Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Filtering by
- Creators: Oddo, Salvatore
Description
With no known cure, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common dementia, affecting more than 5.5 million Americans. Research has shown that women who undergo surgical menopause (i.e. removal of the ovaries) before the onset of natural menopause are at a greater risk for AD. It is hypothesized that this greater relative risk of developing AD is linked to ovarian hormone deprivation associated with surgical menopause. The purpose of these studies was to evaluate the behavioral changes that occur after a short-term (ST) and a long-term (LT) ovarian hormone deprivation in a mouse model of AD. Wildtype (Wt) or APP/PS1 (Tg) mutation mice underwent either a sham surgery or an ovariectomy (Ovx) surgery at three months of age. Study 1 consisted of a short-term cohort that was behaviorally tested one month following surgery on a battery of spatial memory tasks including, the Morris water maze, delayed matched-to-sample water maze, and visible platform task. Study 2 consisted of a long-term cohort that was behaviorally tested on the same cognitive battery three months following surgery. Results of Study 1 revealed that genotype interacted with surgical menopause status, such that after a short-term ovarian hormone deprivation, Ovx induced a genotype effect while Sham surgery did not. Results of Study 2 showed a similar pattern of effects, with a comparable interaction between genotypes and surgical menopause status. These findings indicate that the cognitive impact of ovarian hormone deprivation depends on AD-related genotype. Neuropathology evaluations in these mice will be done in the near future and will allow us to test relations between surgical menopause status, cognition, and AD-like neuropathology.
ContributorsPalmer, Justin M. (Author) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Thesis director) / Oddo, Salvatore (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The mammalian olfactory system is commonly studied by using the mouse as a model system. Odor habituation is used to investigate odor perception and learning processes. Most previous experimental preparations have been tedious, requiring a researcher to manually change odorants, record investigation time and duration at each odorant, or physical alteration on the mice to enable video tracking. These limitations were overcame by creating an odorized hole-board to allow for systematic and automatic recording of olfactory behavior in mice. A cohort of five male mice were utilized in these experiments and the responses to the odor of strawberries, a diet staple of wile mice, were examined. Experiment 1 showed that free-feeding mice exhibit a preference to locations with strawberry (over control locations), even when these locations can only be identified using olfaction. This preference habituates within a trial but not across days. Experiment 2 showed that strawberry odor without reward causes habituation or extinction to the odor both within trials and across days. From these experiments, it can be concluded that mice innately explore strawberry odor and this can be exploited to the study odor habituation using an odorized hole-board.
ContributorsMa, Jason (Author) / Smith, Brian (Thesis director) / Gerkin, Richard (Committee member) / Oddo, Salvatore (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12