Seminars & Events
Monday, February 11, 2013: Dr. Daphne Soares (University of Maryland College Park) will speak on "The Sensory World of Cavefishes" at 4:45 pm in Goodpaster Hall 195.
Monday, March 4, 2013: Dr. Joe Cheer (University of Maryland Baltimore) will speak on "Endogenous Cannabinoids and the Pursuit of Reward" at 4:45 pm in Goodpaster Hall 195.
Friday, April 12, 2013: Dr. Jill McGaughy (University of New Hampshire) will speak on "The Role of Cortical Norepinephrine in the Ontogeny of Executive Function" at 3:00 pm in Schaefer Hall 106.
Alumni Highlight
Dr. Erin Johnson '02 recently received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and was inducted as an alumni member of Nu Rho Psi.
SMP Spotlight
Ron Saul, "Chronic activation of the substantia nigra nociceptin/orphanin receptor induces motor deficits similar to Parkinson's disease," 2008. Saul, the 2008 winner of the Neuroscience Award, infused a drug into the substantia nigra of rats and measured the resulting motor behaviors, mood disturbances, and cognitive abilities.
Smith, Elizabeth S. (2010). Combining Two Models of Schizophrenia: Behavioral and Neuronal Implications. Mentor: Dr. Anne Marie Brady
Abstract
The neonatal ventral hippocampal lesion (NVHL) as well as isolation rearing are rodent models of schizophrenia that produce similar behavioral deficits in sensorimotor gating, social behavior, and spatial working memory in conjunction with similar neuropathologies. The combination of both of these models in rats produces an additive effect on locomotor activity and on structural deficits within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAcc). In this study, the combination of isolation rearing and the NVHL model was examined in sensorimotor gating, social behavior, spatial working memory and neuronal activity within the PFC and NAcc. There was no additive effect of combining isolation rearing and the NVHL on these tasks or on neuronal activity within the PFC and NAcc.
