Links to:
2006 Projects
2005 Projects
2003 SFN Poster – INTERFERENCE EFFECTS IN THE SPATIAL DNMTS WORKING MEMORY TASK
2002 – SFN Poster - INDUCTION OF COMPULSIVE FEATURES IN MATERNAL BEHAVIOR VIA CHRONIC QUINPIROLE ADMINISTRATION IN THE RAT
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2006 Projects
Lindsey Davis (Neuroscience)
The involvement of anterior cingulate cortex dopamine in effort-based decisions with varying reward probabilities
Effort-based decision making studies, a subdivision of neuroeconomics, focus on whether an animal is willing to exert the effort needed to reach a reward. Quinolinic acid lesions to the anterior cingulate cortex will be performed in order to damage the dopaminergic system, which is crucial to decision making. It has been observed that this damage causes deviation from normal effort-based decision making when related to reward quantity. The current study examines if a similar deviation is present when related to reward probabilities. It is predicted that rats that receive quinolinic acid lesions will not exert the effort needed to reach an area with a high probability of reward when an area of low probability of reward requires much less effort.
Erin Griner (Psychology)
Choice behavior in rats as a function of neuroeconomic decision making as opposed to a function of spatial strategy
The most common theory of choice behavior in rats is that rats make choices in mazes based on spatial cues and the amount of time that has past since the rat last visited a particular arm of the maze, because that arm is more likely to yield a reward. But what if the arms of the maze each have a different probability of the rat receiving food? In this study I will look at how rats will respond when they are given a choice between two arms in a maze, each with a different probability of the rat receiving a food pellet. In this case I believe that the rat will make its decision based on a combination of probability and time.
Kelly Spisak (Neuroscience)
Is self awareness in humans lateralized to the right hemisphere of the brain?
The field of cognitive neuroscience has implied a relationship between the right and the left hemispheres of the brain, and of the sense of self. However, these studies have failed to identify which hemisphere is directly correlated with self-awareness. Based upon the screening of thirty participants, this study will attempt to use the reaction time measurements of Shepard’s rotation task, as a method to determine if the sense of self is correlated with only the right hemisphere of the brain. If recognition time for mental rotation is maximally increased while viewing self-faces in the right hemisphere and simultaneously performing the rotation of the object mentally, this may be an indication that the right hemisphere is connected with self-recognition.
Kristin Tarzia (Neuroscience)
A Behavioral Model of Depression: The Acute and Chronic Stress of Rat pups observed in a Morris Water Maze
Stressful early experiences in rat pups can alter their life and over time lead to depression. Rats handled vs. non-handled in different environmental conditions can cause severe deficits in the Periaqueductual Gray and dopamine d2 receptors in 5-HT regions (Heidbreder, Weiss, Domeney, Pryce, Homberg, Hedou, Feldon, Moran, and Nelson, 2000). The stress levels of human handled and non-handled of rats in group stressed, individually isolated, and maternal housing environments will be measured by a water maze and explored in this study. It is predicted that rats handled in an individually isolated environment will exhibit the highest stress levels and that the rats in the maternal housed and group stress non-handled conditions will exhibit the least amount of stress in the water maze.
2005 Projects:
Emilee Gustkey
The Evolutionary Origins of Subjectivity in Choice Behavior: A Local Representation
A local model of representation explains the evolutionary origins of subjectivity in choice behavior in rats. Sixteen adult male rats were separated into 2 conditions to be run on a radial arm maze. The rats learn to weigh the arms at different spatial conditions differentially, depending on the probability of reinforcement given. It is hypothesized that, in the control probe condition, the subjects visit the arms in chronological sequential order as predicted by the spatial model of representation. In the experimental condition, it is hypothesized that the previous behavior will be tempered by the probability of reinforcement associated with each arm and thus, the rats are using probability matching rather than spatial strategy.
Lindsey Weber
The Nature of Representation: A Local Memory Model
Abstract: It has already been established that rats have the ability to repeatedly return to an item or location; this suggests that spatial information becomes organized as rats experience their environment. This ability requires an internal model or representation of the environment. In this study, we will be using an 8-arm radial arm maze to determine the manner in which such an internal model may be constructed. Particularly, we will observe the cognitive operations involved in the representation of memory. The ability for the animal to be able or not be able to recall visiting that item or place is, to them, an adaptation they have evolved to determine how much time has passed. In this model, we do not allow for memory consolidation, by constantly changing its environment, causing the rat to make what we call local decisions just as it would in a real, dynamic environment. This implicit or local memory model forces the rat to rely on the raw familiarity of an item without determining the source of that familiarity. This model may be more accurate due to the fact that rats are incessantly being exposed to retroactive interference in their natural environment and would therefore have little time for memory consolidation. In this study we predict the following; a) that the recall of items is independent of time, b) the recall of items is dependant on the amount of retroactive interference and c) the greater the magnitude (distance in time of occurrence) between the two choice items (probed items), the greater the chance the rat will choose the one visited earliest in the sequence.
INTERFERENCE EFFECTS IN THE SPATIAL DNMTS WORKING MEMORY TASK. |
A.G.Gittis1,2*; R.A.Vajdich1,2 |
1. Dept. Psychol, 2. Neurosci. Program, Westminster Col, New Wilmington, PA, USA |
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In working memory tasks, is forgetting due to traces losing strength over time or is forgetting due to interference? This classic question has never been definitively resolved, however, its framing impacts our interpretation of the contribution of neural structures to the memory process. Although interference models appear to be the most convincing from the perspective of traditional experimental psychology, neural models that include the hippocampus and the frontal lobes tend to emphasize these structures role in a time dependent process. This study evaluates the role of interference factors on a rats performance using a delayed non-match-to-sample paradigm, a paradigm generally used to study time-dependent phenomena and the hippocampus role in memory. As a working memory task, it is thought to be relatively impervious to interference effects. Using an 8 arm radial maze, rats are forced to choose 4 arms, and after a delay interval, have to select the 4 unvisited arms to receive rewards. Inserted into the delay interval are interference manipulations. Two additional forced choices are inserted that a) either duplicate, retrospectively, previously forced arms or b) are arms that, prospectively, the rat is to choose. The results show that forced choices to arms the rat will prospectively choose are maximally disruptive. The study demonstrates that interference effects can readily be produced in the radial arm paradigm, and manipulations that interfere with the animals  intended choices, or prospective memory, are maximally disruptive. |
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Citation:
A.G. Gittis, R.A. Vajdich. INTERFERENCE EFFECTS IN THE SPATIAL DNMTS WORKING MEMORY TASK. Program No. 622.9. 2003 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner. Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, 2003. Online. | |
INDUCTION OF COMPULSIVE FEATURES IN MATERNAL BEHAVIOR VIA CHRONIC QUINPIROLE ADMINISTRATION IN THE RAT |
A.G. Gittis*; J.M. Tomnay; E.A. Peterson |
Dept Psychol, Westminster Col, New Wilmington, PA, USA |
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is postulated to be rooted in aberrant basal ganglia activity. The resulting abnormal behaviors are linked to basic biological motive states thematically related to hygiene, safety, etc. Ritualistic behavior patterns such as compulsive hand washing and checking are prototypical expressions of the disorder. Szchectman (1998)developed an animal model of this disorder through chronic administration of the D2,D3 agonist quinpirole. Animals became sensitized to quinpirole and repeatedly checked objects placed in an open field. This study models quinpirole induced OCD in the articulated behavioral pattern of rat pup retrieval, a behavior reminiscent of classic fixed action patterns. Dams were injected with quinpirole (.2mg/kg) s.c. or received the saline vehicle over 10 days and re-injected 2 hours prior to testing when pups were 9 and 10 days of age. At 9 days, the incentive properties of the pups were evaluated by scoring approach and investigatory activity towards confined pups. At 10 days, the motor components of retrieval were evaluated when the dam was permitted free access to pups dispersed in an arena. It was observed that quinpirole leaves the incentive value of pups unaffected; the approach and investigatory behavior of the quinpirole injected dams were similar to controls. However, the fixed action pattern of retrieval itself was noticeably affected. Quinpirole injected dams brought pups back to the home nest but were unable to drop them. Therefore, quinpirole induced an exaggeration of one component of the retrieval pattern and, as a consequence, disrupted the coordinated repetitive sequence of pup retrieval. |
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Citation:
A.G. Gittis, J.M. Tomnay, E.A. Peterson. INDUCTION OF COMPULSIVE FEATURES IN MATERNAL BEHAVIOR VIA CHRONIC QUINPIROLE ADMINISTRATION IN THE RAT Program No. 896.13. 2002 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner. Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, 2002. Online. | |
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