Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Neural Changes Associated With Rewards And Punishment Following Ego Depletion Or Boredom, Travis Z. Johnson, Michael Larson, Marina Milyavskaya, Michael Inzlicht

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Our brain power is exhaustible. We are constantly trying to find ways to perform at our highest levels. There has been research that has shown that willpower--the capacity to exert self-control--is a limited resource that is depleted after exertion of the brain. Many studies have shown the negative effect that depletion has on daily decisions. Depletion can influence our day-to-day choices and actions in a variety of important ways. The neural mechanisms for ego-depletion are relatively unknown so our purpose is to measure the effects of ego-depletion, and then test ways that it can be decreased or reversed, thus finding …

Rescuing Perishable Neuroanatomical Information From A Threatened Biodiversity Hotspot: Remote Field Methods For Brain Tissue Preservation Validated By Cytoarchitectonic Analysis, Immunohistochemistry, And X-Ray Microcomputed Tomography, Daniel Hughes, Ellen Walker, Paul Gignac, Anais Martinez, Kenichiro Negishi, Carl Lieb, Eli Greenbaum, Arshad Khan

Selected Works Temporary Series

Biodiversity hotspots, which harbor more endemic species than elsewhere on Earth, areincreasingly threatened. There is a need to accelerate collection efforts in these regionsbefore threatened or endangered species become extinct. The diverse geographical, ecological,genetic, morphological, and behavioral data generated from the on-site collection ofan individual specimen are useful for many scientific purposes. However, traditional methodsfor specimen preparation in the field do not permit researchers to retrieve neuroanatomicaldata, disregarding potentially useful data for increasing our understanding of braindiversity. These data have helped clarify brain evolution, deciphered relationships betweenstructure and function, and revealed constraints and selective pressures that provide contextabout the evolution …

Rescuing Perishable Neuroanatomical Information From A Threatened Biodiversity Hotspot: Remote Field Methods For Brain Tissue Preservation Validated By Cytoarchitectonic Analysis, Immunohistochemistry, And X-Ray Microcomputed Tomography, Hughes, Ellen Walker, Paul Gignac, Anais Martinez, Kenichiro Negishi, Carl Lieb, Eli Greenbaum, Arshad Khan

Departmental Papers (Biology)

Biodiversity hotspots, which harbor more endemic species than elsewhere on Earth, areincreasingly threatened. There is a need to accelerate collection efforts in these regionsbefore threatened or endangered species become extinct. The diverse geographical, ecological,genetic, morphological, and behavioral data generated from the on-site collection ofan individual specimen are useful for many scientific purposes. However, traditional methodsfor specimen preparation in the field do not permit researchers to retrieve neuroanatomicaldata, disregarding potentially useful data for increasing our understanding of braindiversity. These data have helped clarify brain evolution, deciphered relationships betweenstructure and function, and revealed constraints and selective pressures that provide contextabout the evolution …

Npas1+ Pallidal Neurons Target Striatal Projection Neurons, Savio Chan, Kelly Glajch, Daniel Kelver, Daniel Hegeman, Qiaoling Cui, Harry Xenias, Elizabeth Augustine, Vivian Hernández, Neha Verma '17, Tina Huang, Minmin Luo, Nicholas Justice

Student Publications & Research

Compelling evidence demonstrates the external globus pallidus (GPe) plays a key role in processing sensorimotor information. An anatomical projection from the GPe to the dorsal striatum (dStr) has been described for decades. However, the cellular target and functional impact of this projection remain unknown. Using cell-specific transgenic mice, modern monosynaptic tracing techniques, and optogenetics-based mapping, we discovered that GPe neurons provide inhibitory inputs to direct- and indirect-pathway striatal projection neurons (SPNs). Our results indicate that the GPe input to SPNs arises primarily from Npas1- expressing neurons and is strengthened in a chronic Parkinson’s disease (PD) model. Alterations of the GPe-SPN …

Longitudinal Changes In The Motor Learning- Related Brain Activation Response In Presymptomatic Huntington's Disease, Florian Holtbernd, Chris C. Tang, Andrew Feigin, Vijay Dhawan, Maria Felice Ghilardi, Jane S. Paulsen, Mark Guttman, David Eldelberg

Publications and Research

Neurocognitive decline, including deficits in motor learning, occurs in the presymptomatic phase of Huntington’s disease (HD) and precedes the onset of motor symptoms. Findings from recent neuroimaging studies have linked these deficits to alterations in fronto-striatal and fronto-parietal brain networks. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics of these networks when subjects approach phenoconversion. Here, 10 subjects with presymptomatic HD were scanned with 15O-labeled water at baseline and again 1.5 years later while performing a motor sequence learning task and a kinematically matched control task. Spatial covariance analysis was utilized to characterize patterns of change in learningrelated neural activation …

Interaction Of Tau With The Rna-Binding Protein Tia1 Regulates Tau Pathophysiology And Toxicity, Tara Vanderweyde, Daniel J. Apicco, Katherine Youmans-Kidder, Peter E. A. Ash, Casey Cook, Edroaldo Lummertz Da Rocha, Karen Jansen-West, Alissa A. Frame, Allison Citro, John D. Leszyk, Pavel Ivanov, Jose F. Abisambra, Martin Steffen, Hu Li, Leonard Petrucelli, Benjamin Wolozin

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Dendritic mislocalization of microtubule associated protein tau is a hallmark of tauopathies, but the role of dendritic tau is unknown. We now report that tau interacts with the RNA-binding protein (RBP) TIA1 in brain tissue, and we present the brain-protein interactome network for TIA1. Analysis of the TIA1 interactome in brain tissue from wild-type (WT) and tau knockout mice demonstrates that tau is required for normal interactions of TIA1 with proteins linked to RNA metabolism, including ribosomal proteins and RBPs. Expression studies show that tau regulates the distribution of TIA1, and tau accelerates stress granule (SG) formation. Conversely, TIA1 knockdown …

Development And Investigation Of Sparse Co-Adaptive Algorithms In Ecog Based Closed-Loop Brain Computer Interface, Piyush Karande

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Electrocorticography (ECoG) has gained a lot of momentum and has become a serious contender as a recording modality for the implementation of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems in the last few years. ECoG signals provide the right balance between minimal invasiveness and robust spectral information to accomplish a BCI task. However, all the BCI studies until now have used signals recorded from a large number of implanted electrodes and a larger number of spectral features. The recording and processing of these signals uses a lot of electrical power and thus hinders its use outside the research setting. To translate this research …

The Effects Of Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Neuroinflammation On Learning And Forgetting In Juvenile Rats, Michele Barry

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The inability to remember events experienced very early in life is referred to as Infantile Amnesia (IA) and has been observed in both humans and animals. Over the years interest in the phenomenon waned, but has recently increased with the discovery of new neurobiological methods to study brain function (e.g., Callaghan, Li & Richardson, 2014). The neurobiological mechanism behind IA has yet to be determined, but several innovative theories have been developed with these new research methods. The neurogenesis hypothesis theorizes that increased neurogenesis during early development disrupts previously established memories. The hippocampus, an area that mediates both the memory …

Virtual V1sion: A Collaborative Coding Project, Cheryl Olman

MODVIS Workshop

Virtual V1sion is a new idea for fostering modeling collaborations and data sharing. While still in its infancy, the ultimate goal is a website that hosts repositories for (1) interchangeable model elements, (2) datasets that can be fit/predicted by those models, and (3) educational modules that explain the background for both the models and the datasets. The scope of the modeling is limited to predictions of V1 responses, although not all computations represented by model elements in Virtual V1sion are required to be V1-intrinsic: a goal of the project is to provide a framework in which predictions for modulation by …

Parametrically Constrained Lightness Model Incorporating Edge Classification And Increment-Decrement Neural Response Asymmetries, Michael E. Rudd

MODVIS Workshop

Lightness matching data from disk-annulus experiments has the form of a parabolic (2^nd-order polynomial) function when matches are plotted against annulus luminance on log-log axes. Rudd (2010) has proposed a computational cortical model to account for this fact and has subsequently (Rudd, 2013, 2014, 2015) extended the model to explain data from other lightness paradigms, including staircase-Gelb and luminance gradient illusions (Galmonte, Soranzo, Rudd, & Agostini, 2015). Here, I re-analyze parametric lightness matching data from disk-annulus experiments by Rudd and Zemach (2007) and Rudd (2010) for the purpose of further testing the model and to try to constrain …

Failure Of Surface Color Cues Under Natural Changes In Lighting, David H. Foster, Iván Marín-Franch

MODVIS Workshop

Color allows us to effortlessly discriminate and identify surfaces and objects by their reflected light. Although the reflected spectrum changes with the illumination spectrum, cone photoreceptor signals can be transformed to give useful cues for surface color. But what happens when both the spectrum and the geometry of the illumination change, as with lighting from the sun and sky? Is it possible, as a matter of principle, to obtain reliable cues by processing cone signals alone? This question was addressed here by estimating the information provided by cone signals from time-lapse hyperspectral radiance images of five outdoor scenes under natural …

Working Memory Impairments In Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: The Roles Of Anxiety And Stress Physiology, Ashley F. P. Sanders

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress and anxiety negatively impact the working memory system by competing for executive resources. Broad memory deficits have been reported in individuals with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS). We investigated anxiety and physiological stress reactivity in relation to visuospatial working memory impairments in 20 children with 22q11.2DS and 32 typically developing children (M = 11.10 years, SD = 2.95). Results indicate reduced post-stress RSA recovery and overall increased levels of cortisol in children with 22q11.2DS. Additionally, anxiety mediated the relationship between 22q11.2DS and visuospatial working memory impairment. However, there was no indication that stress response physiology mediated this association. …

Diffuse Traumatic Brain Injury Induces Prolonged Immune Sysregulation And Potentiates Hyperalgesia Following A Peripheral Immune Challenge, Rachel K. Rowe, Gavin I. Ellis, Jordan L. Harrison, Adam D. Bachstetter, Gregory F. Corder, Linda J. Van Eldik, Bradley K. Taylor, Francesc Marti, Jonathan Lifshitz

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Background: Nociceptive and neuropathic pain occurs as part of the disease process after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans. Central and peripheral inflammation, a major secondary injury process initiated by the traumatic brain injury event, has been implicated in the potentiation of peripheral nociceptive pain. We hypothesized that the inflammatory response to diffuse traumatic brain injury potentiates persistent pain through prolonged immune dysregulation.

Results: To test this, adult, male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to midline fluid percussion brain injury or to sham procedure. One cohort of mice was analyzed for inflammation-related cytokine levels in cortical biopsies and serum along an …

Alterations In Gray Matter Volume Due To Unilateral Hearing Loss, Xingchao Wang, Pengfei Xu, Peng Li, Zhenmin Wang, Fu Zhao, Zhixian Gao, Lei Xu, Yue-Jia Luo, Jin Fan, Pinan Liu

Publications and Research

Although extensive research on neural plasticity resulting from hearing deprivation has been conducted, the direct influence of compromised audition on the auditory cortex and the potential impact of long durations of incomplete sensory stimulation on the adult cortex are still not fully understood. In this study, using voxel-based morphometry, we evaluated gray matter (GM) volume changes that may be associated with reduced hearing ability and the duration of hearing impairment in 42 unilateral hearing loss (UHL) patients with acoustic neuromas compared to 24 normal controls. We found significant GM volume increases in the somatosensory and motor systems and GM volume …

Modeling The Joint Distribution Of Scene Events At An Edge, James Elder, Ying Li

MODVIS Workshop

Edges in an image arise from discontinuities in scene variables, namely reflectance (R), illumination (I), depth (D) and surface orientation (O). Prior studies on edge classification have viewed it as a binary classification problem: each edge is assumed to arise from one of two disjoint categories (e.g., depth or not depth, shadow or not shadow). Here we suggest an alternate view in which an edge may signal discontinuities in any combination of the scene variables (RIDO). To explore this model, we had 4 trained observers label one randomly selected edge in each of 1,000 randomly selected images drawn from the …

Identifying Falsifiable Predictions Of The Divisive Normalization Model Of V1 Neurons, Tadamasa Sawada, Alexander A. Petrov

MODVIS Workshop

The divisive normalization model (DNM, Heeger, 1992) accounts successfully for a wide range of phenomena observed in single-cell physiological recordings from neurons in primary visual cortex (V1). The DNM has adjustable parameters to accommodate the diversity of V1 neurons, and is quite flexible. At the same time, in order to be falsifiable, the model must be rigid enough to rule out some possible data patterns. In this study, we discuss whether the DNM predicts any physiological result of the V1 neurons based on mathematical analysis and computational simulations. We identified some falsifiable predictions of the DNM. The main idea is …

Modelling Response Properties Across The Orientation Map In Visual Cortex, Erin M. Koch, Jianzhong Jin, Jose-Manuel Alonso, Qasim Zaidi

MODVIS Workshop

Stimulus orientation in the primary visual cortex of primates and carnivores is mapped as iso-orientation domains radiating from pinwheel centers, where orientation preferences of neighboring cells change circularly. Whether this orientation map has a function is debated, because many mammals, such as rodents, do not have such maps. Here we model our physiological results that two fundamental properties of visual cortical responses, contrast saturation and cross-orientation suppression, are stronger within iso-orientation domains than at pinwheel centers. Our model expands on a standard thalamic model of cross orientation suppression, and explains differences between orientation domains by intra-cortical excitation (not normalization) from …

Derivatives And Inverse Of A Linear-Nonlinear Multi-Layer Spatial Vision Model, Borja Galan, Marina Martinez-Garcia, Praveen Cyriac, Thomas Batard, Marcelo Bertalmio, Jesus Malo

MODVIS Workshop

Analyzing the mathematical properties of perceptually meaningful linear-nonlinear transforms is interesting because this computation is at the core of many vision models. Here we make such analysis in detail using a specific model [Malo & Simoncelli, SPIE Human Vision Electr. Imag. 2015] which is illustrative because it consists of a cascade of standard linear-nonlinear modules. The interest of the analytic results and the numerical methods involved transcend the particular model because of the ubiquity of the linear-nonlinear structure.

Here we extend [Malo&Simoncelli 15] by considering 4 layers: (1) linear spectral integration and nonlinear brightness response, (2) definition of local contrast …

Towards A Functional Explanation Of The Connectivity Lgn - V1, Marina Martinez-Garcia, Borja Galan, Luis M. Martinez, Jesus Malo

MODVIS Workshop

The principles behind the connectivity between LGN and V1 are not well understood. Models have to explain two basic experimental trends: (i) the combination of thalamic responses is local and it gives rise to a variety of oriented Gabor-like receptive felds in V1 [1], and (ii) these filters are spatially organized in orientation maps [2]. Competing explanations of orientation maps use purely geometrical arguments such as optimal wiring or packing from LGN [3-5], but they make no explicit reference to visual function. On the other hand, explanations based on func- tional arguments such as maximum information transference (infomax) [6,7] usually …

Towards A Unified Model Of Classical And Extra-Classical Receptive Fields, David A. Mély, Thomas Serre

MODVIS Workshop

One of the major goals in neuroscience is to understand how the cortex processes information. A substantial effort has thus gone into mapping classical receptive fields (cRF) across areas of the visual cortex and characterizing input-output relationships through linear-nonlinear response functions. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in mapping the extra-classical receptive field (extra-cRF) as well, by using contextual stimuli. The extra-cRF is a region outside the cRF that modulates a cell’s response but that is incapable of driving it on its own. However, existing models typically focus on one particular visual modality (form, motion, disparity or color), …

How Deep Is The Feature Analysis Underlying Rapid Visual Categorization?, Sven Eberhardt, Jonah Cader, Thomas Serre

MODVIS Workshop

Rapid categorization paradigms have a long history in experimental psychology: Characterized by short presentation times and fast behavioral responses, these tasks highlight both the speed and ease with which our visual system processes natural object categories. Previous studies have shown that feed-forward hierarchical models of the visual cortex provide a good fit to human visual decisions. At the same time, recent work has demonstrated significant gains in object recognition accuracy with increasingly deep hierarchical architectures: From AlexNet to VGG to Microsoft CNTK – the field of computer vision has championed both depth and accuracy. But it is unclear how well …

Spatial Synaptic Growth And Removal For Learning Individual Receptive Field Structures, Michael Teichmann, Fred H. Hamker

MODVIS Workshop

One challenge in creating neural models of the visual system is the appropriate definition of the connectivity. The modeler constrains the results with its definition. Unfortunately, there is often just insufficient information about connection sizes available, e.g. for deeper layer or different neuron types like interneurons. Hence, a mechanism refining the connection structure based on the learnings would be appreciated.

Such mechanism can be found in the human brain by structural plasticity. That is, the formation and removal of synapses. For our model, we exploit that synaptic connections are likely to be formed in the proximity of other synapses and …

A Geometric Approach To Sparse Coding Yields Insight Into Nonlinear Responses, Kedarnath Vilankar, James Golden, David Field

MODVIS Workshop

In artificial and biological networks, it is a common accepted practice to describe a neurons (biological or artificial) response properties by a two-dimensional feature map (receptive field). However, real neurons have nonlinear response properties which are not represented by their receptive fields. The efficient coding mechanisms such as sparse coding network or ICA, learn the response properties of V1 neurons from natural images using neural networks. These networks learn the receptive fields which are similar to the receptive fields of V1 neurons. These networks also produces some of the nonlinearities (such as end-stopping and non-classical surround effect), which are exhibited …

Using Deep Features To Predict Where People Look, Matthias Kümmerer, Matthias Bethge

MODVIS Workshop

When free-viewing scenes, the first few fixations of human observers are driven in part by bottom-up attention. We seek to characterize this process by extracting all information from images that can be used to predict fixation densities (Kuemmerer et al, PNAS, 2015). If we ignore time and observer identity, the average amount of information is slightly larger than 2 bits per image for the MIT 1003 dataset. The minimum amount of information is 0.3 bits and the maximum 5.2 bits. Before the rise of deep neural networks the best models were able to capture 1/3 of this information on average. …

Modelling Short-Latency Disparity-Vergence Eye Movements Under Dichoptic Unbalanced Stimulation, Agostino Gibaldi, Guido Maiello, Peter J. Bex, Silvio P. Sabatini

MODVIS Workshop

Vergence eye movements align the optical axes of our two eyes onto an object of interest, thus facilitating the binocular summation of the images projected onto the left and the right retinae into a single percept. Both the computational substrate and the functional behaviour of binocular vergence eye movements have been the topic of in depth investigation. Here, we attempt to bring together what is known about computation and function of vergence mechanism. To this aim, we evaluated of a biologically inspired model of horizontal and vertical vergence control, based on a network of V1 simple and complex cells. The …

Learning Object Representations For Modeling Attention In Real World Scenes, Alex Schwarz, Frederik Beuth, Fred H. Hamker

MODVIS Workshop

Models of visual attention have been rarely used in real world tasks as they have been typically developed for psychophysical setups using simple stimuli. Thus, the question remains how objects must be represented to allow such models an operation in real world scenarios. We have previously presented an attention model capable of operating on real-world scenes (Beuth, F., and Hamker, F. H. 2015, NCNC, which is a successor of Hamker, F. H., 2005, Cerebral Cortex), and show here how its object representations have been learned. We have used a learning rule based on temporal continuity (Földiák, P., 1991, Neural Computation) …

Tau And Aβ Imaging, Csf Measures, And Cognition In Alzheimer's Disease, Matthew R. Brier, Brian Gordon, Karl Friedrichsen, John E. Mccarthy, Ari Stern, Jon Christensen, Christopher Owen, Patricia Aldea, Yi Su, Jason Hassenstab, Nigel J. Cairns, David M. Holtzman, Anne M. Fagan, John C. Morris, Tammie L.S. Benzinger, Beau M. Ances

Mathematics Faculty Research

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by two molecular pathologies: cerebral β-amyloidosis in the form of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and tauopathy in the form of neurofibrillary tangles, neuritic plaques, and neuropil threads. Until recently, only Aβ could be studied in humans using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging owing to a lack of tau PET imaging agents. Clinical pathological studies have linked tau pathology closely to the onset and progression of cognitive symptoms in patients with AD. We report PET imaging of tau and Aβ in a cohort of cognitively normal older adults and those with mild AD. Multivariate analyses identified unique …

Soluble Rage Treatment Delays Progression Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis In Sod1 Mice, Judyta K. Juranek, Gurdip K. Daffu, Matthew S. Geddis, Huilin Li, Rosa Rosario, Benjamin J. Kaplan, Lauren Kelly, Ann Marie Schmidt

Publications and Research

The etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal motor neuron disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness and spasticity, remains largely unknown. Approximately 5–10% of cases are familial, and of those, 15–20% are associated with mutations in the gene encoding Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1). Mutations of the SOD1 gene interrupt cellular homeostasis and contribute to cellular toxicity evoked by the presence of altered SOD1, along with other toxic species, such as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs trigger activation of their chief cell surface receptor, RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end products), and induce RAGE-dependent cellular stress and inflammation in …

Expression And Function Of Inflammation-Associated Micrornas In Traumatic Brain Injury, Emily Harrison

Theses & Dissertations

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression. Many neurological diseases, including traumatic brain injury alter expression of miRNAs in the brain. However, the function of these molecules in the context of TBI is largely unknown. Here we report multiple potential roles for miRNAs in TBI, some of which extend beyond the traditional model of post-transcriptional regulation, highlighting that these RNA molecules may have broader implications for the neurobiology of disease. We found that miR-155 plays an essential role in interferon expression after CCI and that miR-155 contributes to TBI induced anxiety, potentially through regulation of interferons. Expression of miR-155 …

Reverse Genetic Screening Of Innexin Gap Junction Proteins In Drosophila Neurons, Shannon P. Fox

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The reflexive response and perception of pain (nociception) is an evolutionarily conserved process in animals. Pain can be a major health concern and current treatments often prove insufficient, especially in regards to chronic pain. Greater understanding of the molecular processes underlying pain sensation could lead to new and more effective treatments. The aim of this study is to investigate the molecular mechanisms of cold nociception in Drosophila melanogaster. A specific subset of peripheral sensory neurons (Class III dendritic arborization (da) neurons), are implicated in Drosophila larvae’s response to noxious cold.

Previous literature has associated a family of gap junction protein, …