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Lab III: Resources on Learning and Memory

Lab III – Resources on Learning and Memory

Photosource: http://www.hhmi.org/scientists/eric-r-kandel

For this lab, you will watch a lecture by Dr. Eric R. Kandel on learning and memory as part of the 2008 Holiday Lecture Series on “Makind Your Mind: Molecules, Motion and Memory,” sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Access the lecture “Memories Are Made of This.” :

directly from the HHMI website at:
http://media.hhmi.org/hl/08Lect4.html
order a free DVD of all four 2008 Holiday Lecture on Making Your Mind at:
http://www.hhmi.org/catalog/main?action=getCategoryListing&catId=2
as a podcast using iTunes at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hhmis-holiday-lectures-on/id214106297 Please note that to view and listen the postcast you need to have iTunes installed on your computer.

Below are other resources recommended for this lab.

Aplysia as Model Organism
http://aplysia.miami.edu/

Serotonin Produces Long-Term Changes in the Excitability of Aplysia Sensory Neurons in Culture that Depend on New Protein Synthesis.
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/reprint/7/7/2232

Molecular Mechanisms of Memory Storage in Aplysia
http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/reprint/210/3/174

NOVA’s ScienceNOW Podcasts: Learning About Memory
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0407/02.html

In addition to watching the lecture, you will prepare a lab report.

You will present a lab report based on the lecture’s model organism and scientific research. For example, after watching Dr. Kandel’s talk, you will choose and read one of his earlier papers on Aplysia or another scientific paper on research with this organism and break it down into its components: hypothesis, the model organism chosen, what was studied, what was learned, and formulate 3 new questions that will further research.

For this laborabory assignment, choose scientific research articles related to Aplysia or to learning and memory on a molecular level. As an activity, you will create a well-designed lab report.

The lab report must be 1-2 pages in length, double-spaced, with a font of 12. (This example uses Times Roman but you may prefer Ariel, Courier, etc. and that is fine.) The lab report must include all of these sections: a working link, a complete citation, hypothesis, Model organisms, Controls, Variables, Experimental Methods used, Data, Results, Conclusions, and 3 New Questions, a scientific experiment is most meaningful if it opens up new and productive areas for further research. In addition, choose 3 to 5 pivotal vocabulary words from the article and provide a meaningful definition for each, in your own words. You must give the citation(s) for the source of your glossary definitions.

Written Lab Report Example

You will prepare a lab report connected to each lecture.  In each of these, you and your class will present lab reports based on the model organism and scientific research on the topic.

Lab Report

You must provide a link to the article itself or the .pdf along with your review. For example, this is found at Dr. Jarvis’ lab website under “publications opens in a new window :”

Jarvis, Erich, D opens in a new window . and Nottebohm, Fernando. Motor driven gene expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Vol. 94. pp. 4097–4102. April 1997.

Hypothesis: When songbirds sing, gene expression patterns in their brains will reflect this in proportion to how many songs they perform.

Model organism: Brains and behaviors of both canaries (Serinus canaria) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) were studied.

Controls: Some birds did not sing and this seemed easy to achieve. When a human sat near them, the songbirds did not sing.

Variables: The number of songs a bird sang over a certain unit of time (e.g., 30 minutes).

Methods: After the set period of time (usually around 30 minutes), the birds were killed and their brains prepared to be studied with radioactive probe by a technique known as in situ hybridization. Detailed information on this laboratory technique is available in two of the citations provided in the article.

Data: What I found interesting is that the brain sections were analyzed by researchers who did not know how many songs each bird had sung until after the results were recorded. In this way, even slight bias could not be introduced when counting the number of silver grains exposed per cell.

Results: The evidence of ZENK gene expression, (a sign of genes turning on, memory, learning, and brain activity), was very closely proportional to the number of songs each bird sang. See Figure 3A: birds that sang no songs, showed results with a very low background of activity, birds that sang a modest number of songs had evidence of ZENK gene expression midway between birds that sang no songs and those that sang a high number of songs.

Conclusions: There are many small experiments described n this paper. This part demonstrates that the very act of singing affects gene expression in specific areas of the bird’s brain and in proportion to the amount of songs sung.

New Questions: Do some birds have more ZENK gene expression than others? Could more gene expression be correlated with social position or the vigor in which the song was sung?

Glossary

Make use of the college resources, good college dictionaries, and your text.

Plasticity: One definition of this word applies in the context of “synaptic plasticity” a critical concept in neurobiology. It refers to the ability of neuron connections called synapses as “malleable” and therefore capable of change. See The American Heritage dictionary.

Song system nuclei: These are collections of nerve cells that form a complex network of interactions in the bird’s brain. See Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine opens in a new window .

immediate early gene (e.g., ZENK): This research tool is also explained on pages 28-29 of the text (Box 2.1). Genes such as ZENK quick acting and can signal neuron activity in specific areas of the brain. See: text page G-14.

in situ hybridization: This is another research tool described in two articles cited in this one. It is explained on pages 29-29 (Box 2.1) of the text. It is a techique that uses radioactive probes that will bind through complementary base pairing on a section of DNA or RNA. In this paper, “riblprobe” containing radioactive sulfur is used. See: text page G-14.

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