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• Honors Theses
• List of Honors Projects
• 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

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