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.
Logan, Trevor (2008). Learning set acquisition in a rodent model of Alzheimer’s disease : the effects of continuous intracerebroventricular b-amyloid infusions on learning set . (Mentor: A. Bailey)
Abstract
Endogenous b-amyloid proteins are found postmortem in the senile plaques of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Continuous intracerebroventricular (ICV) infusion of the protein into rodent produces behavioral and anatomical changes that are associated with AD, including a degeneration of the nucleus basalis magnocelluaris (nBM) and drop in cortical cholinergic innervation. The nBM plays a critical role in the process of learning set (LS) acquisition in rodents, an ability which is associated with problem solving and higher cognitive processing. This study observed the effects of continuous ICV b-amyloid infusion on rodent LS acquisition in hopes of elucidating the connection between increased central nervous system abeta load and the changes in higher cognition. Two control tasks (open field activity and novel object recognition) were conducted to help clarify behavioral results, and brains sections were stained with Congo Red dye. The behavioral results found that neither the protein nor the vehicle group ever successfully performed above chance on trial 2 of the LS task, indicating that neither group had successful LS acquisition. However, the vehicle group did show indications of LS formation by performing above chance on trial 3 of the LS task while the abeta infused group did not, and further investigation is warranted.
