Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2012
Poster Presentation
Effects of Amyloid-Beta on Locomotor Activity in Rats
Ben Ellington, Kati Ambrose, Stephanie Jacobs, Courtney Drendel and Ashley
Nelson
Faculty Mentor: Matthew Blankenship
Psychology
This study examined the impairments of early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on
locomotor behavior. AD has been primarily associated with memory disruption and
cognitive decline, however, middle stage progression of the disease is also
characterized by disruptions in motor function like agitated movement, physical
aggressiveness or wandering. Some reports suggest that MTEP (an mGluR5
antagonist) potentially holds neuroprotective properties. To model AD, we injected the
protein Amyloid Beta (Aβ) directly into the hippocampus of normal, adult rats. The
hippocampus is a forebrain structure of the temporal lobe that is responsible for the
conversion of short term memories into long term memories. Although hippocampal
output does not directly impact motor systems, as a component of the limbic system,
the hippocampus exerts influence over emotion- and motivation-related behaviors.
Therefore, Aβ-induced damage to the hippocampus may cause abnormalities in
movement related to emotion (i.e. anxiety) or disorganized motor planning (i.e.
wandering or aimless stereotyped behavior). Therefore we hypothesized that rats
treated with Aβ show excessive movement and highly stereotyped movement (i.e.
movement not related to ambulation) due to deficits in motor planning. An additional
variable of MTEP treatment was included to examine prevention of Aβ-induced deficits.
Results show that Aβ treated rats show more jumps, distance of movement, time in
motion and stereotyped movement (non-walking related movement), yet no differences
in speed of movement.