Nu Rho Psi, The National Honor Society in Neuroscience: A decade of progress.

Nu Rho Psi, the National Honor Society in Neuroscience, celebrates its 10th anniversary by reflecting back upon a decade's worth of growth, successes, and accomplishments of its membership. Fundamentally, Nu Rho Psi seeks to engage the nation's best and brightest science students early in their educational pursuits and steer them towards future careers in neuroscience, thereby driving higher quality neuroscience education and research at all levels. This article details the history of Nu Rho Psi since its founding by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) and reviews the current programs, benefits, and future initiatives of the Society.

Intentional Excellence in the Baldwin Wallace University Neuroscience Program.

The Society for Neuroscience recognized Baldwin Wallace University's (BWU) undergraduate Neuroscience program as their Program of the Year for 2012. This award acknowledged the "accomplishments of a neuroscience department or program for excellence in educating neuroscientists and providing innovative models to which other programs can aspire." The Neuroscience program grew out of students interested in studying the biological basis of behavior.

Latent inhibition of a conditioned taste aversion in fetal rats.

The etiology of schizophrenia's cognitive symptoms may have its basis in prenatal alterations of glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor functioning. Therefore, the current study investigated the effects of ketamine (an NMDA receptor blocking drug) on both a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) and latent inhibition (LI; a model of attentional capacity) in rat fetuses. We first sought to determine if a CTA could be diminished by nonreinforced preexposure to a CS in fetal rats (i.

Chronic dietary magnesium-L-threonate speeds extinction and reduces spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion.

Elevation of brain magnesium enhances synaptic plasticity and extinction of conditioned fear memories. This experiment examined the generalizability of this phenomenon by studying the effects of a novel magnesium compound, magnesium-L-threonate (MgT), on conditioned taste aversion (CTA) extinction and spontaneous recovery (SR). Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were maintained on a 23-hour water deprivation cycle and acquired a CTA following the taste of a CS [0.

Stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray enhances spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion.

Due to its relevance to clinical practice, extinction of learned fears has been a major focus of recent research. However, less is known about the means by which conditioned fears re-emerge (i.e.

Baclofen alters gustatory discrimination capabilities and induces a conditioned taste aversion (CTA).

Background: Studies intending to measure drug-induced changes in learning and memory are challenged to parse out the effects of drugs on sensory, motor, and associative systems in the brain. In the context of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), drugs that alter the sensorium of subjects and affect their ability to taste and/or feel malaise may limit the ability of investigators to make conclusions about associative effects of these substances. Since the GABAergic system is implicated in inhibition, the authors were hopeful to use the GABA agonist, baclofen (BAC), to enhance extinction of a CTA, but first a preliminary evaluation of BAC's peripheral effects on animals' sensorium had to be completed due to a lack of published literature in this area.

Periaqueductal gray c-Fos expression varies relative to the method of conditioned taste aversion extinction employed.

A conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is acquired when an animal consumes a novel taste (CS) and then experiences the symptoms of poisoning (US). Following CTA training, animals will avoid the taste that was previously associated with malaise. This defensive reaction to a learned fear can be extinguished by repeated exposure to the CS alone (CS-only; CSO-EXT).

Acute, but not chronic, exposure to d-cycloserine facilitates extinction and modulates spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion.

D-cycloserine, the glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor partial agonist, has been reported to facilitate the extinction of learned fears acquired in both naturalistic and laboratory settings. The current study extended this literature by evaluating the ability of either chronic or acute administrations of DCS to modulate the extinction and spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA). Twenty-three hour fluid-deprived Sprague-Dawley rats acquired a strong CTA following 3 pairings of a conditioned stimulus (CS; 0.

Narratives and neurons: stories of damaged brains.

Stories register in human memory in special ways, and stories about neurological cases can entertain and move a reader while simultaneously being an important part of any neuroscience curriculum. Here we describe a course taught in the context of the liberal arts curriculum of Baldwin-Wallace College. Students from a variety of disciplines learned basic neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and neurochemistry and then used this information to help them understand published neurological case studies, which were analyzed for their literary as well as scientific qualities.

Explicit disassociation of a conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus during extinction training reduces both time to asymptotic extinction and spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion.

Conditioned taste aversions (CTAs) may be acquired when an animal consumes a novel taste (CS) and then experiences the symptoms of poisoning (US). This aversion may be extinguished by repeated exposure to the CS alone. However, following a latency period in which the CS is not presented, the CTA will spontaneously recover (SR).

Time-dependent retrograde amnesic effects of muscimol on conditioned taste aversion extinction.

We explored how stimulation of GABA(A) receptors at different times during conditioned taste aversion (CTA) acquisition or extinction influenced extinction. In Experiment 1, rats acquired a CTA to 0.3% saccharin-flavored water (SAC) when it followed an injection of lithium chloride (LiCl; 81.

Spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion differentially alters extinction-induced changes in c-Fos protein expression in rat amygdala and neocortex.

Conditioned taste aversions (CTAs) may be acquired when an animal consumes a novel taste (conditioned stimulus; CS) and then experiences the symptoms of poisoning (unconditioned stimulus; US). Animals will later avoid the taste that was previously associated with malaise. Extinction of a CTA is observed following repeated, non-reinforced exposures to the CS and represents itself as a resumption of eating/drinking the once-avoided tastant.

Acetaminophen self-administered in the drinking water increases the pain threshold of rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Previous studies have suggested that the addition of flavored acetaminophen suspension (for example, Children's Tylenol) in the drinking water of rats may not be effective in producing postoperative analgesia because of low levels of consumption. However, these investigations neither measured analgesia nor compared the consumption by rats that had undergone surgery with that by unmanipulated rats. The present study reports that although unmanipulated rats naive to the taste of flavored acetaminophen do indeed drink significantly less of this liquid than tap water, they drank sufficient amounts of the acetaminophen-containing solution to significantly raise pain thresholds, as measured by the hot-plate test.

A role for prefrontal cortex in the extinction of a conditioned taste aversion.

This study used immunohistochemical methods to determine if the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the extinction of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA). As rats reached 90% reacceptance of a tastant (saccharin: SAC) that had previously been associated with lithium chloride-induced malaise, c-Fos protein expression increased dramatically as compared to animals with active CTAs, animals without CTAs (i.e.

Long-term age-dependent behavioral changes following a single episode of fetal N-methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) receptor blockade.

Background: Administration of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist ketamine during the perinatal period can produce a variety of behavioral and neuroanatomical changes. Our laboratory has reported reliable changes in learning and memory following a single dose of ketamine administered late in gestation. However, the nature of the drug-induced changes depends on the point during embryonic development when ketamine is administered.

Dynamic processing of taste aversion extinction in the brain.

While substantial advances have been made in discovering how the brain learns and remembers, less is known about how the brain discards information, reorganizes information, or both. These topics are not only relevant to normal brain functioning but also speak to pathologies in which painful memories do not wane but are evoked time and again (e.g.

Repeated exposures to gustatory stimuli produce habituation or positive contrast effects in perinatal rats.

Adult rats exhibit a decrease in consummatory responses following repeated presentations of a taste (habituation) and an increase in consummatory responses if they experience an upward shift in the magnitude or intensity of a gustatory stimulus (e.g., sucrose or saccharin).

Mentoring undergraduate students in neuroscience research: a model system at baldwin-wallace college.

As neuroscience research and discovery undergoes phenomenal growth worldwide, undergraduate students are seeking complete laboratory experiences that go beyond the classic classroom curriculum and provide mentoring in all aspects of science. Stock, in-class, laboratory experiences with known outcomes are less desirable than discovery-based projects in which students become full partners with faculty in the design, conduct and documentation of experiments that find their way into the peer-reviewed literature. The challenges of providing such experiences in the context of a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) can be daunting.

Simple behavioral methods to assess the effect of drugs or toxins on sensory experience.

When behavioral pharmacologists/toxicologists study conditioned taste aversions (CTAs), or other conditioned responses, as a means to investigate the effects of various drugs or toxins on a learned response, failure to discover a CTA is frequently attributed to the treatment's influence on the associative process. This kind of analysis may fail to identify drug-induced sensory changes that may influence conditioned stimulus (CS) or unconditioned stimulus (US) saliency. The current paper outlines a simple method by which a drug's influence on CS or US sensation may be determined.

Paradoxical effects of ketamine on the memory of fetuses of different ages.

Brain N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors have been implicated as important mediators of both learning and neuronal development. The current study investigated how ketamine (a well-known NMDA-receptor blocking drug) influences taste-mediated conditioned motor responses (CMRs) in perinatal rats. Dams pregnant with either embryonic day 18 (E18) or E19 rat fetuses were injected with 0 or 100 mg/kg ketamine HCl (i.

Ketamine blocks a taste recognition memory in fetal rats.

Decisions about novelty/familiarity are critical in determining whether or not information should be attended to, and possibly encoded, for long-term storage. We have reported that fetal and neonatal rats exhibit an increase in orofacial movements (e.g.

Detection of novelty by perinatal rats.

This study investigated the development of fetal/neonatal rats' ability to distinguish between a novel and familiar taste. Here, we report that neonatal rats alter their orofacial movements (e.g.

Ketamine blocks a taste-mediated conditioned motor response in perinatal rats.

Brain N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors have been implicated as important mediators of both learning and neuronal development. The current study investigated how ketamine HCl (a well-known NMDA-receptor blocking drug) would influence taste-mediated conditioned motor responses in perinatal rats. Dams pregnant with E19 rat fetuses were injected with 0, 50, or 100 mg/kg ketamine HCl (IP).

Providing effective low-cost back lighting for localized surgical procedures.

A method of providing back light illumination was developed in the context of injecting rat fetuses. The illuminator had a compact flat design measuring approximately 2.6 cm x 6 cm, with minimal thickness (about 7 mm), and a proportionately large amount of active area.