Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

The Scripps Research Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Ezana Assefa

Trick to the Treat of Internships and Research

This program is a 10-week internship designed for undergraduates interested in the scientific field to engage in current research. Students have the option of requesting to work under three mentors, one of which they will be paired. Students will work in the lab with the principal investigator and other members of the lab. Along with working in the lab, students in the program will also attend bi-weekly talks/lectures from researchers, grad students, and professionals at TSRI as well as participating in two presentations and a final poster or oral presentation.

Common Genetic Variants Found In Hla And Kir Immune Genes In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Anthony R. Torres, Thayne Sweeten, Randall C. Johnson, Dennis Odell, Jonna B. Westover, Patricia Bray-Ward, David C. Ward, Christopher J. Davies, Aaron J. Thomas, Lisa A. Croen, Michael Benson

Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice Publications

The “common variant—common disease” hypothesis was proposed to explain diseases with strong inheritance. This model suggests that a genetic disease is the result of the combination of several common genetic variants. Common genetic variants are described as a 5% frequency differential between diseased vs. matched control populations. This theory was recently supported by an epidemiology paper stating that about 50% of genetic risk for autism resides in common variants. However, rare variants, rather than common variants, have been found in numerous genome wide genetic studies and many have concluded that the “common variant—common disease” hypothesis is incorrect. One interpretation is …

Interleukin-17a Promotes Cd8 T Cell Cytotoxicity To Facilitate West Nile Virus Clearance, Amber M. Paul, Dhiraj Acharya, Penghua Wang, Jianfeng Dai, David Gate

Publications

CD8 T cells are crucial components of immunity and play a vital role in recovery from West Nile virus (WNV) infection. Here, we identify a previously unrecognized function of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) in inducing cytotoxic-mediator gene expression and promoting CD8 T cell cytotoxicity against WNV infection in mice. We find that IL-17A-deficient (Il17a/) mice are more susceptible to WNV infection and develop a higher viral burden than wild-type (WT) mice. Interestingly, the CD8 T cells isolated from Il17a/ mice are less cytotoxic and express lower levels of cytotoxic-mediator genes, which can be restored by supplying recombinant IL-17A in vitro and in …

Anti-Nogo-A Immunotherapy Does Not Alter Hippocampal Neurogenesis After Stroke In Adult Rats, Timothy O'Brien, Daniel Shepherd, Gwendolyn Kartje-Tillotson, Shih-Yen Tsai, Robert G. Farrer

Mathematics and Statistics: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of adult disability, including cognitive impairment. Our laboratory has previously shown that treatment with function-blocking antibodies against the neurite growth inhibitory protein Nogo-A promotes functional recovery after stroke in adult and aged rats, including enhancing spatial memory performance, for which the hippocampus is critically important. Since spatial memory has been linked to hippocampal neurogenesis, we investigated whether anti-Nogo-A treatment increases hippocampal neurogenesis after stroke. Adult rats were subject to permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion followed 1 week later by 2 weeks of antibody treatment. Cellular proliferation in the dentate gyrus was quantified at the …

Zombies, Predatory Wasps And Consciousness, James K. Peterson

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Synchronization Of Coupled Neurons Via Robust Feedback, Hector Puebla, Ricardo Aguilar-Lopez, Priti Kumar Roy

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Consciousness And The Unity Of Mind, Mark Rowlands

Animal Sentience

Several types of objection have been raised against the arguments I presented in my target article, “Are animals persons?” Among the objections are the following: (1) the claim that animals are persons is of little significance, (2) my use of the Lockean conception of the person is questionable, (3) whether a creature qualifies as a person is a matter of social construction rather than objective fact, (4) reflective consciousness is more important than I realize, (5) my reliance on implicit self-awareness in the account of personhood is ill-advised, (6) my account entails that too many creatures qualify as persons, and …

Incorporating The Brain Sciences Into The Teaching Of Business Psychology, Raymond L. Forbes Jr.

Learning Showcase 2016: A Celebration of Discovery, Transformation and Success

Franklin University has been at the forefront of integrating the findings of Neuroscience into its' masters degree program in Business Psychology. The teaching problem has been how to translate the often esoteric research of brain scientists into applications useful at the personal and organizational levels.

Family Based Treatment For Adults With Anorexia Nervosa Using Insights From Neurobiology, The Center For Balanced Living

Learning Showcase 2016: A Celebration of Discovery, Transformation and Success

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a biologically-based brain disorder, which has the highest death rate of all mental illnesses. No effective treatments exist for adults with severe and enduring AN (5-7+ years). Brain imaging studies at University of California San Diego on AN temperament, cognition and eating show common traits related to neural function. The temperaments are characterized by increased trait anxiety and state anxiety related to food and eating, high incidence of co-morbid anxiety disorders, high punishment sensitivity and low reward reactivity, elevated intolerance of uncertainty and exaggerated harm avoidance (HA). HA is a multifaceted temperament trait that contains elements …

Rapid And Objective Assessment Of Neural Function In Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Transient Visual Evoked Potentials, Paige M. Siper, Vance Zemon, James Gordon, Julia George-Jones, Stacey Lurie, Jessica Zweifach, Teresa Tavassoli, A. Ting Wang, Jesslyn Jamison, Joseph D. Buxbaum, Alexander Kolevzon

Publications and Research

Objective There is a critical need to identify biomarkers and objective outcome measures that can be used to understand underlying neural mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) offer a noninvasive technique to evaluate the functional integrity of neural mechanisms, specifically visual pathways, while probing for disease pathophysiology.

Methods Transient VEPs (tVEPs) were obtained from 96 unmedicated children, including 37 children with ASD, 36 typically developing (TD) children, and 23 unaffected siblings (SIBS). A conventional contrast-reversing checkerboard condition was compared to a novel short-duration condition, which was developed to enable objective data collection from severely affected populations …

In-Vivo Imaging Of Magnetic Fields Induced By Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) In Human Brain Using Mri, Mayank V. Jog, Robert X. Smith, Kay Jann, Walter Dunn, Belen Lafon, Dennis Truong, Allan Wu, Lucas C. Parra, Marom Bikson, Danny J. J. Wang

Publications and Research

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging non-invasive neuromodulation technique that applies mA currents at the scalp to modulate cortical excitability. Here, we present a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, which detects magnetic fields induced by tDCS currents. This technique is based on Ampere’s law and exploits the linear relationship between direct current and induced magnetic fields. Following validation on a phantom with a known path of electric current and induced magnetic field, the proposed MRI technique was applied to a human limb (to demonstrate invivo feasibility using simple biological tissue) and human heads (to demonstrate feasibility in …

Insects: Still Looking Like Zombies, Christopher S. Hill

Animal Sentience

In arguing that insect brains are capable of sentience, Klein & Barron rely heavily on Bjorn Merker’s claim that activity in the human mid-brain is sufficient for conscious experience. I criticize Merker’s claim by pointing out that the behaviors supported by midbrain activity are much more primitive than the ones that appear to depend on consciousness. I raise a similar objection to Klein & Barron’s contention that insect behaviors are similar to behaviors that manifest consciousness in human beings. The similarity is weak. I also respond to the related view that integrative activity in mid-brain structures is sufficient to explain …

Adult Neurogenesis In Avian Auditory Cortex, Caudomedial Nidopallium (Ncm): Lateralization And Effects Of Statins, Shuk C. Tsoi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the first part of this paper, we investigated the basic relationship between learning, memory and adult neurogenesis using zebra finches. We found that in the auditory cortex, the left hemisphere had more new neurons than the right hemisphere. This lateralization was correlated with song learning and memory. In the second part, we used juvenile zebra finches as a model organism to study the effects of Lipitor on learning, memory and neurogenesis. We found that Lipitor impaired song learning and memory storage. Lipitor treatments also changed the morphology of new neurons and size of old neurons, suggesting statins may affect …

Examining Relationships Between Basic Emotion Perception And Musical Training In The Prosodic, Facial, And Lexical Channels Of Communication And In Music, Jamie Twaite

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has suggested that intensive musical training may result in transfer effects from musical to non-musical domains. There is considerable research on perceptual and cognitive transfer effects associated with music, but, comparatively, fewer studies examined relationships between musical training and emotion processing. Preliminary findings, though equivocal, suggested that musical training is associated with enhanced perception of emotional prosody, consistent with a growing body of research demonstrating relationships between music and speech. In addition, few studies directly examined the relationship between musical training and the perception of emotions expressed in music, and no studies directly evaluated this relationship in the facial …

Cognitive Dissonance Or Contrast?, Thomas R. Zentall

Animal Sentience

According to Festinger (1957), cognitive dissonance occurs when one’s behavior or belief is inconsistent with another belief and one modifies one of the beliefs in an attempt to reduce the dissonance. In nonhuman animals, we have examined a version of human cognitive dissonance theory called justification of effort, according to which the value of reward following more difficult tasks increases, presumably to justify (to oneself or to others) performing the more difficult task. We have examined the justification of effort effect in animals and found a pattern similar to the one in humans but we propose a simpler underlying …

Motor Experience Reprograms Development Of A Genetically-Altered Bilateral Corticospinal Motor Circuit, Najet Serradj, John H. Martin

Publications and Research

Evidence suggests that motor experience plays a role in shaping development of the corticospinal system and voluntary motor control, which is a key motor function of the system. Here we used a mouse model with conditional forebrain deletion of the gene for EphA4 (Emx1-Cre:EphA4tm2Kldr), which regulates development of the laterality of corticospinal tract (CST). We combined study of Emx1-Cre:EphA4tm2Kldr with unilateral forelimb constraint during development to expand our understanding of experience-dependent CST development from both basic and translational perspectives. This mouse develops dense ipsilateral CST projections, a bilateral motor cortex motor representation, and bilateral motor phenotypes. Together these phenotypes can …

Structural Dichotomy Of The Mind; The Role Of Sexual Neuromodulators, Ion G. Motofei, David L. Rowland

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

The mind (mental function) and sexuality represent two distinct environmental functions, but which are supported within the brain by a common (somatic-autonomic) neurobiological substrate. As a consequence, mental function takes on autonomic characteristics from the sexual-autonomic system (like autonomy, duality), while sexual function takes on features from mental functioning (such as lateralization). In this paper we discuss the lateralized action of two classes of sexual neuromodulators: hormones and pheromones. This process of lateralization is assimilated with the structural dichotomy of the mind.

A relatively similar process but related to informational dichotomy of the mind will be presented in a forthcoming …

Extracellular Vesicle-Associated Aβ Mediates Trans-Neuronal Bioenergetic And Ca2+-Handling Deficits In Alzheimer's Disease Models, Erez Eitan, Emmette R. Hutchison, Krisztina Marosi, James Comotto, Maja Mustapic, Saket M. Nigam, Caitlin Suire, Chinmoyee Maharana, Gregory A. Jicha, Dong Liu, Vasiliki Machairaki, Kenneth W. Witwer, Dimitrios Kapogiannis, Mark P. Mattson

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder in which aggregation-prone neurotoxic amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) accumulates in the brain. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, are small 50–150 nm membrane vesicles that have recently been implicated in the prion-like spread of self-aggregating proteins. Here we report that EVs isolated from AD patient cerebrospinal fluid and plasma, from the plasma of two AD mouse models, and from the medium of neural cells expressing familial AD presenilin 1 mutations, destabilize neuronal Ca²⁺ homeostasis, impair mitochondrial function, and sensitize neurons to excitotoxicity. EVs contain a relatively low amount of Aβ but have an …

Commentaries On Deepak Chopra And Menas Kafatos’ Book, “You Are The Universe”; 2017, Harmony Books., Shelli Joye

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

No abstract provided.

Commentaries On Deepak Chopra And Menas Kafatos’ Book, “You Are The Universe”; 2017, Harmony Books., Ervin Laszlo

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

No abstract provided.