Behavioral Neurobiology Commons^™

Sex-Specific Brain Deficits In Auditory Processing In An Animal Model Of Cocaine-Related Schizophrenic Disorders, Patricia A. Broderick, Taylor Rosenbaum

Publications and Research

Cocaine is a psychostimulant in the pharmacological class of drugs called Local Anesthetics. Interestingly, cocaine is the only drug in this class that has a chemical formula comprised of a tropane ring and is, moreover, addictive. The correlation between tropane and addiction is well-studied. Another well-studied correlation is that between psychosis induced by cocaine and that psychosis endogenously present in the schizophrenic patient. Indeed, both of these psychoses exhibit much the same behavioral as well as neurochemical properties across species. Therefore, in order to study the link between schizophrenia and cocaine addiction, we used a behavioral paradigm called Acoustic Startle. …

Getting A Grip On Memory: Unilateral Hand Clenching Alters Episodic Recall, Ruth E. Propper, Sean E. Mcgraw, Tad T. Brunyé

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Unilateral hand clenching increases neuronal activity in the frontal lobe of the contralateral hemisphere. Such hand clenching is also associated with increased experiencing a given hemisphere’s “mode of processing.” Together, these findings suggest that unilateral hand clenching can be used to test hypotheses concerning the specializations of the cerebral hemispheres during memory encoding and retrieval. We investigated this possibility by testing the effects of a unilateral hand clenching on episodic memory. The hemispheric Encoding/Retrieval Asymmetry (HERA) model proposes left prefrontal regions are associated with encoding, and right prefrontal regions with retrieval, of episodic memories. It was hypothesized that right-hand clenching …

The Possible Role Of Extra-Ocular Photoreceptors In The Entrainment Of Lobster Circadian Rhythms To Light:Dark Cycles, Sara A. Mckinney

Honors Theses and Capstones

The American lobster, Homarus americanus, is a decapod crustacean whose daily nocturnal rhythms of activity are driven, in part, by an internal biological clock. While this circadian clock is capable of producing a rhythm of approximately 24 hours on its own, it can also be entrained to light:dark cycles. Recent findings in our laboratory suggest that lobsters have photosensitive neurons throughout their nervous system (extra-ocular photoreceptors). The objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that these extra-ocular photoreceptors aid in entraining their daily rhythm of activity. First, the locomotion of juvenile American lobsters was measured in trials under …

Norepinephrine Involvement In The Intermittent Swim Stress-Induced Deficit In Spatial Learning And Memory, Emily Elgert

Honors Theses and Capstones

Learning and memory impairments are often caused by stress disorders including depression. The present study investigated the involvement of norepinephrine in the swim stress-induced deficits of spatial learning and memory. Exposure to intermittent swim stress (ISS) followed by learning and memory tests in the Morris water maze (MWM) were used to investigate this relationship. The ISS paradigm consists of intermittent exposure to cold water, producing stress responses in rats. Reboxetine, a norepinephrine selective reuptake inhibitor (NSRI), was employed to investigate whether this compound reverses the ISS-induced deficit. In other words, rats exposed to the ISS, were hypothesized to experience impaired …

Determination Of Catecholamine Content Changes In Mouse Brain Following Chronic Ketogenic Diet, Ryan Adams

Senior Theses and Projects

This work investigated the effects of the ketogenic diet on catecholamine concentrations in the brains of mice. The ketogenic diet has been show to modulate the catecholamine concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid of children as well as altering hippocampal norepinephrine levels in mice. Tissue homogenates of the motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, nucleus accumbens, anterior caudate, posterior caudate and midbrain regions were analyzed using high pressure liquid chromatography to quantitate norepinephrine, dopamine, 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA), homovanillic acid (HVA) and serotonin (5-HT). No significant differences in catecholamine concentration levels were detected in the tissue homogenates. Analysis of metabolite …

Squid Ink As A Chemical Defense Against Predatory Sea Catfish, Lanna Wolfe

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Blocking Hippocampal Acetylcholine On Meal Onset In Male Rats, Jasmine Nicole Gentry

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Chemosensory Feedback Mediates Olfactory Organ Grooming In Spiny Lobsters, Jessica E. Haulk

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Selective Allosteric Activation Of M₄ Receptors For Memory Enhancement, Norma A. Hernandez

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Role Of Antennae In Procambarus Clarkii Thermosenstaion, Brian J. Bondy

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Does Periaqueductal Gray Glial Cell Activity Put Females At A Disadvantage For Pain Relief?, Laura Butkovich

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Neural Basis Of Top-Down Guided Action In Macaque Monkeys, Jessica M. Phillips

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

To thoroughly characterize any brain mechanism requires an appropriate animal model for invasive studies. An invaluable model system used toward a comprehension of cognitive neurophysiology is the macaque monkey. It is important to delineate similarities and limitations for this model in relation to the human brain and cognition. In this thesis, we have thus conducted three experiments to investigate putative generalizations between monkeys and humans regarding the neural processes associated with top-down action control in monkeys.

Our daily behaviour is largely comprised of automatic routine actions. The frequent repetition of certain behaviours in response to particular contexts can give rise …

Circadian Rhythms In Reward And Underlying Neural Circuits, Ricardo M. Baltazar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Studies suggest that the circadian timing system exerts an important influence on responses to rewarding stimuli. Diurnal rhythms in the rewarding value of amphetamine and mating behavior were observed, but differed in the pattern of their timing. Daily fluctuations in reward were correlated with oscillations in mesolimbic dopaminergic activity in both the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA), with a peak in NAc coinciding with the peak of sex reward, while the peak in the VTA associated with the peak in amphetamine reward. Also, rhythmic expression of the marker of neural activation, cFos, was observed in NAc, medial …

Rats Acquire Stronger Preference For Flavors Consumed Towards The End Of A High-Fat Meal, Kevin P. Myers

Faculty Journal Articles

Rats learn to prefer flavors associated with postingestive effects of nutrients. The physiological signals underlying this postingestive reward are unknown. We have previously shown that rats readily learn to prefer a flavor that was consumed early in a multi-flavored meal when glucose is infused intragastrically (IG), suggesting rapid postingestive reward onset. The present experiments investigate the timing of postingestive fat reward, by providing distinctive flavors in the first and second halves of meals accompanied by IG fat infusion. Learning stronger preference for the earlier or later flavor would indicate when the rewarding postingestive effects are sensed. Rats consumed sweetened, calorically-dilute …

Combined Effects Of Rearing Environment And Lead (Pb2+) Exposure On Visuospatial Learning And Memory In Rats, Nicholas Tolman

Behavioral Neuroscience Honors Papers

Critical periods of neural development occur during early postnatal life that correspond with increases in synaptic plasticity and the formation of neural circuits needed for learning and memory. This development can be profoundly influenced by experience and negatively affected by environmental toxins. Environmental enrichment and lead exposure inversely affect mediators of synaptic plasticity, which suggests that enrichment may have an attenuating effect on lead induced cognitive deficits. A wealth of evidence has indicated that exposure to excessive amounts of inorganic Pb2+ during early development can produce long lasting cognitive deficits in humans. Evidence also suggests that children raised in an …

The Effects Of Acute Nicotine Administration On Memory Formation And Neural Activity In The Hippocampus, Perirhinal Cortex, And Medial Septum: Implications For Neurodegenerative Disorders, Matthew Wishnoff

Behavioral Neuroscience Honors Papers

Within the general public, nicotine is commonly thought of as a harmful molecule due to its role in tobacco addiction. However, nicotinic stimulation of the cholinergic system has also been shown to enhance cognitive functioning. This enhancement is thought to be caused by an increase in the release of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine (ACh), which is responsible for mediating a variety of cognitive processes, such as REM sleep and memory formation. Recent research by Melichercik and colleagues shows that systemic nicotine administration enhances memory acquisition for both object location and object recognition memory in rats, as assessed by a modified version …

Brain Activity Follow Up Of Stock Market Financial Variables, Armando F. Rocha, João Vieito, Fábio T. Rocha

Armando F Rocha

Efficiency Market hypothesis assume that all investors reason in the same way to make their financial decisions. In contrast, Neurosciences have provided strong evidences that cognitive diversity is the hallmark of human intelligence. Neurofinances has shown that volunteers learned different profitable financial decision-making strategies depending on the kind of market they begun to trade. Here, we decide to further explore this hypothesis by studying a possible correlation between brain activity and the financial variables in a stock market game and to test if this correlation differ between experimental groups that trade in different market conditions. Present results show that volunteers …

Factors Influencing The Effectiveness Of Repellents In Managing Birds, Larry Clark

Larry Clark

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Intranasally Administered Dnsp-11 On The Central Dopamine System Of Normal And Parkinsonian Fischer 344 Rats, James H. Sonne

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

Due to the blood-brain barrier, delivery of many drugs to the brain has required intracranial surgery which is prone to complication. Here we show that Dopamine Neuron Stimulating Peptide 11 (DNSP-11), following non-invasive intranasal administration, protects dopaminergic neurons from a lesion model of Parkinson’s disease in the rat. A significant and dose-dependent increase in an index of dopamine turnover (the ratio of DOPAC to dopamine) was observed in the striatum of normal young adult Fischer 344 rats by whole-tissue neurochemistry compared to vehicle administered controls.

Among animals challenged with a moderate, unilateral 6-hydroxy-dopamine (6-OHDA) lesion of the substantia nigra, those …

Olanzapine Sensitization And Clozapine Tolerance: From Adolescence To Adulthood In The Conditioned Avoidance Response Model, Jing Qiao, Hong Li, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Disruption of conditioned avoidance response (CAR) in rodents is one trademark feature of many antipsychotic drugs. In adult rats, repeated olanzapine (OLZ) treatment causes an enhanced disruption of avoidance response (sensitization), whereas repeated clozapine (CLZ) treatment causes a decreased disruption (tolerance). The present study addressed (1) whether OLZ sensitization and CLZ tolerance can be induced in adolescent rats, and (2) the extent to which OLZ sensitization and CLZ tolerance induced in adolescence persists into adulthood. Male adolescent Sprague–Dawley rats (approximate postnatal days (BP) 43–47) were first treated with OLZ (1.0 or 2.0 mg/kg, subcutaneously (sc)) or CLZ (10 or 20 …