Seminars & Events
Monday, September 19, 2011: Dr. R. Christopher Pierce (University of Pennsylvania) will speak on "Epigenetic Inheritance of a Cocaine Resistance Phenotype" at 4:45 pm in Goodpaster 195.
Friday, November 4, 2011: Dr. Paul Shepard (University of Maryland Baltimore) will speak at 3:00 pm in Schaefer Hall 106.
Friday, November 11, 2011: Dr. Mark Bouton (University of Vermont) will speak at 3:00 pm in Goodpaster Hall 195.
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.
Severino, Amie (2011). Effects of ethanol on mechanoreceptor activity in the medicinal leech (Hirudo verbana). (Mentor: M. Baltzley)
Abstract
Ethanol has diverse effects on the human nervous system. It has numerous effects on perception, sensation, behavior, and cognition. Knowing how ethanol affects invertebrate organisms helps understand its effects in humans. The majority of ethanol studies using invertebrates focus on motor effects, so the effects on sensation are less understood. Hirudo verbana, a type of medicinal leech, is an exceptional modeling system to examine the physiological effects of an acute, low-dose, ethanol exposure on the spontaneous firing patterns of mechanosensory cells. Action potential characteristics that may be altered by exposure of ethanol were examined in nociceptive (N) cells. The half-width of action potential afterhyperpolarizations were significantly increased by ethanol after the cell was exposed to ethanol and washed with saline. Though no other action potential characteristics were altered by exposure to ethanol, this finding is worth expanding research upon the subject of mechanosensory cell sensitivity to ethanol.
