This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Neuroscience major Michele Nelson ’05 (Newtown, Conn.) recently presented her findings on Pavlovian eye blink and fear conditioning at the Pavlovian Society Conference at Indiana University.
Nelson is conducting research with Gabrielle Britton, assistant professor of psychology, who received a National Institutes of Health grant to study how the brains of animals react to both threats and “safety signals,” which may give insight into some anxiety-based human disorders.
The collaboration is part of Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. Lafayette is a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the 180 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.
“Eyeblink conditioning is a model for simple forms of motor learning,” explains Britton. “In order to understand behavior, we need to understand how the brain systems interact to produce that behavior. For example, one brain system processes emotional information, another contextual information, and so on. What researchers have discovered is that even in the simplest forms of behavior, many brain systems are engaged. Ultimately, this research may offer insights into how emotional behavior affects motor behavior.”
As a National Institute of Mental Health post-doctoral fellow at Indiana, Britton explored the role of the amygdala fear system in associative motor learning in rats. She regularly presents her research at the annual Society for Neuroscience Meetings, and has co-authored research articles in Journal of Neuroscience, Brain Research, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, and Journal of Comparative Psychology. She received the Indiana University Teaching Excellence Award, as well as numerous pre-doctoral research awards. She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and Sigma Xi Research Society.
The research consists of two stages. In the first experiment, Britton and Nelson pair an unconditioned stimulus, such as a mild shock or air puff to the rat’s eye, with a tone. The second part involves applying surgical lesions to the brain to modify behavior.
“Michele has put together an elegant experiment. We apply two stimuli, a mild shock or an air puff, to examine and determine how the animal conditions for fear,” says Britton. “This research also aims to address the extent to which other brain areas become involved in fear conditioning.”
“Over the course of training, the animal learns that the tone signals the shock, and thus the animal blinks before the shock is administered,” says Nelson. “The amount of fear expressed during this simple form of learning is assessed. Fear is operationally defined as the amount of freezing, the absence of all movement except that due to respiration.”
The surgeries offer further insights into the research and provide Nelson, who is considering a career in medicine, with the chance to hone her skills.
“Professor Britton taught me how to perform the surgeries on the rats,” she says. “They consist of placing four electrodes through the muscle above the left eyelid. She has been an exceptional mentor, always asking for my feedback and my opinions and giving me the chance to add to and modify the study. It is a great learning experience.”
Nelson also was able to learn while presenting her research at the Pavlovian Society Conference. “The feedback and one-on-one interaction with some of the leading eyeblink conditioning investigators was amazing.”
“At Lafayette, you have the opportunity, if you seek it out, to work one-on-one with a professor and gain the insight to research, conduct, and learn techniques (like the surgery I learned to perform), as the professors are always interested in incorporating students in their research projects,” she says.
A graduate of Newtown High School, Nelson is a peer tutor, a member of the Boys and Girls Club of Easton, a student representative for the Student Conduct Committee, and a member of Lafayette Activities Forum.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Over the past five years, more than 130 Lafayette students have presented results from research conducted with faculty mentors, or under their guidance, at the conference.