Lisa Curry

Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Keywords

Autism, Mice, Biopsychology, Restricted Repetitive Behaviors

Area of Concentration

Biopsychology

Abstract

Restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are characterized as inflexible, persistent, and apparently functionless. In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a distinct pattern of RRB occurrence, persistence, and severity characterizes the disorder. Animal models of RRB exhibit an imbalance between the direct and indirect pathways of the cortical basal ganglia circuitry; this imbalance is caused by decreased activation of the indirect pathway that allows direct pathway activation to over-excite the cortex. The current study used C58/J mice to track the pathways from the globus pallidus (GP) and substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) to the striatum using fluorescent retrograde tracers. The red fluorescing DiI lipophilic tracer injected into the GP was found to label striatal neurons, whereas the green fluorescing DiO injected into the SNr was not found using fluorescent imaging and cell sorting techniques. Successfully optimizing surgical and tissue analysis techniques could provide methodology for pharmaceutical treatment studies targeting the heteromeric receptor complexes on the indirect pathway neurons of the striatum. By having a better cellular-level understanding of the indirect pathway, more research to help those with ASD is possible.

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