R. Holly Fitch, Ph.D. Associate Professor Behavioral Neuroscience Division Dept. of Psychology University of Connecticut Storrs, CT 06269 Phone 860.486.2554 Email: Roslyn.H.Fitch at Uconn.edu
Research in our lab is focused on the study of behavioral consequences of injury to the developing brain. To accomplish this, we employ various rodent models of developmental brain injury, and then follow subjects as they develop by studying their behavioral and cognitive abilities.
For example, we can study the behavioral effects of focal disruption to the rat cortex during the critical period of neuromigration. Disruptions during this key period lead to focal brain anomalies similar to those seen in various developmental disabilities in humans. Such anomalies can be induced by freezing lesions to the rat cortical plate on postnatal day 1 (which leads to ectopias and microgyria, as seen in human dyslexic brains). Or, we can induce disruptions of neuronal migration through embryonic manipulation (RNAi) of genes that are known to be associated with developmental disabilities. Importantly, many of these genes are also critical to neuronal migration. We can investigate the long term behavioral correlates of these disruptions in rats, to determine what systems are affected -- as well as how such impairments might be averted or ameliorated.
Another model we use investigates early hypoxic-ischemic injury -- similar to that seen in premature and very low birthweight infants, or in term babies suffering hypoxic injuries due to birth complications. Again, we examine the later behavioral correlates of these early injuries in rodents.
Using all of these injury models, we can also examine the influence of additional factors -- such as the effects of age and sex (male vs female) on behavioral response to early brain injury. Behavioral measures include assessments of rapid auditory processing; this testing can begin in rodents as young as 30 days of age. Auditory processing assessments are used based on strong evidence that early processing of rapidly changing auditory information is correlated with, and predictive of, language development in humans. Additional behavioral tests include assessments of spatial navigation (e.g., Morris Water Maze), working memory (e.g., radial arm maze), and non-spatial learning and memory (e.g., T-maze).
