SPD-SWG Participants

Levin, Edward D., PhD

Title: Director, Neurobehavioral Research Laboratory
Department: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Institution: Duke University Medical Center
Mailing Address: Box #3412, Durham, NC 27710
Phone: (919) 681-6273
Website: www.duke.edu

Research Interests

Dr. Levin's expertise lies in Neurobehavioral Toxicology, pesticides, marine toxins, lead, mercury, zebrafish, and mammalian toxicology. His primary area of expertise is environmental toxicology. His secondary area of expertise is marine biomedicine.

SPD Research Summary

Levin and colleagues are studying neural mechanisms of normal and impaired sensory modulation was well as potential pharmacological therapeutic approaches using pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) paradigms in a rat model. Sensory processing involves successive stages of discarding extraneous or irrelevant information. By studying inhibition of the startle response, neurotransmitter interactions and basic neurobiology and potential pharmacological therapeutic approaches are evaluated. Normally a warning stimulus reduces startle reactions. Both the timing and the intensity of stimulus are relevant to the response which is observed. Levin studied both nicotine effects and the effect of nicotinic glutamate interactions on PPI. He studied both auditory and tactile response modulation. He found that nicotine facilitates prepulse inhibition over various intensities and inter-stimulus intervals. When nicotine and dizocilpine are both administered, there is a decreasing effect on PPI as the dose of dizocilpine increases (65-75 % PPI with no dizocilpine; 60% PPI with 25 mg/kg dizocilpine; 40-50% PPI with 50mg/kg dizocilpine; 0-20%PPI with 100 mg/kg dizocilpine). However, when clozapine is added to nicotine and dizocilpine, the % PPI increases significantly in relation to the dose of clozopine administered. With tactile startle there is also a dose effect of dizocilpine on the intensity of response (increasing dizocilpine relates to decreased startle). As the amount of clozopine increases, the effect of the dizocilpline on reducing the %PPI decreases. In other words, clozapine increases sensory gating when gating has been pharmacologically reduced (reduced using dizocilpine.)

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