Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Perceptual Fatigability And Neuromuscular Responses During A Sustained, Isometric Forearm Flexion Muscle Action Anchored To A Constant Level Of Perceived Exertion, Robert W. Smith, John Paul V. Anders, Tyler J. Neltner, Jocelyn E. Arnett, Joshua L. Keller, Terry J. Housh, Richard J. Schmidt, Glen O. Johnson

Journal for Sports Neuroscience

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the fatigue-induced changes in torque, and the electromyographic (EMG) and mechanomyographic (MMG) responses during a sustained submaximal, isometric forearm flexion muscle action anchored to a constant rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Methods: Eleven women (mean ± SD: age = 20.5 ± 1.9 yrs.; height = 169.9 ± 6.6 cm; body mass = 73.2 ± 15.9 kg) performed 2, 3s forearm flexion maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) before a sustained isometric muscle action anchored to RPE = 7 until task failure (defined as torque that would require RPE > 7, or the …

Rippled Almost Periodic Behavior In An Epilepsy Model, David Chan, Candace Kent

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

An Agent-Based Model Of Pain-Related Neurons In The Amygdala, Rachael Miller Neilan, Benedict Kolber

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Quercetin Exhibits Potent Antioxidant Activity, Restores Motor And Non-Motor Deficits Induced By Rotenone Toxicity, Syeda Madiha, Zehra Batool, Saiqa Tabassum, Laraib Liaquat, Sadia Sadir, Sidrah Shahzad, Fizza Naqvi, Sadia Saleem, Sarwat Yousuf, Saara Ahmad

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

The rotenone-induced animal model of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been used to investigate the pathogenesis of PD. Oxidative stress is one of the main contributors of neurodegeneration in PD. Flavonoids have the potential to modulate neuronal function and combat various neurodegenerative diseases. The pre- and post-supplementation of quercetin (50 mg/kg, p.o) was done in rats injected with rotenone (1.5 mg/kg, s.c). After the treatment, behavioral activities were monitored for motor activity, depression-like behavior, and cognitive changes. Rats were decapitated after behavioral analysis and the brain samples were dissected out for neurochemical and biochemical estimation. Results showed that supplementation of quercetin …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

Psychobiology Of Stress And Adolescent Depression (Psy Sad) Study: Protocol Overview For An Fmri-Based Multi-Method Investigation, Stassja Sichko, Theresa Q. Bui, Meghan Vinograd, Grant S. Shields, Krishanu Saha, Suzanne Devkota, Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez, Judith E. Carroll, Steven E. Cole, Michael R. Irwin, George M. Slavich

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Depression is a common, often recurrent disorder that causes substantial disease burden worldwide, and this is especially true for women following the pubertal transition. According to the Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression, stressors involving social stress and rejection, which frequently precipitate major depressive episodes, induce depressive symptoms in vulnerable individuals in part by altering the activity and connectivity of stress-related neural pathways, and by upregulating components of the immune system involved in inflammation. To test this theory, we recruited adolescent females at high and low risk for depression and assessed their psychological, neural, inflammatory, and genomic responses to a …

The Giver: Vision & Memory, Alexander J. Dontre

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

A memory hole is the banishment of problematic thoughts. We exile that which we prefer not to exist. Enter the perilous Memory Hole: The Psychology of Dystopia, to explore a legion of social and psychological themes through the lens of dystopian literature. The crushing fist of 1984 annihilating thoughts from existence as a means of persuasion. The exquisite seduction of addiction as an agent of control in Brave New World. Incineration of the written word to bask in the embers of peace of mind in Fahrenheit 451. Each chapter weaves in and out of the dystopian realms forged …

Brain Parcellation Selection: An Overlooked Decision Point With Meaningful Effects On Individual Differences In Resting-State Functional Connectivity, Nessa V. Bryce, John C. Flournoy, João F. Guassi Moreira, Maya L. Rosen, Kelly A. Sambook, Patrick Mair, Katie A. Mclaughlin

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Over the past decade extensive research has examined the segregation of the human brain into large-scale functional networks. The resulting network maps, i.e. parcellations, are now commonly used for the a priori identification of functional networks. However, the use of these parcellations, particularly in developmental and clinical samples, hinges on four fundamental assumptions: (1) the various parcellations are equally able to recover the networks of interest; (2) adult-derived parcellations well represent the networks in children's brains; (3) network properties, such as within-network connectivity, are reliably measured across parcellations; and (4) parcellation selection does not impact the results with regard to …

Social Selectivity And Social Motivation In Voles, Annaliese K. Beery, Sarah A. Lopez, Katrina L. Blandino, Nicole S. Lee, Natalie S. Bourdon

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Selective relationships are fundamental to humans and many other animals, but relationships between mates, family members, or peers may be mediated differently. We examined connections between social reward and social selectivity, aggression, and oxytocin receptor signaling pathways in rodents that naturally form enduring, selective relationships with mates and peers (monogamous prairie voles) or peers (group-living meadow voles). Female prairie and meadow voles worked harder to access familiar versus unfamiliar individuals, regardless of sex, and huddled extensively with familiar subjects. Male prairie voles displayed strongly selective huddling preferences for familiar animals, but only worked harder to repeatedly access females versus males, …

The Effect Of Calcium Ions On Mechanosensation And Neuronal Activity In Proprioceptive Neurons, Devan E. Atkins, Kimberly L. Bosh, Grace W. Breakfield, Sydney E. Daniels, Makayla J. Devore, Hailey E. Fite, Landys Z. Guo, Danielle K. J. Henry, Alana K. Kaffenberger, Katherine S. Manning, Tatum E. Mowery, Cecilia L. Pankau, Nyla Parker, Malina E. Serrano, Yamaan Shakhashiro, Hannah N. Tanner, Ruth. A. Ward, Aubrey H. Wehry, Robin L. Cooper

Biology Faculty Publications

Proprioception of all animals is important in being able to have coordinated locomotion. Stretch activated ion channels (SACs) transduce the mechanical force into electrical signals in the proprioceptive sensory endings. The types of SACs vary among sensory neurons in animals as defined by pharmacological, physiological and molecular identification. The chordotonal organs within insects and crustaceans offer a unique ability to investigate proprioceptive function. The effects of the extracellular environment on neuronal activity, as well as the function of associated SACs are easily accessible and viable in minimal saline for ease in experimentation. The effect of extracellular [Ca²⁺] on …

The Effect Of Optogenetically Activating Glia On Neuronal Function, Cecilia Pankau, Shelby Mccubbin, Robin L. Cooper

Biology Faculty Publications

Glia, or glial cells, are considered a vital component of the nervous system, serving as an electrical insulator and a protective barrier from the interstitial (extracellular) media. Certain glial cells (i.e., astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes) within the CNS have been shown to directly affect neural functions, but these properties are challenging to study due to the difficulty involved with selectively-activating specific glia. To overcome this hurdle, we selectively expressed light-sensitive ion channels (i.e., channel rhodopsin, ChR2-XXL) in glia of larvae and adult Drosophila melanogaster. Upon activation of ChR2, both adults and larvae showed a rapid contracture of body wall …

In-Season Concussion Symptom Reporting In Male And Female Collegiate Rugby Athletes, Emily E. Kieffer,, P. Gunnar Brolinson, Arthur C. Maerlender, Eric Smith, Steven Rowson

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Symptom inventories are generally only collected after a suspected concussion, but regular in-season monitoring may allude to clinical symptoms associated with repetitive subconcussive impacts and potential undiagnosed concussions. Despite sex-specific differences in symptom presentation and outcome of concussion, no return-to-play protocol takes sex into account. The objective of this study was to monitor a cohort of contact-sport athletes and compare the frequency and severity of in-season concussion-like symptom reporting between sexes. Graded symptom checklists from 144 female and 104 male athlete-seasons were administered weekly to quantify the effect of subconcussive impacts on frequency and severity of in-season symptom reporting. In-season, …

Pairwise Correlation Analysis Of The Alzheimer’S Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (Adni) Dataset Reveals Significant Feature Correlation, Erik D. Huckvale, Matthew W. Hodgman, Brianna B. Greenwood, Devorah O. Stucki, Katrisa M. Ward, Mark T. W. Ebbert, John S. K. Kauwe, The Alzheimer’S Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, The Alzheimer’S Disease Metabolomics Consortium, Justin B. Miller

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) contains extensive patient measurements (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], biometrics, RNA expression, etc.) from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cases and controls that have recently been used by machine learning algorithms to evaluate AD onset and progression. While using a variety of biomarkers is essential to AD research, highly correlated input features can significantly decrease machine learning model generalizability and performance. Additionally, redundant features unnecessarily increase computational time and resources necessary to train predictive models. Therefore, we used 49,288 biomarkers and 793,600 extracted MRI features to assess feature correlation within the ADNI dataset to determine the …

Neurogenesis And Neuroprotection In Huntington Disease, Bachir Hadid

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Biological Sciences Master's Theses

Adult neurogenesis is attributed to the activity of progenitor cells whose progeny progressively mature to functional neurons under genetic and epigenetic influence.

Due to the significant role of FGF6 (fibroblast growth factor 6), in the skeletal growth, and maintenance of progenitor cells in skeletal muscle, and the role of HDAC inhibitors (histone deacetylase inhibitors) in promoting neurogenesis, and increasing of neuronal proliferation, a combination of FGF6 with HDAC inhibitor CHDI-3 is investigated as a potential treatment to lessen neuronal loss in HD, by enhancing neurogenesis.

Fascinatingly, FGF6 and HDAC inhibitor CHDI-3 treatment was found to be significantly neuroprotective in the …

Sex Differences In Mitochondrial Function Following A Controlled Cortical Impact Traumatic Brain Injury In Rodents, Olivia J. Kalimon, Patrick G. Sullivan

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex disease to study due to the multifactorial injury cascades occurring after the initial blow to the head. One of the most vital players in this secondary injury cascade, and therapeutic target of interest, is the mitochondrion. Mitochondria are important for the generation of cellular energy, regulation of cell death, and modulation of intracellular calcium which leaves these “powerhouses” especially susceptible to damage and dysfunction following traumatic brain injury. Most of the existing studies involving mitochondrial dysfunction after TBI have been performed in male rodent models, leaving a gap in knowledge on these same …

Cognitive Effects Of The Bet Protein Inhibitor Apabetalone: A Prespecified Montreal Cognitive Assessment Analysis Nested In The Betonmace Randomized Controlled Trial, Jeffrey Cummings, Gregory G. Schwartz, Stephen J. Nicholls, Aziz Khan, Chris Halliday, Peter P. Toth, Michael Sweeney, Jan O. Johansson, Norman C.W. Wong, Ewelina Kulikowski, Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, Kenneth Lebioda, Henry N. Ginsberg, Bengt Winblad, Henrik Zetterberg, Kausik K. Ray

School of Medicine Faculty Research

Background: Epigenetic changes may contribute importantly to cognitive decline in late life including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD). Bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) proteins are epigenetic 'readers' that may distort normal gene expression and contribute to chronic disorders. Objective: To assess the effects of apabetalone, a small molecule BET protein inhibitor, on cognitive performance of patients 70 years or older participating in a randomized trial of patients at high risk for major cardiovascular events (MACE). Methods: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was performed on all patients 70 years or older at the time of randomization. 464 participants were randomized …

Single-Cell Rna Sequencing Deconvolutes The In Vivo Heterogeneity Of Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Zun Wang, Xiaohua Li, Junxiao Yang, Yun Gong, Huixi Zhang, Xiang Qiu, Ying Liu, Cui Zhou, Yu Chen, Jonathan Greenbaum, Liang Cheng, Yihe Hu, Jie Xie, Xucheng Yang, Yusheng Li, Martin R. Schiller

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) are multipotent stromal cells that have a critical role in the maintenance of skeletal tissues such as bone, cartilage, and the fat in bone marrow. In addition to providing microenvironmental support for hematopoietic processes, BM-MSCs can differentiate into various mesodermal lineages including osteoblast/osteocyte, chondrocyte, and adipocyte that are crucial for bone metabolism. While BM-MSCs have high cell-to-cell heterogeneity in gene expression, the cell subtypes that contribute to this heterogeneity in vivo in humans have not been characterized. To investigate the transcriptional diversity of BM-MSCs, we applied single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on freshly isolated CD271+ …

Chronic Long-Covid Syndrome: A Protracted Covid-19 Illness With Neurological Dysfunctions, Abdul Mannan Baig

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

After almost a year of COVID-19, the chronic long-COVID syndrome has been recognized as an entity in 2021. The patients with the long-COVID are presenting with ominous neurological deficits that with time are becoming persistent and are causing disabilities in the affected individuals. The mechanisms underlying the neurological syndrome in long-COVID have remained obscure and need to be actively researched to find a resolution for the patients with long-COVID. Here, the factors like site of viral load, the differential immune response, neurodegenerative changes, and inflammation as possible causative factors are debated to understand and investigate the pathogenesis of neuro-COVID in …

Assessing A Novel Adaptation To Cci Devices To Model Human Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, William R. Kochen, Kristen Craven, Rachel E. Barkey, Jane M. Flinn, David D. Cerri

Journal for Sports Neuroscience

Background: Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) are a health crisis with over a million people suffering injuries each year in the United States. The majority of TBIs are mild injuries which often produce no period of unconsciousness and no gross damage to the brain or skull. A range of TBI animal models exist but many produce injuries too severe to characterize as mild. One TBI induction method commonly used is Controlled Cortical Impact (CCI) devices.

New Method: The purpose of this study is to assess a novel adaptation to CCI devices that allows for the induction of mild injuries that …

Identification Of Secretion Factors That Restructure Neural Tissue In A Model Of Low Grade Glioma, Jackson Ayers

Holster Scholar Projects

Pediatric Low-grade Gliomas account for up to ⅔ of all pediatric tumors. Despite their low grade classification, they have the ability to mutate farther to a grade 3 or 4 neurological tumor, exponentially decreasing treatment and survival rates. Identifying the specific secretion factors associated with these tumors is extremely beneficial towards possible treatment options. CRISPR/Cas9 constructs were implemented to knock out GDF-15 and CCl-3 secretion factors in the presence of a BRAFV600E mutation before concentrated DNA plasmids were injected and integrated into the brains of mice embryos through In Utero Electroporation (IUE). The brains were subsequently stained through an immunohistochemistry …