Sexual fidelity trade-offs promote regulatory variation in the prairie vole brain.

Individual variation in social behavior seems ubiquitous, but we know little about how it relates to brain diversity. Among monogamous prairie voles, levels of vasopressin receptor (encoded by the gene avpr1a) in brain regions related to spatial memory predict male space use and sexual fidelity in the field. We find that trade-offs between the benefits of male fidelity and infidelity are reflected in patterns of territorial intrusion, offspring paternity, avpr1a expression, and the evolutionary fitness of alternative avpr1a alleles.

Effects of population density on corticosterone levels of prairie voles in the field.

High population density is often associated with increased levels of stress-related hormones, such as corticosterone (CORT). Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are a socially monogamous species known for their large population density fluctuations in the wild. Although CORT influences the social behavior of prairie voles in the lab, the effect of population density on CORT has not previously been quantified in this species in the field.

Long-term effects of neonatal stress on adult conditioned place preference (CPP) and hippocampal neurogenesis.

Critically ill preterm infants are often exposed to stressors that may affect neurodevelopment and behavior. We reported that exposure of neonatal mice to stressors or morphine produced impairment of adult morphine-rewarded conditioned place preference (CPP) and altered hippocampal gene expression. We now further this line of inquiry by examining both short- and long-term effects of neonatal stress and morphine treatment.

High-dose erythropoietin does not exacerbate retinopathy of prematurity in rats.

Preterm infants are at high risk of brain injury, and high-dose recombinant erythropoietin (rEpo) may be therapeutic. However, the effect of rEpo on the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is unknown. We hypothesized that (1) rEpo would cross the blood-eye barrier and (2) early rEpo would modulate ROP in a rat model.

Education by peers is the key to success.

We are a Latino, a white guy and an African American, and we are all peer educators in the hepatitis C programme at Organization to Achieve Solutions in Substance Abuse, Inc. (OASIS), a not-for-profit medical clinic in Oakland, California. We are all recovering heroin users who got hepatitis C from using needles and we all managed to stop using drugs.