Publications by authors named "R Orman"

Article Synopsis
  • Bats are increasingly recognized as valuable models for aging research due to their long lifespan, living over 20 to 40 years in the wild or captivity.
  • Their unique biological traits, such as resistance to viral infections and efficient DNA repair mechanisms, offer insights that could enhance healthy aging in humans.
  • The review discusses eight specific areas where bat research can inform our understanding of aging, including genetics, immunity, neurobiology, and even aspects related to menopause, making bats potentially more relevant to human aging studies than traditional lab animals like rodents.
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Retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is a brain region involved in critical cognitive functions including memory, planning, and spatial navigation and is commonly affected in neurodegenerative diseases. Subregions of RSC are typically described as Brodmann areas 29 and 30, which are defined by cytoarchitectural features. Using immunofluorescence, we studied the distributions of neurons immunoreactive for NeuN, latexin, and calcium binding proteins (calbindin, calretinin, and parvalbumin) in RSC of Carollia perspicillata, Seba's short-tailed fruit bat.

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Few brain regions have such wide-ranging inputs and outputs as the claustrum does, and fewer have posed equivalent challenges in defining their structural boundaries. We studied the distributions of three calcium-binding proteins-calretinin, parvalbumin, and calbindin-in the claustrum and dorsal endopiriform nucleus of the fruit bat, Carollia perspicillata. The proportionately large sizes of claustrum and dorsal endopiriform nucleus in Carollia brain afford unique access to these structures' intrinsic anatomy.

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As the average human lifespan lengthens, the impact of neurodegenerative disease increases, both on the individual suffering neurodegeneration and on the community that supports those individuals. Studies aimed at understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration have relied heavily on observational studies of humans and experimental studies in animals, such as mice, in which aspects of brain structure and function can be manipulated to target mechanistic steps. An animal model whose brain is structurally closer to the human brain, that lives much longer than rodents, and whose husbandry is practical may be valuable for mechanistic studies that cannot readily be conducted in rodents.

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Field potential oscillations reflect repetitive firing and synaptic activity by ensembles of neurons in certain areas of the brain. They can be distinguished as slow (e.g.

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