Behavioral Neuroscience

Anna Klintsova

		Assistant Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D., Moscow State University, 1992 Research Interests Recent Publications Representative Publications Website Vita -PDF klintsov@udel.edu Office: 131 Wolf Hall (302) 831-0452 (302) 831-3645 -fax Lab: 122 Wolf Hall Preferred contact method - email

Research Interests

Experience-dependent developmental and adult brain plasticity

Research Summary:

My major research interest is the evaluation of plasticity of the normal/healthy vs. damaged nervous system on behavioral and system/cellular levels. I am currently using a rat animal model of alcohol abuse during pregnancy, to study the damaging effects of alcohol on the developing brain and on the altered behavior. The major questions that I address in my current research are the extent of the alcohol-related damage and whether behavioral intervention can ameliorate that damage on both behavioral and structural levels. In attempt to improve behavioral (motor) performance and increase brain plasticity in alcohol-exposed animals I am using different conditions (motor task learning, physical exercise) that are known to facilitate brain synaptogenesis. The evaluation of plasticity is done on the behavioral (testing the motor abilities and memory), cellular (light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, optical densitometry, neuronal tract-tracing) and sub-cellular (electron microscopy) levels. For more information, see this recent article, courtesy of the University of Illinois.

The major questions that I am planning to answer are:

Is the brain more susceptible for rehabilitation at an earlier age?

How persistent is the behavioral and morphological rehabilitation / compensation?

What are the "players" underlying the mechanism of developmental damage by alcohol and possible rehabilitation (e.g.neurotrophic factors, glial activation)?

What are the limits for partial rehabilitation if the damage from developmental alcohol exposure is more widespread in the brain (in case of alcohol exposure during all three trimesters)?

Is there a suppression of neurogenesis and/or cell genesis in the alcohol-exposed brain (cortex and hippocampus)?

And in case the neuronal proliferation is down after developmental exposure to alcohol - is it possible to stimulate it by learning and exercise?

Recent Publications

A.Y.Klintsova; L.H. Calizo; J.L. Helfer; W.K. Dong; C.R.Goodlett; W.T. Greenough. (2007) Persistent impairment of hippocampal neurogenesis in young adult rats following early postnatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 31(12): 2073-2082.

Savage LM, Roland J, Klintsova A. (2007) Selective septohippocampal – but not forebrain amygdalar – cholinergic dysfunction in diencephalic amnesia. Brain Research, 1139:210-219.

Roegge CS, Morris JR, Villareal S, Wang VC, Powers BE, Klintsova AY, Greenough WT, Pessah IN, Schantz SL. (2006) Purkinje cell and cerebellar effects following developmental exposure to PCBs and/or MeHg. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 28(10): 74-85.

Guerri C, Pascual M, Garcia-Minguillan MC, Charness ME, Wilkemeyer MF, Klintsova AY, Goodlett CR, Greenough WT, Sakata-Haga H, Dominguez HD, Thomas JD (2005) Fetal Alcohol Effects: Potential Treatments From Basic Science. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(6): 1074-1079.

Klintsova AY, Dickson E, Yoshida R, Greenough WT (2004) Altered expression of BDNF and its high-affinity receptor TrkB in response to complex motor learning and moderate exercise. Brain Research, 1028(1):92-104

Briones TL, Klintsova AY, Greenough WT (2004) Stability of synaptic plasticity in the adult rat visual cortex induced by complex environmental exposure. Brain Research, 1018: 130-135.

Weiler IJ, Spangler CC, Klintsova AY, Grossman AW, Kim SH, Bertaina-Anglade V, Khaliq H, de Vries FE, Lambers FA, Hatia F, Base CK, Greenough WT (2004) From the Cover: Fragile X mental retardation protein is necessary for neurotransmitter-activated protein translation at synapses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 101 (50):17504-9.

Black JE, Kodish IM, Grossman AW, Klintsova AY, Orlovskaya D, Vostrikov V, Uranova N, Greenough WT. (2004) Quantitative Pathology of Layer V Pyramidal Neurons in Schizophrenic Prefrontal Cortex. Am J of Psychiatry, 161(4):742-4.

Roegge CS, Wang VC, Powers BE, Klintsova AY, Villareal S, Greenough WT, Schantz SL. (2004)  Motor Impairment in Rats Exposed to PCBs and Methylmercury During Early Development. Toxicol Sci, 77(2):315-24.

F. Angenstein, R.E. Settlage, J.E. Kacharmina, S.T. Moran, S.-C. Ling, A. Klintsova, J. Eberwine, D.F. Hunt, W.T. Greenough. RACK1, a receptor for activated C kinase, links metabotropic glutamate receptor activation with dendritic translational control. (2002)  J Neurosci, 22(20):8827-37.

Representative Publications

Klintsova AY, Dickson E, Yoshida R, Greenough WT (2004) Altered expression of BDNF and its high-affinity receptor TrkB in response to complex motor learning and moderate exercise. Brain Research, 1028(1):92-104

KlintsovaAY, Scamra C., Hoffman M., Goodlett CR., Napper RMA and WT. Greenough. Therapeutic effect of complex motor skill learning on binge-like postnatal alcohol-induced motor performance deficits: II. Quantitative Study of Synaptic Plasticity Using Unbiased Stereology.(2002) Brain Research, 937, p. 83-93.

A.Y.Klintsova, C.R.Goodlett, W.T.Greenough. (1999) Therapeutic motor training ameliorates cerebellar effects of postnatal binge alcohol. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 22, 125-132.

A.Y.Klintsova, W.T.Greenough. (1999)  Synaptic plasticity in cortical systems. Current Opinions in Neurobiology, v.9, p.203-208.

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