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Applied Behavior Analysis Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Applied Behavior Analysis

Effects Of A Novel, Non-Toxic Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor On Hippocampal Memory Formation, Histone Acetylation, And Bdnf Gene Expression In Male Mice, Sarah Brianna Beamish Aug 2021

Effects Of A Novel, Non-Toxic Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor On Hippocampal Memory Formation, Histone Acetylation, And Bdnf Gene Expression In Male Mice, Sarah Brianna Beamish

Theses and Dissertations

Memory dysfunction is a common symptom of aging, neuropsychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders, yet truly effective treatments for memory loss do not exist. De novo gene transcription is a molecular requirement for long-term memory formation. The transcription of genes related to synaptic plasticity and learning are regulated in part by histone acetylation, an epigenetic mechanism that regulates chromatin accessibility. Pharmacological compounds that maintain histone acetylation, called histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), enhance memory by preventing deacetylation of core histone proteins, which initiates binding of transcriptional machinery to open chromatin. Therefore, HDACi are potentially promising therapeutics that could be used to prevent …


Investigating The Contribution Of Instance-Reliant Learning In Visuomotor Adaptation And Its Generalization, Shancheng Bao Dec 2019

Investigating The Contribution Of Instance-Reliant Learning In Visuomotor Adaptation And Its Generalization, Shancheng Bao

Theses and Dissertations

Motor adaptation has been of great interest in the past two decades as it reflects how movement skills are acquired and consolidated by the nervous system. In our recent studies, instance-reliant learning is considered as an essential component of visuomotor adaptation, since it plays a unique role in fast and automatized control of movement output. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the nature of instance-reliant learning on two aspects: to determine the differential contributions of algorithmic learning and instance-reliant learning to visuomotor adaptation; and to determine the nature of movement instance involved in visuomotor adaptation and its generalization …


Apoaequorin Differentially Modulates Fear Conditioning In Adult And Aged Rats, Vanessa Ehlers Dec 2016

Apoaequorin Differentially Modulates Fear Conditioning In Adult And Aged Rats, Vanessa Ehlers

Theses and Dissertations

Normal aging is associated with a number of changes in behavioral and cellular function, and is often linked to increased susceptibility to cognitive impairment. The hippocampus has been widely implicated in learning and memory, and many forms of learning that are hippocampus-dependent (e.g. trace fear conditioning) are impaired in aged animals. A proposed contributor to aging-related cognitive impairment is aging-related calcium (Ca2+) dysregulation. This dysregulation is thought to result from changes in specific Ca2+-regulatory mechanisms, including abnormal Ca2+ ion channel activity or expression, as well as reduced Ca2+-binding protein (CaBP) expression, which is associated with cognitive and synaptic impairment. Previous …


Functionally Distinct Pools Of Calcineurin Contribute To Depotentiation-Like Synaptic Changes In The Lateral Amygdala During Auditory Fear Extinction, Elena Kay Rotondo Dec 2015

Functionally Distinct Pools Of Calcineurin Contribute To Depotentiation-Like Synaptic Changes In The Lateral Amygdala During Auditory Fear Extinction, Elena Kay Rotondo

Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, auditory fear extinction was not thought to modify substrates involved in the storage of the original auditory fear memory. Evidence now suggests that extinction results in the reversal of the fear conditioning-induced potentiation of thalamic inputs to the lateral amygdala. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that support this depotentiation of synaptic strength. Here we present behavioral and molecular evidence in support of the contribution of two distinct pools of the protein phosphatase calcineurin to depotentiation-like changes in lateral amygdala AMPA receptor trafficking during auditory fear extinction. Calcineurin protein that exists prior to the onset of …