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Amy F.T. Arnsten | |
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| Alma mater | |
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| Institutions | Yale University |
Amy F.T. Arnsten is an American neuroscientist. She is the Albert E. Kent Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology as well as a member of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience at Yale University.
She studies the unique molecular mechanisms that govern the higher cortical circuits that govern cognition, and the alterations that can lead to cognitive disorders. She has discovered how exposure to uncontrollable stress causes the prefrontal cortex to go "off-line", and how dysregulation of stress signaling pathways with advancing age confers vulnerability to tau pathology, e.g. in Alzheimer's disease. Her work has identified mechanisms to protect and strengthen prefrontal cortex, leading to the successful translation of two treatments currently in clinical use: guanfacine for disorders of the prefrontal cortex such as ADHD and autism, and prazosin for treating PTSD.
Arnsten grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey and graduated from Columbia High School in 1972. She received a bachelor's degree in neuroscience from Brown University in 1976, where she was the first to create the neuroscience major, and a PhD in neuroscience from UC San Diego in 1981. She completed postdoctoral research at Cambridge University with Susan Iversen and at Yale University with Patricia Goldman-Rakic. [1]
In 2008, Arnsten received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, to further her research on the neurobiology of mental illness. [2] In 2013, she was given the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award in recognition of her groundbreaking research. [3] In 2015, she won the Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. [4]
Arnsten was elected to the National Institute of Medicine in 2017. [5] She studies the molecular mechanisms underlying cognition and cognitive disorders, and the ways in which the pre-frontal cortex responds to stress. [4] Her research has led to two treatments currently in use: guanfacine for disorders such as ADHD and autism, and prazosin for treating PTSD. [5]
Arnsten was featured in a 2019 HBO documentary by Sanjay Gupta and Marc Levin called One Nation Under Stress. [6]
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. Working memory is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, but some theorists consider the two forms of memory distinct, assuming that working memory allows for the manipulation of stored information, whereas short-term memory only refers to the short-term storage of information. Working memory is a theoretical concept central to cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience.
Neurochemistry is the study of chemicals, including neurotransmitters and other molecules such as psychopharmaceuticals and neuropeptides, that control and influence the physiology of the nervous system. This particular field within neuroscience examines how neurochemicals influence the operation of neurons, synapses, and neural networks. Neurochemists analyze the biochemistry and molecular biology of organic compounds in the nervous system, and their roles in such neural processes including cortical plasticity, neurogenesis, and neural differentiation.
Dopaminergic pathways, in the human brain are involved in both physiological and behavioral processes including movement, cognition, executive functions, reward, motivation, and neuroendocrine control. Each pathway is a set of projection neurons, consisting of individual dopamine neurons.
In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the cerebral cortex which covers the front part of the frontal lobe. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46, and BA47.
Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment. There are many environmental elements that affect an individual. Examples of these elements are urbanization, crowding, noise, mass media, technology, and the explosive growth of information.
Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of chosen goals. Executive functions include basic cognitive processes such as attentional control, cognitive inhibition, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Higher-order executive functions require the simultaneous use of multiple basic executive functions and include planning and fluid intelligence.
Guanfacine, sold under the brand name Tenex among others, is an oral medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and high blood pressure. It is not considered a first-line treatment for either indication.
Adele Dorothy Diamond is a professor of neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, where she is currently a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. One of the pioneers in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience, Diamond researches how executive functions are affected by biological and environmental factors, especially in children. Her discoveries have improved treatment for disorders such as phenylketonuria and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and they have impacted early education.
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a part of the prefrontal cortex in the mammalian brain. The ventral medial prefrontal is located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres and is implicated in the processing of risk and fear, as it is critical in the regulation of amygdala activity in humans. It also plays a role in the inhibition of emotional responses, and in the process of decision-making and self-control. It is also involved in the cognitive evaluation of morality.
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is an area in the prefrontal cortex of the brain of humans and other primates. It is one of the most recently derived parts of the human brain. It undergoes a prolonged period of maturation which lasts until adulthood. The DLPFC is not an anatomical structure, but rather a functional one. It lies in the middle frontal gyrus of humans. In macaque monkeys, it is around the principal sulcus. Other sources consider that DLPFC is attributed anatomically to BA 9 and 46 and BA 8, 9 and 10.
Patricia Goldman-Rakic was an American professor of neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry and psychology at Yale University School of Medicine. She pioneered multidisciplinary research of the prefrontal cortex and working memory.
A sympatholytic drug is a medication that opposes the downstream effects of postganglionic nerve firing in effector organs innervated by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). They are indicated for various functions; for example, they may be used as antihypertensives. They are also used to treat anxiety, such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and PTSD.
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Richard Lewis Huganir is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychological and Brain Sciences, Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Science Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has joint appointments in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Inhibitory control, also known as response inhibition, is a cognitive process and more specifically, an executive function – that permits an individual to inhibit their impulses and natural, habitual, or dominant behavioral responses to stimuli in order to select a more appropriate behavior that is consistent with completing their goals. Self-control is an important aspect of inhibitory control. For example, successfully suppressing the natural behavioral response to eat cake when one is craving it while dieting requires the use of inhibitory control.
Hypofrontality is a state of decreased cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Hypofrontality is symptomatic of several neurological medical conditions, such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. This condition was initially described by Ingvar and Franzén in 1974, through the use of xenon blood flow technique with 32 detectors to image the brains of patients with schizophrenia. This finding was confirmed in subsequent studies using the improved spatial resolution of positron emission tomography with the fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) tracer. Subsequent neuroimaging work has shown that the decreases in prefrontal CBF are localized to the medial, lateral, and orbital portions of the prefrontal cortex. Hypofrontality is thought to contribute to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Hypofrontality was initially thought to be a side effect of antipsychotic drugs used to treat these conditions. However, reduced activity in the right frontal lobe, left temporal lobe and left cerebellum during the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is seen in people with schizophrenia who have never received antipsychotic drugs, which suggests that this is not the case.
Katya Rubia is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, both part of the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.
Bita Moghaddam is an Iranian-American neuroscientist and a writer. She is currently the Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University. Moghaddam investigates the neuronal processes underlying emotion and cognition as a first step to designing strategies to treat and prevent brain illnesses.
Cassandra J. Lowe is a Canadian public health neuroscientist, specializing in understanding why some individuals have a hard time regulating "junk food" consumption. Lowe uses a multidimensional approach that combines repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), neuroimaging and aerobic exercise to create causal models linking brain health to dietary decisions and behaviours. She is currently a BrainsCAN Postdoctoral Fellow within The Brain and Mind Institute and Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, working with J. Bruce Morton and r. Lindsay Bodell.
