Sensory overload is the feeling of over-stimulation that may lead to increased
anxiety and panic in individuals with psychiatric disorders such as autism, post
traumatic stress disorder, etc. Understanding visual processing is crucial to enhancing
our treatments for disorders where sensory overload is a symptom. How
do changes in internal states such as stress or hunger alter visual processing?
This project aims to explore how visual processing is affected by signaling in
the hypothalamus, an area of the brain regulating changes in internal states and
stress. Preliminary studies revealed there are a number of neurons projecting
from the lateral area of the hypothalamus to the visual cortex. We want to
understand the specific location, identity, and neural circuits of these neurons.
Visual cortex neurons were retrogradely traced to identify which inputs originate
from the hypothalamus, and the geographical location of these cells was mapped
out. The molecular identities of these projection neurons was further explored
using specific RNAScope probes to check if those cells are expressing any of four
genes most commonly expressed in the hypothalamus: Gal, Crh, Hcrt, and Pmch.
This exploration will help us understand the type of signals communicated from
the hypothalamic nuclei to the visual cortex to modulate visual processing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:kaust.edu.sa/oai:repository.kaust.edu.sa:10754/692271 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Andejani, Noor |
| Contributors | Ibrahim, Leena Ali, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division, Magistretti, Pierre J., Frøkjær-Jensen, Christian |
| Source Sets | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | 2024-05-31, At the time of archiving, the student author of this thesis opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this thesis will become available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2024-05-31. |
| Relation | N/A |
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