Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Canonical Bmp Signaling Is Required For Allodynia In Drosophila Melanogaster, Taylor L. Follansbee

All Theses And Dissertations

In the United States alone over 100 million people suffer from chronic pain and unfortunately, even still, there is a lack in scientific understanding for the mechanisms of abnormal pain sensitivity. The present study utilized a candidate gene approach to identify novel components required for modulation of the tissue damage induced pain sensitization pathway in Drosophila melanogaster. We have shown that RNAi silencing of decapentaplegic (dpp), a member of the Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling pathway, specifically in the class IV multidendritic nociceptor neurons significantly attenuated UV-induced nociceptive sensitization. Furthermore, overexpression of dpp in nociceptor neurons was sufficient to …

The Effect Of Sleep On Perceptual Learning And Memory Consolidation, Vanessa Claire Irsik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An ability to segregate speech accurately is essential given that most auditory environments contain other overlapping conversations or environmental noise. While perceiving speech among background noise can be difficult in and of itself, those with hearing impairments can experience considerable difficulty. While training has been shown to benefit perceptual segregation of trained sounds, it is unclear how such training transfers to sounds not included in a training regimen. The current study aimed to address this question by training listeners on a portion of sounds during a vowel segregation task, and subsequently testing on both the trained sounds and untrained sounds. …

An Analysis Of The Interaction Of Methylphenidate And Nicotine In Adolescent Rats: Effects On Bdnf, Elizabeth D. Freeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This investigation was an analysis of the interaction of adolescent exposure to methylphenidate (MPH; trade name: Ritalin) on nicotine sensitization and conditioned place preference (CPP) in a rodent model and underlying mechanisms of this effect. Animals were treated IP with 1 mg/kg MPH or saline using a ―school day‖ regimen of five days on, two days off, from postnatal day (P) 28-50. During the final two weeks of MPH treatment, animals were either behaviorally sensitized to nicotine (0.5 mg/kg free base) or saline for 10 days, or conditioned to nicotine or saline using the CPP behavioral paradigm. In addition, three …

Structure And Composition Of Postsynaptic Densities, Madeline Farley

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Communication between neurons within the brain occurs at chemical synapses and is fundamental for all brain functions. Modulation of the strength of communication is controlled by both presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms and is termed synaptic plasticity. One postsynaptic structure postulated to regulate synaptic strength is the postsynaptic density (PSD), a large electron dense protein complex located just below the synaptic membrane. The PSD, which is composed of signaling, scaffold and cytoskeletal proteins, supports and organizes neurotransmitter receptors within the synaptic membrane in addition to bridging signaling with the actin cytoskeletal network. The protein composition and structure of PSDs is known …

Concussion Awareness And Educational Outreach Through A Website And Mobile Application, Daniel J. Brogan

Neuroscience Summer Fellows

In recent years concussions have become a more apparent problem in youth and adolescent sports. 1 in 5 high school students will sustain a concussion during the season. Due to medical and scientific advances, the diagnosis of concussions is becoming much simpler with key markers that are signs for an injury. Returning to play too soon before an athlete is fully recovered increases the likelihood that serious and irreversible neurological deficits can occur. Symptoms for concussions are necessary to track in order for an athlete to properly report their recovery to a physician. Doctors primarily rely on a patient’s report …

Impaired Executive Function In Concussed Athletes, Marisa Gretz

Neuroscience Summer Fellows

Concussions are classified as mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI). An individual that has sustained a concussion will experience symptoms such as nausea, possible memory loss, blurry vision, or loss of balance. Most symptoms subside within a few days, but a large pool of research raises concern for the recovery of executive function, specifically impulse control. Executive function relates to all tasks that require deliberate attention. Past research has shown adolescents record the highest number of sports concussions when compared to collegiate and professional athletes. The frontal lobe, which controls executive function, is not fully developed during the time of adolescence. …

The Effects Of Visual Search Efficiency On Object-Based Attention, Adam S. Greenberg, Maya Rosen, Elizabeth Cutrone, Marlene Behrmann

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

The attentional prioritization hypothesis of object-based attention (Shomstein & Yantis in Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 41–51, 2002) suggests a two-stage selection process comprising an automatic spatial gradient and flexible strategic (prioritization) selection. The combined attentional priorities of these two stages of object-based selection determine the order in which participants will search the display for the presence of a target. The strategic process has often been likened to a prioritized visual search. By modifying the double-rectangle cueing paradigm (Egly, Driver, & Rafal in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 161–177, 1994) and placing it in the context of a larger-scale visual …

Increased Resting-State Functional Connectivity Of Visual- And Cognitive-Control Brain Networks After Training In Children With Reading Difficulties, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Mark Difrancesco, Benjamin Kay, Yingying Wang, Scott K. Holland

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

The Reading Acceleration Program, a computerized reading-training program, increases activation in neural circuits related to reading.We examined the effect of the training on the functional connectivity between independent components related to visual processing, executive functions, attention, memory, and language during rest after the training. Children 8–12 years old with reading difficulties and typical readers participated in the study. Behavioral testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed before and after the training. Imaging data were analyzed using an independent component analysis approach. After training, both reading groups showed increased single-word contextual reading and reading comprehension scores. Greater positive correlations between …

The Mouse That Trolled: The Long And Tortuous History Of A Gene Mutation Patent That Became An Expensive Impediment To Alzheimer's Research, Tania M. Bubela, Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Robert Cook-Deegan

Office of the Provost

This case study presents the tale of the academic discovery of a rare mutation for early-onset Alzheimer's disease that was patented by a sole inventor and licensed to a non-practicing entity (NPE), the Alzheimer's Institute of America (AIA). Our aims are (1) to relate this story about patents, research tools, and impediments to medical progress, and (2) to inform ongoing debates about how patents affect research, disposition of university inventions, and the distribution of benefits from publicly funded research. We present an account of the hunt for Alzheimer's genes, their patenting, assignment, and enforcement based on literature, litigation records and …

Erin: A Portal To Resources For Higher Education In Neuroscience, Richard F. Olivo, Joseph R. Burdo, Robert Calin-Jagemen, William Grisham, Monica L. Linden, Robert L. Rosenberg, Laura L. Symonds, Janice E. Thornton

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

ERIN, Educational Resources in Neuroscience, is the Society for Neuroscience's web portal to selected, high- quality materials for higher education. A Board of Editors approves resources after describing them and classifying them by topic, subtopic, media type, author, and appropriate educational level. Some resources are also accompanied by reviews and ratings from faculty who have used the resource. These features make a search of ERIN far more useful than a typical Google search.

ERIN's development was funded by the National Science Foundation with a three-year grant to SfN. Along the way, various unexpected problems arose and solutions were found, many …

Susceptibility Of Parkinson’S Disease Following Mild Blast Traumatic Brain Injury, Glen Howel Galicia Acosta

Open Access Theses

Blast injury-induced neurotrauma (BINT) is steadily increasing in prevalence due to escalated terror activity and constitutes the signature injury associated with current military conflicts. BINT produces significant neurological deficiencies and there is a growing concern that the injury may produce long-term consequences that affect the resilience and the performance of soldiers. One of the potential consequences is an increased susceptibility to Parkinson's disease (PD). A vital goal aimed at curtailing the post-deployment long-term consequences of blast injury-induced neurotrauma is to further our knowledge of pathogenic mechanisms responsible for the escalation of post injury diseases. The purpose of this project is …

Subject Assessment Of In-Vehicle Auditory Warnings For Rail Grade Crossings, Steven Landry, Jayde Croschere, Myounghoon Jeon

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Human factors research has played an important role in reducing the incidents of vehicle-train collisions at rail grade crossings over the past 30 years. With the growing popularity of in-vehicle infotainment systems and GPS devices, new opportunities arise to cost-efficiently and effectively alert drivers of railroad crossings and to promote safer driving habits. To best utilize this in-vehicle technology, 32 auditory warnings (16 verbal, 7 train-related auditory icons, and 9 generic earcons) were generated and presented to 31 participants after a brief low-fidelity driving simulation. Participants rated each sound on eight dimensions deemed important in previous auditory warning literature. Preliminary …

Neonatal Isolation Stress Inhibits Pre-Weaning Weight Gain And Mild-Stressor Induced Locomotor Activity In Early Adolescent Male And Female Rats, Peter Villavecchia, Mindy Miserendino

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study looked at the effects of neonatal isolation, an early life stress experience, in male and female early adolescent rats, an age which is underrepresented in the early stress literature. Four stress-sensitive indices were assessed: weight gain during the pre-weaning period, open field activity, and locomotor activity in response to two mild stressors: exposure to a novel environment, and a single IP saline injection. Rats in the neonatal isolation condition were removed from dam and littermates on postnatal days 2-9 in accord with the procedure used by Kehoe et al. (1995); behavioral testing occurred on PN25-PN30 during …

Spatiotemporal Fluctuations Of Olfactory Stimuli And Its Detection By An Optical Method, Mitu Chandra Acharjee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Olfactory processing in the mammalian brain is a highly dynamic process, yet most of the olfaction experiments have been studied primarily with static stimuli. Odors in the natural environment are transported by turbulent flow of air or water. Natural odorants have fluctuations in concentration and it changes rapidly with time. These rapid fluctuations may pose some challenges to identifying an odor; on the other hand, the variation itself may provide important clues about the odor source. The goal of this thesis project was to create a similar odorant environment like the rapid odor fluctuations encountered in nature – to meet …

Onset Time And Durability Of Huntingtin Suppression In Rhesus Putamen After Direct Infusion Of Antihuntingtin Sirna, Richard Grondin, Pei Ge, Qingmin Chen, Jessica E. Sutherland, Zhiming Zhang, Don M. Gash, David K. Stiles, Gregory R. Stewart, Dinah W. Y. Sah, William F. Kaemmerer

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

One possible treatment for Huntington's disease involves direct infusion of a small, interfering RNA (siRNA) designed to reduce huntingtin expression into brain tissue from a chronically implanted programmable pump. Here, we studied the suppression of huntingtin mRNA achievable with short infusion times, and investigated how long suppression may persist after infusion ceases. Rhesus monkeys received 3 days of infusion of Magnevist into the putamen to confirm catheter patency and fluid distribution. After a 1-week washout period, monkeys received radiolabeled siRNA targeting huntingtin. After 1 or 3 days of siRNA delivery, monkeys were either terminated, or their pumps were shut off …

The Effects Of Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation On The Discriminability And Generalizability Of Learning, Bengt Grua, Dr. C Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The goal of this study was to determine how sleep affects memory recall in an academic setting with relation to memory discrimination and memory generalization. Memory generalization depends on the computational process of pattern completion, which is the brain’s ability to retrieve a memory representation based on a partial or modified stimulus (such as viewing a false statement as true if it has many true elements embedded in it). Memory discrimination depends on the computational process of pattern separation, which is the brain’s ability to store a memory as distinct and separate from other, similar memories. Current models of sleep …

The Effects Of Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation On The Discriminability And Generalizability Of Learning, Bengt Grua, Dr. C Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The goal of this study was to determine how sleep affects memory recall in an academic setting with relation to memory discrimination and memory generalization. Memory generalization depends on the computational process of pattern completion, which is the brain’s ability to retrieve a memory representation based on a partial or modified stimulus (such as viewing a false statement as true if it has many true elements embedded in it). Memory discrimination depends on the computational process of pattern separation, which is the brain’s ability to store a memory as distinct and separate from other, similar memories. Current models of sleep …

The Effect Of Exercise On Inhibitory Control To Images Of High And Low Calorie Food, Cory Pettit, Michael J. Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise on the neural correlates of response inhibition to high and low calorie foods. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether engaging in forty-five minutes of moderate intensity exercise affects brain activity that denotes inhibitory control while a person withholds practiced responses to pictures of high or low calorie food. We quantified inhibitory control by measuring the amplitude of the N2 event related potential (ERP; described below) using electroencephalogram (EEG) technology.

Induction Of Neuromelanin In Live Tissue, Corrine Morrison, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An estimated seven to ten million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and about 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease each year (Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, 2013). The underlying cause of the movement disorders in PD is dopamine (DA) neuron degeneration in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). A proposed mechanism behind DA cell death is additional oxidative stress that occurs in early stages of the disease state. NM is believed to be a protective agent against reactive oxygen species (ROS), but as NM depigmentation is a distinctive feature of PD, it is likely that there is a …

The Effect Of Exercise On Inhibitory Control To Images Of High And Low Calorie Food, Cory Pettit, Michael J. Larson, Phd

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise on the neural correlates of response inhibition to high and low calorie foods. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether engaging in forty-five minutes of moderate intensity exercise affects brain activity that denotes inhibitory control while a person withholds practiced responses to pictures of high or low calorie food. We quantified inhibitory control by measuring the amplitude of the N2 event related potential (ERP; described below) using electroencephalogram (EEG) technology.