Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Killi-Data News (Fall), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

Many interesting papers have been published over the last three months. The large volume of papers coupled with the start of the new college semester (and the workload it brings) delayed this issue of Killi-Data News. But better late than never—or so I hope! In this issue Richard van der Laan provides an insightful review of the recent Aphanius papers as to their taxonomic implications and questions. The systematic issues he raises show the importance of the Molecular project: we need to get more samples of the various cyprinodontiforme families to resolve unsettled systematic and taxonomic issues. In the Next …

Killi-Data News (Summer), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

Over the last three months several interesting and exciting pa- pers have been published. By now most of you have heard the Nothobranchius fish poo news emanating from the Valenzano lab. That paper is reviewed and certainly has repercussions for the health of our captive fish. Polaçik et al have published interesting data with ramifications as to how we breed and incubate annual killifish. The big news in this issue is the paper from the Reznick lab which Jean Huber reviews. The contents of that paper goes to the heart of the question of just what a killifish is. The …

Killi-Data News (Spring), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

This is the start of Killi-Data News’ second year. In this first issue of the year we have the usual review of research pub- lications as well as input from Martin Reichard on his lab’s Nothobranchius research. Martin is responding to my reviews of his lab’s work in the previous edition. I am serious about making sure the content in this newsletter is reliable but I erred in the previous edition and Martin has written extensively to correct my mistake in the section “Erratum”. This reply is welcomed and owed to readers. I must confess that I don’t know everything …

Killi-Data News (Winter), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

This is the fourth edition, and concluding issue of the first volume, of Killi-Data News and I am happy that it has been well received by readers. At 25 pages this issue is a bit thin- ner than the last but this is because we agreed to make the cut-off for submissions the 1 st of December so we could get this edition out by the New Year. This is an exciting edition full of new species descrip- tions and analyses that will keep taxonomists busy for years to come. Costa has given us two molecular phylogenies on Melanorivulus as …

Killi-Data News (Spring), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

This is the start of Killi-Data News’ second year. In this first issue of the year we have the usual review of research pub- lications as well as input from Martin Reichard on his lab’s Nothobranchius research. Martin is responding to my reviews of his lab’s work in the previous edition. I am serious about making sure the content in this newsletter is reliable but I erred in the previous edition and Martin has written extensively to correct my mistake in the section “Erratum”. This reply is welcomed and owed to readers. I must confess that I don’t know everything …

A Combinatorial Premotor Neural Code: Transformation Of Sensory Information Into Meaningful Rhythmic Motor Output By A Network Of Heterogeneous Modulatory Neurons, Christopher John Goldsmith

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the following research was to investigate the contributions of neural networks in selecting distinct variants of rhythmic motor activity. We used the premotor commissural ganglion (CoG) in the stomatogastric nervous system of the Jonah crab to understand how this network effectively controls the rhythms produced in downstream motor circuits. Prior research determined that individual CoG neurons are necessary to mediate sensory-induced variation in the effected motor patterns. However, single premotor neuron inputs to the STG are not sufficient to recreate the patterns induced by the selective activation of sensory pathways. Thus, it was hypothesized that the CoG-mediated …

Effects Of Neonatal Handling On Play And Anxiety In F344 And Lewis Rats, Stephen M. Siviy

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play is an important part of normal childhood development and seen in many mammals, including rats. To better understand the interplay between genotype and postnatal experiences, the effects of neonatal handling on play were assessed in Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats. Handled litters experienced brief periods of separation during the first two postnatal weeks. F344 rats were less likely to direct nape contacts toward an untreated Sprague–Dawley (SD) partner and less likely to rotate to a supine position in response to a nape contact. When compared to rats from control litters, handled LEW, and F344 rats were more …

Calnexin Is Necessary For T Cell Transmigration Into The Central Nervous System, Amber M. Paul, Joanna Jung, Paul Eggleton, Alison Robinson, Jessica Wang, Nick Gutowski

Publications

In multiple sclerosis (MS), a demyelinating inflammatory disease of the CNS, and its animal model (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; EAE), circulating immune cells gain access to the CNS across the blood-brain barrier to cause inflammation, myelin destruction, and neuronal damage. Here, we discovered that calnexin, an ER chaperone, is highly abundant in human brain endothelial cells of MS patients. Conversely, mice lacking calnexin exhibited resistance to EAE induction, no evidence of immune cell infiltration into the CNS, and no induction of inflammation markers within the CNS. Furthermore, calnexin deficiency in mice did not alter the development or function of the immune …

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors In Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma: Current Status, Aman Chauhan, Susanne Arnold, Jill M. Kolesar, Hala Elnakat Thomas, B. Mark Evers, Lowell B. Anthony

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Introduction: Large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (LCNEC) are a group of rare high grade neuroendocrine tumors that often behave clinically like small cell carcinoma (SCLC) and are treated as such. No major advancement in the management of these tumors has occurred in the last 30 years.

Methods: We present a case series of three cases from Markey Cancer center along with a review of 13 published cases in the literature wherein immune-checkpoint inhibitors were utilized in the management of LCNEC.

Results: Immune-checkpoint inhibitors might have clinical activity in LCNEC.

Conclusion: Role of immune-checkpoint inhibitors should be explored in prospective LCNEC clinical …

Neutrophils In The Geniculate Ganglion Following Chorda Tympani Transection In Adult Rats, Carlos Vera-Esquivel

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Neutrophils in the Geniculate Ganglion Following Chorda Tympani Transection in Adult Rats

The chorda tympani nerve (CT) innervates taste buds on the tongue. The CT’s cell bodies are in the geniculate ganglion (GG). Previous work in our lab found that severing the CT (CTX) results in a reduction of taste bud numbers, and substantial immune responses at the tongue and in the brain. However, there is limited information on how the immune system responds at the GG following CTX. Neutrophils are critical members of the first wave of immune response to nerve injury, attacking foreign pathogens and clearing debris. The …

Comparison Of Amygdalar Neuronal Networks That Regulate Fear Behaviors Among Vertebrates, Sushmita Adhikari

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Introduction and Methods: Fear is a basic, conserved emotion that is essential for survival, yet little is known about how fear responses evolved. This research combined gene expression and behavioral analyses to study the evolution of the neuronal network that regulates fear behaviors. Using in situ hybridization, we examined the expression patterns of three genes, protein kinase C δ (prkcd), gastrin-releasing peptide (grp), and glypican 3 (gpc3), that are implicated in fear behaviors in Danio rerio (zebrafish), Xenopus tropicalis, and Gallus gallus domesticus. Additionally, anxiety behaviors were examined in young zebrafish that lacked genes for grp, grp receptor (grpr), and …

Contextual Fear Learning And Memory In Alternative Stress Coping Styles, Matthew R. Baker, Ryan Y. Wong

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Animals frequently must overcome stressors, and the ability to encode and recall these salient experiences is essential to an individual’s survival. Across many taxa, studies have documented two alternative stress coping styles (proactive and reactive) that differ in behavior, cognition, stress physiology, and underlying neuromolecular mechanisms. The role of stress in cognitive traits (e.g. learning and memory) has been well documented, however, the influence of an animal’s stress coping style on learning and memory capabilities is only beginning to be understood. Here, we developed a contextual fear learning paradigm to characterize learning and memory differences between proactive and reactive stress …

The Role Of The Chorda Tympani Nerve In The Structural Development Of Brainstem Neurons, Louis Martin

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The brain changes substantially throughout development. In the taste system, brainstem neurons undergo dramatic structural alterations after birth. Most notably, these cells’ dendrites, branch-like projections that that receive sensory input, grow 3-4 times longer by adulthood. It is not clear whether incoming signals about taste are necessary for these structural changes to occur. We have consistently found that when the chorda tympani taste nerve (CT) is cut at an early age in rats, it does not regenerate. With this manipulation, we can permanently limit the amount of taste information that reaches the brain. To determine the role of taste input …

Differences In Habenula Kisspeptin Expression And Its Effects On Stress Coping Styles In Zebrafish, Danio Rerio, Andrew Wahl

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Two particular styles of stress coping behaviors have been identified as evolutionarily conserved across vertebrate species and are referred to as proactive and reactive. Reactive and proactive stress coping styles have distinct 5-HT expression profiles with greater expression of 5-HT found in proactive individuals. It was previously shown that kiss1 expression in the ventral habenula (vHb) presynaptically activates kiss-r1 which can alter glutamatergic levels in co-localizing cells in the vHb that terminate in the median raphe (MR). This can directly or indirectly increase 5-HT expression in the MR via glutamate. It is unknown whether kisspeptin expression in the vHb can …

Working Memory And Consciousness: The Current State Of Play, Marjan Persuh, Eric Larock, Jacob Berger

Publications and Research

Working memory (WM), an important posit in cognitive science, allows one to temporarily store and manipulate information in the service of ongoing tasks. WM has been traditionally classified as an explicit memory system—that is, as operating on and maintaining only consciously perceived information. Recently, however, several studies have questioned this assumption, purporting to provide evidence for unconscious WM. In this article, we focus on visual working memory (VWM) and critically examine these studies as well as studies of unconscious perception that seem to provide indirect evidence for unconscious WM. Our analysis indicates that current evidence does not support an unconscious …

The Convergence Of Psychology And Neurobiology In Flavor-Nutrient Learning, Kevin P. Myers

Faculty Journal Articles

Flavor evaluation is influenced by learning from experience with foods. One main influence is flavor-nutrient learning (FNL), a Pavlovian process whereby a flavor acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS) that becomes associated with the postingestive effects of ingested nutrients (the US). As a result that flavor becomes preferred and intake typically increases. This learning powerfully influences food choice and meal patterning. This paper summarizes how research elucidating the physiological and neural substrates of FNL has progressed in parallel with work characterizing how FNL affects perception, motivation, and behavior. The picture that emerges from this work is of a robust system …

The Role Of Visual Association Cortex In Associative Memory Formation Across Development, Maya L. Rosen, Margaret A. Sheridan, Kelly A. Sambrook, Matthew R. Peverill, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Katie A. Mclaughlin

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Associative learning underlies the formation of new episodic memories. Associative memory improves across development, and this age-related improvement is supported by the development of the hippocampus and pFC. Recent work, however, additionally suggests a role for visual association cortex in the formation of associative memories. This study investigated the role of category-preferential visual processing regions in associative memory across development using a paired associate learning task in a sample of 56 youths (age 6–19 years). Participants were asked to bind an emotional face with an object while undergoing fMRI scanning. Outside the scanner, participants completed a memory test. We first …

Characterization Of The Roles Of Muscle-Synthesized Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Presynaptic Tyrosine Receptor Kinase B In Motor Neuron Axonal Transport, Luke A. Vanosdol

All NMU Master's Theses

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a small, diffusible protein essential for the development and function of neurons. It is synthesized by many types of tissue, including muscle. BDNF actions are mediated via binding to its receptor, tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB). The BDNF-TrkB complex is endocytosed into a specialized vesicle, which induces downstream signaling cascades locally in the dendrites, or, more often, is delivered to the cell soma via retrograde axonal transport, where it modulates gene expression. BDNF activation of TrkB is critical for the initiation of axonal transport, and this cellular process relies on the interaction of numerous adaptor …

Rescue Of Neocortical Circuit Deficits With Modified Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Sb623, In A Rat Model Of Photothrombotic Stroke, Alexander Urry

Yale Day of Data

The following poster characterizes the effects of a novel stem cell line on treating the neural circuit deficits resulting from stroke.

Concussion Competencies: A Framework For School-Based Concussion Management (Flyer), Arthur C. Maerlender, Jonathan Lichtenstein, Jennifer Parent-Nichols

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

This volume grew out of many years of clinical practice, research, and program projects. It is the culmination of more than 50 years of work with kids, brains, and schools. While there is research behind the Competencies and the underlying content, the intent was to create a user-friendly manual that cut across levels of responsibility and care. Concussion Competencies was not intended to be a textbook in the traditional manner; however, the Competencies have been shown to be a useful approach to teaching this material.

This volume is organized around a set of Competencies that have been shown to be …