Research Symposium

BIO

Hello! My name is Amina Hasan and I'm a freshman from Orlando, FL. I'm studying Behavioral Neuroscience on the Pre-Med Track. I'm very excited to be presenting my research at the Annual Symposium. Over the past couple of months, I've worked with Cre mice, learning how to inject an anterograde virus into a specific region of their brain - the A8. This is the first step to understanding the function of this region - A8 is composed of a group of dopaminergic neurons and currently we hypothesize that it deals with functional control and motivational behavior. I'm very grateful to have been a UROP student this past year - it's allowed me to gain experience in research relevant to my major and learn more about my personal interests as well. In the future, I hope to continue neuroscience related research at FSU and eventually apply to medical school, with the goal of becoming a neurologist.

Identification of a Potential A8 Dopamine Projection​ for Functional Control ​in Cre Mice ​

Abstract

My research seeks to understand the function of the A8 region of the brain in mice. Currently, we believe it plays a role in functional control and possibly food motivation as well as other motivational behaviors. Motivational behavior is a fundamental part of life because it controls how driven an animal will be for certain tasks, such as food, water, or and things necessary for survival. In mice, the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) and Nucelus Accumbens (NAc) are two structures in the brain already known to regulate motivational behavior already. The VTA is known for regulating reward consumption and the NAc is a mediator of motivational and emotional processes. Dopaminergic neurons – which synthesize the important neurotransmitter dopamine which modulates motivational behavior – make up more than 65% of the VTA’s neurons (Bouarab et al., 2019). Past research of dopaminergic neurons found they play an important role in behavioral processes such as reward, addiction, and stress (Chinta & Andersen, 2005). In this study, we will be stimulating the A8 region of the brain in mice to study its effect. A8 is in the midbrain reticular formation and is dorsolateral to the substantial nigra. It's of particular interest because it contains a substantial collection of dopaminergic cells in the central nervous system. In order to visualize these dopaminergic cells and their connections, we will be using Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH), which is an enzyme involved in the synthesis of dopamine and norepinephrine.

Keywords: Brain, Science, Behavior, Neuroscience