Middlebury
Browse

File(s) under embargo

Stress and Anxiety in Drosophila melanogaster Following Traumatic Brain Injury

thesis
posted on 2024-06-28, 19:22 authored by Laurie Chen

Over 1.5 million people in the US are affected by a traumatic brain injury (TBI) annually with over 5.3 million currently living with a TBI-related disability. TBI can lead to long-term impairments in behavior and cognition, with additional side effects such as increased rates of anxiety disorder diagnosis following traumatic brain injury. To study this increasing health concern, we are using Drosophila melanogaster, which has previously been used in the literature to gain insight into the role genes play in the physiological responses following TBI, and how TBI can affect stress and anxiety.

In order to replicate the TBI phenotype seen in humans, we are using a high-impact trauma (HIT) device that afflicts TBI in Drosophila. Different genetic lines of flies were given high-impact hits 4 times with 5-minute intervals in between hits. Flies were then either filmed following a thirty-minute recovery period or a 24-hour incubation period. For video recordings, flies were placed into an enclosed, 2D circular arena and filmed for 10 minutes in order to visualize any locomotion deficits, changes in thigmotaxis, and changes in social stress behavior that may appear. We assessed these physiological outcomes across a large population of inbred lines to look at genetic factors driving the response to TBI. We find that while we hypothesize that concussed flies will have decreases in locomotive measures, and increases in thigmotactic and social stress behaviors throughout the ten-minute video in comparison to control flies, at different time points following TBI and across a genetically diverse population of flies, we find wide variation in each of these measures. Future work will focus on using this variation to perform a genome-wide association study in order to determine genes that may have greater impact in locomotive recovery, thigmotaxis behavior, or social stress behaviors following TBI.


History

Institution

  • Middlebury College

Department or Program

  • Neuroscience

Degree

  • Bachelor of Arts, Honors

Academic Advisor

Amanda Crocker, Ph.D.

Conditions

  • Restricted to Campus

Usage metrics

    Student Scholarship

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC