Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Astroglial Boundary Formation And Epha4 Signaling In Neuroblast Migration, Nicholas B. Gallo

Honors Scholar Theses

Adult neurogenesis, the process of generating new neurons from neural precursors, is a highly complex process that is limited to two specific areas of the brain, the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone (SVZ). Despite continued research investigating neurogenesis in these two regions, we still lack a fundamental understanding of the molecular mechanisms of neural cell division, migration, differentiation, and integration in the postnatal brain. In particular, the rostral migratory stream (RMS), which is a cellular migratory route for newly generated neuronal precursors that travel from the SVZ to the olfactory bulb, will provide a useful model …

Effects Of Resting State On Perceptual Learning, Sarah Eagleman Ph.D.

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Psychophysical experiments in humans have demonstrated that improvements in perceptual learning tasks occur following daytime rests. The neural correlates of how rest influences subsequent sensory processing during these tasks remain unclear. One possible neural mechanism that may underlie this behavioral improvement is reactivation. Previously evoked network activity reoccurs – reactivates - in the absence of further stimulation. Reactivation was initially discovered in the hippocampus but has now been found in several brain areas including cortex. This phenomenon has been implicated as a general mechanism by which neural networks learn and store sensory information. However, whether reactivation occurs in areas relevant …

Comparison Of Functional Network Connectivity For Passive-Listening And Active-Response Narrative Comprehension In Adolescents, Yingying Wang, Scott K. Holland

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Comprehension of narrative stories plays an important role in the development of language skills. In this study, we compared brain activity elicited by a passive-listening version and an active-response (AR) version of a narrative comprehension task by using independent component (IC) analysis on functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 21 adolescents (ages 14–18 years). Furthermore, we explored differences in functional network connectivity engaged by two versions of the task and investigated the relationship between the online response time and the strength of connectivity between each pair of ICs. Despite similar brain region involvements in auditory, temporoparietal, and frontoparietal language networks …

The Effect Of Age On Neural Processing Of Pleasant Soft Touch Stimuli, April C. May, Jennifer L. Stewart, Susan F. Tapert, Martin P. Paulus

Publications and Research

Tactile interactions with our environment stimulate afferent fibers within the skin, which deliver information about sensations of pain, texture, itch and other feelings to the brain as a comprehensive sense of self. These tactile interactions can stimulate brain regions involved in interoception and reward processing. This study examined subjective, behavioral, and neural processing as a function of age during stimulation of A-beta (Aβ) and C tactile (CT) afferents using a soft brush stroke task. 16 adolescents (ages 15–17), 22 young adults (ages 20–28), and 20 mature adults (ages 29–55) underwent a simple continuous performance task while periodically anticipating and experiencing …

The Helminthological Society Of Washington 2013 Anniversary Award: Larry S. Roberts, Sherman S. Hendrix

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Dr. Roberts was born in the great state of Texas, and much of his early life is murky, but snakes are often mentioned. Larry received his Bachelor’s degree at Southern Methodist University; his Master of Science at the University of Illinois; and his Doctorate in the Department of Pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Larry’s doctoral research, published in Experimental Parasitology, documented the early development and crowding effect of the tapeworm, Hymenolepis diminuta, in the rat small intestine. His publication on this subject opened the door to the golden age of cestode physiology and biochemistry …

Can Helmet Design Reduce The Risk Of Concussion In Football?, Steven Rowson, Stefan M. Duma, Richard M. Greenwald, Jonathan Beckwith, Jeffrey J. Chu, Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Jason P. Mihalik, Joe Crisco, Bethany J. Wilcox, Thomas W. Mcallister, Arthur C. Maerlender, Steven P. Broglio, Brock Schnebel, Scott Anderson, P. Gunnar Brolinson

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Of all sports, football accounts for the highest incidence of concussion in the US due to the large number of athletes participating and the nature of the sport. While there is general agreement that concussion incidence can be reduced through rule changes and teaching proper tackling technique, there remains debate as to whether helmet design may also reduce the incidence of concussion. A retrospective analysis was performed of head impact data collected from 1833 collegiate football players who were instrumented with helmet-mounted accelerometer arrays for games and practices. Data were collected between 2005 and 2010 from 8 collegiate football teams: …

Winning And Losing: Differences In Reward And Punishment Sensitivity Between Smokers And Nonsmokers, Laura E. Martin, Lisa S. Cox, William M. Brooks, Cary R. Savage

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Background: Smokers show increased brain activation in reward processing regions in response to smoking-related cues, yet few studies have examined secondary rewards not associated with smoking (i.e., money). Inconsistencies exist in the studies that do examine secondary rewards with some studies showing increased brain activation in reward processing brain regions, while others show decreased activation or no difference in activation between smokers and nonsmokers. Aims: The goal of the current study is to see if smokers process the evaluation and delivery of equally salient real world rewards similarly or differently than nonsmokers. Methods: The current study employed functional magnetic resonance …

Sex Differences In White Matter Development During Adolescence: A Dti Study, Yingying Wang, Chris Adamson, Weihong Yuan, Mekibib Altaye, Anna W. Byars, Scott K. Holland

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Adolescence is a complex transitional period in human development, composing physical maturation, cognitive and social behavioral changes. The objective of this study is to investigate sex differences in white matter development and the associations between intelligence and white matter microstructure in the adolescent brain using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). In a cohort of 16 typically-developing adolescents aged 13 to 17 years, longitudinal DTI data were recorded from each subject at two time points that were one year apart. We used TBSS to analyze the diffusion indices including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity …

Combined Erp/Fmri Evidence For Early Word Recognition Effects In The Posterior Inferior Temporal Gyrus, Joseph Dien, Eric S. Brian, Dennis L. Molfese, Brian T. Gold

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Two brain regions with established roles in reading are the posterior middle temporal gyrus and the posterior fusiform gyrus. Lesion studies have also suggested that the region located between them, the posterior inferior temporal gyrus (pITG), plays a central role in word recognition. However, these lesion results could reflect disconnection effects since neuroimaging studies have not reported consistent lexicality effects in pITG. Here we tested whether these reported pITG lesion effects are due to disconnection effects or not using parallel ERP/fMRI studies. We predicted that the Recognition Potential (RP), a left-lateralized ERP negativity that peaks at about 200–250 ms, might …

From Gibbons To Gymnasts: A Look At The Biomechanics And Neurophysiology Of Brachiation In Gibbons And Its Human Rediscovery, Emma Et Pennock

Student Works

This conference paper serves to examine the evolutionary linkages of a brachiating ancestor in humans, the biomechanical and neurophysiology of modern day brachiators, and the human rediscovery of this form of locomotion. Brachiation is arguably one of the most metabolically effective modes of travel by any organism and can be observed most meritoriously in Gibbons. The purpose of the research conducted for this paper was to encourage further exploration of the neurophysiological similarities and differences between humans and non-human primates. The hope is that in spurring more interest and research in this area, further possibilities for rehabilitating brain injury will …

Behavioral Responses To Methylphenidate: Correlations With Neuronal Activity In The Caudate Nucleus, Catherine M. Claussen

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Methylphenidate is currently a drug of abuse and readily prescribed to both adolescents and adults. Chronic methylphenidate (MPH) exposure results in an increase in DA in the motive circuit, including the caudate nucleus (CN), similar to other drugs of abuse. This study focuses on research aimed to elucidate if there are intrinsic underlying differences in the CN electrophysiological activity of animals exhibiting different chronic responses to the same dose of MPH. Behavioral and caudate nucleus (CN) neuronal activity following acute and chronic doses of MPH was assessed by simultaneously recording the behavioral and neuronal activity. The experimental protocol lasted for …

Concordance Of Meg And Fmri Patterns In Adolescents During Verb Generation, Yingying Wang, Scott K. Holland, Jennifer Vannest

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

In this study we focused on direct comparison between the spatial distributions of activation detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and localization of sources detected by magnetoencephalography (MEG) during identical language tasks. We examined the spatial concordance between MEG and fMRI results in 16 adolescents performing a three-phase verb generation task that involves repeating the auditorily presented concrete noun and generating verbs either overtly or covertly in response to the auditorily presented noun. MEG analysis was completed using a synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) technique, while the fMRI data were analyzed using the general linear model approach with random-effects. To …

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 Measurement Of Auditory Interhemispheric Transfer Time (Ihtt) In Children With Normal Auditory Processing Abilities, Brittany Suzanne Keahey

Doctoral Dissertations

Interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT) is the time it takes for information to be transmitted from one hemisphere to the other. The goal of this study was to determine if differences existed in the IHTT of children 6 to 9 years of age with normal auditory processing abilities by the use of an objective measure (auditory late evoked potentials [ALEPs]), specifically waves P1, N1 and P2. It was hypothesized that there would be no difference in IHTT between the groups due to the age range of participants being tested. The 16 participants were divided into two groups based on age and …

A One-Hour Sleep Restriction Impacts Brain Processing In Young Children Across Tasks: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials, Dennis Molfese, Anna Ivanenko, Alexandra P.F. Key, Adrienne Roman, Victoria J. Molfese, Louise M. O'Brien, David Gozal, Srinivas Kota, Caitlin M. Hudac

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

The effect of mild sleep restriction on cognitive functioning in young children is unclear, yet sleep loss may impact children's abilities to attend to tasks with high processing demands. In a preliminary investigation, six children (6.6 - 8.3 years of age) with normal sleep patterns performed three tasks: attention (“Oddball”), speech perception (conconant-vowel syllables) and executive function (Directional Stroop). Event-related potentials (ERP) responses were recorded before (Control) and following one-week of 1-hour per day of sleep restriction. Brain activity across all tasks following Sleep Restriction differed from activity during Control Sleep, indicating that minor sleep restriction impacts children's neurocognitive functioning.

Normative Topographic Erp Analyses Of Speed Of Speech Processing And Grammar Before And After Grammatical Treatment, Paul J. Yoder, Dennis Molfese, Micah M. Murray, Alexandra P.F. Key

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Typically developing (TD) preschoolers and age-matched preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) received event-related potentials (ERPs) to four monosyllabic speech sounds prior to treatment and, in the SLI group, after 6 months of grammatical treatment. Before treatment, the TD group processed speech sounds faster than the SLI group. The SLI group increased the speed of their speech processing after treatment. Post-treatment speed of speech processing predicted later impairment in comprehending phrase elaboration in the SLI group. During the treatment phase, change in speed of speech processing predicted growth rate of grammar in the SLI group.

Doxorubicin-Induced, Tnf-Α-Mediated Brain Oxidative Stress, Neurochemical Alterations, And Cognitive Decline: Insights Into Mechanisms Of Chemotherapy Induced Cognitive Impairment And Its Prevention, Jeriel T. Keeney

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

The works presented in this dissertation provide insights into the mechanisms of chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI or “ChemoBrain”) and take steps toward outlining a preventive strategy. CICI is now widely recognized as a complication of cancer chemotherapy experienced by a large percentage of cancer survivors. Approximately fifty percent of existing FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Doxorubicin (Dox), a prototypical ROS-generating chemotherapeutic agent, produces the reactive superoxide radical anion (O₂^-•) in vivo. Dox treatment results in oxidation of plasma proteins, including ApoA-I, leading to TNF-α-mediated oxidative stress in plasma and brain. TNF-α elevation in brain …

Sleep Hygiene And Problem Behaviors In Snoring And Non- Snoring School-Age Children, Lisa A. Witcher, David Gozal, Dennis L. Molfese, Scott M. Salathe, Karen Spruyt, Valerie Mclaughlin Crabtree

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Objectives—The effects of sleep-disordered breathing, sleep restriction, dyssomnias, and parasomnias on daytime behavior in children have been previously assessed. However, the potential relationship(s) between sleep hygiene and children’s daytime behavior remain to be explored. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between sleep hygiene and problematic behaviors in non-snoring and habitually snoring children.

Methods—Parents of 100 5- to 8-year-old children who were reported to snore “frequently” to “almost always,” and of 71 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched children who were reported to never snore participated in this study. As part of a larger, ongoing study, …

Evidence For Pit-Type (Slc20) And Napi-Ii-Type (Slc34) Transporters In The Rat Choroid Plexus, Hien M. Le

Honors Scholar Theses

: A major function of the brain choroid plexus (CP) is to regulate the exchange of solutes between the blood plasma and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using selective transporters. CSF inorganic phosphate (P_i) concentration is maintained at about one-half that of plasma and is potentially important because of its regulatory, structural, and biochemical functions. Phosphate is critical for ATP and DNA formation, the linked regulation between phosphate and calcium, and as an intracellular buffer. The human body has two major P_i transporter gene families known as SLC34 (NaPi-II) and SLC20 (PiT), which have wide tissue distribution. Although …

Role Of Trp Channels In Mediating The Calcium Signaling Response Of Brain Endothelial Cells To Mechanical Stretch, Jonathan Berrout

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often results in disruption of the blood brain barrier (BBB), which is an integral component to maintaining the central nervous system homeostasis. Recently cytosolic calcium levels ([Ca²⁺]i), observed to elevate following TBI, have been shown to influence endothelial barrier integrity. However, the mechanism by which TBI-induced calcium signaling alters the endothelial barrier remains unknown. In the present study, an in vitro BBB model was utilized to address this issue. Exposure of cells to biaxial mechanical stretch, in the range expected for TBI, resulted in a rapid cytosolic calcium increase. Modulation of intracellular and extracellular …