Publications by authors named "Helen K Strnad"
Article Synopsis
- Social behavior declines in aging, particularly noted in old female rats, prompting research into how their brain responds to social interactions.
- The study measured mRNA activation in young and old female rats after brief exposure to a novel rat, finding significant differences in neural response, particularly in the lateral septum and septohypothalamic area, with young rats exhibiting greater responses.
- Additionally, relative oxytocin receptor expression was assessed, revealing that age-related declines in social investigative behavior are linked to specific brain regions, especially with a noted decrease in the ventromedial hypothalamus.
Work in recent years has provided strong evidence for the modulation of memory function and neuroplasticity mechanisms across circadian (daily), ultradian (shorter-than-daily), and infradian (longer-than-daily) timescales. Despite rapid progress, however, the field has yet to adopt a general framework to describe the overarching role of biological rhythms in memory. To this end, Iyer and colleagues introduced the term iterative metaplasticity, which they define as the "gating of receptivity to subsequent signals that repeats on a cyclic timebase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study tested the effects of lidocaine anesthetic ointment applied to the vaginocervical (Experiment 1) or clitoral-vaginocervical (Experiment 2) areas on the display of paced mating behavior over the course of five weekly tests in ovariectomized, hormone-primed, Long-Evans rats. Experiment 3 tested whether rats that acquired sexual experience without ointment application would exhibit altered paced mating behavior on a fifth test under clitoral-vaginocervical lidocaine or vehicle application. Although rats in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 exhibited shorter contact-return latencies after intromission and reduced likelihood of leaving the male compartment following mounts and intromissions after gaining sexual experience, only rats that received clitoral-vaginocervical lidocaine exhibited altered paced mating behavior relative to vehicle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study tested whether the display of paced mating behavior in female rats over four weekly tests is affected by sexual experience and whether test parameters, i.e., ending the test based on time or number of stimulations received, influence behavioral changes.
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