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Biological Psychology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Biological Psychology

Behavioral Effects And Neurobiological Mechanisms Of 3-Aminobenzimide In A Rodent Model Of Chronic Psychological Stress, Liza Wills May 2022

Behavioral Effects And Neurobiological Mechanisms Of 3-Aminobenzimide In A Rodent Model Of Chronic Psychological Stress, Liza Wills

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with a lifetime prevalence rate of approximately 20%. Inadequate pharmacological treatment methods for MDD are a significant debilitating factor. Patient estimates suggest that the treatment resistance rate for pharmacological interventions is over 30%. Postmortem analyses of human tissue of individuals diagnosed with MDD have shown an increase in Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) mRNA gene expression in prefrontal cortical white matter when compared to psychiatrically normal brain tissue. In order to further investigate this issue, the present study used the social defeat stress/chronic unpredictable stress (SDS + CUS) rodent …


Characterization Of Ethanol-Related Phenotypic Differences Between C57bl/6j And C57bl/6nj Substrains: Role Of Cyfip2?, Matthew C. Hartmann May 2019

Characterization Of Ethanol-Related Phenotypic Differences Between C57bl/6j And C57bl/6nj Substrains: Role Of Cyfip2?, Matthew C. Hartmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The C57BL/6 (B6) mouse is the most commonly used inbred strain in biomedical research, and has served as the basis for various large-scale genetic and genomic projects. Although the parental substrain, C57BL/6J (B6J), originated at The Jackson Laboratory, isolated breeding colonies are now maintained at numerous sites. This separation has resulted in genetic drift that has led to the emergence of phenotypic differences among these colonies. For instance, B6J mice display higher levels of voluntary ethanol consumption and increased locomotor responses to psychostimulants, relative to C57BL/6N mice (B6N). Initial progress has been made in elucidating the genetic bases of these …


The Effects Of Two Novel Anti-Inflammatory Compounds On Prepulse Inhibition And Neural Microglia Cell Activation In A Rodent Model Of Schizophrenia, Heath W. Shelton May 2019

The Effects Of Two Novel Anti-Inflammatory Compounds On Prepulse Inhibition And Neural Microglia Cell Activation In A Rodent Model Of Schizophrenia, Heath W. Shelton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have shown elevated neuroinflammation in a large subset of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. A pro-inflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα), has been directly linked to this neuroinflammation. This study examined the effects of two TNFα modulators (PD2024 and PD340) produced by our collaborators at P2D Bioscience, Inc., to alleviate auditory sensorimotor gating deficits and reduce microglial cell activation present in the polyinosinic:polycytidylic (Poly I:C) rodent model of schizophrenia. Auditory sensorimotor gating was assessed using prepulse inhibition and microglial activation was examined and quantified using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy, respectively. Both PD2024 and PD340 alleviated auditory sensorimotor gating deficits …


Examining The Associative Learning And Accumbal Dopaminergic Mechanisms Of Caffeine Reinforcement, Curtis Bradley Aug 2018

Examining The Associative Learning And Accumbal Dopaminergic Mechanisms Of Caffeine Reinforcement, Curtis Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive substance in the world, and most caffeine consumption in coffee and energy drinks is intended to produce a psychoactive effect. However, caffeine is not a primary reinforcer in preclinical paradigms – non-human species do not reliably take the drug to produce a psychoactive effect. However, caffeine is a ‘reinforcement enhancer’ in preclinical models; the effects of caffeine increase the motivation to obtain other non-drug reinforcers. The overall goal of this project was to determine if these reinforcement enhancing effects of caffeine could promote caffeine self-administration and to subsequently investigate the behavioral and neurochemical underpinnings …


An Analysis Of Neurogenesis In A Mouse Model Of Chemotherapy Related Cognitive Impairment, Maxwell A. Hennings May 2017

An Analysis Of Neurogenesis In A Mouse Model Of Chemotherapy Related Cognitive Impairment, Maxwell A. Hennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy often experience cognitive decline following treatment. This phenomenon, often dubbed “chemo brain” or “chemo fog” is usually temporary, but for a subset of survivors, these cognitive impairments can be long-lasting (>10 years) and negatively affect patients’ quality of life, career performance, and social fulfillment. While it is unclear what neurobiological mechanisms underlie chemotherapy related cognitive impairment, the majority of the animal literature has focused on adult neurogenesis. One process important for neurogenesis is the proliferation of new neurons within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. It is evident that many chemotherapy agents can …