April 25, 2006

Kevin Brown awarded Predoctoral Fellowship from NIAAA

Kevin Brown, a fifth year graduate student in the Behavioral Neuroscience Program, is the recipient of a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA).  This prestigious predoctoral fellowship provides $125,097.00 for stipend, tuition, supply, and travel costs in support of Kevin’s doctoral dissertation research. The 28-month award began on April 25, 2006.  Kevin’s fellowship application received a priority score of 130, placing it in the top 5-6 percent of applications submitted nationally to a peer review panel of distinguished scientists convened by NIAAA.  The application, entitled “Ontogeny of Eyeblink CR Timing in a Rat Model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders” is based on a Pavlovian conditioning phenomenon---interstimulus interval discrimination of the conditioned eyeblink reflex---that is being used to understand functional interactions between the cerebellar cortex and deep nuclei, elements of cerebellar circuitry that are critical for motor learning.  During his initial years of graduate study, Kevin adapted this procedure to the developing rat and demonstrated ontogenetic changes in CR-timing functions mediated by this circuitry in an article to be published in the October 2006 issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.  Kevin’s NRSA fellowship will use this experimental paradigm to better understand the behavioral consequences of damage to the cerebellum produced by alcohol exposure during the rodent-equivalent of the human third trimester. More specifically, it will determine whether performance on this behavioral paradigm will be disrupted by doses of neonatal alcohol exposure that are lower than those that disrupt simpler forms of eyeblink conditioning. It will also determine the quantitative relationship between alcohol exposure, cerebellar neuron loss, and motor learning. Because eyeblink conditioning can be used to assess brain damage and neurobehavioral impairment in human infants at risk for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Kevin’s research has important implications for the early identification and treatment of this important public health problem.  Kevin’s NRSA application was sponsored by Dr. Mark Stanton, Professor in the Behavioral Neuroscience Area and co-sponsored by Dr. Charles Goodlett, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis.