All individuals with aphasia experience some level of anomia, or difficulty with naming and word finding, but many report that their internal word knowledge exceeds their spoken output, making comments like, “I know it but ...

Hub nodes serve important roles in modular physical, social, and biological systems. This dissertation focuses upon the role of hubs in one of the most complex, poorly understood biological systems in nature – the human ...

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of the central nervous system promotes neuronal injury and apoptosis culminating in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Viral proteins, like transactivator of ...

Obesity is the result of failed energy homeostasis, and is characterized by the progressive accumulation of body weight, with the majority of weight gain due to increased fat mass. The regulation of body weight through ...

Music cognition researchers have proposed a relationship between the perception of unexpected harmonic events and preference in music. The brain strategies underlying this relationship, however, have not been substantially ...

Protease activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) and its ligand, matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1), are altered in several neurodegenerative diseases. PAR-1 and MMP-1 signaling impact neuronal excitation and inhibition in various ...

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), the first receptors to be identified, play varying and essential roles throughout the CNS. Both the endogenous ligand, acetylcholine, and exogenous ligand, nicotine, have been ...

The central nervous system (CNS) comprises the necessary components for converting sensation into behavior, a phenomenon fundamental to mammalian survival. One way that sensation can be converted into behavior is via a ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that afflicts over 2.3 million individuals worldwide. The pathogenesis of MS involves autoimmune destruction ...

Adolescence is a time of exploration, but also risk taking, such as alcohol use. What places individuals’ at risk has not been fully elucidated. Twin studies of adult alcohol use disorders (AUD’s) found genetics account ...