STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ALTERATIONS IN NEOCORTICAL CIRCUITS AFTER MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

National concern over traumatic brain injury (TBI) is growing rapidly. Recent focus is on mild TBI (mTBI), which is the most prevalent injury level in both civilian and military demographics. A preeminent sequelae of mTBI is cognitive network disruption. Advanced neuroimaging of mTBI victims supports this premise, revealing alterations in activation and structure-function of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal systems, which are essential for network processing. However, clinical neuroimaging cannot resolve the cellular and molecular substrates underlying such changes. Therefore, to understand the full scope of mTBI-induced alterations it is necessary to study cortical networks on the microscopic level, where neurons form local networks that are the fundamental computational modules supporting cognition. Recently, in a well-controlled animal model of mTBI, we demonstrated in the excitatory pyramidal neuron system, isolated diffuse axonal injury (DAI), in concert with electrophysiological abnormalities in nearby intact (non-DAI) neurons. These findings were consistent with altered axon initial segment (AIS) intrinsic activity functionally associated with structural plasticity, and/or disturbances in extrinsic systems related to parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons that form GABAergic synapses along the pyramidal neuron perisomatic/AIS domains. The AIS and perisomatic GABAergic synapses are domains critical for regulating neuronal activity and E-I balance. In this dissertation, we focus on the neocortical excitatory pyramidal neuron/inhibitory PV+ interneuron local network following mTBI. Our central hypothesis is that mTBI disrupts neuronal network structure and function causing imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory systems. To address this hypothesis we exploited transgenic and cre/lox mouse models of mTBI, employing approaches that couple state-of-the-art bioimaging with electrophysiology to determine the structural- functional alterations of excitatory and inhibitory systems in the neocortex

Composing compassion: Developing care communities via engagements in the visual arts

Concerns for the development of caring communities in our schools are being increasingly expressed by parents, educators, researchers, and school administrators. Accompanying this expression of concern is the growing acknowledgement that such communities are essential to the well-being of schools and children. If we seek the actualized development of such communities we must also attend to questions of means. I ask, if care communities are considered as essential components of our schools, then how can we develop such communities? I examine the arts and particularly the visual arts and children\u27s engaged art-making as sources for being able to offer educators a sensitive means of developing these communities in school settings. Essential to this examination is the development of a conceptual framework for understanding community, the aesthetic experience, and the art-making experience in relation to empathy, engagement, and the learning process. I present a philosophical discussion that develops a palette for composing multilayered and multifaceted tapestries of care communities using engaged art experiences as fundamental threads. I also present a gallery of images describing the actual development of a compassionate community in a first grade classroom in Gilford, N.H. The pedagogical dimensions of this creative journey are addressed as concerns for curriculum, instructional methodology, time management, assessment, spatial environments, and communication are shared. Above all, this paper presents a contextualized and auto/biographical approach to the study of the relationship between engaged art-making and community that invites the reader\u27s participation and future exploration