Adenosine plays an important role in animal physiology as the backbone of the high-energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and also as a modulator of cellular activity through interaction with adenosine receptors. Since cellular activity causes an increase in extracellular …
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterised by severe memory loss and the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau pathology within neocortex and medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures. Episodic memory impairment is a defining feature of early AD. The…
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting in the decline of cognitive function, memory formation and retrieval, and abrupt changes in personality. Damage to brain networks occur during prodromal stages of AD, prior to the development of clinical symptoms…
It has been proposed that as animals explore their environment they build and maintain a cognitive map, an internal representation of their surroundings (Tolman, 1948). We tested this hypothesis using a task designed to assess the ability of rats to make a spatial inference (tak…
The hippocampal formation has been implicated in spatial formation for many decades. The hippocampus proper has received the most attention but other regions of the hippocampal formation contribute largely to spatial cognition. This thesis concentrated on one such region, the po…
Global brain ischemia and reperfusion cause phosphorylation of the alpha subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2α, a reversible event associated with neuronal translation inhibition. However, the selective vulnerability of cornu Ammonis (CA) 1 pyramidal neurons correlates with…
Stress affects virtually all organisms and can result in both physiological and behavioral changes. Conditioned defeat in Syrian hamsters is a model of stress-induced behavioral plasticity that occurs in a social context. In this model, hamsters are defeated by a larger, more ag…
Following decades of research on stress and its impact on behaviour, it is now widely accepted that selective psycho-pathologies, in particular clinical depression are more prevalent in humans with prior history of life-stress events. Interest in stress has led to questions abou…
The hippocampus has been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression. This study examined whether youth hippocampal subregion volumes were differentially associated with maternal depression history and youth’s depressive symptoms across the transition to adolescence. 74 prea…
Opioids and opioid-conditioned stimuli (CS) negatively alter host immunity, impairing the response to pathogens during opioid use and following drug cessation. Using male rats, our laboratory has determined that heroin or heroin-CS exposure preceding an endotoxin challenge marke…