Volunteer in a Faculty Research Lab
The BNS program promotes original research and encourages undergraduate involvement both through independent research through our faculty research programs and through research-oriented laboratory classes.
Benefits of Undergraduate Research
Participating in faculty-mentored research can expose students to the true workings of the scientific method, enhance a student’s resume when applying to graduate school, as well as provide students with bench skills that make them great candidates for entry level positions in biomedical research. Student research presentation opportunities enable students to present their research in a variety of settings. Presenting original research is a great way to network, as well as practice presenting data and information to others.
To learn more about the different faculty research labs please check out the descriptions and lab website links below.
Students interested in pursuing laboratory research should contact individual faculty by using the directions on their websites. In the absence of specific application process, please review the Getting Involved in Research page here.
Behavioral Neuroscience Program Faculty Research Labs
Neurobiology of Relapse Lab
Dr. Jeffrey Grimm, director of Western Washington University’s behavioral neuroscience program (BNS), operates and supervises the university’s Neurobiology of Relapse lab. Daily laboratory work is primarily conducted by student volunteer lab technicians from the psychology department and behavioral neuroscience program, while Dr. Grimm oversees study design and writing.
Studies conducted in the lab range from testing preclinical drug therapies to experimenting with environmental stimuli, all done in the pursuit of understanding drug uptake behavior and relapse prognosis. All studies utilize Charles River Long-Evans rats bred and raised in WWU’s own vivarium.
Jeff Grimm, a professor of psychology at Western Washington University, explains what is it about our brains’ relationship to sugar that makes it so potentially addictive in this Western Today Q&A segment.
The Lab
Within the lab’s resources are a fully equipped rat and mouse vivarium, cytology scopes, chemical utilities and fume hoods, sterile surgical and injection equipment, and much more. Dr. Grimm’s lab takes full advantage of this suite of utilities in its varied and diverse investigations into the brain and relapse behavior.
Incubation of Craving
The core tenet of Dr. Grimm’s lab is studying what has been identified as the “incubation of craving”, a relapse behavior described to be an increase of drug craving after protracted withdrawal or removal from said drug stimulus. The lab’s studies seek to explore this phenomenon and how it can be influenced by exterior factors or interventions.
To learn more about volunteering for the lab, visit the Neurobiology of Relapse Lab website linked here.
Human Cognition and Neural Dynamics Lab
Dr. Kelly J. Jantzen uses electroencephalography (EEG) to quantify and understand large scale brain dynamics associated with a number of cognitive processes that include perception/action coupling and face processing. Dr Jantzen uses a number of experimental approaches in seeking support for the general framework that under many conditions, action and perception are components of a single, shared neural process.
In the Human Cognition and Neural Dynamics Lab (HCND), they seek to understand the link between complex human behavior and brain dynamics. It is widely recognized that human behavior, in all its rich forms and with all its inherent variability, arises primarily from the interplay between distributed brain regions. The lab uses electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to both measure and influence the electrical activity of the brain with the goal of identifying and quantifying neural signatures of human behavior and ability. Scientists in the lab focus on a number of important and intriguing questions that include the neural mechanisms of face perception and recognition; how musical training affects the neural processing of language; and the cortical mechanisms underlying the integration of action and perception. High-density EEG and TMS are well suited to address these questions because they provide measures of cortical activity on a fast time scale suitable for quantifying rapid changes in neural states and dynamic interchanges between distributed cortical regions.
To learn more about volunteering for the lab, visit the Human Cognition and Neural Dynamics Lab website linked here.
Cannabis Neuropharmacology and Neurophysiology Lab
Researching the Developmental Consequences and Therapeutic Benefits of Cannabis
The Kaplan lab studies the developmental consequences and therapeutic efficacy of cannabis in pre-clinical rodent models of disease and psychological disorders. The lab employs behavioral, genetic, pharmacological, and electrophysiology techniques coupled with novel passive inhalation methods that mimic human use patterns. The lab aims to optimize cannabis’ medicinal benefits, minimize side effects, and better understand its impact on the developing brain.
Western Washington University Associate Professor of Psychology Joshua Kaplan presents ‘Cracking the Cannabis Code: How Advances in Cannabis Research Can Improve Medicine and Limit Harm’ as part of the CHSS Dean’s Lecture Series.
Laboratory Techniques
The lab uses a combination of animal behavioral, physiology, and molecular imaging approaches to study the developmental impact and therapeutic efficacy of cannabis.
Passive exposure techniques: passive exposure chambers to systematically and reliably expose mice to cannabis vapor or combusted cannabis flower. This method closely mimics the vaporizer or combustion methods used by humans to consume cannabis.
Animal behavioral assays: A variety of behavioral assays to measure anxiety, depression, social behavior, and learning & memory.
Slice-electrophysiology: In vitro slice-electrophysiology using whole cell patch-clamp techniques. These tools enable recording of neuronal communication patterns and assess how they’re influenced by cannabinoid exposure. Allowing mechanistic insight to how cannabinoids are influencing brain function.
Calcium imaging: Employ fluorescence microscopy in living brain tissue to measure the effects of cannabinoid exposure on neuronal calcium dynamics. Altered calcium dynamics are a common feature of numerous disorders, and this technique provides a window to identifying disease features and identifying therapeutic efficacy.
Mass spectrometry: Capture two-dimensional mass spectrometry data using MALDI-TOF to identify the impacts of cannabinoids on endocannabinoid levels across different brain regions.
Western Blot protein analysis: Western Blot analysis to measure changes in various protein levels, including brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in response to cannabinoid intervention.
To learn more about volunteering for the lab, visit the Cannabis Neuropharmacology and Neurophysiology Lab website linked here.
Neuroplasticity and Behavior Lab
Dr. Jackie Rose uses several approaches to gain insight into how neurons are uniquely adapted to modify themselves following a change in stimulus input. Research in the Rose lab utilizes the microscopic C. elegans model system to investigate processes at the single-neuron level within an intact animal model. Dr. Rose also employs dissociated hippocampal neuron cultures to observe protein redistribution and aggregation following induced activity. Taken together, these two research directions converge to reveal how alterations in ongoing signaling change neurons and how these changes can be reflected in the whole, behaving animal.
Dr. Jackie Rose, a professor in Western’s Psychology Department, presents ‘Thanks for the Memories: Memory Processes Across the Lifespan’ during a previous Neuroscience On Tap community event.
Associative Conditioning
When two stimuli occur consistently close together in time, they come to be “associated” with one another and over time the response to one stimulus can influence, or even modify, the response to the other stimulus (e.g, Pavlov’s dog experiment). To study mechanisms that underlie this association between two inputs, the Rose Lab employs the microscopic nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This worm measures ~1 mm in length, with exactly 302 neurons in the hermaphrodite animal. The connections between these identified neurons have been described (the Worm “Connectome”) and importantly, the putative neurotransmitters and mode of signaling (chemical vs electrical) between these neurons have also been documented
Effect of Chronic Mild Stress
To investigate the effects of mild chronic stress, the Rose Lab employs the microscopic nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Most rodent research use some form of inescapable environmental condition for chronic stress trials. When adult worms are exposed to an inescapable but mild stressor for a 4-hour period, subsequent generations of worms show increased reversal locomotion time.
CaMKII in Excitatory Neuronal Signaling
To observe direct changes in CaMKII expression following excitatory stimulation, students in the Rose Lab have observed and captured images from dissociated hippocampal neuron cultures. Immunocytochemistry (immunostaining) to CaMKII and the synaptic protein PSD-95 indicate overlapping expression in stimulated neurons.
To learn more about volunteering for the lab, visit the Neuroplasticity and Behavior Lab website linked here.