Craig Howard Kinsley - US grants

Students preparation for careers as scientists and teachers will improve significantly by exposure in their laboratory classes and independent research to a histology and neural imaging system that enables one to peer into the workings and structure of the nervous system. Existing psychology courses will improve, and we are adding an additional upper-level laboratory course on neural techniques and neuroanatomy. Concurrently, University of Richmond students will engage in activities with local middle-school science students, involving them in laboratory experiences both at the university using the new equipment and at their own school, promoting creative and critical thinking skills regarding the brain, nervous system and behavior, while fostering an interest in science. Collaborations will also continue with psychology faculty and students from neighboring Randolph-Macon Women's College.

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Organisms continue to develop and change throughout life (Kinsley, 1994). Indeed, brain development is not confined to the period of life when initial growth and systems elaboration are occurring. In particular the adult female brain is modified, reorganized in some examples, in surprisingly rapid fashion as during the estrous cycle after exposure to gonadal steroids (McEwen & Woolley, 1994; Woolley et al., 1990; Woolley & McEwen, 1992, 1993). Little attention has been paid, however, to the remarkable neural plasticity inherent to reproduction itself, particularly endocrine-neuron relations that may be unique to pregnancy and the postpartum period. What might such changes mean for the female's behavior subsequent to the reproductive events themselves? Do there exist long-lasting and pervasive alterations in the female that accompany the events of pregnancy? Specific hormone-induced changes in the brain may, alone or in interaction with the sensory tumult provided by the newborns, facilitate the female's learning of the new behavioral repertoire required to care for them. We ask here if the hormones of pregnancy interact with postpartum pup exposure to produce an "enriched environment" and improve learning ability (at least temporarily and possibly permanently) in the mother. Further, if there are behavioral effects due to the hormones of pregnancy, are there changes in the neural substrate responsible for the alterations of learning, especially in hippocampus? Lastly, given observed and the above-hypothesized changes in hippocampal neuronal characteristics, would stress mitigation be among those variables subsequently influenced by the pregnancy hormones? The present application examines to what extent such reproductive experiences have ramifications for maternal survival behaviors such as the ability to negotiate an environment in order to find food. Further, we will examine the potential stress-mitigating effects of pregnancy hormone exposure in the hippocampus. In the experiments to follow we will address the following Specific Aims and Experiments: SPECIFIC AIM 1. Because the female rat brain is exposed to high and substantial levels of ovarian hormones during pregnancy hormones associated with alterations of hippocampal neuronal morphology are learning and memory significantly altered? Experiment 1: Does reproductive experience enhance spatial and non- spatial learning? Experiment 2: Do multiple parity experiences result in enhanced learning ability? Experiment 3: What is the role of pup stimulation in enhancement of maze learning? SPECIFIC AIM 2. What are the hippocampal neuronal modifications following pregnancy and lactation? Experiment 4: Does parity alter hippocampal pyramidal and glial cells? SPECIFIC AIM 3. Does reproductive experience/parity mitigate stress responsiveness in the female? Experiment 5: Does the experience of parity provide protection from subsequent exposure to chronic stress challenges?

Psychology - Cognitive (73)
A shared Eye-Tracking Laboratory (ELT) has been established at the University of Richmond to advance undergraduate coursework and research. This laboratory is modeled after a similar one at the University of Chicago, but has been adapted for primary use by undergraduate students. Although eye tracking is being increasingly used for research in psychology, engineering, human factors, and education, students at primarily undergraduate institutions rarely gain experience with this advanced technology. The goal of the proposed ELT is to give students a greater understanding of advanced research methodologies in psychology, greater preparation for advanced study in a variety of related fields, and a deeper understanding of mind, brain, and eye.

The ELT enhances the curriculum of advanced research methods courses in social psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, adult development, and behavioral neuroscience. This lab is being used to demonstrate prior findings, and to conduct experiments that extend earlier work. In addition, students in these advanced methods courses are learning how to collect and analyze eye-tracking data in order to investigate their own research questions. Students who have been trained in eye tracking also have the opportunity to use the ELT for independent research projects under the direction of the principal investigator or co-principal investigators. Typically, 35 psychology majors conduct independent research at the University of Richmond Psychology Department each year.

This award provides support to The University of Richmond (UR) for a suite of neuroscience and animal behavioral-recording equipment, which includes a fluorescence microscope with motorized stage and image analysis (IA) capabilities; motorized cryostat; histological processing system; tissue-sectioning Vibratome; neuron tracing software; automated behavioral analysis system with touch screen; acoustic startle boxes; and activity monitors. This complementary and high-throughput equipment will allow UR and affiliated students and faculty to make further advances in understanding the development of the brain. Several different combinations of investigators will use the requested equipment: research faculty and postdoctoral fellows at UR in Neuroscience, Psychology and Biology; faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from UR and affiliated universities and colleges (Randolph-Macon College, in Ashland, VA; Virginia Union University, a Historically Black College in Richmond, VA; Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA); and students and faculty from international institutions.

These faculty and students will design behavioral experiments that can be analyzed by the latest objective automated behavioral recording devices, including basic and complex social interactions. The cryostat and Vibratome and automated immunohistological apparatus will allow faster, more efficient, and more reliable processing of brain tissue. Automated IA and neuronal identification and 3-dimensional drawing features, as well as new double- and triple-labeling immunofluorescent techniques will provide precise neuronal localization of important neurochemicals. In sum, this equipment will allow the investigators to conduct many detailed, comprehensive, and complementary behavioral, and multiple antigen-labeling studies of maternal and paternal brains - studies that heretofore were difficult to perform well, if at all.

The addition of this apparatus will significantly increase the numbers of students -- broadly defined, on and off-campus, international, etc. -- that can be exposed to, and gain experience in, basic research and instruction in the neurosciences. In the process, these investigators can answer valuable questions, train a significant number of future scientists, and share the information with the scientific and lay communities alike, which include local and national media, and metro-Richmond K-12 schools, museums, and hospitals.

The ability of children to acquire their native vocabulary with such ease is truly remarkable, and one that we are only beginning to understand scientifically. In this light it is even more remarkable how easily children raised in bilingual environments can learn two different vocabularies. How are their language systems developed and organized to cope with two different sets of mental dictionaries? Cognitive scientists have addressed this question by studying the language behaviors of bilinguals through their course of development and into adulthood, and in their social and cultural contexts. They have even begun to examine the neural bases of bilingualism, but one approach that has not received much attention is the use of computational models. Meteorologists, for instance, use computational models of weather systems like hurricanes and tornadoes, not just to predict their occurrence, but to more basically understand their dynamics and underlying mechanisms. Likewise, models of cognitive systems have a rich tradition of making progress in many areas of cognitive science, yet to date, bilingualism is not one of them.

With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Li is developing a large-scale computational model of bilingual vocabulary development. The modeling efforts are based on self-organizing connectionist networks that have been used previously in a number of areas of language research, including vocabulary development in monolingual children. Such self-organizing models are well-suited to questions of learning and development, in that these questions are naturally cast in terms of balancing competitive and cooperative interactions among system components. In the case of bilingual vocabulary development, the components can be construed as individual words from the languages being learned. By modeling vocabulary development in this way, Dr. Li is investigating how language learning is a fundamentally incremental process whereby bilingual knowledge and skills learned later in life build upon earlier language learning. This point has important implications for bilingual education, and the debilitating effects that brain trauma or disease can have on bilingual language processing.

The parental brain represents a significant opportunity to understand the manner in which inherent neuroplasticity, the brain's reserve for change and adaptation, can be expressed at many different levels. The PI, Craig H. Kinsley, is interested in acquiring a related suite of neuroscience equipment that can focus on detailed and precise genetic expression questions, to provide his students, and those of seven colleagues, with outstanding research experiences. This request will enhance their research, connecting previously NSF-supported detailed behavioral observations, and precise neuronal protein and histological techniques, with single-cell proteomic analyses using the Zeiss Axiovert PALM-Bioquant system and a suite of Qiagen qRT-PCR equipment. The current set of microscopes in the PIs' labs are all upright platforms, whereas the requested microscope is an inverted microscope, thereby increasing and enhancing their technical abilities significantly (including cell culture and live, small animal [e.g., C. elegans; roundworms] capabilities).

The teams of investigators plan to perform laser micro-dissection and micro-capture from animal nervous tissues, precisely removing minute pieces of individual neurons/cells for pure, uncontaminated genetic analyses, thereby allowing observation of neuronal and cell gene-expression patterns in a heretofore unparalleled manner, expanding their already detailed behavioral and regional brain analyses and providing their students with multi-disciplinary opportunities for study and collaboration, both here and abroad. This broad approach will bridge basic research with the latest technologies, and allow them to: conduct more sophisticated studies on neural regulation of the parental brain; obtain more reliable data from other cellular realms; increase the number of studies performed; and increase the number of undergraduates involved, including those reluctant to use rats or their tissues. The equipment will be used by faculty and students from: Randolph Macon College (Dr. Lambert); Virginia Union University (TBA); Marshall University (Dr. Bardi); Rhodes College (Dr. Gerecke); Longwood University (Dr. Franssen); the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (Dr. Felicio); and for teaching and research by other UR investigators (Drs. Radice, Telang, and Warrick).

This equipment represents a significant advance in understanding the development of the parental brain, across multiple species. Presently, their talented undergraduates can embark on sophisticated questions related to brain and behavior. Currently, their equipment allows them to conduct complementary multiple antigen-labeling studies of maternal and paternal brains and other tissues faster, more efficiently, and more reliably (an especially important advantage for students seeking to complete an experiment in one+ semester). The current MRI request will add a significant capability to the scientists' work with students, one that substantially increases the students' understanding of neural events, and one in which more students are interested: proteomics. Last, the expanded research opportunities will support their continued efforts to do excellent research, expand general interest in and understanding of science, and educate and train many students, including more diverse students, which in the past (and currently) have included significant numbers of women and under-represented minorities.

The PI and his colleagues are passionate advocates for the neurosciences and complementary hands-on experiences to enhance the academic experience. Scores of their undergraduates have gone on to become assistant and associate professors of neuroscience and related fields, postdoctoral fellows, predoctoral fellows, graduate and medical students, and co-authors.