Jack Shepard

Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory part of CUREnet:CURE Collection
The study of fear and anxiety in behavioral neuroscience has traditionally used rodents as model organisms. Behavioral assays focus on enhanced avoidance of light as an index of fear or anxiety. However, these behaviors are not unique to mammals and recent studies have shown that invertebrates such as planarians also exhibit avoidance behavior similar to anxiety in rodents. This discovery has opened up new possibilities for investigating the neural mechanisms of anxiety using a simple model organism. The Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory course takes advantage of this by using an aquatic planarian to investigate the neural mechanisms of enhanced avoidance behavior in response to stress. Students in the course use video analysis and pharmacological tools to quantify behavior and identify the neurotransmitters involved in this process. The course aims to provide students with an opportunity to engage in authentic research in behavioral neuroscience by allowing them to design experiments, collect and analyze data, and present their findings as a poster presentation and writing a final paper.