Behavioral Neuroscience Honors Papers

Integrating the cocaine sensitization and ( + )-MK-801 animal models of schizophrenia: The effect of dopamine and glutamate interactions on comorbid schizophrenia and drug abuse

Alison McPherson — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:40:53 PDT

The Impact of a Naturalistic Stressor on Spontaneous Alternation Behavior: A New Animal Model of OCD

Christina Finch — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:11:15 PDT

Over the past few decades, various animal models of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have been developed. Similarly, various stressors have been used throughout animal research. The Spontaneous Alternation Behavioral (SAB) model is a well-established model of OCD while 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT) has recently become a popular naturalistic stressor. This study linked the two together, thus modeling the effect of stress on OCD behaviors. After living in an enriched or standard environment for 3 weeks, male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to either TMT or no odor, and then were examined in the SAB task. Unlike what was hypothesized, the enriched environment proved not to be obviously protective towards future stress in terms of SAB behavior. However, rats housed in enriched environments proved to be more decisive, which could be reflective of the protective nature of their enriched housing. Additionally, an interaction effect of housing and odor in terms of distance traveled during odor exposure, paired with the rats’ location in regard to the odor source, lead the researchers to believe that the enriched housing was protective for rats faced with stress. TMT proved to be effectively aversive to the rats yet, unlike what was hypothesized, TMT was not shown to be stress-inducing, at least not in a way that increased OCD-like behavior as modeled by the SAB model. The effects of stress on OCD is challenging to model and further research in this field, using a variety of models, will need to be explored.

Do Athletes Respond Differently to Academic and Social Stress? An Examination of Cortisol and Perceived Stress Throughout a Semester in College Athletes and Typical College Students

Rita Rose Holak — Wed, 12 May 2010 10:51:47 PDT

In order to be a successful athlete, you must be able to perform well under stressful situations. Are athletes also better at responding to stress under other circumstances such as social and academic stress? The present study investigated the impact of exercise on salivary cortisol and perceived stress in college students. Cortisol was sampled throughout a semester as well as before and after a laboratory‐based stress test during the final exam period. It was found that athletes had the largest increase in cortisol between baseline and the final exam period and the sedentary students had the smallest increase. Also, cortisol levels and perceived stress were correlated in the athlete group and in a second group of students who work out regularly. These findings suggest that perhaps since athletes are often in competitive situations their HPA axis is physiologically conditioned to raise their cortisol to an optimal level in order to achieve their personal best possible results in stress provoking situations.