The dark cells are stained by the original Cresyl violet injection--pretty cute!  The much fainter stain is the neutral red.  The cells don't scream, but they are visible.  This goes from highest to lowest power--not always the same tissue.



PRODUCING COURSE-SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA ON CD-ROM
M.E. Kelker, S.E. Peckins, K.R. Herbert, L.A. Polowczuk, M.E. Bono, & J.T. Cannon*, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA 18510-4596.

We have developed Web-based instructional materials to enhance the lecture and laboratory components of our Behavioral Neuroscience course (e.g., The Sheep Brain Dissection Guide; http://academic.uofs.edu/department/psych/sheep/ and The Human Brain Tutorial; http://academic.uofs.edu/department/psych/human/).  These Web-based programs utilize still images. Full motion video has substantial advantages for many instructional applications, for example: presenting three-dimensional objects or demonstrating sequential events. With multimedia PCs becoming the standard in educational settings and the recent availability of low cost technology to produce CD-ROMs, instructors now have the ability to author their own multimedia software and provide them to students at nominal fees of $2-5.

Our CD-ROM tutorials are authored in HTML and combine text, graphics, still images, and videos. They run on PC or MAC machines (PC minimum: Pentium 75MHz, 32MB RAM, 6x CD-ROM or equivalent MAC platform) with a JavaScript enabled web browser and QuickTime 3 or above. To allow use on relatively low-end multimedia machines, most videos are 280 x 210 24-bit color at 30 fps compressed using the Sorenson Video and Qualcomm PureVoice codecs.  For video capture and editing we use Adobe Premier 5 on a 400MHz Pentium II with 128 MB RAM and a TARGA 2000 digital video capture board.  Video is provided by several composite sources.  CD-ROMs are produced by a Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer.

 Our video clips cover such topics as: sectioning with freezing and paraffin microtomes, histological staining, operation of a microscope, microscopic examination of neural tissue with a variety of stains, stereotaxic surgery, microdissection of invertebrate neural tissue, and intracellular placement of microelectrodes.  Also included are the Sheep Brain Dissection Guide and The Human Brain Tutorial, enabling the use of these resources without Internet access.

We are making our video clips available for free download at: http://academic.uofs.edu/department/neuro/vidlib/.  As the use of this technology spreads, we plan to add links to additional WWW resources.  Partial funding for this project was provided by NSF grant USE-9250437 and an internal Teaching Enhancement grant
awarded to JTC.


CAPSAICIN AND MECHANICAL CRUSH PRODUCE SENSITIZATION OF THE FOOT-LIFT RESPONSE TO RADIANT HEAT IN HELIX ASPERSA:  EFFECTS OF SYSTEMIC LIDOCAINE AND MK-801 M.S. Osmanski , L.A. Polowczuk, J.L. Maddern, & J.T. Cannon*.  Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA 18510-4596.
 
Here we sought to determine if capsaicin or mechanical crush could induce sensitization of a nocifensive response to radiant heating in the land snail Helix aspersa that may parallel the tail-flick response in rodents.  We also examined whether MK-801 or lidocaine could diminish any sensitization observed.
 
Snails (90) were maintained on a 12:12 light:dark cycle, with food and water available ad libitum.  Snails were tested during their dark cycle. For “snail-flick” testing, animals were placed on a transparent plastic sheet and radiant heat (2mm aperture) was directed at one of three test spots on the caudal third of the foot.  At 2 min intervals, the heat source was activated and remained on until either that portion of the foot was withdrawn, or a 7 sec “cutoff” time was reached.

Capsaicin, suspended in oil (20 mg/ml), was administered topically (20 ul) to the dorsal surface of the foot over one of the three test spots.  Crush (1 mm2) was administered by blunt forceps grasping the edge of the foot, also at one of the three test spots.  Lidocaine (50 mg/ml ) and MK-801 (.19 mg/ml ) were dissolved in molluscan saline (2 ?l) and injected into the side of the foot.  All animals received 7 baseline trials immediately followed by administration of: crush, capsaicin, or the application of vehicle (oil).  Testing continued for 27 trials at which time animals were injected with: lidocaine, MK-801, or saline.  Testing, once again, continued for 15 trials.

Examining percent shift from baseline, ANOVA revealed that both capsaicin and crush produced significant reductions in response latencies relative to the vehicle control and that these reductions were most pronounced at the spot where either noxious stimulus had been applied.  At this spot, latencies dropped across the first 24-30 min of testing.  In contrast, latencies dropped across only the first 12-18 min at the other 2 spots.  Lidocaine appeared to eliminate the sensitization produced by both capsaicin and crush.  In contrast, MK-801 had no significant effect on sensitization.