Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Microglial Dynamics And Mechanisms Underlying The Phagocytosis Of Dying Oligodendrocytes, Genaro E. Olveda

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Myelin is a complex multilamellar structure, generated by oligodendrocytes, that ensheaths axons and is a vital component for neural processing. Degeneration of both oligodendrocytes and their myelin sheaths is a common pathological feature associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Efficient removal of the cellular and myelin debris is crucial for remyelination and prevention of further degeneration. Microglia, the primary phagocytes of the CNS, are thought to play a key role in this process. To investigate the cellular dynamics underlying microglia-mediated clearance of degenerating oligodendrocytes and myelin sheaths, at the single cell level, we developed a novel model for inducible cortical …

Alcohol Reward Memory In Drosophila: Investigating Changes In Neural Activity In Response To Cues Alcohol Associations And Their Role In Regulating Other Alcohol-Related Behaviors., Marieke Guitink

Honors Projects in Biological and Biomedical Sciences

With more than 200 health conditions associated with Alcohol Use Disorder, excessive drinking can take a serious toll on an individual's health, mental health, and relationships. Despite significant disruptions, there are a few treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder that support long-term abstinence. To develop effective long-term treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder, it is essential to obtain an understanding of the underlying complex changes that alcohol has on the brain, however, the complexity of the mammalian nervous system has precluded researchers from achieving this. Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful model organism for investigating how alcohol hijacks neural circuits within the brain …

Isolation Of Aged Mouse Primary Microglia As A Model System For Alzheimer’S Disease Research, Michael Landis

Biology Honors Papers

Microglia and their role as the immune cells of the central nervous system are an emerging area of interest within Alzheimer’s research, particularly as they have shown in a benevolent and malevolent cellular context. Models of Alzheimer’s disease are very light in studying microglia, so in this study a model of microglia isolated from aged mice is established in order to study the phagocytic activity and protein expression of microglia in response to Amyloid Beta. The cells were isolated from aged mice and cultured before being used to confirm cellular identity, as well as to measure phagocytic activity. This study …

Easter Island's Painkiller: How A Soil Bacteria Could Relieve Chronic Pain, Marko Krtinic

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Resonant Perceptions: Exploring Autistic Aesthetics Through Embodied Cognition, James Hutson, Piper Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Towards Understanding The Function Of An Ets-Like Gene In Nematostella Vectensis: Generation Of A Knockout Mutant Line And A Transgenic Reporter Line, Emily Bullock

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to their unique phylogenic position as sister to Bilateria, Cnidaria are often credited with the utility of allowing for reconstruction of ancestral biology based on characteristics shared with bilaterians and other animals. This factor makes investigation into the nervous systems of cnidarians critical in understanding early neural evolution. Wamides, a class of neuropeptides, have been shown to play a regulatory role in life cycle transitions across many different species. The cnidarian specific Wamide neuropeptide, GLWamide, has previously been identified to play an accelerator role in the metamorphic timing of a specific species of sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. However, …

Exploring The Neuroprotective Effects Of Cannabinoids On Oxygen Glucose Deprived Neurons In An In-Vitro Model Of Stroke, Bhavya Chatragadda, Emily Potts, Hang Ma, Navindra Seeram, Claudia Fallini

Senior Honors Projects

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and decreased mobility worldwide. During stroke, neuronal damage results from both the initial oxygen-glucose deprivation and the increase in excitotoxicity and oxidative stress after restoration of blood flow, a phase called Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury (IRI). Reducing the impact of these processes could result in better outcomes for post-stroke patients by preventing excessive neuronal death. Many natural compounds derived from the Cannabis Sativa plant have been tested for neuroprotective effects due to their potential antioxidant properties. We hypothesized that neurons treated with cannabinoids immediately after experiencing an acute ischemic event will have an overall …

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation And The Rtpj (Right Teaching Parietal Junction), Molly Skowron

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Theory of Mind (ToM) is conceptualized as the ability to infer the thoughts and feelings of others. Many studies have found that ToM abilities play a central role in collaborative communication between adults, and that teachers are more effective when they have high levels of ToM. One of the main brain regions implicated in ToM is the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ), which is thought to be responsible for evaluating a person’s belief formation process. The current study had participants engage in a Lego model building task consisting of a director who instructed a builder on how to create duplicate models …

Maternal Experience-Driven Changes In Oxytocin Neuron Co-Localization With Crf Receptors In The Hypothalamus Of Mice, Katherine Parra

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The postpartum period is a time of adaptiveness for new mothers who have to not only maintain their own health and well-being, but also that of a brand-new life. In both humans and across various common laboratory species like rats, mice, and non-human primates, priorities must shift greatly for a new mother to now include initiation and maintenance of offspring-focused behaviors regardless of her circumstances.The neurobiology of this adaptivity includes a complex sequence of changes that amount to suppression of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 (CRFR1) is a receptor involved with initiating the physiological stress response and …

Sdf-1Α Mediates Primary Tumor Escape In Glioblastoma Through Activation Of Mesenchymal Transitions., Charles T. Froman-Glover

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Glioblastoma (GBM), a highly aggressive primary brain tumor originating in glial cells, poses a significant challenge due to its rapid growth and invasive nature within healthy brain tissue.

Current treatments involve surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation. These treatments alone are not enough to cure this disease, and a better understanding the mechanics of the tumor micro-environment is imperative to furthering the field of cancer research. This research focuses on understanding the tumor microenvironment's impact, specifically investigating the role of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) mechanics on GBM aggressiveness. SDF-1 is known to facilitate disease progression by facilitating chemotaxis toward the …

Fighting For A Health Diagnosis: An Autoethnographic Journey Into The Role Of Access And Limitations Of Resilience In The Face Of Poverty, Josette Pelatan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research represents a highly personalized account of the complexities, interpretations, and reflections of the journey of a doctoral student navigating the challenges of health through access on a U.S.-Mexico border. Using myself as the subject and the researcher in the social context of schooling provided the impetus for this self-study. Through an insider’s vantage point, I have chronicled and traced the experiences of my own identities’ transitions and multilayered intersectionality using the qualitative methodology of autoethnography. This genre of qualitative research brings the reader closer to the subculture studied through the author’s experiences.

While every story has its unique …

Assessing The Role Of Stim1 And Stim2 In Microglial Response To Spinal Cord Injury., Sarayu Alli

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Microglia, immune cells of the central nervous system, constantly survey their environment for damage. Once damage is detected, they are activated into become reactive, resulting in morphological changes, such as larger cell bodies, and functional changes, such as releasing inflammatory mediators. The switch from surveying to reactive occurs because the microglia received signals that sense danger in the environment. The release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores is involved in store-operated calcium entry (SOCE), a signaling pathway. Recent studies have shown that calcium release from the intracellular stores is a factor of microglial activation. SOCE is specific to monitoring low calcium …

Optimization Of Tyrosine Hydroxylase Antibody For Immunohistochemistry Fluorescence Detection In Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Madison Thurber

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter produced through the catecholamine synthesis pathway that affects brain activity. Unregulated dopamine levels can lead to various diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Optimization of an immunohistochemistry protocol will allow for the quantification of tyrosine hydroxylase antibody, which indirectly allows for dopamine quantification in dopaminergic regions within the brain. However, the antibody concentration to give the optimal signal-to-noise ratio in IHC varies across studies. Through this experiment, I determined the concentration of tyrosine hydroxylase (TyrH) antibody for immunohistochemistry that gave the best signal-to-background noise ratio within several known dopaminergic regions …

Determining Efficacy Of Check/Solid Stimuli Pair Vs Light/Dark Stimuli Pair For Pavlovian Fear Learning In Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Kortney Johnson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Learning is a survival skill because it allows organisms to recall vital details about their habitats. Associative learning is another of those skills, the ability to pair two different stimuli in memory and associate them together upon recall. It has been studied in zebrafish with Pavlovian fear learning used as a methodology. Previous studies have utilized Check/Solid patterning, however, there are no published studies exploring alternative stimuli that could be effective in aversive learning. This study sought to determine if Check/Solid was the most effective at inducing aversive learning or if Light/Dark would be more efficient, due to zebrafish’s natural …

Competition And Criticality In Cortical Neural Circuits Underlie Behavior And Optimize Working Memory, Jacob Harrison Barfield

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the primary goals of neuroscience is to explain how brain function emerges from dynamic interactions among large populations of neurons. A long-standing hypothesis at the interface of physics and neuroscience posits that neural circuits may operate close to the critical point of a phase transition. In this dissertation, we will investigate a new form of criticality and the implications that it has in working memory and the generation of voluntary body movements. We will utilize this new form of criticality to investigate the functional benefits that can be harnessed by operating near the critical point when performing working …

Medial Prefrontal Cortex Fnirs Activity While Viewing Nature And Urban Scenes: The Search For Neurological Evidence Of Nature's Transcendent Self-Diminishment Effect, Haylee V. Snyder

All NMU Master's Theses

Prior research suggests that exposure to nature increases prosociality. One of the theories as to why this happens is that nature can elicit self-diminishment which leads to the positive experience of paying less attention to oneself. To better understand the neural processes behind this, this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) which is related to the self-concept. Participants were shown 12 images divided into four blocks separated by image types. Six were entirely natural scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant), and six were entirely urban scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant). …

Loss Of Tsc2 Results In Abnormal Postnatal Neurogenesis And Striatal Hamartomas, Victoria Riley

All Dissertations

Billions of years of evolution have culminated in the most complex organ in all of biology: the brain. Its capacity to sense, store, and predict information uniquely bestows humans with the capability to generate art, music, language, and math and sets humans apart from other species. It is therefore prudent and worthwhile to study the brain and its development. A critical aspect of brain development is neurogenesis, or the production of neurons. Neurogenesis is facilitated by neural stem cells (NSCs) and is influenced by the mTORC1 signaling pathway. For NSCs to differentiate and become committed to a neuronal cell fate, …

Pipecolic Acid And Novel Insights Into Cerebral Malaria, Akua E. Mensah

Theses and Dissertations

Cerebral malaria (CM), a severe manifestation of Plasmodium infection, prompts our investigation into the nuanced role of pipecolic acid in its pathophysiology. To unravel the molecular intricacies, we conducted in vitro lysine labeling techniques of mice infected with P. berghei ANKA parasites, and human P. falciparum grown in vitro, aiming to discern the impact of Plasmodium on pipecolic acid production. Previous observations indicated an elevation in pipecolic acid levels correlating with neurological decline in children with CM. In our study, confirming elevated pipecolic acid presence in the plasma and brain tissues of CM patients and the animal model of CM, …

Atlas-Based Analysis Of The Neural Projections From The Lateral Hypothalamic Area To The Lower Brainstem In The Adult Male Rat, Jessica Valeria Salcido Padilla

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Within the last decade, the number of diseases associated with dysregulation of the neural circuits responsible for energy balance, glucosensing, and feeding control has increased. One brain region containing these circuits is the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), which plays an important role in the sleep/wake cycle, energy balance, and motivated behavior. Although the LHA has been termed a â??feeding centerâ??, other regions within the hindbrain are known for the regulation of similar functions including energy balance, glucosensing, and feeding control. While many studies have explored and reported projections from the LHA to the hindbrain, few have further investigated the interconnections …

The Role Of Oncomodulin In The Central Nervous System Inflammation, Evan Paltjon

Honors Theses

Acoustic overexposure in mice leads to an excess of calcium influx in outer hair cells (OHCs) and causes permanent hearing loss due to death of OHCs. Oncomodulin is a parvalbumin calcium buffering protein located in OHCs of the cochlea. Early pilot studies indicate that genetic deletion of OCM results in immune-related pathology throughout the cochlea. Why and how this occurs is unknown. Studies in wild type (WT) and OCM knockout (KO) mice demonstrate greater numbers of immune cells are associated with noise exposure in an OCM knockout than in WT. Expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) leads to the recruitment …

Use Of Cre-Lox Mice As A Model For Ependymogenesis, Poorva Bagchee

Honors Scholar Theses

Stem cells in the lateral ventricles of the brain undergo a process of development within the ventricular-subventricular zone. In early development neuroepithelial cells divide to form more neuroepithelial cells or convert to radial glial cells (RGCs). These RGCs, or stem cells, then divide to form neurons or other glial cells such as ependymal cells, which form a single-layered ependyma along the ventricular wall. These stem cells divide in two ways: symmetrically, producing two ependymal cells or asymmetrically, yielding one neural stem cell and ependymal cell. To further study this process the Cre-lox system in mice will be used. By breeding …

Perinatal Buprenorphine Effects On Offspring Growth, Opioid Withdrawal, And Brain Morphology In Rats, Parker Barnes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Opioid use disorder (OUD) impacts 5.6 million people in the US. Buprenorphine (BUP) is a commonly prescribed opioid medication used to treat OUD, including in pregnant women. However, opioid use during pregnancy is associated with poorer infant outcomes including reduced fetal growth, neurodevelopmental deficits, and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). Recent clinical data suggests that providing mothers with a lower dose of BUP may result in fewer negative outcomes in infants. Here, a preclinical rodent model of low-dose perinatal BUP exposure was used to study offspring health outcomes in the neonate, juvenile, and adolescent offspring. Dams were given clinically relevant …

Doing Links: The Neuroscience Of Technology Addiction, Ali Hatfield

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

What’s the difference between fentanyl and Facebook? Vicodin and video games? Whippits and WhatsApp? They all have the capacity to be addictive, and your kids are much more likely to experience one over the other. Addiction is an umbrella term describing the use of something in a dependent and problematic way, often referring to specific clinical afflictions such as substance abuse disorder or gambling [1]. Addictions and their symptoms derive from neurobiological changes that occur throughout the nervous system in response to a certain stimulus, such as a drug. Common behaviors associated with addiction include preoccupation with and increasing tolerance …

It’S Getting Hot In Here, So Maintain Situational Awareness, Abby Zavadil

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Everybody In The Club Gettin' Tipsy: Alcohol's Effects On Behavior And Cognition, Lauren Barrabee

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Professor: Resilience, Hewlet G. Mcfarlane

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Scientific Kenyon: Neuroscience Edition (Full Issue)

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Ditching Magic For Memory: The New Mushroom In Town, Dani Buch

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

What Does Aaron Hernandez Have In Common With Your High Schooler?, Sam Lee

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Cannibals, Chemicals, And A Trip Down Memory Lane: Unraveling Our Understanding Of Memory, Yana Honcharuk

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

Have you ever wished to preserve a memory forever? Or perhaps share a treasured memory with someone? Instead of having to look for words that could describe how you felt at the concert of your favorite band or at that first date with a person you’ve been pining for, wouldn’t it be nice to have the ability to transmit those experiences to your friends? To make them feel how you felt? While this sounds like a plot for another rendition of Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, or a chapter from Harry Potter, the scientific idea of memory transfer has …