USD MED: NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The Center on NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR at the University of South Dakota is organized to understand how the nervous system adapts behavior to changes in the environment. The main aim of our Center is to study the structural reorganization of neural pathways that results in adaptive behavioral responses to novel sensory-motor experiences. Functional reorganization of neural circuits is fundamental to processes that occur during learning and memory, development, and in the central nervous system's response to stress, and during disease states such as occurs following injury to the CNS and in mental illness. Our COBRE has five primary research projects that address the problem of sensorimotor adaptation. These include Dr. Timothy Clark who studies mechanisms of plasticity in the hippocampus. Dr. Pat Manzerra who studies glutamate receptor mechanisms underlying schizophrenia in a rat model. Dr. Brian Burrell who studies cellular mechanisms of associative learning in invertebrates. Dr. Pat Ronan who examines the role of RNAi in stress regulation. Drs. Forster and Watt who study the neurochemical effects of stress and their relation to addiction and anxiety disorders. Together, the main goal of these projects is to contribute to an understanding of the cellular mechanisms that underlie adaptive behavior and to develop a comprehensive theory that accounts for changes occurring at the cellular level during adaptive motor responses. The Center allows USD researchers to acquire new equipment such as a laser scanning confocal microscope, to enhance faculty development, and most importantly, to build infrastructure in neuroscience by the addition of new faculty members.