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Michael True's plans include more research and, eventually, graduate school. |
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True is shown here using a cryostat machine, which is used to section brains for staining. |
“I have found that hands-on learning is the best way for me to understand what I have been taught in class,” says
psychology major
Michael True ’12. In that case, summer 2010 is providing the Hampton, Virginia native with plenty of fodder for thought.
True is conducting research in conjunction with R-MC’s Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (
SURF) program. Each weekday he can be found in the Copley Science Center, conducting research on Long-Evans rats. He has also been blogging about his experience. He explains his methodology:
“Almost 120 million people worldwide suffer from depression,” says True. “One theory Dr. Lambert (psychology) has developed over the years is called effort-driven rewards (EDR), which suggests that physical effort that yields a desired consequence that is more rewarding than receiving the desired consequence without relevant effort. Generations ago people grew gardens, built their own homes and made their clothes. Now everything can be done with the touch of a button, which takes the physical effort out of the equation and doesn’t give us a sense of accomplishment. Essentially Dr. Lambert’s theory is that the meal you spend time creating is more satisfying to the brain than the one you take out of the freezer and pop in the microwave. Dr. Lambert believes that as an alternative to pharmaceutical treatments, EDR training can be a way to create more connections in the brain, specifically between the nucleus accumbens, the prefrontal cortex, and the striatum, which can lead to increased resilience to depression.”
To read more Student Experience stories, click here.True is testing Lambert’s EDR theory by putting rats through training for five weeks. The furry critters are divided into two groups: “worker rats,” which have to root around in corncob bedding to find their edible rewards, and “trust fund rats,” which are simply given their rewards. “The ‘rewards’ can be found in almost every household,” explains True. “I use Froot Loops cereal and the rats absolutely love it!”
After the EDR training is complete, True will begin behavioral testing using a Dry Land Maze (DLM), which tests the rats’ memory and cognitive functioning. “Basically, I want to know if the ‘worker rats’ can more easily remember where the Froot Loops are,” he says. The DLM is essentially a big open field with a series of eight wells built into the floor of the apparatus. Rats have to remember which well has a Froot Loop in it. “I measure the time it takes the animal to approach the well and then to eat the Froot Loop.” says True.
There is also one well that is consistently baited throughout all of the training. On the last day of training, no wells are baited and True measures the time it takes the rats to approach the well that has been baited the entire time. “I measure the length of time spent at the well, how many times the rats go back to the well, how quickly the rats get to the previously baited well, and how many other wells they visit,” he says. “This gives us a great idea of not only whether they remember where the reward was, but also how much they’ll search for a reward in other wells.”
True is also interested in the connection between depression and cardiovascular health. “Depression has been associated with poor cardiovascular health, and several studies have shown that depression and its associated symptoms represent major risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD),” he explains. “After the DLM training was completed, I did a series of cardiovascular tests on the animals that measured the blood volume in their tails, their heart rates and their blood pressure.”
True will also be conducting brain analyses on the rats. Working with Professor Catherine Franssen (psychology) and Longwood University Visiting Professor Adam Franssen, True injected a particular chemical during the behavioral testing that “allows me to see which cells are dividing and where in the brain this is happening,” he says. “With a high-powered microscope, I can actually count brain neurons and compare the ‘worker’ and ‘trust fund’ groups to find out which rats have more neurons in relevant parts of the brain.”
In addition to behavior and brain research, True will also work with Marshall University Visiting Professor Massimo Bardi to analyze levels of hormones circulating in the rats as they solve these behavioral tasks. “Corticosterone is a hormone related to stress and DHEA is a hormone that seems to indicate resilience to stress,” he explains. “Instead of subjecting the rats to blood draws, we have collected fecal samples from the animals—a non-invasive, low-stress method of hormone collection.”
True’s goals include more research and, eventually, graduate school. “My goal is to submit my research for publication, and next summer I plan on presenting my research at a conference in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It’s a great opportunity because my lab partner Casey Kaufman ’13 and I will be the only undergraduate students there,” he says.
True is excited about his research and the opportunities it offers. “Conducting my own research has given me the chance to work with my professors and other experts in the field of psychology,” he says. “Sometimes it can be frustrating when my rats don’t train as well as I would like or a type of stain on a brain doesn’t come out as well the directions say it should. But there are days when my research runs perfectly and I get significant results, which happened to me last week. It was amazing. I felt like a genuine scientist.”
For information on R-MC’s SURF program, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/academics/research.aspx To read Michael’s blog, visit http://news.rmc.edu/summer/