Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Subjective Experience In Insects: Definitions And Other Difficulties, Shelley Adamo

Animal Sentience

Whether insects have the potential for subjective experiences depends on the definition of subjective experience. The definition used by Klein & Barron (2016) is an unusually liberal one and could be used to argue that some modern robots have subjective experiences. From an evolutionary perspective, the additional neurons needed to produce subjective experiences will be proportionately more expensive for insects than for mammals because of the small size of the insect brain. This greater cost could weaken selection for such traits. Minimally, it may be premature to assume that small neuronal number is unimportant in determining the capacity for consciousness.

An Ultrasensitive Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence-Based Immunoassay For Specific Detection Of Zika Virus, Amber M. Paul, Dhiraj Acharya, Pradip Bastola, Linda Le, Estenfani Fernandez, Michael S. Diamond, Wujian Miao, Fengwei Bai

Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a globally emerging mosquito-transmitted flavivirus that can cause severe fetal abnormalities, including microcephaly. As such, highly sensitive, specific, and cost-effective diagnostic methods are urgently needed. Here, we report a novel electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL)-based immunoassay for ultrasensitive and specific detection of ZIKV in human biological fluids. We loaded polystyrene beads (PSB) with a large number of ECL labels and conjugated them with anti-ZIKV monoclonal antibodies to generate anti-ZIKV-PSBs. These anti-ZIKV-PSBs efficiently captured ZIKV in solution forming ZIKV-anti-ZIKV-PSB complexes, which were subjected to measurement of ECL intensity after further magnetic beads separation. Our results show that the anti-ZIKV-PSBs …

Bacteria And The Cellular Basis Of Consciousness, Michael L. Woodruff

Animal Sentience

According to Reber’s theory, the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC), sentience originates as bio-sensitivity in unicellular organisms. For this reason, Reber regards sentience as evolutionarily foundational. Many bacteria show chemotaxis and, thus, according to CBC, they are sentient. Analysis of the genetic mechanisms underlying bacterial chemotaxis indicates that sentience has no explanatory power in this case. Genetic analysis also fails to show species continuity underlying bio-sensitivity in bacteria and bio-sensitivity in species with nervous systems, so it does not seem that sentience is evolutionary foundational. CBC is rejected on these grounds.

Unity Of Consciousness In Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Animal Sentience

Both Descartes the rationalist and Hume the empiricist, polar opposites philosophically, denied the unity and continuity of animal mind. Kant pointed out that the presence of retrievable memories entails unity of consciousness. Rowlands now argues that animals too have unity of consciousness.

Social Defeat Stress Induces Depression-Like Behavior And Alters Spine Morphology In The Hippocampus Of Adolescent Male C57bl/6 Mice, Sergio D. Iñiguez, Antonio Aubry, Lace M. Riggs, Jason B. Alipio, Roseanna M. Zanca, Francisco J. Flores-Ramirez, Mirella A. Hernandez, Steven J. Nieto, David Musheyev, Peter Serrano

Publications and Research

Social stress, including bullying during adolescence, is a risk factor for common psychopathologies such as depression. To investigate the neural mechanisms associated with juvenile social stress-induced mood-related endophenotypes, we examined the behavioral, morphological, and biochemical effects of the social defeat stress model of depression on hippocampal dendritic spines within the CA1 stratum radiatum. Adolescent (postnatal day 35) male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to defeat episodes for 10 consecutive days. Twenty-four h later, separate groups of mice were tested on the social interaction and tail suspension tests. Hippocampi were then dissected and Western blots were conducted to quantify protein levels for …

To Bee Or Not To Bee?, Shimon Edelman, Roy Moyal, Tomer Fekete

Animal Sentience

Klein & Barron’s (2016) (K & B’s) case for insect consciousness is a welcome development in an area that, in all of the science and philosophy of mind, is probably the most anthropocentric. In this commentary, we seek to strengthen K & B’s side of the argument by appealing not just to putative neural mechanisms but also to computational theory that supports it (section 1). We also offer some remarks on three distinctions that are relevant to K & B’s thesis and are central to phenomenal awareness: between the capacity for awareness and its contents (section 2); between …

Voltage-Gated K+ Channels And Hiv-1-Induced Neural Injury: Implications For Pathogenesis Of Hiv-1-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders, Han Liu

Theses & Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1)-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is a subcortical disease involving neuronal loss and myelin damage. Myelin is deposited by oligodendrocytes through a complex process including oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) proliferation and maturation. Oligodendrocytes/OPCs are susceptible to viral proteins such as Tat and that myelin damage is associated with oligodendrocyte number decrease. It has been shown that activation of voltage-gated K⁺ (K_V) channels mediates apoptosis in various cell types. K_V1.3 is the most predominant K_V channel expressed in OPCs/oligodendrocytes and potentially involved in OPC developmental regulation. We studied the involvement of K_{V …}

Molecular Mechanisms Involved In Neurotoxicity Mediated By Hiv Proteins And Drug Abuse, Yu Cai

Theses & Dissertations

While the advancement of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has transformed the course of HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable chronic condition, the prevalence of a constellation of neurological disorders collectively termed as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) continues to persist in these patients. HAND is characterized by cognitive dysfunction, depression, impaired memory and/or deficits in motor skills. The underlying factors leading to HAND have been the subject of extensive research and are thought to be associated with HIV infection in the CNS combined with robust immune activation of resident cells of the CNS. In addition, there is a …

What Makes Us Conscious Is Not What Makes Us Human, Ezequiel Morsella, Erica B. Walker

Animal Sentience

Consistent with the promising proposal of Klein & Barron (K & B), we discuss how what makes us conscious appears to be distinct from and more widespread in the animal kingdom than what distinguishes us from other species. Many of the abilities that do distinguish humans from other species (e.g., syntax and co-articulation in speech production) can be mediated unconsciously. The kind of functional architecture proposed by K & B may engender an “action selection bottleneck” in both humans and nonhuman species. As noted by K & B, this bottleneck is intimately related to conscious processing.

Insect Consciousness: Fine-Tuning The Hypothesis, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg

Animal Sentience

Although we are mostly supportive, we point out the strengths and weaknesses of Klein & Barron’s (2016) hypothesis that insects have the most basic form of consciousness. The strengths are in their application of Bjorn Merker’s vertebrate-derived ideas to arthropods, using their deep knowledge of insect brains. The weaknesses involve the controversial aspects of some of Merker’s ideas. We describe how the latter can be modified to strengthen the authors’ case for insect consciousness.

Feel Or Perspective?, Mark Rowlands

Animal Sentience

The title of Klein & Barron’s well-argued and thought-provoking target article is, “Insects have the capacity for subjective experience.” However, they also frame their claim using the term “consciousness,” which they seem to take as equivalent to “subjective experience.” This assumed equivalence, I shall argue, is problematic in a way that might vitiate their central argument.

The Normative Problem Of Shame, Timothy James Oakberg

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

What role should shame play in our lives? This is the normative problem of shame, and it is the focus of this dissertation. Through an examination of empirical research on shame and shame-proneness, I argue that shame should have only a very limited role in our lives. More specifically, we ought not cultivate shame, because a substantial amount of empirical literature points to the conclusion that shame-proneness is counterproductive at both an individual and a societal level. Expanding on this general answer to the normative problem of shame, I discuss in detail three proposals regarding shame from the realms of …

Universal Modes Of Awareness? A “Pre-Reflective” Premise, Uta M. Jürgens

Animal Sentience

Mark Rowlands holds that creatures endowed with pre-reflective awareness may qualify as persons: In pre-reflective awareness, the self and the unity of mental life are implicit in the stream of experience. Rowlands generalizes from an introspective analysis of pre-reflective consciousness in humans to pre-reflective awareness in general. I describe three examples of empirical findings that corroborate the assumption that animal minds have some of the same basic modes of pre-reflective awareness as human minds.

Does Cognitive Impairment Affect Rehabilitation Outcome In Parkinson’S Disease?, Davide Ferrazzoli, Paola Ortelli, Roberto Maestri, Rossana Bera, Nir Giladi, Maria Felice Ghilardi, Gianni Pezzoli, Giusseppe Frazzitta

Publications and Research

Background: The cognitive status is generally considered as a major determinant of rehabilitation outcome in Parkinson’s disease (PD). No studies about the effect of cognitive impairment on motor rehabilitation outcomes in PD have been performed before.

Objective: This study is aimed to evaluate the impact of cognitive decline on rehabilitation outcomes in patients with PD.

Methods: We retrospectively identified 485 patients with PD hospitalized for a 4-week Multidisciplinary Intensive Rehabilitation Treatment (MIRT) between January 2014 and September 2015. According to Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), patients were divided into: group 1—normal cognition (score 27–30), group 2—mild cognitive …

What If Klein & Barron Are Right About Insect Sentience?, Bob Fischer

Animal Sentience

If Klein & Barron are right, then insects may well be able to feel pain. If they can, then the standard approach to animal ethics generates some implausible results. Philosophers need to develop alternatives to this framework to avoid them.

Subjective Experience And Moral Standing, Andy Lamey

Animal Sentience

Klein & Barron’s analysis focuses on the capacity for any subjective experience at all. It does not seek to demonstrate that insects can experience pleasure and pain in particular. This would be something of which insects have not traditionally been thought capable. If further research were to demonstrate that one or more insect species turn out to be conscious, yet incapable of experiencing pleasure and pain, it would give rise to a philosophical question that ethicists have yet to answer: Would a creature that is conscious, but lacks the capacity to feel pain, have moral standing?

Is Cortex Necessary?, Sean Allen-Hermanson

Animal Sentience

A key contention of Klein & Barron (2016) is that consciousness does not depend on cortical structures. A critical appraisal suggests they have overestimated the strength of their evidence.

Who Is A Person? Whoever You Want It To Be, Gwen J. Broude

Animal Sentience

Rowlands provides an expanded definition of personhood that preserves the requirement of unity of mental life from the orthodox definition but argues that implicit unity of mind is sufficient for conferring personhood. This allows more or all animals to be considered persons. Implicit unity of mind may be a bridge too far for those who endorse the orthodox account of personhood, and for good reasons. More fundamentally, who gets to decide what personhood entails or that personhood per se matters to such other issues as who receives legal or moral status and consideration? Perhaps we should worry less about definitions …

Are Insects Sentient?, Michael Tye

Animal Sentience

I comment on the methodology used by Klein & Barron for dealing with the question of insect sentience and I briefly make a proposal of my own. Once it is granted that insects are sentient, a further question arises: which insects are subject to which states of sentience? Do insects feel pain, for example? If so, which ones? On the further question, I note, Klein & Barron have nothing to say.

Animal Grieving And Human Mourning, Matteo Colombo

Animal Sentience

King’s How animals grieve beautifully describes several ways in which animals and humans show a similar capacity for grief. Yet this book does not sufficiently emphasise the language-empowered capacity to objectify thinking and sentiments about death, which makes human mourning unique. Here I put this capacity into focus and relate it to the social-normative aspect of human mourning that seems to be missing in other animals.

Insects Join The Consciousness Fray, Bjorn H. Merker

Animal Sentience

Klein & Barron's review of recent insect neurobiology helps correct the impression that insect behavior is orchestrated without the benefit of central integrative mechanisms. Given their existence, the authors go on to ask whether these central mechanisms also feature the kind of integrative operations that support sentience, and propose that they do. Along the way they raise a number of conceptual and evidentiary issues of fundamental importance for the neuroscience of consciousness, allowing me to comment favorably on a number of them. I conclude by pointing to ways in which the conception of insect sentience they outline might be tested …

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure Upregulates Bdnf-Trkb Signaling, Andreas Stucky, Kalindi P. Bakshi, Eitan Friedman, Hoau-Yan Wang

Publications and Research

Prenatal cocaine exposure causes profound changes in neurobehavior as well as synaptic function and structure with compromised glutamatergic transmission. Since synaptic health and glutamatergic activity are tightly regulated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling through its cognate tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB), we hypothesized that prenatal cocaine exposure alters BDNF-TrkB signaling during brain development. Here we show prenatal cocaine exposure enhances BDNF-TrkB signaling in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFCX) of 21-day-old rats without affecting the expression levels of TrkB, P75NTR, signaling molecules, NMDA receptor—NR1 subunit as well as proBDNF and BDNF. Prenatal cocaine exposure reduces activity-dependent proBDNF and BDNF release …

Using Pupillometry To Characterize Visual Perception In Autistic Mouse Models, Chirag B. Patel, Samuel T. Kissinger, Alexandr Pak, Nicholas Dicola, Alexander A. Chubkyin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading genetic cause of autism. Individuals with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) commonly display social, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities. Perceptual deficits and their underlying neural activity remain poorly characterized in FXS and other autism spectrum disorders (ASD’s). To explore visual perception in autism, we developed camera based pupil tracking software using OpenCV (an open-source computer vision library) capable of measuring visually evoked changes in pupil area and position in the FXS mouse model (Fmr1 KO). Changes in pupil area and position are believed to correlate with changes in arousal or visual processing and may …

Mechanical Reliability Of Implantable Polyimide-Based Magnetic Microactuators For Biofouling Removal, Christian G. Figueroa-Espada, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Hydrocephalus is a neurological disorder that typically requires a long-term implantation of a shunt system to manage its symptoms. These shunt systems are notorious for their extremely high failure rate. More than 40% of all implanted shunt systems fail within the first year of implantation. On average, 85% of all hydrocephalus patients with shunt systems undergo at least two shunt-revision surgeries within 10 years of implantation. A large portion of this high failure rate can be attributed to biofouling-related obstructions and infections. Previously, we developed flexible polyimide-based magnetic microactuators to remove obstructions formed on hydrocephalus shunts. To test the long-term …

Developing Strategies For Anatomical Characterization Of Locus Coeruleus - Cortical Projections, Kendra Wang, Qiuyu Wu, Alexander A. Chubykin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The locus coeruleus (LC) is a small noradrenergic nucleus located in the midbrain that releases the neurotransmitter norepinephrine to diverse brain regions. Through release of norepinephrine, the LC plays a central role in modulating numerous physiological functions including attention, arousal, and mood and behavior. Although the LC projects to many brain region, there is limited information about the organization and the afferent projections to the LC that modulates its activity. The goal of this study was to characterize the anatomical projections between LC and cortical areas using a variety of different experimental techniques, including survival brain surgery, stereotaxic injections of …

Insects Have Agency But Probably Not Sentience Because They Lack Social Bonding, J. H. Van Hateren

Animal Sentience

Klein & Barron (2016) argue that insects have sentience because of functional similarities between the insect brain and vertebrate midbrain. Based on a recent theory of agency and consciousness, I argue that the functional similarities merely point to an advanced form of agency. Insects presumably lack the capacity for social bonding that may be required for subjective experiencing.

The Role Of Neurovascular Compromise, Autoimmune Antibodies And Neuronal Calcium Sensor Proteins During The Onset And Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease - Linking The Retina With The Brain, Hao Wu

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the main cause of dementia, is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease. The pathological hallmarks of the disease include bloodbrain barrier (BBB) breach, neurofibrillary tang les and amyloid plaques. Also, emerging evidence has raised the possibility that instead of a secondary consequence, the neuroinflammation contributes to the development and early progression of AD. However, the mechanism underlying the blood-neural barrier (BNB), chronic inflammation and neuronal degenerative diseases (NDDs) remain to be elucidated.

To explore the role of the chronic inflammation in NDDs and delineate the early steps of these diseases, in vivo drug-induced and transgenic mouse models …

Blood-Tissue Barriers And Autoantibodies In Neurodegenerative Disease Pathogenesis: An Approach To Diagnostics And Disease Mechanism, Eric Luria Goldwaser

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Brain homeostasis can be affected in a number of ways that lead to gross anatomical, cellular, and molecular disturbances giving rise to diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias. Unfortunately, the mechanistic pathoetiology of AD’s hallmark features of cerebral amyloid plaque buildup and neuronal death are still disputed. Using human brain AD sections, immunohistochemistry experiments revealed internalized surface proteins, co-localized to an expanded lysosomal compartment. Other stains for amyloid-β1-42 (Aβ42) and various immunoglobulin (Ig) species displayed them leaking out of the cerebrovasculature through a dysfunctional blood-brain barrier (BBB), binding to neurons in the vicinity, and localizing to intracellular vesicles …

Induction Of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derived Retinal Stem Cells In Vitro Using Transient Overexpression Of Messenger Rna For Blimp, Onecut1 And Otx2, Helen Cifuentes

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

No abstract available

Effects Of Glyceollin On Mrna Expression In The Female Mouse Brain., Sanaya Firdaus Bamji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glyceollins (Glys), produced by soy plants in response to stress, have anti-estrogenic activity in breast and ovarian cancer cell lines in vitro and in vivo. In addition to known anti-estrogenic effects, Glys exhibit mechanisms of action not involving estrogen receptor (ER) signaling. To date, effects of Glys on brain physiology and function are unknown. The purpose of the experiments summarized in this dissertation was to gain an understanding of the effects of Gly on brain-related functions in the female mouse brain through the observation of changes in gene expression. For our initial studies, we treated ovariectomized Swiss Webster (CFW) …