Nervous System Commons^™

Examining Levels Of Catecholamine Neurotransmitter Regulatory Proteins Within The Prefrontal Cortex Of Rodents Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Eleni Papadopoulos, Christopher P. Knapp, Claire M. Corbett, Jessica Loweth, Rachel L. Navarra

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting from impact to the head can cause long lasting impairments of cognitive processes that lead to increased risk-taking behavior in clinical populations. Our laboratory has recently shown that female, but not age-matched male, rats increase preference for risky choices after multiple experimentally-induced mild TBI’s. Our overarching goal is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying TBI-induced increases in risk-taking behavior.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a prominent role in risk-based decision making. Sub[1]regions of the PFC include the medial PFC (mPFC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and these sub[1]regions play specific …

Effective Therapies And Nursing Approaches: Improving Cognition In Older Adult Stroke Patients, Selyna Baltazar

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

Ischemic stroke occurs in thousands of older adults throughout the year. Due to the lack of oxygen entering the brain, many patients experience a decline in cognitive function due to ischemic stroke. Cognition is the ability to understand, learn, and remember information which is needed for completing daily tasks. Modern technology has allowed for patients to survive ischemic strokes but has yet to provide proper screening tools and methods for stroke-related cognitive impairment.

Objective

To investigate the best practices for identifying, treating, and caring for patients with a cognitive injury related to a stroke. A review of the research …

The Effects Of Paclitaxel On Cellular Migration And The Cytoskeleton, Ashley Salguero-Gonzalez

Thinking Matters Symposium

In a clinical setting, some patients are exposed to an anti-cancer chemotherapy agent, paclitaxel. Cancerous cells undergo rapid, continuous cell division without control. Chemotherapy treatments try to slow and stop the uncontrollable cell division cycles and eliminate cancerous cells in the process. Paclitaxel serves as a treatment for some types of cancers, including lung, melanoma, bladder, and esophageal. Because it targets the cytoskeleton, paclitaxel can also influence cell migration. This project utilizes a cellular migration assay and an immunohistochemistry assay to analyze the effects of paclitaxel on the movement of cells and on the cytoskeleton of neuroglia rat cells with …

Actl6a Coordinates Axonal Caliber Recognition And Myelination In The Peripheral Nerve, Hye-Jin Park, Eric Tsai, Dennis Huang, Michael Weaver, Luciana Frick, Ace Alcantara, John J. Moran, Julia Patzig, Carmen V. Melendez-Vasquez, Gerald R. Crabtree, M.L. Feltri, John Svaren, Patricia Casaccia

Advanced Science Research Center

Cells elaborate transcriptional programs in response to external signals. In the peripheral nerves, Schwann cells (SC) sort axons of given caliber and start the process of wrapping their membrane around them. We identify Actin-like protein 6a (ACTL6a), part of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, as critical for the integration of axonal caliber recognition with the transcriptional program of myelination. Nuclear levels of ACTL6A in SC are increased by contact with large caliber axons or nanofibers, and result in the eviction of repressive histone marks to facilitate myelination. Without Actl6a the SC are unable to coordinate caliber recognition and myelin production. Peripheral …

Parkinson's Disease And Exercise: Steps Into A Hopeful Future, Jacob Barker

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

In the world of medicine and disease interventions, exercise is too often underlooked as a viable form of treatment or complementary treatment to medication. This is especially true with Parkinson’s Disease, a disease that attacks the basal ganglia of the brain and impairs neuromuscular function. In my analysis, I read a perspective from a PD patient, Gerry Hill, who has struggled with the disease himself and how he used physical activity to aid in his battle with the disease for both physical and psychological aid. Additionally, I performed research to understand how exercise benefits function within the brain. Aerobic exercise, …

Current And Novel Neuroregenerative Therapies, Arrin Brooks

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Underlying the physical and cognitive deficits consequent of many neuropathologies is one common factor, the loss of neurons. While neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and traumatic brain injury arise from a variety of etiologies, they all ultimately result in injury and/or death of neuronal cells and concomitant functional deficits. In the present work we primarily focus on current and potential treatments for localized lesions, particularly those in the striatum of Parkinson’s disease (PD) or the cortex as in stroke. First, we discuss a new surgical technique for deep brain stimulator (DBS) placement, as DBS is a mainstay treatment for movement disorders including …

Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage And Acute Subdural Hematoma, Neurosurgical And Endovascular Rescue. Case Report., José Omar Santellan Resident, José Ramón Aguilar Dr., Abraham Ibarra Dr., Ulises García Dr.

Archives of Neurosurgery

Introduction: Acute subdural hemorrhage (aSDH) in association with aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a severe disease with an incidence of 0.5% to 7.9% of all SAH. Due to the rarity of aneurysmal aSDH, it remains difficult to define a comprehensive management protocol. In this case review, following the CARE guidelines, we show the hybrid management of this pathology to know the importance of using different types of neurosurgical treatments in case of two severe diseases in critical patients.

We present two patients who developed sudden onset cephalea and neurological impairment secondary to aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage associated with acute subdural hematoma. …

Functional Differentiation In The Language Network Revealed By Lesion-Dymptom Mapping, William Matchin, Alexandra Basilakos, Dirk B. Den Ouden, Brielle C. Stark, Gregory Hickok, Julius Fridriksson

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Theories of language organization in the brain commonly posit that different regions underlie distinct linguistic mechanisms. However, such theories have been criticized on the grounds that many neuroimaging studies of language processing find similar effects across regions. Moreover, condition by region interaction effects, which provide the strongest evidence of functional differentiation between regions, have rarely been offered in support of these theories. Here we address this by using lesion-symptom mapping in three large, partially-overlapping groups of aphasia patients with left hemisphere brain damage due to stroke (N = 121, N = 92, N = 218). We identified multiple measure by …

Stimulating The Facial Nerve To Treat Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review, Turner S. Baker, Justin Robeny, Danna Cruz, Alexis Bruhat, Alfred-Marc Iloreta, Anthony Costa, Thomas James Oxley

Publications and Research

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a common devastating disease that has increased yearly in absolute number of cases since 1990. While mechanical thrombectomy and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) have proven to be effective treatments, their window-of-efficacy time is very short, leaving many patients with no viable treatment option. Over recent years there has been a growing interest in stimulating the facial nerves or ganglions to treat AIS. Pre-clinical studies have consistently demonstrated an increase in collateral blood flow (CBF) following ganglion stimulation, with positive indications in infarct size and neurological scores. Extensive human trials have focused on trans-oral electrical stimulation …

Multiple Sclerosis And Its Symptom Management Through Supplementation And Dietary Planning, Lindsey J. Davis

Selected Honors Theses

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune, neuroinflammatory disorder that is characterized by the breakdown of myelinated axons in the Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems. It is a potentially debilitating autoimmune disease that affects almost 1 million people in the United States, and nearly 2.5 million people worldwide. The precise etiology of MS is still being researched, but much progress has been made towards understanding the molecular mechanisms and impactful ways to treat this disease. While there is still no cure, new treatment plans are constantly being orchestrated in effort to alleviate the burden that MS carries. Combination treatment plans have …

Apathy And Brain Atrophy During The First Year Of Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Study, Gulnaz Kudoiarova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Apathy, defined as disinterest and loss of motivation, is a common complication after moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI). The existing body of research in various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders suggests that apathetic symptoms may be associated with variation in the volume of the brain regions such as dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and ventral striatum. However, the longitudinal pattern of TBI-induced atrophy in these key regions and its relationship with apathy symptoms remain to be demonstrated. The current study aimed to describe the atrophy pattern in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc; part of ventral striatum) after …

Medical Schools Ignore The Nature Of Consciousness At Great Cost, Anoop Kumar

Journal of Wellness

The essential question of the relationship between consciousness and matter is ignored in medical school curricula, leading to a machine-like view of the human being that contributes to physician burnout and intellectual dissatisfaction. The evidence suggesting that the brain may not be the seat of consciousness is generally ignored to preserve the worldview of the primacy of matter. By investigating new frameworks detailing the nature of consciousness at different levels of hierarchy, we can bring intellectual rigor to a once opaque subject that supports a fundamental reality about our experience: We are human beings, not only human bodies.

Machine Learning Classification Of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Versus Healthy Controls Using Arterial Spin Labeled Perfusion Mri, Vanessa I. Grass

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of death and disability worldwide, yet accurate in vivo detection of TBI neuropathology remains challenging due to complexities in the structural and functional changes observed post-injury as well as limitations in conventional neuroimaging modalities. Although advanced neuroimaging techniques such as arterial spin labeling (ASL) can noninvasively assess cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes observed post-injury, this technique is underutilized in TBI research partly due to the low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) inherent in ASL imaging. The aim of the current study is to examine the use of machine learning, specifically a Support …

The Effects Of Mapk Signaling On The Development Of Cerebellar Granule Cells, Kerry Morgan

Honors Scholar Theses

The granule cells are the most abundant neuronal type in the human brain. Rapid proliferation of granule cell progenitors results in dramatic expansion and folding of the cerebellar cortex during postnatal development. Mis-regulation of this proliferation process causes medulloblastoma, the most prevalent childhood brain tumor. In the developing cerebellum, granule cells are derived from Atoh1-expressing cells, which arise from the upper rhombic lip (the interface between the roof plate and neuroepithelium). In addition to granule cells, the Atoh1 lineage also gives rise to different types of neurons including cerebellar nuclei neurons. In the current study, I have investigated the …

C25: The “Spot Sign”: A Predictor Of Hematoma Expansion, Mckenzie Merritt

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Neurophysiology Of Space Medicine: A Literature Review, Jose R. Velasquez

MEDI 9331 Scholarly Activities Clinical Years

Space medicine is becoming an essential and expanding clinical discipline. Acquiring a deeper and complete picture understanding of the multi-systemic response due to space on human health and function is essential to ensure the success of future space exploration. A comprehensive review of the literature was performed using PubMed and focused on the current neurophysiologic findings of the central nervous system’s response to space. Ground-based analogues, which mimic the effects of microgravity, and actual spaceflight studies have been used to analyze these physiologic adaptations to space. Overall, cerebellar, sensorimotor and vestibular brain regions seem to be affected the most. Through …

Measuring Mitochondrial Respiration In Vivo: From Mouse To Human, Arthur Orchanian, Brennan Schilling, Bruce Berkowitz Phd

Medical Student Research Symposium

Introduction: The mitochondrial energy ecosystem can be non-invasively interrogated in photoreceptors by combing a clinical tool, optical coherence tomography (OCT), with a mitochondrial protonophore (2,4 dinitrophenol, DNP). It remains unclear if only supra-clinical doses of DNP will be useful for mouse studies or if lower but clinically relevant doses of DNP would facilitate translation from mice to humans.

Methods: The experiment was a paired longitudinal design that took place over 2 days. On day 1, C57BL/6J mice were overnight dark adapted, then light-adapted for 5 h before OCT examination before regaining consciousness; a similar procedure was followed on day 2 …

Open Neuroscience Initiative, Austin Lim

College of Science and Health Full Text Publications

The Open Neuroscience Initiative is a free-to-use textbook

This project began as a means to overcoming the financial burden that face undergraduate neuroscience students when buying textbooks. By compiling and writing a completely free-to-access textbook that covers the foundations of a typical college introduction to neuroscience course, students would have one less obstacle to overcome in their educational career, allowing them to focus their valuable time and attention on learning rather than finances. To make this project a reality, I began with a humble tweet in May 2019 that managed to gain a tiny bit of traction among the neuroscience …

Distinct Cellular Profiles Of Hif1a And Vegf Mrna Localization In Microglia, Astrocytes And Neurons During A Period Of Vascular Maturation In The Auditory Brainstem Of Neonate Rats, Daphne Chang, Quetanya Brown, Grace Tsui, Ye He, Jia Liu, Lingyan Shi, Adrián Rodríguez-Contreras

Advanced Science Research Center

Defining the relationship between vascular development and the expression of hypoxia-inducible factors (Hifs) and vascular endothelial growth factor (Vegf) in the auditory brainstem is important to understand how tissue hypoxia caused by oxygen shortage contributes to sensory deficits in neonates. In this study, we used histology, molecular labeling, confocal microscopy and 3D image processing methods to test the hypothesis that significant maturation of the vascular bed in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) occurs during the postnatal period that precedes hearing onset. Isolectin-B4 histochemistry experiments suggested that the MNTB vasculature becomes more elaborate between …

Effects Of Buprenorphine Treatment On Myelin Following Traumatic Brain Injury In A Rat Model, Jane Ryu

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common phenomenon, accounting for significant cost and adverse health effects. While there is information about focal pathologies following TBI, knowledge of more diffuse processes is lacking, particularly regarding how analgesics affect this pathology. As Buprenorphine (Bup) is the most commonly used analgesic in experimental TBI models, the current study investigated the effects of the opioid analgesic Buprenorphine-sustained release-Lab (Bup-SR-Lab) on physiology and myelin alterations at 1d and 4w following central fluid percussion injury (cFPI) in adult male rats. Microscopic assessments were performed at 1 day and 4w post-injury. Myelin pathology was assessed by evaluating …

Extracellular Vesicles Released By Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium Mediate Increased Polarised Secretion Of Drusen Proteins In Response To Amd Stressors, Miguel Flores-Bellver, Jason Mighty, Silvia Aparicio-Domingo, Kang V. Li, Cui Shi, Jing Zhou, Hannah Cobb, Patrick Mcgrath, German Michelis, Patricia Lenhart, Ganna Bilousova, Søren Heissel, Michael J. Rudy, Christina Coughlan, Andrew E. Goodspeed, S. Patricia Becerra, Stephen Redenti, M. Valeria Canto-Soler

Publications and Research

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Drusen are key contributors to the etiology of AMD and the ability to modulate drusen biogenesis could lead to therapeutic strategies to slow or halt AMD progression. The mechanisms underlying drusen biogenesis, however, remain mostly unknown. Here we demonstrate that under homeostatic conditions extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are enriched in proteins associated with mechanisms involved in AMD pathophysiology, including oxidative stress, immune response, inflammation, complement system and drusen composition. Furthermore, we provide first evidence that drusen-associated proteins are released as cargo of extracellular …

Sexually Dimorphic Oxytocin Receptor-Expressing Neurons In The Anteroventral Periventricular Nucleus Regulates Maternal Behavior, Kaustubh Sharma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The neurohypophysial hormone oxytocin is involved in the regulation of social behaviors, including social recognition, pair bonding, and sex-specific parental behaviors in a variety of species. Oxytocin triggers these social behaviors by binding to oxytocin receptors (OXTR) in various parts of the brain. Oxytocin-induced sex-typical behavior, therefore, suggests a sexual dimorphic distribution of OXTR in the brain. In recent years, the oxytocin system in the brain received tremendous attention as a potential pharmacological target for treatment of many psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, autism spectrum disorders, and even sex-specific psychiatric disorder like postpartum depression (PPD). An important problem and a …

Aci-35 And Aadvac1 Active Immunotherapy As Preventative Treatment Options For Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Emily C. Boehlein

Selected Honors Theses

One of the most common, as well as one of the most dangerous injuries amongst athletes today is mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), commonly known as concussion. Aside from physical symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, and headaches; concussions have can have longterm effects on brain physiology. A common neurological disease that can result from multiple concussions is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), characterized by symptoms such as severe depression, anxiety, confusion, and aggression; amongst others.1 On the cellular level, CTE is classified by a unique pathway that leads to the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein and subsequent clumping of tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles …

A Differential Geometry-Based Machine Learning Algorithm For The Brain Age Problem, Justin Asher, Khoa Tan Dang, Maxwell Masters

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Metabolic Progression Of Glioblastoma With Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance, Travis Salzillo

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Rapid diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of aggressive diseases such as glioblastoma (GBM) can improve patient survival by providing physicians the time to optimally deliver treatment. This includes early in development, while the tumor is still manageable, or following initial therapy, when alternative treatments should be considered. The main goal of this project was to determine whether metabolic imaging with hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) could detect changes in tumor progression more rapidly than conventional anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patient-derived GBM murine models. To comprehensively capture the dynamic nature of cancer metabolism, in vivo pyruvate-to-lactate conversion with hyperpolarized MRI, …

Role Of Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase On Cardiovascular Functions In Physiological And Pathophysiological States, Ahmmed Ally, Isabella Powell, Minora M. Ally, Kevin Chaitoff, Surya M. Nauli

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

This review describes and summarizes the role of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) on the central nervous system, particularly on brain regions such as the ventrolateral medulla (VLM) and the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG), and on blood vessels and the heart that are involved in the regulation and control of the cardiovascular system (CVS). Furthermore, we shall also review the functional aspects of nNOS during several physiological, pathophysiological, and clinical conditions such as exercise, pain, cerebral vascular accidents or stroke and hypertension. For example, during stroke, a cascade of molecular, neurochemical, and cellular changes occur that affect the nervous system …

Agrammatism And Paragrammatism: A Cortical Double Dissociation Revealed By Lesion-Symptom Mapping, William Matchin, Alexandra Basilakos, Brielle C. Stark, Dirk B. Den Ouden, Fridolin Gross, Gregory Hickok

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

The fundamental distinction of grammatical deficits in aphasia, agrammatism and paragrammatism, was made over a century ago. However, the extent to which the agrammatism/paragrammatism distinction exists independently of differences in speech fluency has not clearly been investigated. Despite much research on agrammatism, the lesion correlates of paragrammatism are essentially unknown. Lesion-symptom mapping was used to investigate the degree to which the lesion correlates of agrammatism and paragrammatism overlap or dissociate. Four expert raters assessed videos of 53 right-handed patients with aphasia following chronic left-hemisphere stroke retelling the Cinderella story. Consensus discussion determined each subject’s classification with respect to grammatical deficits …

The Current Neuroscientific Understanding Of Alzheimer's Disease, Rachel A. Brandes

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative neurological illness characterized by the deterioration of brain regions implicated in memory and cognitive function. While researchers have yet to find a cure or effective treatment, they have gained a better understanding of its pathology and development. Through years of neuroscience research, scientists have discovered much of what happens in the brain during Alzheimer’s disease onset and how this causes its symptoms; many hypotheses regarding this aspect of the illness involve temporal lobe atrophy, neurofibrillary tangles, and amyloid plaques. Although Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people every day, it seems that most are unaware of …

Learning In The Machine: To Share Or Not To Share?, Jordan Ott, Erik Linstead, Nicholas Lahaye, Pierre Baldi

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Weight-sharing is one of the pillars behind Convolutional Neural Networks and their successes. However, in physical neural systems such as the brain, weight-sharing is implausible. This discrepancy raises the fundamental question of whether weight-sharing is necessary. If so, to which degree of precision? If not, what are the alternatives? The goal of this study is to investigate these questions, primarily through simulations where the weight-sharing assumption is relaxed. Taking inspiration from neural circuitry, we explore the use of Free Convolutional Networks and neurons with variable connection patterns. Using Free Convolutional Networks, we show that while weight-sharing is a pragmatic optimization …

Recovery From Visual Dysfunction Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Is Associated With Adaptive Reorganization Of Retinal Inputs To Lateral Geniculate Nucleus In The Mouse Model Utilizing Central Fluid Percussion Injury., Vishal C. Patel

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality nationwide. Prevalence of mild TBI (mTBI) vastly outnumbers more severe forms however the associated morbidity has only recently gained public attention. Visual dysfunction is a significant component of mTBI associated morbidity with recovery of function linked with improvement in global outcomes. Examination of sensory and motor pathways in other brain injury paradigms support that recovery is largely dependent on adaptive plasticity of remaining connections. Current examinations of visual function recovery following mTBI is limited to identifying evidence for recovery and objective evidence for adaptive plasticity is limited. Therefore, …