Facts

Key Allegheny Benefits

• Excellent foundation for graduate study.
• Critical and analytical thinking skills.
• Ability to design and implement research studies.
• Recognition of the ethical dimensions of scientific research.
• Understanding of the connections between scientific and other disciplines.

Allegheny Distinctions

• Required individual Senior Project demonstrates to graduate schools and prospective employers the ability to complete a major independent research assignment.
• Numerous opportunities for student research in off-campus environments such as the National Institute of Mental Health.
• Alumni are actively sought after by some of the best graduate programs in the country.

Endorsements

• Recently, Allegheny was one of 52 institutions selected from among 189 applicants to receive a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The $600,000 grant is funding expansion of the neuroscience major through faculty and research support.
• "These [grant-winning] colleges and universities do an excellent job of preparing students for careers in scientific research, teaching, medicine and related fields."- Purnell W. Choppin, president, Hughes Medical Institute
• "Allegheny faculty teach you how to ask a question, how to capitalize on what is known to figure out what is not known, how to break out of that text book mode. . . . 'Get on-line, make the call, write the proposal, go after the information'-that's what they tell you." - Ted Carpenter-Smith '88, technical specialist, Arthur Andersen & Co.'s Center for Professional Education
• A $400,000 grant from the Keck Foundation permitted the development of new interdisciplinary neuroscience courses: "Neuroscience of Dance and Movement"; "Neuroscience and the Visual Arts"; "Mind and Brain "; and "History of Neuroscience."
• Allegheny was one of fifteen institutions to receive a FOCUS grant from the Verizon Foundation. This grant provided $30,000 to fund a summer science camp outreach program targeting underrepresented students and women.

Facilities Strengths

• Student access to all departmental facilities and equipment is the rule at Allegheny, producing research opportunities usually reserved for graduate students at other institutions.
• Our state of the art biology building features combined laboratory/classroom spaces, with student and faculty research areas adjacent to faculty offices.
• All equipment is available for student use, including ultracentrifuge, UV-visible spectrophotometers, tissue culture facilities and equipment, optical microscopes (real-time fluorescent imaging facilities, Nomarski, phase contrast, etc.), liquid scintillation counter, PCR thermacycler, ultra-low temperature freezers, electrophoresis equipment, cryostat, intra-extracellular electrophysiology equipment.
• Extensive computer facilities, including powerful workstations, in both biology and psychology departments and in the Pelletier Library. Biology and psychology faculty have created custom programs for the workstations which are an integral element of both introductory and advanced courses.
• Allegheny's psychology laboratory complex gives students opportunities far advanced over those offered by most undergraduate colleges. Recently, over $500,000 was invested in lab renovations to provide the latest equipment and instrumentation. The complex includes a physiological psychology teaching lab, an operant conditioning teaching lab, a psycho- pharmacology research lab for animal work, an animal colony with full-time caretaker, a human psychophysiology research lab, and suites for student projects.

Student Research and Special Projects

Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in his or her major field. The Senior Project is a significant piece of original work, designed by the student and a faculty advisor, that demonstrates the ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information and to write and speak persuasively.

Recent Senior Projects

• "Kainic acid lesioning of the medial, posterior cortical, and anterior cortical amygdaloid nuclei: the inhibition of a sympathetic heart rate response in Rattus rattus norvegicus to an aversive odorant. "
• "An animal model of ADHD: the effects of methylphenidate on both young and old spontaneously hypertensive rats. "
• "The effects of high doses of amphetamines on the caudate nucleus of the rat: an immunohistochemical analysis. "
• "The effects of physostigmine and scopolomine on hippocampal lesioned rats with fetal septal-hippocampal grafts. "
• "Connections of the caudal ventrolateral medullary reticular formation in the brainstem. "
• "Comparison of the ventilatory responses of Guinea pigs, rabbits, and piglets to elevated inspired CO2: Development of a possible model for sudden infant death syndrome. "
• "The effects of impaired glial cell functioning in the hippocampus on spatial memory in the rat. "
• "Identification and characterization of olfactory CO2 receptors using single-unit recordings in rats. "
• "Sex and estrus effects on nicotine-induced antinociception in male and female rats. "
• "A longitudinal study of carbonic anhydrase activity in embryonic and neonatal rat nasal cavities: a histochemical localization. "

Student Publications/ Presentations

The results of student research projects, undertaken independently or with faculty, are regularly presented at professional conferences and published in academic journals. Each year approximately 50% of senior neuroscience majors make presentations at regional or national conferences.

Some examples:

• "NMDA-induced drinking in the rat." Joint student/faculty presentation at the Association for Behavioral Analysis conference.
• "The effect of pre-exposure to tolvene on acquisition of cocaine self-administration." Joint student/faculty presentation at the Association for Behavioral Analysis conference.
• "The role of olfactory CO2 chemoreceptors in the ventilatory response to inspired CO2 in neonatal rabbits: A possible role in sudden infant death syndrome." Joint student/faculty presentation at the 1999 Society for Neuroscience meetings.
• "Changes in outflow to respiratory pump muscles produced by natural vestibular stimulation." Joint student/faculty publication, Journal of Neurophysiology.
• "Heart rate reactivity during the Stroop test better predicted by previous night's sleep than by pulse reactivity to mild stressors." Joint student/faculty presentation to the 1997 Society for Psychophysiological Research Conference.

All of the following were joint student/faculty presentations at the 2000 and 2001 Society for Neuroscience national conferences:

• " Topical inhibition of nasal carbonic anhydrase in rats attenuates the olfactory receptor response to CO2. "
• "Behavioral and electrophysiological characterization of the Lewis and Fischer rat: implications for an animal model of alcoholism. "
• "The effects of hisindolylmaleimide I and diltiazem on the expression of behavioral sensitization to cocaine. "
• "The use of classical music processing to teach neuroscience principles."
• "Effects of musical key changes on frontal lobes of musicians and non-musicians: EEG alpha desynchronization."

Independent Study

Students may participate in research prior to the Senior Project by taking advantage of the Independent Study or Research Internship options available in the neuroscience curriculum. Both options are credit-bearing courses that can be taken during any semester. Independent Study students explore research hypotheses of their own creation.