PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Jenny Menjivar
MA-Research
May 2008

The Effects of Hippocampal Lesions on Apoptosis in the Adult Zebra Finch

    Our previous research determined that hippocampal lesions impair spatial memory and induces cell birth in adult zebra finch.  We investigated the effects of hippocampal lesions on cell death.  Male zebra finches were divided into 4 experimental groups: Trained-lesioned, Trained-sham, Untrained-lesioned-1day and Untrained-lesioned-14days.  To investigate cell death the TUNEL histochemistry method [was] used.  TUNEL positive cells were counted in the hippocampus and were used as the dependent variable.  We looked at three independent variables: Survival Time, Behavior and Lesion.  ANOVAs revealed no significant effects on the number of TUNEL positive cells in the hippocampus due to Behavior or Survival Time.  Lesion did have a significant effect on cell death; however our results did not support the hypothesis.  That is, lesioned birds had fewer TUNEL positive cells than the sham controls suggesting that the avian hippocampus responds to injury by suppressing cell death.

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