The Senior Program

As seniors, neuroscience majors carry out a research project that culminates in a thesis and an oral presentation. Working closely with a faculty advisor, each student uses the senior project to synthesize and focus previous coursework. The senior project is an original work of scholarship that provides an in-depth examination of a particular empirical or theoretical issue.

In the Senior Fellowship Program, as many as seven Hamilton students undertake a major research project under the supervision of two or more faculty members. Recent senior fellows in neuroscience have studied octopamine and single neurons.

Recent projects in neuroscience include:

• Neurogenic mechanisms underlying lead induced hyperactivity
• Sexually Dimorphic Expressivity of Arginine Vasotocin in Brains of Adult Osteopilus Septentrionalis
• Is Miro1 Involved in the Development of Neurodegenerative Disease?
• You Need to Block them Both: Investigating the Neural Circuitry of Amphetamine Craving in Rats
• Investigating Contamination OCD Through a Psychoneuroimmunology Lens
• You Need to Block them Both: Investigating the Neural Circuitry of Amphetamine Craving in Rats
• Too Sleepy to Focus? How Sustained Attention Fluctuates with Our Sleep/Wake Cycle
• An Embryonic Times Series of Cortical Development in Miro1 Knockout Mice
• Examining the Interplay of Explicit and Implicit Learning in Motor Adaptation: A Developmental Perspective
• Individual Differences in the Placebo Responses of Rats: Studies with Amphetamine and Morphine
• The Neural Basis of Motor Adaptation
• Inhibitory Networks: Mitochondrial Dynamics and Adaptation
• The Effects of Loneliness on Threat Perception and Parasympathetic Activity
• Hands-On Illusions: Investigating Vision’s Impact on Touch
• Exploring the Toxicogenomic Impact of Chronic Exposure to Lead (Pb) on Neurodevelopment in Drosophila melanogaster
• Characterizing TBHR: A Monooxygenase Orthologue to Monooxygenase X (MOXd1) in Drosophila Melanogaster
• Why Do We Call It Mental Illness?: The Immune System’s Role in Linking Attachment and Depression
• Through the Looking Glass: A Theatrical Intervention for Youth with ASD
• What’s the harm? Examining the Impact of Combined Puberty Blockers and Feminizing Hormones in Male Rats.
• Oxytocin’s Role in Cooperation and Attention
• Miro1 and Its Role in Ethanol Addiction
• Localization of the Human Monooxygenase X DBH-Like 1 (MOXd1) Orthologue in Drosophila melanogaster
• Benefits of Scaffolded Learning: Insights from 6- to 7-Year-Old Children
• Come Closer, I’m Sick? Personal Space Regulation and the Immune System
• The Role of Miro1 in Spinal Cord Neurodegeneration
• Investigating the Impact of Intrusive Thoughts on Selective Attention