Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

The Critical Need For Mental Health Education To Be Mandated In New Mexico's Public Schools, Bonnie L. Murphy

Shared Knowledge Conference

Based on a review of research and best practices in mental health awareness and skills, this inquiry project argues for state legislative policies that would require mental health awareness and skills in the K-12 curriculum. Mental health affects individual accomplishments in every stage of people’s lives beginning in early childhood and throughout the life cycle. Prevention and treatment of mental illness plays a key role in the ability of an individual to cope with loss and develop resiliency and perseverance in challenging times and to make better decisions that improve the individual’s life and the lives of those around them. …

Intranasal Rapamycin Ameliorates Alzheimer-Like Cognitive Decline In A Mouse Model Of Down Syndrome, Antonella Tramutola, Chiara Lanzillotta, Eugenio Barone, Andrea Arena, Ilaria Zuliani, Luciana Mosca, Carla Blarzino, D. Allan Butterfield, Marzia Perluigi, Fabio Di Domenico

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Background: Down syndrome (DS) individuals, by the age of 40s, are at increased risk to develop Alzheimer-like dementia, with deposition in brain of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Our laboratory recently demonstrated the disturbance of PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis in DS brain, prior and after the development of Alzheimer Disease (AD). The aberrant modulation of the mTOR signalling in DS and AD age-related cognitive decline affects crucial neuronal pathways, including insulin signaling and autophagy, involved in pathology onset and progression. Within this context, the therapeutic use of mTOR-inhibitors may prevent/attenuate the neurodegenerative phenomena. By our work we aimed to rescue mTOR signalling …

Cell Specific Control Of The Pallidostriatal Pathway, Shubha Verma '19

Student Publications & Research

Parkinson’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder of the basal ganglia. The main cause for Parkinson’s Disease is the depletion of dopamine, a neurotransmitter. The basal ganglia contains four major nuclei: the substantia nigra, the subthalamic nucleus, the external globus pallidus, and the striatum. These nuclei communicate with each other by the use of neurons.

Hyperhomocysteinemia As A Risk Factor For Vascular Contributions To Cognitive Impairment And Dementia, Brittani R. Price, Donna M. Wilcock, Erica M. Weekman

Physiology Faculty Publications

Behind only Alzheimer’s disease, vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) is the second most common cause of dementia, affecting roughly 10–40% of dementia patients. While there is no cure for VCID, several risk factors for VCID, such as diabetes, hypertension, and stroke, have been identified. Elevated plasma levels of homocysteine, termed hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy), are a major, yet underrecognized, risk factor for VCID. B vitamin deficiency, which is the most common cause of HHcy, is common in the elderly. With B vitamin supplementation being a relatively safe and inexpensive therapeutic, the treatment of HHcy-induced VCID would seem straightforward; however, …

Heat Shock Protein 40 And Immune Function In Altered Gravity, Amber M. Paul, Brooke D. Shepard, Sharmila Bhattacharya

Publications

In space, astronauts are more susceptible to pathogens, viral reactivation and immunosuppression, which poses limits to their health and the mission. Interestingly, during space flight, stress-inducible heat shock proteins (HSP) are robustly induced, and the overexpression of HSPs have been implicated in immune dysregulation, therefore HSPs may be critically involved in regulating immune homeostasis. HSP40/DNAJ1 plays a major role in proper protein translation and folding. Its loss of function has been implicated in susceptibility to microbial infection, while its overexpression has been implicated in autoimmunity, collectively suggesting its complicated, but necessary, role in maintaining immunological function. To determine the role …

Neutrophil To Lymphocyte Ratio: A Prognostic Indicator For Astronaut Health, Amber M. Paul, Siddhita D. Mhatre, Egle Cekanaviciute, Ann-Sofie Schreurs, Candice G.T. Tahimic, Ruth K. Globus, Brian Crucian, Sharmila Bhattacharya

Publications

Short-term and long-term spaceflight missions can cause immune system dysfunction in astronauts. Recent studies indicate elevated white blood cells (WBC) and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) in astronaut blood, along with unchanged or reduced lymphocyte counts, and reduced T cell function, during short-(days) and long-(months) term spaceflight. A high PMN to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) can acts as a strong predictor of poor prognosis in cancer, and as a biomarker for subclinical inflammation in humans and chronic stress in mouse models, however, the NLR has not yet been identified as a predictor of astronaut health during spaceflight. For this, complete blood cell count …

Developmental Perceptual Impairments: Cases When Tone-Deafness And Prosopagnosia Co-Occur, Sébastien Paquette, Hui C. Li, Sherryse L. Corrow, Stephanie S. Buss, Jason J.S. Barton, Gottfried Schlaug

Psychology Faculty Publications

Studies have shown subtle gray and white matter abnormalities in subjects with several developmental disorders including prosopagnosia, tone-deafness, and dyslexia. Correlational evidence suggests that tone-deafness and dyslexia tend to co-occur, suggesting a link between these two developmental disorders. However, it is not known whether tone-deafness can also be associated with other developmental disorders such as impaired face recognition or prosopagnosia. We addressed this question by assessing face perception abilities in a group of tone-deaf individuals and matched non-tone-deaf subjects. The Cambridge (CFMT) and the Warrington (WRMT) face memory tests were used to assess face processing in the combined group of …

Stress-Induced Heat Shock Protein 40 And Immune Function In Altered Gravity, Amber M. Paul, Brooke D. Shepard, Sharmila Bhattacharya

Publications

In space, astronauts are more susceptible to pathogens, viral reactivation and immunosuppression, which poses limits to their health and the mission. Interestingly, during space flight, stress-inducible heat shock proteins (HSP) are robustly induced, and the overexpression of HSPs have been implicated in immune dysregulation, therefore HSPs may be critically involved in regulating immune homeostasis. HSP40/DNAJ1 plays a major role in proper protein translation and folding. Its loss of function has been implicated in susceptibility to microbial infection, while its overexpression has been implicated in autoimmunity, collectively suggesting its complicated, but necessary, role in maintaining immunological function. To determine the role …

Manipulation Of Human Verticality Using High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, Taiza E. G. Santos, Diandra B. Favoretto, Iman Ghodratti Toostani, Diego C. Nascimento, Brunna P. Rimoli, Eduardo Bergonzoni, Tenysson Will Lemos, Dennis Quangvinh Truong, Alexandre C. B. Delbem, Bahador Makkiabadi, Renato Moraes, Francisco Louzada, Marom Bikson, Joao P. Leite, Dylan J. Edwards

Publications and Research

Background: Using conventional tDCS over the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) we previously reported that it is possible to manipulate subjective visual vertical (SVV) and postural control. We also demonstrated that high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) can achieve substantially greater cortical stimulation focality than conventional tDCS. However, it is critical to establish dose-response effects using well-defined protocols with relevance to clinically meaningful applications.

Objective: To conduct three pilot studies investigating polarity and intensity-dependent effects of HD-tDCS over the right TPJ on behavioral and physiological outcome measures in healthy subjects. We additionally aimed to establish the feasibility, safety, and tolerability of this stimulation protocol.

Methods: …

Role Of The Fractalkine Receptor In Cns Autoimmune Inflammation: New Approach Utilizing A Mouse Model Expressing The Human Cx3cr1I249/M280 Variant, Sandra M. Cardona, Sangwon V. Kim, Kaira A. Church, Vanessa O. Torres, Ian A. Cleary, Andrew S. Mendiola, Stephen P. Saville, Stephanie S. Watowich, Jan Parker-Thornburg, Alejandro Soto-Ospina, Richard M. Ransohoff, Astrid E. Cardona

Peer Reviewed Articles

Multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) is the leading cause of non-traumatic neurological disability in young adults. Immune mediated destruction of myelin and oligodendrocytes is considered the primary pathology of MS, but progressive axonal loss is the major cause of neurological disability. In an effort to understand microglia function during CNS inflammation, our laboratory focuses on the fractalkine/CX3CR1 signaling as a regulator of microglia neurotoxicity in various models of neurodegeneration. Fractalkine (FKN) is a transmembrane chemokine expressed in the CNS by neurons and signals through its unique receptor CX3CR1 present in microglia. During …

Leukemia Inhibitory Factor Modulates The Peripheral Immune Response In A Rat Model Of Emergent Large Vessel Occlusion, Stephanie M. Davis, Lisa A. Collier, Edric D. Winford, Christopher C. Leonardo, Craig T. Ajmo Jr., Elspeth A. Foran, Timothy J. Kopper, John C. Gensel, Keith R. Pennypacker

Neurology Faculty Publications

Background: The migration of peripheral immune cells and splenocytes to the ischemic brain is one of the major causes of delayed neuroinflammation after permanent large vessel stroke. Other groups have demonstrated that leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), a cytokine that promotes neural cell survival through upregulation of antioxidant enzymes, promotes an anti-inflammatory phenotype in several types of immune cells. The goal of this study was to determine whether LIF treatment modulates the peripheral immune response after stroke.

Methods: Young male (3 month) Sprague-Dawley rats underwent sham surgery or permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Animals were administered LIF (125 μg/kg) or …

Hyperphosphorylation Of Tau Associates With Changes In Its Function Beyond Microtubule Stability, Alejandra D. Alonso, Leah S. Cohen, Christopher Corbo, Viktoriya Morozova, Abdeslem Elldrissi, Greg R. Phillips, Frida E. Kleiman

Publications and Research

Tau is a neuronal microtubule associated protein whose main biological functions are to promote microtubule self-assembly by tubulin and to stabilize those already formed. Tau also plays an important role as an axonal microtubule protein. Tau is an amazing protein that plays a key role in cognitive processes, however, deposits of abnormal forms of tau are associated with several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease (AD), the most prevalent, and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the most recently associated to abnormal tau. Tau post-translational modifications (PTMs) are responsible for its gain of toxic function. Alonso et al. …

Entrainment Enhances Theta Oscillations And Improves Episodic Memory, Brooke M. Roberts, Alex Clarke, Richard J. Addante, Charan Ranganath

Psychology Faculty Publications

Neural oscillations in the theta band have been linked to episodic memory, but it is unclear whether activity patterns that give rise to theta play a causal role in episodic retrieval. Here, we used rhythmic auditory and visual stimulation to entrain neural oscillations to assess whether theta activity contributes to successful memory retrieval. In two separate experiments, human subjects studied words and were subsequently tested on memory for the words ('item recognition') and the context in which each had been previously studied ('source memory'). Between study and test, subjects in the entrainment groups were exposed to audiovisual stimuli designed to …

Combinatorial Geometry Of Threshold-Linear Networks, Christopher Langdon

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Decision Making In A Changing Environment, Alan Veliz-Cuba

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Hopfield Networks: Modeling Memory, Maria Gabriela Navas Zuloaga

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Developmental Transitions In Amygdala Pkc Isoforms And Ampa Receptor Expression Associated With Threat Memory In Infant Rats, Maya Opendak, Roseanna M. Zanca, Eben Anane, Peter Serrano, Regina M. Sullivan

Publications and Research

Although infants learn and remember, they rapidly forget, a phenomenon known as infantile amnesia. While myriad mechanisms impact this rapid forgetting, the molecular events supporting memory maintenance have yet to be explored. To explore memory mechanisms across development, we used amygdala-dependent odor-shock conditioning and focused on mechanisms important in adult memory, the AMPA receptor subunits GluA1/2 and upstream protein kinases important for trafficking AMPAR, protein kinase M zeta (PKMζ) and iota/lambda (PKCι/λ). We use odor-shock conditioning in infant rats because it is late-developing (postnatal day, PN10) and can be modulated by corticosterone during a sensitive period in early life. Our …

Violence Exposure And Neural Systems Underlying Working Memory For Emotional Stimuli In Youth, Jessica L. Jenness, Maya L. Rosen, Kelly A. Sambrook, Meg J. Dennison, Hilary K. Lambert, Margaret A. Sheridan, Katie A. Mclaughlin

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Violence exposure during childhood is common and associated with poor cognitive and academic functioning. However, little is known about how violence exposure influences cognitive processes that might contribute to these disparities, such as working memory, or their neural underpinnings, particularly for cognitive processes that occur in emotionally salient contexts. We address this gap in a sample of 54 participants aged 8 to 19 years (50% female), half with exposure to interpersonal violence. Participants completed a delayed match to sample task for emotional faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Violence-exposed youth performed worse than controls on happy and neutral, …

Inclusion Of Females Does Not Increase Variability In Rodent Research Studies, Annaliese K. Beery

Psychology: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Natural And Artificial Object Recognition: The Superiority Of Natural Shape Features, Lauren Pedersen

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of 44 young adults (mean age = 21.7 years) to compare natural and artificial three-dimensional (3-D) objects using their senses of vision and touch. Previous research has indicated that the information content provided by a stimulus set can have a significant effect on a participant’s ability to perform cross-modal object recognition tasks. A primary goal of the present study was to understand what shape features are transferable between visual and haptic modalities. Participants haptically manipulated objects from one of two stimulus sets: bell peppers (Capsicum annuum) and sinusoidally-modulated spheres (SIMS). …