Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Effects Of Chronic Ethanol Exposure On Stress Coping Style And Genetic States Of Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Alexander Goodman

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Neurotransmitter systems are important in regulating the stress response. If a behavioral response is disproportional to a stressor it is characterized as anxiety-like behavior. Many anxiolytic compounds, such as ethanol, increase stressor engagement, but how these compounds interact with an organism on a neurogenetic level is less understood. In this study, I assessed the impact of chronic ethanol treatment on behavior and gene expression of GABA_Areceptors subunits on two strains of zebrafish. Each strain was selectively bred to display the proactive or reactive stress coping style where proactive individuals will actively engage a stressor more than reactive individuals. …

Investigating Comt Influence On The Proactive-Reactive Stress Coping Axis In Zebrafish, Sean T. Bresnahan, Ryan Y. Wong

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Individuals of the same species often display differences in correlated suites of behaviors which are made conspicuous when challenges – stressful, fear-inducing, etc. – are presented. In many species, a specific suite of behaviors (risk-aversion, aggression, exploration, learning, and memory) characterize an alternative set of stress coping styles (proactive and reactive). Such behaviors are regulated in the brain by specific neurotransmitters along with proteins that regulate them. One neurotransmitter regulator protein, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) shows higher baseline whole-brain expression in proactive relative to reactive animals. However, it is not known whether its expression is a cause or a consequence of the …

Pilot Study Of Empathy In Adults, Libby Moberg

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Empathy is of critical public health importance due to its association with relationship satisfaction and well-being (Davis & Oathout, 1987; Davis, 1983). There is growing evidence that bilingual individuals may have higher levels of empathy (Javor, 2016). One potential mechanism for this relationship is that bilingual individuals tend to have higher levels of executive functioning (Costa et al, 2008), which is linked to higher empathy because individuals are able to more easily adopt others’ perspectives. Previous studies examining this question have largely relied on self-report questionnaires assessing empathy as a general tendency (i.e., trait). No studies have examined differences in …

Spaces Between, Sara Kapadia

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

No abstract provided.

Request For Applications: Neuroscience Summer Research Education Program, University Of Mississippi. Brain Wellness Constellation

Brain Wellness

The Brain Wellness Undergraduate Summer Research Program is an initiative of the UM-UMMC Flagship Constellations. The program will provide stipends to undergraduate students for collaborative research experiences in neuroscience related to brain wellness. In this way it will serve to develop new pipelines for pre-graduate and pre-medical students interested in neuroscience to gain research experience and develop collaborative connections between neuroscience faculty at the Oxford and Jackson campuses.

Cognition And The Brain Of Brood Parasitic Cowbirds., David F Sherry, Mélanie F Guigueno

Psychology Publications

Cowbirds are brood parasites. Females lay their eggs in the nests of other species, which then incubate the cowbird eggs and raise the young cowbirds. Finding and returning to heterospecific nests presents cowbirds with several cognitive challenges. In some species, such as brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), females but not males search for and remember the locations of potential host nests. We describe recent research on sex differences in cognition and the hippocampus associated with this sex difference in search for host nests. Female brown-headed cowbirds perform better than males on some, but not all, tests of spatial memory and females …

Design And Actuation Of A Fabric-Based Worm-Like Robot, Akhil Kandhari, Anna Mehringer, Hillel J. Chiel, Roger D. Quinn, Kathryn A. Daltorio

Faculty Scholarship

Soft-bodied animals, such as earthworms, are capable of contorting their body to squeeze through narrow spaces, create or enlarge burrows, and move on uneven ground. In many applications such as search and rescue, inspection of pipes and medical procedures, it may be useful to have a hollow-bodied robot with skin separating inside and outside. Textiles can be key to such skins. Inspired by earthworms, we developed two new robots: FabricWorm and MiniFabricWorm. We explored the application of fabric in soft robotics and how textile can be integrated along with other structural elements, such as three-dimensional (3D) printed parts, linear springs, …

A Hindbrain Inhibitory Microcircuit Mediates Vagally-Coordinated Glucose Regulation, Carie R. Boychuk, Katalin Cs. Smith, Laura E. Peterson, Jeffery A. Boychuk, Corwin R. Butler, Isabel D. Derera, John J. Mccarthy, Bret N. Smith

Physiology Faculty Publications

Neurons in the brainstem dorsal vagal complex integrate neural and humoral signals to coordinate autonomic output to viscera that regulate a variety of physiological functions, but how this circuitry regulates metabolism is murky. We tested the hypothesis that premotor, GABAergic neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) form a hindbrain micro-circuit with preganglionic parasympathetic motorneurons of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) that is capable of modulating systemic blood glucose concentration. In vitro, neuronal activation or inhibition using either excitatory or inhibitory designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) constructs expressed in GABAergic NTS neurons increased …

A Cross-Species Analysis Reveals A General Role For Piezo2 In Mechanosensory Specialization Of Trigeminal Ganglia From Tactile Specialist Birds, Eve R. Schneider, Evan O. Anderson, Viktor V. Feketa, Marco Mastrotto, Yury A. Nikolaev, Elena O. Gracheva, Sviatoslav N. Bagriantsev

Biology Faculty Publications

A major challenge in biology is to link cellular and molecular variations with behavioral phenotypes. Here, we studied somatosensory neurons from a panel of bird species from the family Anatidae, known for their tactile-based foraging behavior. We found that tactile specialists exhibit a proportional expansion of neuronal mechanoreceptors in trigeminal ganglia. The expansion of mechanoreceptors occurs via neurons with intermediately and slowly inactivating mechanocurrent. Such neurons contain the mechanically gated Piezo2 ion channel whose expression positively correlates with the expression of factors responsible for the development and function of mechanoreceptors. Conversely, Piezo2 expression negatively correlates with expression of molecules mediating …

Influence Of Stimulus Intensity On Multimodal Integration In The Startle Escape System Of Goldfish, Camille Mcintyre, Thomas Preuss

Publications and Research

Processing of multimodal information is essential for an organism to respond to environmental events. However, how multimodal integration in neurons translates into behavior is far from clear. Here, we investigate integration of biologically relevant visual and auditory information in the goldfish startle escape system in which paired Mauthner-cells (M-cells) initiate the behavior. Sound pips and visual looms as well as multimodal combinations of these stimuli were tested for their effectiveness of evoking the startle response. Results showed that adding a low intensity sound early during a visual loom (low visual effectiveness) produced a supralinear increase in startle responsiveness as compared …

Commentary: Sugar Metabolism Regulates Flavor Preferences And Portal Glucose Sensing, Anthony Sclafani, Karen Acroff

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Cortical And Subcortical Contributions To Neuroplasticity After Repetitive Transspinal Stimulation In Humans, Lynda M. Murray, Anamul Islam Md., Maria Knikou

Publications and Research

The objectives of this study were to establish cortical and subcortical contributions to neuroplasticity induced by noninvasive repetitive transspinal stimulation in human subjects free of any neurological disorder. To meet our objectives, before and after 40 minutes of transspinal stimulation we established changes in tibialis anterior (TA) motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in response to paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses at interstimulus intervals (ISIs) consistent with I-wave periodicity. In order to establish to what extent similar actions are exerted at the spinal cord and motor axons, changes in soleus H-reflex and transspinal evoked potential (TEP) amplitude following transspinal and group Ia …

Changes In Functional Connectivity Following Treatment With Emotion Regulation Therapy, Matthew A. Scult, David M. Fresco, Faith M. Gunning, Conor Liston, Saren H. Seeley, Emmanuel Garcia, Douglas S. Mennin

Publications and Research

Emotion regulation therapy (ERT) is an efficacious treatment for distress disorders (i.e., depression and anxiety), predicated on a conceptual model wherein difficult to treat distress arises from intense emotionality (e.g., neuroticism, dispositional negativity) and is prolonged by negative self-referentiality (e.g., worry, rumination). Individuals with distress disorders exhibit disruptions in two corresponding brain networks including the salience network (SN)reflecting emotion/motivation and the default mode network (DMN) reflecting self-referentiality. Using resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analyses, seeded with primary regions in each of these networks, we investigated whether ERT was associated with theoretically consistent changes across nodes of these networks and whether these …

The Effects Of Ocular Dominance On Visual Processing In College Students, William Alexander Holland

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

The role of ocular dominance in processing visual memory and analytic tasks is unknown. Research has variably showed both significant effects and no effect of ocular dominance on visual perception, motor control, and sports performance. The goal of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between ocular dominance and visual processing under a variety of computer gaming tasks. This was accomplished by first determining subjects’ ocular dominance through the Miles test, and then examining the subjects’ visual performance on four different Lumosity games under three conditions: left eye, right eye, and both eyes. Results suggest a relationship …

Decoding Attentional State To Faces And Scenes Using Eeg Brainwaves, Reza Abiri, Soheil Borhani, Yang Jiang, Xiaopeng Zhao

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Attention is the ability to facilitate processing perceptually salient information while blocking the irrelevant information to an ongoing task. For example, visual attention is a complex phenomenon of searching for a target while filtering out competing stimuli. In the present study, we developed a new Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) platform to decode brainwave patterns during sustained attention in a participant. Scalp electroencephalography (EEG) signals using a wireless headset were collected in real time during a visual attention task. In our experimental protocol, we primed participants to discriminate a sequence of composite images. Each image was a fair superimposition of a scene …

Contextually Modulated Avoidance Behavior In Rats Post-Pavlovian Extinction, Lauren Branigan

Theses and Dissertations

The following study sought to examine the psychological substrates of renewal (e.g.., context dependent extinction processes) for conditioned avoidance behaviors in rats. Using signaled active avoidance conditioning, rats acquired two-way shuttle responding, to two different auditory stimuli. These behaviors were then extinguished through exposure to the auditory stimuli where shuttling behavior was now without consequence. Subjects were then tested for renewal of avoidance in three distinct renewal sequences (e.g., ABA vs ABB, AAB vs AAA, and ABC vs ABB) in three separate groups of rats. It was found that subjects showed more responding to a stimulus presented outside of its …

Multi-Tissue Transcriptomes Of Caecilian Amphibians Highlight Incomplete Knowledge Of Vertebrate Gene Families, María Torres-Sánchez, Christopher J. Creevey, Etienne Kornobis, David J. Gower, Mark Wilkinson, Diego San Mauro

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has become one of the most powerful tools to unravel the genomic basis of biological adaptation and diversity. Although challenging, RNA-seq is particularly promising for research on non-model, secretive species that cannot be observed in nature easily and therefore remain comparatively understudied. Among such animals, the caecilians (order Gymnophiona) likely constitute the least known group of vertebrates, despite being an old and remarkably distinct lineage of amphibians. Here, we characterize multi-tissue transcriptomes for five species of caecilians that represent a broad level of diversity across the order. We identified vertebrate homologous elements of caecilian functional genes of …

Scale-Change Symmetry In The Rules Governing Neural Systems, Vidit Agrawal, Srimoy Chakraborty, Thomas Knöpfel, Woodrow L. Shew

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Similar universal phenomena can emerge in different complex systems when those systems share a common symmetry in their governing laws. In physical systems operating near a critical phase transition, the governing physical laws obey a fractal symmetry; they are the same whether considered at fine or coarse scales. This scale-change symmetry is responsible for universal critical phenomena found across diverse systems. Experiments suggest that the cerebral cortex can also operate near a critical phase transition. Thus we hypothesize that the laws governing cortical dynamics may obey scale-change symmetry. Here we develop a practical approach to test this hypothesis. We confirm, …

Post-Synaptic Mechanisms Of Early And Late Prepulse Inhibition In The Goldfish, Daniel Bronson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sensorimotor gating, or prepulse inhibition (PPI), attenuates the startle response during sensory processing by limiting sensory input to the startle circuit. In the goldfish startle circuit, a single action potential in the Mauthner-cell (M-cell) triggers the startle response. PPI in the M-cell is mediated by multiple post-synaptic mechanisms, including the activation of a tonic, shunting inhibition as well as a voltage-sensitive conductance, both of which briefly reduce M-cell excitability. However, the specific channels and pathways that modulate PPI are not fully known. This work further characterizes the post-synaptic conductances that mediate PPI by blocking voltage-gated and inward-rectifying potassium channels, antagonizing …

The Master Synaptic Regulator: Activity Regulated Cytoskeleton Associated Protein, Arc, In Normal Aging And Diseases With Cognitive Impairment, Amber Khan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with complex underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Epidemiological studies have forecasted that in the next 3 decades, the number of AD cases will rise to epidemic proportions with enormous medical, emotional and financial burdens impacting individuals affected and society. Among many risk factors for AD, advancing age is clearly essential and necessary. Revelation of molecular changes in synaptic activities leading to the prodromal, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage may help illuminate the course of pathogenic progression and its cause-effect relationship with various targets thereby enabling target-driven disease-modifying therapeutic agents for AD.

Activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) …