Notes

Research Literature:

1. Review Papers

   • Secondary source, someone reacting to a primary source

• Identify: Probably won't be a methods/results section, usually won't have figures

2.  Empirical Papers

   • This is what you want

   • Primary source, contains all sort of useful data first being reported/recorded

3. Meta-analysis

   • Secondary source, can be disguised as an empirical paper

   • Pool estimate of effect size

Reserach Paper #2 10/19

Previous research shows that CREB (a cAMP modulation factor) has an effect in Aplysia, Drosophila, and mice that is critical to long-term memory. However, recent findings suggested that performance abnormalities may actually contribute to memory deficits that were attributed to CREB manipulation. To settle this, the researchers studied the effect of lesioning the basolateral amygdala on conditioned taste avoidance. They found lesioning or blocking protien synthesis via inhibitor an-isomycin (ANI) in the basolateral region of the amygdala negates the conditioned taste aversion. Therefore, they came to the conclusion that CREB mediated transcription and protien synthesis are critical for conditioned taste aversion memory.

10/26

Humans and chimpanzees vs. rats and mice. Humans and chimps more similar than rats and mice. Apparently rats are as big as a house cat?

Mouse genome better than a rat, better used for research. Rats are also chill. 

Allometry: differences between organisms, for ex. rats and mice being given drug doses.

Concerns: Water, food, bedding/sanitation, ventilation, mating, disease, sterilization, tagging

SURGERY

• Bregma: the major landmark on scalp used during stereotaxic surgery, [0,0,0] point for surgery

• Lambda: another landmark on scalp more caudal than bregma

11/16

STAINS

• Nissl stain: stains for cell body, cresyl violet

• Golgi stain: silver nitrate, amber background and dark stained cell

  • Named after Golgi (belives neurons connected), but Cajal (believes neurons have gaps between them) uses Golgi stain to disprove neurons are connected

• Colimenergic stain

• Fluourogold stain: retrograde tracer, taken up by terminal buttons and shipped retrograde down cell bodies. Ghostly green color, changes color with excitatory input from microscope.

• Brainbow stain: each neuron has different color stain, great for easily differentiating individual neurons