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.
Burke, Jesse (2012). Effects of adolescent exposure to olanzapine on adulthood rodents. (Mentor: A. Bailey)
Abstract
With greater understanding of certain mental illnesses, there comes the ability to identify and start treatment at an earlier age. Starting medication is one line of defense when a mental illness is identified, and when that illness is identified in adolescence this process is no different. The complication arises when introduction of these drugs occurs during adolescence, a period when the nervous system is rapidly changing. Studying the long-term effects of starting medications at an early age is critical for understanding if the treatment of symptoms outweighs the potential behavioral/neurobiological consequences in adulthood. In the current study, we administered olanzapine (OLA), a common atypical antipsychotic that is prescribed for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism to adolescent rats to see how this affected conditioned reinforcement through a Pavlovian reinforcer devaluation task in adulthood. We also wanted to see if adolescent OLA treatment affected fear and appetitive extinction tasks in adulthood. We did not find any significant impairment between vehicle and OLA treated rodents in conditioned reinforcement or appetitive extinction, although some interesting behavioral trends were noted.
