Matching Items (6)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

The Effect of Active Sensing on Odor Perception and Associative Learning in Honeybees

Description
Active sensing is a sensory phenomenon in which organisms use self-generated energy to examine their surroundings. This experiment strives to better understand active sensing in honeybees, predicting that active sensing may display itself primarily through antennae movement and that preventing antennae movement may result in differences in electroantennogram dose-response curves…

Active sensing is a sensory phenomenon in which organisms use self-generated energy to examine their surroundings. This experiment strives to better understand active sensing in honeybees, predicting that active sensing may display itself primarily through antennae movement and that preventing antennae movement may result in differences in electroantennogram dose-response curves and associative learning plasticity. This will be done by examining changes in amplitude in electroantennogram response in both fixed-antenna and free-antenna bees over the course of a differential training protocol that establishes learned behavior discrimination.
ContributorsLei, Harry (Author) / Smith, Brian (Thesis director) / Albin-Brooks, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2023-05

What can the peripheral epigenome tell us about the brain? White matter volume in a healthy pediatric population

Description

For my thesis, I conducted a study on a healthy pediatric cohort to investigate how DNA methylation of genes related to myelin may predict total white matter volume in a healthy pediatric cohort. The relatively new field of neuroimaging epigenetics investigates how methylation of genes in peripheral tissue samples is…

For my thesis, I conducted a study on a healthy pediatric cohort to investigate how DNA methylation of genes related to myelin may predict total white matter volume in a healthy pediatric cohort. The relatively new field of neuroimaging epigenetics investigates how methylation of genes in peripheral tissue samples is related to certain structural or functional features of the brain, as measured by neuroimaging data. Research has already demonstrated that methylation of genes in peripheral tissues is related to a variety of brain disorders. We hypothesized that methylation of myelin-related genes as measured in saliva samples would predict total white matter volume in a healthy pediatric cohort. After processing DNA methylation data from saliva samples from participants, multiple linear regressions were ran to determine if DNA methylation of myelin related genes was related to total white matter volume, as measured by data from structural MRIs. Results showed that these genes, which included MOG, MBP, and MYRF, significantly predicted total white matter volume. Two genes that were significant in our results have been previously shown to produce proteins that are essential to the structure of myelin.
ContributorsSpencer, Sophie (Author) / Lewis, Candace (Thesis director) / Braden, Blair (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2023-05

EEG Power as a Potential Biomarker for Migraine

Description

With millions of people living with a disease as restraining as migraines, there are no ways to diagnose them before they occur. In this study, a migraine model using nitroglycerin is used in rats to study the awake brain activity during the migraine state. In an attempt to search for…

With millions of people living with a disease as restraining as migraines, there are no ways to diagnose them before they occur. In this study, a migraine model using nitroglycerin is used in rats to study the awake brain activity during the migraine state. In an attempt to search for a biomarker for the migraine state, we found multiple deviations in EEG brain activity across different bands. Firstly, there was a clear decrease in power in the delta, beta, alpha, and theta bands. A slight increase in power in the gamma and high frequency bands was also found, which is consistent with other pain-related studies12. Additionally, we searched for a decreased pain threshold in this deviation, in which we concluded that more data analysis is needed to eliminate the multiple potential noise influxes throughout each dataset. However, with this study we did find a clear change in brain activity, but a more detailed analysis will narrow down what this change could mean and how it impacts the migraine state.
ContributorsStrambi, McKenna (Author) / Muthuswamy, Jitendran (Thesis director) / Greger, Bradley (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
135993-Thumbnail Image.png

Investigation of Sniffing as a Viable Measure of Odor Habituation in Mice

Description
Mammalian olfaction relies on active sniffing, which both shapes and is shaped by olfactory stimuli. Habituation to repeated exposure of an olfactory stimuli is believed to be mediated by decreased sniffing; however, this decrease may be reserved by exposure to novel odorants. Because of this, it may be possible to…

Mammalian olfaction relies on active sniffing, which both shapes and is shaped by olfactory stimuli. Habituation to repeated exposure of an olfactory stimuli is believed to be mediated by decreased sniffing; however, this decrease may be reserved by exposure to novel odorants. Because of this, it may be possible to use sniffing itself as a measure of novelty, and thus as a measure of odorant similarity. Thus, I investigated the use of sniffing to measure habituation, cross-habituation, and odorant similarity. During habituation experiments, increases in sniff rate seen in response to odorant presentation decreased in magnitude between the first and second presentations, suggesting of habituation. Some of this reduction in sniff rate increases was revered by the presentation of a novel odorant in cross-habituations. However the effect sizes in cross-habituation experiments were low, and the variability high, forestalling the conclusion that sniffing accurately measured cross-habituation. I discuss improvements to the experimental protocol that may allow for cross-habituation to be more accurately measured using sniffing alone in future experiments.
ContributorsVigayavel, Nirmal (Author) / Smith, Brian (Thesis director) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Gerkin, Rick (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12

Validation of activity-dependent EGR1 overexpression using a novel virus

Description
Immediate early genes (IEGs) are the first set of genes to be transcribed in a cell in response to stimuli; their expression is quick and is not protein synthesis dependent. Neurons are activated in response to external stimuli, causing a rapid increase in IEG expression in the brain. IEG proteins…

Immediate early genes (IEGs) are the first set of genes to be transcribed in a cell in response to stimuli; their expression is quick and is not protein synthesis dependent. Neurons are activated in response to external stimuli, causing a rapid increase in IEG expression in the brain. IEG proteins go on to affect fundamental neurobiological processes that are known to be dysfunctional in patients with psychiatric disorders, and therefore IEGs have been connected to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Early growth response (Egr) genes are immediate early gene transcription factors (IEG-TFs) that are expressed in response to an altered environment. The IEG-TFs, early growth response 1 (EGR1) and early growth response 3 (EGR3) are necessary for processes such as memory and synaptic plasticity; lack of function in these genes causes dysfunction or disruption of these processes. We wanted to observe if increasing the function of Egrs by overexpressing them will lead to improved memory. To help further understand how behavior is affected by the overexpression (O/E) of Egr1 in response to stimuli, the AAV-ESARE-Egr1 virus was developed to be injected in the hippocampus of mice. In the hippocampus of wild-type (WT) mice, cells that are active endogenously express Egr1. The virus was created using the synaptic activity-response element (SARE), an element discovered on the promoter of the IEG activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) gene by our collaborators in Japan. Using an “enhanced” form of SARE (ESARE), our newly created virus acts to overexpress Egr1 only in response to activity in the hippocampus; we can then observe if the behavioral processes associated with Egr1 will improve. First, this project aims to validate that the AAV-ESARE-Egr1 virus is increasing Egr1 expression in the active hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) granule cells of WT mice, and only in response to activity. The activity is in the form of a physiological stimulus, environmental enrichment (EE) and a non-physiological stimulus, electroconvulsive seizures (ECS). After confirming these characteristics of AAV-ESARE-Egr1 we can then use it to observe if EGR1 O/E improves the memory of mice.
ContributorsWallace, Sophie (Author) / Lewis, Candace (Thesis director) / Gallitano, Amelia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05

Exploring Allophonic Perception Through Cortical Electroencephalography in Adults with Dyslexia

Description
Objective: Previous studies have expressed that individuals with dyslexia may be hypersensitive to stimuli when compared to typical individuals, creating the neural noise hypothesis. This study uses electroencephalogram (EEG) to look at participants' mismatch negativity (MMN) response to the distinctive English phoneme /æ/ and an allophone of the phoneme /æ/,…

Objective: Previous studies have expressed that individuals with dyslexia may be hypersensitive to stimuli when compared to typical individuals, creating the neural noise hypothesis. This study uses electroencephalogram (EEG) to look at participants' mismatch negativity (MMN) response to the distinctive English phoneme /æ/ and an allophone of the phoneme /æ/, measuring their reaction to the variation between these two sounds. Methods: Twenty-two adults, fourteen with dyslexia and 8 controls partook in an auditory oddball EEG experiment measuring MMN with the amplitudes and latencies being collected. Results: Five participants demonstrated a large MMN response, four of which were in the dyslexic group. These participants’ results indicate an increased sensitivity to phonetic differences. Significance: Understanding how some individuals with dyslexia process phonetic differences may be key to comprehending how a dyslexic subtype takes in auditory information.
ContributorsOvaska, Madeline (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis director) / Daliri, Ayoub (Committee member) / Kim, Yookyung (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05