• Arts & Sciences
• The Charles Center
• Honors Program
• Completed Honors Projects
• Neuroscience

Neuroscience

In its Honors Program, the Neuroscience program awards one level of Honors to student research projects. The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the thesis deposited in Swem Library.

Key:

• Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
  Committee Chair + Other Committee Members

2023-2024

• Amber Nicole Cantú, "Modeling Group 3 Medulloblastoma: Describing the Interconnected Pathway of the Most Common Pediatric Brain Cancer" (Honors) 
  Randolph A. Coleman + Christy Porter, Jorge Terukina
• Yinuo Chen, "The Influence of Spike Timing-Dependent Plasticity on a Recurrent Excitatory Neural Network Model" (Honors) 
  Greg Conradi Smith + Christopher A. Del Negro, Junping Shi, Robert C. Barnet
• Lauren Carson Daniel, "Association of Intermuscular Fat and Physical Activity Levels on Exercise Capacity in Breast Cancer Survivors" (Honors) 
  Daniel Cristol & W. Gregory Hundley + Lizabeth Allison, Randolph Coleman 
• Megan Shea Fleeharty, "Bringing Synthetic Biology from the Flask to the Soil (Microcosm)" (Honors) 
  Margaret Saha + Greg Conradi Smith, Mark Forsyth, Dana Willner 
• Ainsley Elizabeth Golden, "Evaluating Environmental Enrichment as a Preventative Treatment in a Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Model of Alzheimer's Disease" (Honors) 
  Pamela Hunt + Catherine Forestell, Tyler Meldrum
• Jamesa Mecayla Gray, "The Study of the Potential for Positive and Negative Color Connotation Through Associations" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Stevens + Bjorg Larson, Randolph Coleman
• Madeleine Ellie Harris, "Neurogenesis: Impact of Mitochondrial Activity on Neural Progenitor Cell Differentiation via TFAM Expression" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Bestman + Randolph Coleman, Lizabeth Allison
• Maggie Rose Kettelberger,  "Characterizing mitochondrial movement and distribution in radial glial neural progenitor cells" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Bestman + Lisa Landino, Stephanie Caligiuri
• Julia Marie Rashid, "Exercise-Induced Production of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Exhibits Neuroprotective Effects" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Jennifer Bestman, Christy Porter 
• Gabrielle Alina Riddlemoser,  "Mathematical Modeling and Examination into Existing and Emerging Parkinson’s Disease Treatments: Levodopa and Ketamine" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Christy Porter, Lisa Landino 
• Jingzhi Zhao,  "Assessing the pre- and post-synaptic effects of opioid drugs on breathing rhythmogenesis via population activity mathematical modeling" (Honors) 
  Christopher A. Del Negro + Gregory Conradi Smith, Christy Porter, Paul Kieffaber

2022-2023

• Elizabeth Mariam Ancheril, "The Effect of Cortisol on Y-Maze Spontaneous Alternation Behavior in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)" (Honors) 
  Pamela Hunt + Randy Coleman, Phoebe Williams
• Ramprasanna Tarun Chandrasekar, "Chronic Nicotine Exposure and its Effects on Fear and Anxiety Behaviours in Zebrafish" (Honors) 
  Pamela Hunt + Xiaowen Xu, Michael Tierney
• Alejandra Eceizabarrena Sainz, "The Effects of Loss of Orexin Neurons on Attention" (Honors) 
  Josh Burk + Jennifer Bestman, Robin Looft-Wilson
• Mackenzie Alexandra Fergus, "The Role of Emojis on Social Attention in Individuals Differing in Autistic Traits and Social Anxiety" (Honors)
   Cheryl Dickter + Pam Hunt, Cemile Kumas, Josh Burk
• Marissa Clementina Incer, "Aggression In and Out of the Surrounding Space" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Stevens + Cathy Forestell, Harvey Langholtz, Amy Rains
• Sreya Mallipeddi, "The Impact of Television Portrayals of Autism Spectrum Disorder on Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Individuals with ASD" (Honors) 
  Joshua Burk + Cheryl Dickter, Adrian Bravo, Randy Coleman
• Hayden Christopher McArdle, "Isolation Induced Anhedonic Behavior in Adolescent but not Adult Sprague-Dawley Rats" (Honors) 
  Robert Barnet + Pam Hunt, Robin Looft-Wilson
• Elsa Isabella Quillin, "Evaluating the Effects of Scopolamine on Anxiety in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)" (Honors) 
  Pamela Hunt + Amy Rains, Doug Young
• Aravind Sreeram, "Structurally-Aware Films' Impact on Theory of Mind" (Honors) 
  Cheryl Dickter + Randy Coleman, J Goldwater

2021-2022

• Bryan Weselman, "Investigation of the Spatial and Temporal Molecular Mechanisms behind Anterior-Posterior Axis Plasticity in Developing Xenopus laevis" (Honors)
  Margaret Saha + Randy Coleman, Dana Willner
• Catherine Jones, "Process Model of Herpes Simplex Virus I-Induced Activation of Toll-like Receptor 2 Mediated Microglial Signaling in the Inflammatory Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease" (Honors)
  Randolph Coleman + Brian Rabinovitz, Dana Lashley
• Juliana Cantarutti , "The Cognitive & Educational Implications of Color Use in Drawing to Learn" (Honors)
  Paul Heideman + Jennifer Stevens, Paul Kieffaber
• Julianne Miranda, "A Mathematical Model of Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Alzheimer's Disease" (Honors)
  Randolph Coleman + Pamela Hunt, Mainak Patel
• Kushali Patel, "Delineating the Role of Osgin1 in Tissue Regeneration and Wound Healing in Xenopus laevis" (Honors)
  Margaret Saha + Jennifer Bestman, Pamela Hunt, Oliver Kerscher
• Zixu Guo, "Validating Behavioral Testing Paradigm for Selective and Sustained Attention" (Honors)
  Joshua Burk + Bob Barnet, Jennifer Bestman

2020-2021

• Belle Buzzi, "Using Zebrafish to Test a Computational Model Linking REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and Parkinson’s Disease" (Honors)
  Randolph Coleman + Jennifer Bestman, Adrian Bravo
• Shih-En Chen, "Cacna1g transcript knockdown analysis via in situ hybridization" (Honors)
  Christopher Del Negro + Jennifer Bestman, Dana Lashley, Randolph Coleman
• Sihan Feng, "Measuring Mitochondrial Distribution in Neural Progenitor Cells in the Developing Brain of Xenopus laevis" (Honors)
  Jennifer Bestman + Beverly Sher, Christy Porter
• Grace Haffner, "Attentional Bias to Positive and Negative Scenes Differs Based on Traits Related to Social Anxiety" (Honors)
  Cheryl Dickter + Joshua Burk, Robin Looft-Wilson
• Shreyas Kumar, "Gene Knockdown Investigations to Test the Disinhibition Hypothesis of Motor Program Initiation by Glutamatergic Neurons of the Pedunculopontine Nucleus of the Mesencephalic Locomotor Region" (Honors)
  Christopher A. Del Negro + Gregory D. Conradi Smith, Jennifer E. Bestman, Pamela S. Hunt
• Leila Mabudian, "The Association Between Visceral Fat and Left Ventricular Performance in Pre- and Post-Menopausal Age Stage I-IV Cancer Patients that Receive Anthracycline-based Chemotherapy" (Honors)
  Daniel Cristol + Douglas Young, Robin Looft-Wilson, W. Gregory Hundley
• Lauren Mayer, "A Simplified Computational Approach to Model Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Treatment with Gemcitabine" (Honors)
  Randolph Coleman + Drew M. LaMar, John Swaddle, Heather Sasinowska
• Emma Moore, "Y-Maze Spontaneous Alternation and Response Alternation Task for Assessing Spatial Memory in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)" (Honors)
  Pamela Hunt + Robin Looft-Wilson, Matthew Wawersik
• Faith Reid, "M2 Receptor Antagonists and their role in Sustained attention" (Honors)
  Joshua A. Burk + Randolph Coleman, Matthias Leu, Joshua Burk
• Curtis Rogers, "Memory Suppression: The Importance of Baseline Learning for the Think/No-Think Task" (Honors)
  Christopher Ball + Randolph Coleman, Paul Kieffaber
• Grace Smith, "Effects of Xanomeline on Attention in Rats" (Honors)
  Joshua Burk + Jennifer Bestman, Shantá Hintion
• Swathi Sowmitran, "Investigating the Role of Novel Genes involved in the Wound-Healing Processes of Xenopus laevis Embryogenesis" (Honors)
  Margaret Saha + Jennifer Bestman, Robin Looft-Wilson, Phoebe Williams

2019-2020

• Kendall Brannham, "A study of matr3 and its effects on the neural progenitor cells of Xenopus laevis tadpoles" (Honors)
   Jennifer Bestman + Diane Shakes, Dana Willner
• Ross Fladeland, "The Role of Time and Nicotine Dose on Anxiety Measured with Light Enhanced Startle" (Honors)
   Robert Barnet + Joshua Burk, Jennifer Bestman
• Alyssa Luz-Ricca, "The functional role of mitochondria in neural progenitor cells" (Honors)
   Jennifer Bestman + Margaret Saha, Greg Conradi Smith, Leisa Meyer
• Saurav Pattanayak, "The Effect of Intranasal Orexin A on the Interaction between Social Isolation Stress and Attention" (Honors)
   Joshua Burk + Robert Barnet, Paul Heideman
• Stacy Pitcairn, "Effects of nicotine on attention: role of orexin-1 receptors" (Honors)
   Joshua Burk + Robin Looft-Wilson, Paul Kieffaber
• Minna Blottner, (Honors)
   Cheryl Dickter +  Joshua Burk, Randolph Coleman
• Lorissa Simpson, "The Effect of Early Life Stress on Subjective Fear and Electrodermal Response Reactivity in an Adolescent Community Sample" (Honors)
   Paul Kieffaber + Camilla Buchanan, Randolph Coleman

2018-19

• Brent Russell, "Utilization of Unnatural Amino Acids in the Development of Novel Functions and Probing Applications" (Honors)
  Douglas Young + Christy Porter
• Jessica Seidenberg, "An Examination of an Alternative Use for the Fear-Potentiated Startle Paradigm and the Effects of Angiotensin Type 1 Receptor Inhibition on Extinction Learning" (Highest Honors)
  Josh Burk + Shanta Hinton, Claire McKinney
• Rachel Smith, "The effect of cysteine-reactive catechol antioxidants on alcohol dehydrogenase as a model for oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disease" (Honors)
  Lisa Landino + Randy Coleman, Christy Porter

2017-18

• Brian Anyakoha Jr., "The Impact of Racial Group Status on Neural Activity, Belongingness, and Distress during Social Exclusion" (Honors)
  Cheryl Dickter + Joshua Burk, Dana Lashley
• James Cole, "The Test-Retest Reliability of ERP Components as Assessed by the Brief Neurometric Battery" (Highest Honors) 
  Paul Kieffaber + Jennifer Stevens, Joshua Burk, Michael Deschenes
• Jessica Crowley, "A Mathematical Model of Late Phase Calcium Dyshomeostasis in Axon Degeneration Promoted by SARM1's NAD Cleavage Activity" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Lizabeth Allison, Lisa Landino
• Jacob Feldmann, "Efficacy of Intranasal Administration: A Clinical Approach to Attention" (Honors)
  Joshua Burk + Randolph Coleman, Shantá Hinton
• Natalie Frye, "Cross-Modal Modulation of Perception of Facial Emotion by Emotional Music" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Stevens + Brian Rabinovitz, Cheryl Dickter, Brian Hulse
• Emily Hauge, "Sketching Science: How Students Use a Drawing-to-Learn Based Method to Learn and Solve Problems in Undergraduate Biology" (Honors) 
  Paul Heideman + Pamela Hunt, Margaret Saha, Jason Chen
• Yajna Jowaheer, "Effect of Implicit and Explicit Prejudice on Perceptions of Drug Users of Different Races" (Honors)
  Cheryl Dickter + Pamela Hunt, Lizabeth Allison
• Sarah Yoojin Kook, "Mental Health and Resource Utilization among Underrepresented Students Transitioning to College" (Honors) 
  Elizabeth Raposa + Chris Conway, Cheryl Dickter, Robert Scholnick
• Ravikant Pattapagala, "A Computational Model of Multiple Sclerosis and NF-κB Regulation" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Christine Porter, Greg Conradi-Smith 

2016-17

• Matthew McGuinness, "A Mathematical Model of Remyelination in Multiple Sclerosis" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Christine Porter, Sarah Day 
  
• Austin Tapp, "Effects of Medial Prefrontal Cortical Administration of the Orexin-2 Receptor Antagonist, TCS-OX2-29, on Attentional Performance in Rats" (Honors) 
  Joshua Burk + Christy Porter, Randolph Coleman 
  
• Sara Taylor, "Young Adults' Autistic Behaviors Predict P1 and N170 Responses to Emotion Stimuli" (Honors) 
  Cheryl Dickter + Josh Burk, Randolph Coleman
  
• Abhya Vij, "The Role of Basal Forebrain Orexin-2-Receptors in Attentional Performance in Rattus norvegicus" (Honors) 
  Joshua Burk + Gregory Smith, Tim Davis
  
• Matthew Wong, "Take a Break: is the Spacing Effect Beneficial to Student's Studying" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Stevens + John Charles, Jiuqing Cheng, Pamela Hunt
  
• Ellen Yates, "Frontal, Amygdalar, and Temporal Convergence in the Primate Ventral Striatum: Implications for Huntington’s Disease" (Honors) 
  Joshua Burk + Gregory Smith, Matthew Haug
  

2015-16

• Augustin Hennings, "Light-Enhanced Startle as an Experimental Model of Withdrawal" (Honors) 
  Robert Barnet + Christine Porter, Carla Buck
• Cassandra Leong, "Effects of PKC Activation on Attention Deficits Following Loss of Corticopetal Cholinergic Neurons" (Honors) 
  Joshua Burk + Christine Porter, Randolph Coleman
• Mikaela Spruill, "The Analysis of Person Perception within Minority Groups" (Honors) 
  Cheryl Dickter + Christy Porter, Rose Buckelew
• Christina Stephens, "Creating a Computational Model of Prion Disease in the Human Neocortex" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Shanta Hinton, Lisa Landino, Margaret Saha 
• Sarah Volz, "The Role of Parental Smoking on Children's Attentional Bias to and Evaluation of Smoking-Related Cues" (Honors)
  Cheryl Dickter + Catherine Forestell, Paul Kieffaber, Robin Looft-Wilson 

2014-15

• Emma Albert-Stone, "Role of Cholinergic Projections to the Orbitofrontal Cortex in Probability Discounting in a Rat Model" (Honors) 
  Josh Burk + Randolph Coleman and Pamela Hunt
• Elise Braatz, "A Quantitative Analysis of Insulin Signaling in Neurodegeneration" (Honors) 
  Randolph Coleman + Joshua Burk and Deborah Noonan
• Sean Chadwick, "Central Auditory Processing Disorder: Towards a Therapeutic EEG Neurofeedback Brain Computer Interface" (Honors) 
  Paul Kieffaber + Christy Porter, Christopher Ball and Greg Smith
• Lindsay Maguire, "The Effects of Gabapentin on the Firing Rates of Thermoregulatory Neurons in the Preoptic Anterior Hypothalamus in Modulation of Hot Flashes" (Honors)
  John Griffin + Randolph Coleman and Bev Sher
• Rachel Sillcox, "Language Deficits Assessed in an Apasic Patient" (Honors) 
  Jennifer A. Stevens + Paul Kieffaber, Denise Wade, Mark McLaughlin

2013-14

• Cassidy Reich, "The Effects of Nicotine on a Probability-Discounting Task" (Honors) 
  Josh Burk + Randolph Coleman, Debbie Noonan
• Elizabeth Wolfe, "Basal Forebrain Noncholinergic Neurons: The Overlooked Mediators of Sustained Attention" (Honors)
  Joshua Burk + John Griffin, Alexander Angelov

2012-13

• Bilal Ashraf, "Effect of Chronic Adolescent Nicotine Exposure on Anxiety in Adulthood" (Honors) 
  Robert Barnet + Matthew Wawersik, Christine Porter
• Holly Blackburn, "Maternal Effects on Cloning Frequency, Larval Development, and Juvenile Size in the Seastar Asterias forbesi" (Honors)
  Jonathan Allen + Matthias Leu, Margaret Saha, Kam Tang
• Oliver Phillips, "Adolescence as a Unique Period of Vulnerability to Environmental Stressors: Age-Dependent and Sex-Dependent Effects of Nicotine Exposureon Anxiety Utilizing the Light-Enhanced Startle Paradigm" (Honors) 
  Robert Barnet + Deborah Bebout, Joshua Burk 

2011-12

• Diana Gal, "Evaluating the Mismatch Negativity Response to Emotionally Salient, Frequency Modulated Tones" (Honors) 
   Paul Kieffaber + Cheryl Dickter, Gregory Smith
• Ksenija Kapetanovic, "Can Vitamin E Supplementation Reverse Memory Impairments Caused by Early Mercury Exposure?" (Honors)
  Pamela Hunt + Randolph Coleman, M. Christine Porter 
• Se-Jun Lee, "Combinatorial Contributions of Neuroendocrine Variables and Food Intake to Male Fertility" (Honors)
  Paul Heideman + Randolph Coleman, Beverly Sher 

2010-11

• Kathryn Easterling, "Stop signal reaction time task performance in rats: role of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors" (Honors)
  Josh Burk + John Griffin, Paul Kieffaber
• John Haight, "The Implicit Affective Responses to Smoking Cues: A Comparison of Smoking Groups and Withdrawal States" (Honors)
  Cheryl Dickter + Cathy Forestell, Cynthia Battie
• Virginia McLane, "Characterization of thermoregulatory efferents to the paraventriclar nucleus of the rat hypothalamus" (Honors)
  John Griffin + Josh Burk, Matt Wawersik

2009-10

• Ashley Barrineau, "Enhanced Preference for Ethanol Odor and Increased Voluntary Intake Following Exposure to Ethanol During the Early Postnatal Period" (Honors)
  Pamela Hunt + Robert Barnet, Deborah Bebout, Randolph Coleman, Mark Forsyth
• Benjamin Brush, "Investigating the molucular and ionic mechanism of respiratory function in the preBotzinger Complex of neonatal mice in vitro" (Honors)
  Christopher Del Negro + Joshua Burk, Margaret Saha, Gregory Smith
• Cori DeSanto, "Food Intake and Fertility: Variation in the Regulation of Appetite and its Role in Reproductive Status" (Honors)
  Paul Heidenman + John Griffin, Bev Sher
• Rebecca Krey, "Activity-dependent outward currents contribute to inspiratory burst termination in the preBotzinger Complex neurons of the neonatal mouse studied in vitro" (Honors)
  Christopher Del Negro + John Griffin, Robin Looft-Wilson, Margaret Saha
• Weston Northam, "An Ephemeral Contributor to a Toxic Legacy? Group-Specific Molecular Identification of Prey in Mercury-Contaminared Speiders by PCR" (Honors)
  Lizabeth Allison + Dan Cristol, Randolph Coleman, Mary Forsyth, Rowan Lockwood
• Paige Roseman, "Development of a Novel Delay Discounting Task: Evaluation of Nicotinic Receptor Blockade" (Honors)
  Joshua Burk + Pamela Hunt, John Griffin
• Maya Sapiurka, "The Effect of Increased cAMP on the firing rate of thermosensitive neurons in the preoptic and anterior regions of the hypothalamus" (Honors)
  John Griffin + Randolph Coleman, Matthew Wawersik

2008-09

• Sarah Baum, "The Cognitive Advantage of Percussive Auditory Information" (Honors)
  Jeanine Stefanucci + Josh Burk, Randy Coleman
  
• Natasha Hakkal, "Potential Supplemental Choline Facilitates Extinction of Fear in Adolescent Rats" (Honors)
  Pam Hunt + Randy Coleman, Christine Niehaus
  
• Michael Harper, "The Role of Notch Signaling in Neurotransmitter Phenotype Specification in Xenopus laevis" (Honors)
  Margaret Saha + John Griffin, Christopher Del Negro, Mark Forsyth
  
• David Mangini, "Protein Kinase C Disrupts Signal Detection in an Attention-Demanding Task" (Honors)
  Joshua Burk + Randy Coleman, Paul Kieffaber
  
• Dillon Niederhut, "Emotion and the perception of biological motion" (Honors)
  Jeanine Stefanucci + Lee Kirkpatrick, Randy Coleman
  
• Jeremy Powers, "The Nucleotcytoplasmic Shuttling of Thyroid Hormone Receptor Alpha in Neuronal and Non-Neuronal Cell Lines" (Honors)
  Lizabeth Allison + Paul Heideman, Randy Coleman, Sean Tarter
  
• Katherine Roberts, "A Word Game: Trends of Associative Processing in Individuals with Schizotypal Characteristics" (Honors)
  Jennifer Stevens + Glenn Shean, Adam Potkay
• Jessica Sciver, "Practice Makes Perfect: An ERP Analysis of the Effects of Physical Practice on Cortical Signal As Evidenced by the N500" (Honors)
  Jennifer Stevens + John Griffin, Randy Coleman
  

2007-08

• Kellyn Carrierfenster, "Specification of the GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotypes in Xenopus laevis" (Honors)
  Margaret Saha + John Griffin, Paul Heideman, Christopher Del Negro
• Terence Imbery, "An Analysis of COX-2 Derived Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in the Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 Adrenoreceptor-Mediated Responses of Thermally Classified Neurons in the Anterior Hypothalamus" (Honors)
  John Griffin + Lisa Landino, Randy Coleman

2006-07

• Kathleen Altemose, "The Effects of Loss of Cortical Acetylcholine on Divided Attention in Rats" (Honors)
  Josh Burk + Pam Hunt, Randy Coleman
• Erin Crowder, "Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-Biphosphate Regulates Inspiratory Burst Activity in the Neonatal Muse PreBotzinger Complex" (Honors)
  Christopher Del Negro + John Griffin, Margaret Saha, Marc Sher

2005-06

• Susannah Anderson, "Do Voice Characteristics Aid Word Memory? Speech Processing Models and Speaker Variation" (Honors)
  Chris Ball + Jennifer Stevens, Chris Scales
• Eric Baker
  Pamela Hunt + Josh Burk, Mark Forsyth
• Laura Hack, "The Effects of Leptin on the Firing Rates of Thermoregulatory Neurons in the Anterior Hypothalamus" (Honors)
  John Griffin + Eric Bradley, Randy Coleman
• Shawna Kettyle, "Acute Effects of Light Exercise on Short-Term Memory Tasks in Older Adults" (Honors)
  Jennifer Stevens + Robert Kohl, Marc Raphael
• Kristen Malkus, "Analysis of Potential Regulators of Glutamatergic and GABAergic Neural Differentiation" (Honors)
  Margaret Saha + John Griffin, Lizabeth Allison, Randy Coleman
• Beth Pecora, "Thermoregulatory Projections to the Dorsomedial Hypothalmus" (Honors)
  John Griffin + Paul Heideman, Randy Coleman
• Lindsay Young, "The Influence of Fatigue on Cognitive and Motor Performance" (Honors)
  Jennifer Stevens + Michael Deschenes, Alan Goldman

2004-05

• Karl Mendoza
  John Griffin + Lisa Anderson, Randy Coleman
• Lindsay Walker
  Pamela Hunt + Katherine Preston, Michael Deschenes