Publications by authors named "Amber L Harris-Bozer"
Foundational textbooks for neuroscience courses can be cost-prohibitive for students and may omit recent advances in the field. Therefore, an Open Educational Resource (OER) repository was curated using existing OER materials for use in behavioral neuroscience and physiology courses. The Behavioral Research and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Open Educational Repository (BRAINOER) contains 9 modules that include the following foundational topics: (1) The Brain and Nervous System, (2) Neurons, (3) The Endocrine System, (4) Neurotransmitters and Psychopharmacology, (5) Motor Processing, (6) Advanced Brain Functions, (7) Sensation and Perception, (8) Genetics and Evolution, (9) Research, Design, and Methods.
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- A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on 374 studies examining the effectiveness of cannabinoids and related substances for pain relief in animal models.
- The majority of the studies focused on male rodents and primarily measured pain relief by observing changes in hypersensitivity related to limb withdrawal.
- While cannabinoid treatments were generally effective in reducing pain behaviors in various pain models, the overall quality of the studies was questioned due to low reporting standards for minimizing bias, suggesting future research should improve methodology and behavioral assessment.
Background: Neuropathic pain patients have described experiencing unprovoked, intermittent pain attacks with shooting, stabbing, and burning qualities. Rodent models used in previous literature usually only involve acute exposure, and/or are unable to manipulate the stimulation intensity in vivo by the experimenter during an experiment.
New Method: This paper describes a method to induce controllable pain behaviors in rodents using a wireless portable electronic device that can be manipulated within the course of an experiment.
Preclinical pain assessments can be criticized for failing to adequately characterize the human clinical pain experience. Although recent assessments have improved upon this shortcoming, there are still significant limitations. One concern is that current procedures fail to examine underlying motivational drives related to pain.
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- Local field potentials (LFP) capture low-frequency neural activity close to recording electrodes and are important for understanding various cellular processes.
- The review aims to provide guidance for non-experts on LFP by discussing its cellular basis, recording methods, and analytical techniques, especially focusing on power-banded analyses.
- Additionally, it highlights successful clinical applications of LFP, demonstrating its relevance in both research and practical settings.
Article Synopsis
- The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is critical for processing pain, but there is limited research on the local field potential (LFP) profiles related to pain in freely moving animals.
- This study recorded LFP activity in freely moving rats experiencing carrageenan-induced inflammation and showed significant changes in delta, theta, and alpha frequency bands after injection, which indicates heightened neural activity related to pain.
- Additionally, applying mechanical stimulation to the affected limb further increased LFP activity and introduced beta band frequencies, enhancing our understanding of neural processing during painful experiences and informing pain management strategies.
The ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been established as a critical nucleus for processing behavioral changes that occur during psychostimulant use. Although it is known that cocaine induced locomotor activity is initiated in the VTA, not much is known about the electrical activity in real time. The use of our custom-designed wireless module for recording local field potential (LFP) activity provides an opportunity to confirm and identify changes in neuronal activity within the VTA of freely moving rats.
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