Dark Side of the Moon

Some would say that I’m venturing into the dark side – but I think that I’m seeing the light for the first time. I may be heading in the direction of “applied science,” meaning that my research can be directly applicable to, in this case, human health. In other words, I won’t be studying animal behavior just for the sake of studying animal behavior. The way I see it, research has many levels. The first level is studying a behavior, and being content with it. Studying squirrel brains? Ok, cool. But I’m going to add another level ontop. I’m going to add the level of applied research that begs the age-old question, “Well, what does this actually mean?” Studying squirrels brains? Not enough. Why? What does this mean?

That said, I would like to devote a chapter of my dissertation to the human health implications that are tied to my current research project. Since I will be studying the anti-predator behavior of ground squirrels, I decided to look a little further into it, and think of how this behavior may be translated into human behavior. It may not be easy to see at first, but it’s the behavior of fear – of anxiety. I’ll be comparing two different populations of squirrels: one that has been exposed to predators rather recently, and one that has not lived with their snake predators for 300,000 + years. It has already been found by my esteemed advisors, Don Owings and Dick Coss, that there is infact a difference in behavior between these two populations. They do not respond equally to the same rattlesnake predator presentation.  Why? Well, the population that has not experienced snakes for many thousands of years seems to be more afraid; more anxious; more vigilant.

Now, to my knowledge, a model of anxiety has not been studied with an evolutionary outlook in mind. It’s all been immediate studies concerning Pavlovian conditioning of fear in rats or mice. This does not take 300,000 years to produce; it merely takes days. So, my new evolutionary model might be extremely insightful into investigating the neural circuitry underlying vigilance and the production of anxious behaviors. PLUS! I will be investigating these behaviors in the field. No one has done neuroscience in the field before. This is completely novel. I have already received comments from the folks at the National Science Foundation (NSF) who did not like my initial proposal because this neurological method is so new. They don’t think that it can happen. This is what I devote my summer to now – making sure that I can get it right so that the next time around, NSF can’t give me the excuse that they don’t want to fund a seemingly impossible project.

As previously stated, you can now see that there are several existing levels to the project that I am proposing. Not only that, but I have found woulderful resources and opportunities that lie in wait at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethseda, MD. One wonderful woman by the name of Jacqueline Crawley, works on animal models of psychiatric disease, including depression and anxiety. I have a connection to Brian Trainor here at UCD who is working on an animal model of depression, and my work already is beginning to focus on an animal model of anxiety. Boom. There you have it. A fellowship at NIH may very well be in my future.

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~ by shadowolff24 on July 12, 2009.