Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Molecular Mechanism Of Early Amyloid Self-Assembly Revealed By Computational Modeling, Mohtadin Hashemi

Theses & Dissertations

Protein misfolding followed by the formation of aggregates, is an early step in the cascade of conformational changes in a protein that underlie the development of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Efforts aimed at understanding this process have produced little clarity and the mechanism remains elusive.

Here, we demonstrate that the hairpin fold, a structure found in the early folding intermediates of amyloid b, induces morphological and stability changes in the aggregates of Aβ(14-23) peptide. We structurally characterized the interactions of monomer and hairpin using extended molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which revealed a novel intercalated type complex. …

Escape Behavior Of The Grammostola Rosea Tarantula And Phidippus Regius Spider In Response To Heat Stimuli, Madison Thomas

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Insects respond to aversive stimuli such as wind, looming and heat by escaping in a direction opposite the stimuli. Spiders have 8 legs, which offers the spider more gait options for escape than insects, which have 6 legs. However, there are few published studies on the escape response of spiders, and there is no information that shows how location or direction of the stimulus will affect escape patterns. Therefore, the specific goal of my research was to determine the relationship between the stimulus location and direction of response in two species of spider – Regal Jumping spiders (Phidippus regius …

Matrix Metalloproteinase-Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction In Epilepsy, Ralf G. Rempe, Anika M. S. Hartz, Emma L. B. Soldner, Brent S. Sokola, Satya R. Alluri, Erin L. Abner, Richard J. Kryscio, Anton Pekcec, Juli Schlichtiger, Björn Bauer

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

The blood-brain barrier is dysfunctional in epilepsy, thereby contributing to seizure genesis and resistance to antiseizure drugs. Previously, several groups reported that seizures increase brain glutamate levels, which leads to barrier dysfunction. One critical component of barrier dysfunction is brain capillary leakage. Based on our preliminary data, we hypothesized that glutamate released during seizures mediates an increase in matrix-metalloproteinase (MMP) expression and activity levels, thereby contributing to barrier leakage. To test this hypothesis, we exposed isolated brain capillaries from male Sprague Dawley rats to glutamate ex vivo and used an in vivo/ex vivo approach of isolated brain capillaries …

Social Work Trauma Interventions: Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Kassie Baumann

Senior Honors Theses

According to Lynne Weilart (2013), in her article on the reasons why people seek out therapy, trauma is the number one reason people attend counseling. Many different trauma-informed approaches are designed specifically to address the consequences of trauma and to facilitate healing. Some of these approaches are as follows: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT);Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT); Trauma Systems Therapy (TST); Trauma Assessment Pathway (TAP); and Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency (ARC) (de Arellano, Danielson, Ko, & Sprauge, 2008). The effectiveness of each trauma intervention will be examined. DBT is one of these trauma interventions that is growing …

The Enteric Nervous System: Meet Your Second Brain, Sabrina Serrano

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Ai-Human Collaboration Via Eeg, Adam Noack

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

As AI becomes ever more competent and integrated into our lives, the issue of AI-human goal misalignment looms larger. This is partially because there is often a rift between what humans explicitly command and what they actually mean. Most contemporary AI systems cannot bridge this gap. In this study we attempted to reconcile the goals of human and machine by using EEG signals from a human to help a simulated agent complete a task.

The Ethical Justification Of Equal Candidacy For Organ Transplantation In Alcoholic Patients, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

An increasingly blurred understanding of the distinctive challenges posed to transplantation medicine and, by extension, public health, by the debilitating reality of alcoholism suggests a critical need to revisit the relationship between causality, candidacy, and culpability in light of substance addiction. This essay grounds its arguments in two, straightforward premises: (i) compassionate medical practice - understood as the sympathetic willingness to enter into the existential suffering of another in order to ameliorate the anguish invoked by disease - rests on the fiduciary relationship shared between provider and patient; and (ii) allocating medical goods according to moral desert rather than existential …

Computer Vision Evidence Supporting Craniometric Alignment Of Rat Brain Atlases To Streamline Expert-Guided, First-Order Migration Of Hypothalamic Spatial Datasets Related To Behavioral Control, Arshad Khan, Jose Perez, Claire Wells, Olac Fuentes

Selected Works Temporary Series

The rat has arguably the most widely studied brain among all animals, with numerous reference atlases for rat brain having been published since 1946. For example, many neuroscientists have used the atlases of Paxinos and Watson (PW, first published in 1982) or Swanson (S, first published in 1992) as guides to probe or map specific rat brain structures and their connections. Despite nearly three decades of contemporaneous publication, no independent attempt has been made to establish a basic framework that allows data mapped in PW to be placed in register with S, or vice versa. Such data migration would allow …

The Good, The Bad, And The Cortisol, Christina Ennis

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Neural And Behavioral Correlates Of Negative Self‐Focused Thought Associated With Depression, Carissa Philippi, M. Cornejo, Carlton Frost, Erin Walsh, Roxanne Hoks, Rasmus Birn, Heather Abercrombie

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Preclinical Evaluation Of Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors And Protein Kinase C Activators In Cell And Mouse Models Of Huntington’S Disease, Kuruwitage Madushani

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an incurable genetic neurological disorder that affects 1 in 10,000 people, with no treatment that can alter the course of the disease. Neural cell death in the striatum and the cortex results from the accumulation of toxic mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT) fragments. Full length HTT is cleaved by proteases, including caspases, calpains and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Previous research has also shown altered kinase signaling pathways in HD contribute to the localization of mutant huntingtin to the nucleus and to disruption of transcriptional regulation. Currently, there are no drugs that delay the onset or slow the progression …

Longitudinal Tracking Of Physiological State With Electromyographic Signals., Robert Warren Stallard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electrophysiological measurements have been used in recent history to classify instantaneous physiological configurations, e.g., hand gestures. This work investigates the feasibility of working with changes in physiological configurations over time (i.e., longitudinally) using a variety of algorithms from the machine learning domain. We demonstrate a high degree of classification accuracy for a binary classification problem derived from electromyography measurements before and after a 35-day bedrest. The problem difficulty is increased with a more dynamic experiment testing for changes in astronaut sensorimotor performance by taking electromyography and force plate measurements before, during, and after a jump from a small platform. A …

Diel Rhythmicity Found In Behavior But Not Biogenic Amine Levels In The Funnel-Web Spider Agelenopsis Pennsylvanica (Araneae, Agelenidae), Alexander E. Demarco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quantifying individual differences in behavior and the extent that behavior is influenced by circadian control is of paramount importance in behavioral ecology. In addition, the proximate mechanisms underlying behavior are also critical in order to obtain a more complete picture of how behavior evolves. Biogenic amines (BAs) are simple nitrogenous compounds derived from amino acids and have been consistently and extensively linked to behavior. For this study, we analyzed temporal patterns of BAs in relation to the antipredator (boldness) and aggressive behavior in female Agelenopsis pennsylvanica, a funnel-web spider. Using HPLC-ED, we compared behavioral responses to temporal patterns of …

Spinal Cord Trauma: An Overview Of Normal Structure And Function, Primary And Secondary Mechanisms Of Injury, And Emerging Treatment Modalities, Daniel Morin

Senior Honors Theses

The structures of the spinal cord and vertebral column are designed to provide flexibility, while still providing ample protection for the spinal cord deep within. While it does offer remarkable protection against most routine trauma, the spinal cord is still vulnerable to high-force etiologies of trauma and may become damaged as a result. These events are referred to as primary injury. Following the initial injury, the body’s own physiological responses cause a cascade of deleterious effects, known as secondary injury. Secondary injury is a major therapeutic target in mitigating the effects of spinal cord injury (SCI), and much research is …

Computer Vision Evidence Supporting Craniometric Alignment Of Rat Brain Atlases To Streamline Expert-Guided, First-Order Migration Of Hypothalamic Spatial Datasets Related To Behavioral Control, Khan, Jose Perez, Claire Wells, Olac Fuentes

Departmental Papers (Biology)

The rat has arguably the most widely studied brain among all animals, with numerous reference atlases for rat brain having been published since 1946. For example, many neuroscientists have used the atlases of Paxinos and Watson (PW, first published in 1982) or Swanson (S, first published in 1992) as guides to probe or map specific rat brain structures and their connections. Despite nearly three decades of contemporaneous publication, no independent attempt has been made to establish a basic framework that allows data mapped in PW to be placed in register with S, or vice versa. …

Salience Network Response To Changes In Emotional Expressions Of Others Is Heightened During Early Adolescence: Relevance For Social Functioning, Maya L. Rosen, Margaret A. Sheridan, Kelly A. Sambrook, Meg J. Dennison, Jessica L. Jenness, Mary K. Askren, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Katie A. Mclaughlin

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Adolescence is a unique developmental period when the salience of social and emotional information becomes particularly pronounced. Although this increased sensitivity to social and emotional information has frequently been considered with respect to risk behaviors and psychopathology, evidence suggests that increased adolescent sensitivity to social and emotional cues may confer advantages. For example, greater sensitivity to shifts in the emotions of others is likely to promote flexible and adaptive social behavior. In this study, a sample of 54 children and adolescents (age 8–19 years) performed a delayed match-to-sample task for emotional faces while undergoing fMRI scanning. Recruitment of the anterior …

The Characterization Of Behavioral Abnormalities In Bdnf Loxp Transgenic Mice, Ryan Brandt

All NMU Master's Theses

BDNF homozygous floxed mice (BDNF ^lox+/+) are a transgenic mouse strain used to study the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) through Cre-Lox recombination when crossed with the appropriate Cre-expressing strain. BDNF ^lox+/+ mice contain two artificially inserted LoxP sites located upstream and downstream from the BDNF coding region. This strain was originally described as physiologically normal and fertile by Rios et al., (2001). However, current literature lacks sufficient characterization and description of its behavioral phenotype. We utilized a three-stage behavioral protocol which included home cage monitoring observations, open-field, tail suspension, and acoustic PPI to provide a detailed behavioral phenotype …

Population Coding And Spectrotemporal Tuning In The Owl’S Optic Tectum, Olivia K. Murray, Roland Ferger, Michael V. Beckert, Keaunu Shadron, José L. Peña

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Barn owls (Tyto furcata) are a model organism to study sound location and provide access to a neural population representing auditory space. They use interaural time differences (ITD) and interaural level differences (ILD) to localize sound. Neurons in the barn owl’s optic tectum (OT), a part of the midbrain, which respond to combinations of these binaural cues, form a neural map of auditory space which supports sound-orienting behavior. Understanding population responses in the auditory system involves identifying the frequency components of acoustic signals which evoke spikes. Together, these frequency components and the time between their occurrence in the stimulus and …

Mechanisms And Targeting Of Neurodevelopmental Regulator Rest In Medulloblastoma Dissemination, Keri Callegari

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Molecular subgrouping of medulloblastoma (MB) has produced four subgroups: wingless (WNT), sonic hedgehog (SHH), group 3, and group 4. While patients with WNT tumors have the best prognosis, patients with SHH tumors have a more variable prognosis concurrent with metastatic disease. This subset of SHH patients have elevated levels of the neurogenic regulator, RE1 Silencing Transcription factor (REST). To understand the role of REST in MB, we utilized a novel transgenic mouse model wherein REST expression can be conditionally elevated during postnatal development in the cells of origin of SHH MB, cerebellar granule neural progenitors (GNPs). While these mice did …

The Ush2a Gene: An Analysis Of Ultrasonic Vocalizations In A Mouse Model Of Usher Syndrome Type 2, Kiana R. Akhundzadeh

Honors Scholar Theses

Usher syndrome type 2 is a complex autosomal recessive genetic disorder that is characterized by moderate to severe congenital sensorineural hearing loss, the onset of retinitis pigmentosa in the second decade of life, and in some cases, vestibular dysfunction. Mutations in the USH2A gene account for 85% of cases of type 2. The USH2A gene is responsible for encoding the protein usherin, which has an important role in the development and function of inner ear hair cells and retinal photoreceptors. Until recently, it has been believed that carriers of the USH2A mutation were phenotype free. However, recent data has suggested …