associated theta induced by pilocarpine, was not different between ore-SAP and sham-lesion rats. Walking theta was, however, more disrupted by atropine sulfate in ore-SAP than …

Quintessence Of Dust: Cognitive Neuroscience And An Actor's Process, Jason Christopher Davis

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This thesis examines theories provided by cognitive neuroscience and applies them to an actor’s process. In particular, this research addresses the subjectivity and intentionality of our consciousness and special as-if states of consciousness, supported by the work of John Searle and Antonio Damasio. The phenomenal feeling of character-model control is discussed and supported by the work of Thomas Metzinger. The paper also considers our relative understanding of mirror neurons and specifically their function in relation to intersubjectivity and their use for an actor’s creation and conveyance of character in rehearsal and performance. It examines Stanislavsky’s notion of emotional memory and …

Process And Domain Specificity In Regions Engaged For Face Processing: An Fmri Study Of Perceptual Differentiation, Heather R. Collins, Xun Zhu, Ramesh S. Bhatt, Jonathan D. Clark, Jane E. Joseph

Psychology Faculty Publications

The degree to which face-specific brain regions are specialized for different kinds of perceptual processing is debated. This study parametrically varied demands on featural, first-order configural, or second-order configural processing of faces and houses in a perceptual matching task to determine the extent to which the process of perceptual differentiation was selective for faces regardless of processing type (domain-specific account), specialized for specific types of perceptual processing regardless of category (process-specific account), engaged in category-optimized processing (i.e., configural face processing or featural house processing), or reflected generalized perceptual differentiation (i.e., differentiation that crosses category and processing type boundaries). ROIs were …

House Finches, Carpodacus Mexicanus: Hormones, Stress, And Song Control Regions, Katherine Olivia Ganster

Master's Theses

Song production in songbirds is controlled by parts of the brain known as the song control regions (SCRs). During spring, gonads increase in size, males sing to attract mates, and SCRs become larger. This neuroplasticity is controlled by the change in day length and increased plasma testosterone (T) levels. Plasma T can be reduced by stress through the production of corticosterone (CORT), through the production of beta-endorphin, or through direct effects on the testes via the nervous system. We determined the T, estradiol, and CORT hormonal profiles of wild House Finches by capturing and sampling blood from the finches every …

Spectrum Of Acute Clinical Characteristics Of Diagnosed Concussions In College Athletes Wearing Instrumented Helmets, Ann-Christine Duhaime,, Jonathan G. Beckwith, Arthur C. Maerlender, Thomas W. Mcallister, Joseph J. Crisco, Stefan M. Duma, P. Gunnar Brolinson, Steven Rowson, Laura A. Flashman, Jeffrey J. Chu, Richard M. Greenwald

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Object. Concussive head injuries have received much attention in the medical and public arenas, as concerns have been raised about the potential shortand long-term consequences of injuries sustained in sports and other activities. While many student athletes have required evaluation after concussion, the exact definition of concussion has varied among disciplines and over time. The authors used data gathered as part of a multiinstitutional longitudinal study of the biomechanics of head impacts in helmeted collegiate athletes to characterize what signs, symptoms, and clinical histories were used to designate players as having sustained concussions.

Methods. Players on 3 college …

Low Cost Neurochairs, Frankie Pike

Master's Theses

Electroencephalography (EEG) was formerly confined to clinical and research settings with the necessary hardware costing thousands of dollars. In the last five years a number of companies have produced simple electroencephalograms, priced below $300 and available direct to consumers. These have stirred the imaginations of enthusiasts and brought the prospects of "thought-controlled" devices ever closer to reality. While these new devices were largely targeted at video games and toys, active research on enabling people suffering from debilitating diseases to control wheelchairs was being pursued. A number of neurochairs have come to fruition offering a truly hands-free mobility solution, but whether …

Reconstructability Analysis Of Genetic Loci Associated With Alzheimer Disease, Martin Zwick, Shawn K. Westaway, Stephen Shervais, Patricia L. Kramer

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstructability Analysis (RA) is an information- and graph-theory-based method which has been successfully used in previous genomic studies. Here we apply it to genetic (14 SNPs) and non-genetic (Education, Age, Gender) data on Alzheimer disease in a well-characterized Case/Control sample of 424 individuals. We confirm the importance of APOE as a predictor of the disease, and identify one non-genetic factor, Education, and two SNPs, one in BINI and the other in SORCS1, as likely disease predictors. SORCS1 appears to be a common risk factor for people with or without APOE. We also identify a possible interaction effect between Education and …

Brainstorm: Head Injuries And The Nfl, Part 13: End Of Regulation Play, John J. Medina Ph.D.

Brainstorm

In my last column I talked about my skepticism about the relationship between head injuries, CTE, and mental illness. I promised that in this, my last installment in the series, I would elaborate on some of the gaps that need filling. As I endeavor to fulfill that promise, I’ll also provide some perspective for future research.

Brainstorm: Head Injuries And The Nfl, Part 12: Grump Factor, John J. Medina Ph.D.

Brainstorm

I begin this entry on a sad note. While writing these last two installments in our series concerning CTE and the NFL, I found out about legendary linebacker Junior Seau’s suicide.

Targeting Astrocytes Ameliorates Neurologic Changes In A Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Jennifer L. Furman, Diana M. Sama, John C. Gant, Tina L. Beckett, M. Paul Murphy, Adam D. Bachstetter, Linda J. Van Eldik, Christopher M. Norris

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the brain and play a critical role in maintaining healthy nervous tissue. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) and most other neurodegenerative disorders, many astrocytes convert to a chronically "activated" phenotype characterized by morphologic and biochemical changes that appear to compromise protective properties and/or promote harmful neuroinflammatory processes. Activated astrocytes emerge early in the course of AD and become increasingly prominent as clinical and pathological symptoms progress, but few studies have tested the potential of astrocyte-targeted therapeutics in an intact animal model of AD. Here, we used adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors containing the astrocyte-specific …

Brainstorm: Head Injuries And The Nfl, Part 11: Microglial Cells, John J. Medina Ph.D.

Brainstorm

We are trying to understand the biology of CTE at the most intimate level possible, the level of cells and molecules. The last entry dealt with the tau protein and its role in mediating closed­-head neural damage. In this installment, let’s consider the role of microglial cells, a little wisp of a cell type with a great big job.

Brief Embryonic Strychnine Exposure In Zebrafish Causes Long-Term Adult Behavioral Impairment With Indications Of Embyronic Synaptic Changes, Nicole M. Roy, Brianna Arpie, Joseph Lugo, Elwood Linney, Edward D. Levin, Daniel Cerutti

Biology Faculty Publications

Zebrafish provide a powerful model of the impacts of embryonic toxicant exposure on neural development that may result in long-term behavioral dysfunction. In this study, zebrafish embryos were treated with 1.5mM strychnine for short embryonic time windows to induce transient changes in inhibitory neural signaling, and were subsequently raised in untreated water until adulthood. PCR analysis showed indications that strychnine exposure altered expression of some genes related to glycinergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic neuronal synapses during embryonic development. In adulthood, treated fish showed significant changes in swimming speed and tank diving behavior compared to controls. Taken together, these data show that …

Cocaine-Induced Reinstatement Of A Conditioned Place Preference In Developing Rats: Involvement Of The D2 Receptor, Kimberly A. Badanich, Cheryl L. Kirstein

Psychology Faculty Publications

Reinstatement of conditioned place preferences have been used to investigate physiological mechanisms mediating drug-seeking behavior in adolescent and adult rodents; however, it is still unclear how psychostimulant exposure during adolescence affects neuron communication and whether these changes would elicit enhanced drug-seeking behavior later in adulthood. The present study determined whether the effects of intra-ventral tegmental area (VTA) or intra-nucleus accumbens septi (NAcc) dopamine (DA) D2 receptor antagonist infusions would block (or potentiate) cocaine-induced reinstatement of conditioned place preferences. Adolescent rats (postnatal day (PND 28–39)) were trained to express a cocaine place preference. The involvement of D2 receptors on cocaine-induced reinstatement …

Rod Microglia: Elongation, Alignment, And Coupling To Form Trains Across The Somatosensory Cortex After Experimental Diffuse Brain Injury, Jenna M. Ziebell, Samuel E. Taylor, Tuoxin Cao, Jordan L. Harrison, Jonathan Lifshitz

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Since their discovery, the morphology of microglia has been interpreted to mirror their function, with ramified microglia constantly surveying the micro-environment and rapidly activating when changes occur. In 1899, Franz Nissl discovered what we now recognize as a distinct microglial activation state, microglial rod cells (Stäbchenzellen), which he observed adjacent to neurons. These rod-shaped microglia are typically found in human autopsy cases of paralysis of the insane, a disease of the pre-penicillin era, and best known today from HIV-1-infected brains. Microglial rod cells have been implicated in cortical 'synaptic stripping' but their exact role has remained unclear. This is …

Brainstorm: Head Injuries And The Nfl, Part 10: The Tau Of Cte, Continued, John J. Medina Ph.D.

Brainstorm

In our last installment, I wrote about a protein called tau, which necessitated talking about salt. I said that when neurons suffer the types of injury associated with CTE, part of the damage occurs because of a change in salt distribution between the inside of a neuron and its immediate outer exterior.

Brainstorm: Head Injuries And The Nfl, Part 9: The Tau Of Cte, John J. Medina Ph.D.

Brainstorm

These next two entries all about a protein called tau, which you have probably never heard of before. To understand CTE, however, we need to understand some critical biology surrounding tau. And to do that, we have to discuss something of which you have heard all your life. To talk about tau, we have to talk about salt.

Computational Model Of Neuron-Astrocyte Interputational Model Of Neuron-Astrocyte Interactions During Focal Seizure Generationactions During Focal Seizure Generation, Davide Reato, Mario Cammarota, Lucas C. Parra, Giorgio Carmignoto

Publications and Research

Empirical research in the last decade revealed that astrocytes can respond to neurotransmitters with Ca2+ elevations and generate feedback signals to neurons which modulate synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability. This discovery changed our basic understanding of brain function and provided new perspectives for how astrocytes can participate not only to information processing, but also to the genesis of brain disorders, such as epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures that can arise focally at restricted areas and propagate throughout the brain. Studies in brain slice models suggest that astrocytes contribute to epileptiform activity by increasing neuronal excitability …

Brainstorm: Head Injuries And The Nfl, Part 8: Cutting­Edge Nerves, John J. Medina Ph.D.

Brainstorm

Armed with information from the last installment about nerve cells’ basic biology, we can now talk about how they get injured in a more informed fashion. That’s the subject of this post, and also the next two.

The Contribution Of Oxidative Stress In The Protein Damage And Dna Lesion In Alzheimer's Disease Neuropathology, Cheng Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Glutathione (GSH) plays an essential role in the intracellular antioxidant defense against the oxidant radicals, especially the ·OH radical. To understand the early and progressive cellular changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) development, we investigated reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) status in a double mutated AD transgenic mouse model (B6.Cg-Tg), which carries Swedish amyloid precursor protein mutation (APPswe) and exon 9 deletion of the PSEN1 gene. Likewise, S-glutathionylation (Pr-SSG) is a specific post-translational modification (PTM) of cysteine residues by the addition of glutathione. S-glutathionylated proteins induced by oxidative stress play an essential role in understanding the pathogenesis of the aging …

A Hybrid Brain-Computer Interface Based On Motor Intention And Visual Working Memory, Ching-Chang Kuo

Doctoral Dissertations

Non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) based brain-computer interface (BCI) is able to provide alternative means for people with disabilities to communicate with and control over external assistive devices. A hybrid BCI is designed and developed for following two types of system (control and monitor).

Our first goal is to create a signal decoding strategy that allows people with limited motor control to have more command over potential prosthetic devices. Eight healthy subjects were recruited to perform visual cues directed reaching tasks. Eye and motion artifacts were identified and removed to ensure that the subjects' visual fixation to the target locations would have …

Distinct Retinohypothalamic Innervation Patterns Predict The Developmental Emergence Of Species-Typical Circadian Phase Preference In Nocturnal Norway Rats And Diurnal Nile Grass Rats, William D. Todd, Andrew J. Gall, Joshua A. Weiner, Mark S. Blumberg

Faculty Publications

How does the brain develop differently to support nocturnality in some mammals, but diurnality in others? To answer this question, one might look to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is entrained by light via the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). However, because the SCN is more active during the day in all mammals studied thus far, it alone cannot determine circadian phase preference. In adult Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), which are nocturnal, the RHT also projects to the ventral subparaventricular zone (vSPVZ), an adjacent region that expresses an in-phase pattern of SCN-vSPVZ neuronal activity. In contrast, in adult Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis …

Collaborative Online Writing Assignments To Foster Active Learning, Richard F. Olivo

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

To help students master the content of a neurophysiology course, they were asked to participate in collaborative writing projects. In the first two years, students contributed to a class wiki by summarizing one lecture and editing summaries of several others. In the second two years, students worked in teams of three or four to write a series of illustrated chapters spanning the entire semester. The second assignment kept students more engaged than the wiki project, and although they found it a significant amount of work, they also believed that it helped them learn the subject matter. Working in teams, however, …

Corticosterone-Induced Potentiation Of Cocaine Seeking: A Potential Role For Organic Cation Transporter 3, Evan N. Graf

Dissertations (1934 -)

While it is known that stress plays a role in the relapse of cocaine-seeking behavior, recent studies demonstrate that stress may be acting as a "stage setter" rather than directly triggering further cocaine use. This model suggests stimuli that do not normally evoke relapse under stress-free conditions may result in drug seeking when the exposure occurs under stressful conditions. In this study, we examined the corticosterone-dependent potentiation of cocaine-induced reinstatement by a stressor, electric footshock (EFS), in rats following cocaine self-administration and extinction. We found that in rats with a history of drug exposure under low intake conditions, footshock alone …