Guest Editors
Alesia Prakapenka
Midwestern University, College of Graduate Studies, Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Alesia Prakapenka is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Midwestern University. Dr. Prakapenka earned a B.S. in Psychology and a B.S. in International Business Administration at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Arizona State University and postdoctoral training at the Department of Biology, Syracuse University. Dr. Prakapenka has 11+ years of experience in evaluating the molecular and behavioral bases of learning and memory using rodent models. Her current research program investigates women’s health across the lifespan using translationally relevant rodent models, with a particular focus on how physiological changes contribute to age-related cognitive decline.
Jessica Judd
Arizona State University, Biodesign Institute, ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center
Dr. Jessica Judd is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Arizona State University where she studies the environmental and molecular changes that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on identifying novel targets for intervention. Dr. Judd earned a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Missouri. She went on to earn both her master’s and her Ph.D. in Psychology with an emphasis in Behavioral Neuroscience at Arizona State University. Dr. Judd has 9+ years of experience with rodent behavior to model a variety of cognitive processes, including learning, memory, anxiety-like behaviors, motivation, and addiction.
Collection Overview
Alterations in physiological profiles, such as shifts in circulating hormone milieu, metabolic state, or immune response, can indirectly impact or even directly change healthy brain function. Exogenous (e.g., environment, treatments, diet) and endogenous (e.g., sex, age, reproductive senescence) factors modulate physiological profiles. For example, chronic stress elicits altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function; both chronic stress and the associated altered physiology can impair cognitive function and have been associated with increased dementia risk, including Alzheimer's disease. We can use animal models to systematically evaluate the ability of factors, such as chronic stress, to manipulate physiological profiles and the resultant impact on behavioral measures. Findings from these studies can inform research and therapeutic strategies aimed at minimizing risks for brain-related diseases. Thus, the focus of this Methods Collection is on techniques for systematic investigation of behavior, such as learning, memory, anxiety, stress, or depression, in response to altered physiological profiles in translationally relevant rodent models. Of particular interest are contributions on methods for evaluating age-related changes in physiology and the resulting impact on behavior in the context of neurological pathologies and dysfunctions.
Articles
Abstracts
Witnessed Social Defeat Stress During Lactation: A Psychosocial Rat Model of Early Life Stress
Andrew Justin Taylor1,
Alexies Dagnino-Subiare*1
1Laboratory of Stress Neurobiology, Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Studies (CIESAL), Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile