User talk:Skd17

Welcome!
Hello, Skd17, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

I hope you enjoy editing here. If you haven't already done so, please check out the student training library, which introduces you to editing and Wikipedia's core principles. You may also want to check out the Teahouse, a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to helping new users. Below are some resources to help you get started editing. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:06, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Great that you are all set up to start the project, Skd17! ProfJRL (talk) 01:08, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Article Plans
I will be editing Habenular nuclei for the purpose of a undergraduate seminar course. This page has very minimal information regarding the function and purpose of the brain region and does little to demonstrate how it works with other regions of the brain.

Annotated Bibliography
1)

This article discusses the concept that the Habenula, found above the thalamus, plays an important role in regulating motivation as it relates to behavior. Divided into two sections, the medial and lateral Habenulas (MHb and LHb respectively), the LHb is the primary focus of this review, looking at its response to dopamine innervation. Focusing on studies examining cognitive and motor behaviors, researchers learned that neutral event stimuli tend to inhibit dopamine levels. Damage or dysfunction in this region led to poor impulse control, suggesting a possible explanation for behavioral responses in individuals with psychiatric disorders.

2)

This review paper describes a system called the DDC (dorsal diencephalic conduction), which acts as a network for communication within the brain. The Habenula is one of three major components of this system. There is a really interesting schematic showing the interconnected pathways of the DDC as it relates to important neural structures and physiological processes such as the hypothalamus and hippocampus formation. Using rats as the predominate study model, this article gives a really good overview on the extent of influence that the Habenula has on behavior.

3)

Using a zebrafish model, this study explores the effect of gene expression on the functional differences between left and right Habenula. They hoped to create a map articulating this distinction, identifying key neural pathways.

4)

This study examined neural connectivity in the lamprey to explore cellular conservation of the LHb and MHb across mammals. The goal was to begin to understand if behavioral reward responses have similar physiological origins.