Authors:

Jenna Armer

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sexes in mice The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a critical role in motivation, performance, motor preparation, and learning. Previous studies demonstrate that dopaminergic neurons are predominantly located in brain regions such as the substantia nigra, nucleus accumbens, basolateral amygdala, ventral tegmental area, striatum, and frontal cortex. Projections from the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area neurons ascend to the cortex, primarily documented in the prefrontal cortex with less literature regarding density in the sensory cortices. Furthermore, there is evidence of sexual dimorphism in the density of dopaminergic axons in different brain regions. This experiment's objective was to confirm the findings of previous research on the topic, as well as quantify dopaminergic axons throughout the cerebral cortex. This study aimed to validate such findings by utilizing transgenic mice in order to optimize two-photon axon imaging in-vivo. We employed immunohistochemistry for quantifying dopaminergic axons. This labeling technique included brain tissue preparation, antibody staining, imaging, and subsequent analysis. At this time, insufficient data has been acquired to make definitive conclusions. We hypothesize that the prefrontal cortex will exhibit more labeling when compared to the sensory cortices, but that this will depend on the sex of the animal. 87 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • 2024 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

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University of Oregon / 2024

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Co-authors:

Jenna Armer