Kally O’Reilly earned her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin in Texas in 2008. Her thesis work focused on pharmacological induced changes in depression-related behaviors and neural network interactions in the adolescent mouse brain. She then started her postdoctoral work with Menno Witter at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience/Centre for the Biology of Memory at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim Norway. Her postdoctoral research examines the development of hippocampal/parahippocampal regions. She has focused on early postnatal development of connections using traditional retrograde and anterograde tracing techniques. The need to delineate hippocampal/parahippocampal regions for her studies has led to the synthesis of the neonatal atlas with chemoarchitectonic markers.
Contact Details
Kally C. O’Reilly, PhD
Postdoctor – Witter Group
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Centre for the Biology of Memory
MTFS, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
NO-7489 Trondheim, Norway
Email: kally.oreilly at(@)ntnu.no
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Serotonin 5-HT1B receptor-mediated behavior and binding in mice with the overactive and dysregulated serotonin transporter Ala56 variant
CONCLUSIONS: While reducing 5-HT(1B) receptors may attenuate sensorimotor gating deficits, increased 5-HT(1B) levels in SERT Ala56 mice do not necessarily exacerbate these deficits, potentially due to compensations during neural circuit development in this model system.
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A social encounter drives gene expression changes linked to neuronal function, brain development, and related disorders in mice expressing the serotonin transporter Ala56 variant
Multiple lines of evidence implicate the serotonin (5-HT) system in social function, including biomarker findings in autism spectrum disorder. In mice, knock-in of a rare Gly56Ala substitution in the serotonin transporter (SERT) causes elevated whole blood 5-HT levels, increased 5-HT clearance in the brain, and altered social and repetitive behavior. To further examine the molecular impact of this variant on social response, SERT Ala56 mutant mice and wildtype littermate controls were exposed to...
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Development and topographic organization of subicular projections to lateral septum in the rat brain
One of the main subcortical targets of hippocampal formation efferents is the lateral septum. Previous studies on the subicular projections, as a main output structure of the hippocampus, have shown a clear topographic organization of septal innervation, related to the origin of the fibres along the dorsoventral axis of the subiculum in the adult brain. In contrast, studies on the developing brain depict an extensive rearrangement of subicular projections during the prenatal period, shifting...
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Postnatal Development of Functional Projections from Parasubiculum and Presubiculum to Medial Entorhinal Cortex in the Rat
Neurons in parasubiculum (PaS), presubiculum (PrS), and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) code for place (grid cells) and head direction. Directional input has been shown to be important for stable grid cell properties in MEC, and PaS and PrS have been postulated to provide this information to MEC. In line with this, head direction cells in those brain areas are present at postnatal day 11 (P11), having directional tuning that stabilizes shortly after eye opening, which is before premature grid...
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Long-Lasting Input-Specific Experience-Dependent Changes of Hippocampus Synaptic Function Measured in the Anesthetized Rat
How experience causes long-lasting changes in the brain is a central question in neuroscience. The common view is that synaptic function is altered by experience to change brain circuit functions that underlie conditioned behavior. We examined hippocampus synaptic circuit function in vivo, in three groups of animals, to assess the impact of experience on hippocampus function in rats. The "conditioned" group acquired a shock-conditioned place response during a cognitively-challenging, hippocampus...
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Synaptic plasticity/dysplasticity, process memory and item memory in rodent models of mental dysfunction
Activity-dependent changes in the effective connection strength of synapses are a fundamental feature of a nervous system. This so-called synaptic plasticity is thought to underlie storage of information in memory and has been hypothesized to be crucial for the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy. Synaptic plasticity stores information in a neural network, creating a trace of neural activity from past experience. The plasticity can also change the behavior of the network so the network can...
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Sub-circuit alterations in dorsal hippocampus structure and function after global neurodevelopmental insult
Patients with neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders often express limbic circuit abnormalities and deficits in information processing. While these disorders appear to have diverse etiologies, their common features suggest neurodevelopmental origins. Neurodevelopment is a prolonged process of diverse events including neurogenesis/apoptosis, axon pathfinding, synaptogenesis, and pruning, to name a few. The precise timing of the neurodevelopmental insult to these processes likely determines...
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MicroRNAs contribute to postnatal development of laminar differences and neuronal subtypes in the rat medial entorhinal cortex
The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) is important in spatial navigation and memory formation and its layers have distinct neuronal subtypes, connectivity, spatial properties, and disease susceptibility. As little is known about the molecular basis for the development of these laminar differences, we analyzed microRNA (miRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression differences between rat MEC layer II and layers III-VI during postnatal development. We identified layer and age-specific regulation of...
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Active place avoidance is no more stressful than unreinforced exploration of a familiar environment
Training in the active place avoidance task changes hippocampus synaptic function, the dynamics of hippocampus local field potentials, place cell discharge, and active place avoidance memory is maintained by persistent PKMζ activity. The extent to which these changes reflect memory processes and/or stress responses is unknown. We designed a study to assess stress within the active place avoidance task by measuring serum corticosterone (CORT) at different stages of training. CORT levels did not...
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Memory deficits with intact cognitive control in the methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) exposure model of neurodevelopmental insult
Cognitive impairments are amongst the most debilitating deficits of schizophrenia and the best predictor of functional outcome. Schizophrenia is hypothesized to have a neurodevelopmental origin, making animal models of neurodevelopmental insult important for testing predictions that early insults will impair cognitive function. Rats exposed to methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) at gestational day 17 display morphological, physiological and behavioral abnormalities relevant to schizophrenia. Here...
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Relative contributions of CA3 and medial entorhinal cortex to memory in rats
The hippocampal CA1 field processes spatial information, but the relative importance of intra- vs. extra-hippocampal sources of input into CA1 for spatial behavior is unclear. To characterize the relative roles of these two sources of input, originating in the hippocampal field CA3 and in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), we studied effects of discrete neurotoxic lesions of CA3 or MEC on concurrent spatial and nonspatial navigation tasks, and on synaptic transmission in afferents to CA1....
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Identification of dorsal-ventral hippocampal differentiation in neonatal rats
The adult hippocampal formation (HF) is functionally, connectionally, and transcriptionally differentiated along the dorsal-ventral axis. At birth, the hippocampus appears shortened along its dorsal-ventral axis. We therefore questioned at what postnatal age the differentiated dorsal-ventral hippocampus is present. We first established that the ventral tissue in the short postnatal hippocampus remains ventral in the adult-like hippocampus. Second, using anatomical tracing techniques we report...
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Converging on a core cognitive deficit: the impact of various neurodevelopmental insults on cognitive control
Despite substantial effort and immense need, the treatment options for major neuropsychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia are limited and largely ineffective at improving the most debilitating cognitive symptoms that are central to mental illness. These symptoms include cognitive control deficits, the inability to selectively use information that is currently relevant and ignore what is currently irrelevant. Contemporary attempts to accelerate progress are in part founded on an effort to...
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Architecture of spatial circuits in the hippocampal region
The hippocampal region contains several principal neuron types, some of which show distinct spatial firing patterns. The region is also known for its diversity in neural circuits and many have attempted to causally relate network architecture within and between these unique circuits to functional outcome. Still, much is unknown about the mechanisms or network properties by which the functionally specific spatial firing profiles of neurons are generated, let alone how they are integrated into a...
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What is optimized in an optimal path?
An animal confronts numerous challenges when constructing an optimal navigational route. Spatial representations used for path optimization are likely constrained by critical environmental factors that dictate which neural systems control navigation. Multiple coding schemes depend upon their ecological relevance for a particular species, particularly when dealing with the third, or vertical, dimension of space.
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Subicular-parahippocampal projections revisited: development of a complex topography in the rat
The subicular-parahippocampal projection has been proposed as the major output pathway of the hippocampus. This projection shows a striking topographic organization along its three-dimensional axes. Here we aimed to study the development of this projection system. We found that an adult-like topography of subiculum-to-parahippocampal projections is present by postnatal day 7 (P7). The cellular morphology in the subiculum is immature at this age, reaching maturity by P15-19. The density of...
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Chronic administration of 13-cis-retinoic acid does not alter the number of serotoninergic neurons in the mouse raphe nuclei
The synthetic retinoid 13-cis-retinoic acid (13-cis-RA), prescribed for the treatment of severe nodular acne, has been linked to an increased incidence of depression. Chronic treatment studies in rodents have shown that 13-cis-RA induces an increase in depression-related behaviours and a functional uncoupling of the hippocampus and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). Changes in the number of serotoninergic neurons in the DRN have been reported in depressed human patients. Given that retinoids have...
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Chronic 13-cis-retinoic acid administration disrupts network interactions between the raphe nuclei and the hippocampal system in young adult mice
Previously, we showed that chronic administration of 13-cis-retinoic acid (13-cis-RA) induces depression-related behaviors in mice and that 13-cis-RA alters components of the serotonergic system in vitro. Work by others has shown that 13-cis-RA reduces hippocampal neurogenesis in mice and orbitofrontal cortex metabolism in humans. In the current study, we measured cytochrome oxidase activity, a metabolic marker that reflects steady state neuronal energy demand, in various regions of the brain to...
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13-cis-Retinoic acid alters intracellular serotonin, increases 5-HT1A receptor, and serotonin reuptake transporter levels in vitro
In addition to their established role in nervous system development, vitamin A and related retinoids are emerging as regulators of adult brain function. Accutane (13-cis-retinoic acid, isotretinoin) treatment has been reported to increase depression in humans. Recently, we showed that chronic administration of 13-cis-retinoic acid (13-cis-RA) to adolescent male mice increased depression-related behaviors. Here, we have examined whether 13-cis-RA regulates components involved in serotonergic...
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Transfusion medicine illustrated. Detection of mixed-field agglutination due to loss of red cell antigen in hematopoietic malignancy
No abstract
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Chronic administration of 13-cis-retinoic acid increases depression-related behavior in mice
Retinoid signaling plays a well-established role in neuronal differentiation, neurite outgrowth, and the patterning of the anteroposterior axis of the developing neural tube. However, there is increasing evidence that nutritional vitamin A status and retinoid signaling play an important role in the function of the adult brain. 13-Cis-retinoic acid (13-cis-RA) (isotretinoin or Accutane), a synthetic retinoid that is an effective oral treatment for severe nodular acne, has been linked with...
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Mechanical culture conditions effect gene expression: gravity-induced changes on the space shuttle
Three-dimensional suspension culture is a gravity-limited phenomenon. The balancing forces necessary to keep the aggregates in suspension increase directly with aggregate size. This leads to a self-propagating cycle of cell damage by balancing forces. Cell culture in microgravity avoids this trade-off. We determined which genes mediate three-dimensional culture of cell and tissue aggregates in the low-shear stress, low-turbulent environment of actual microgravity. Primary cultures of human renal...
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Renal endosomes contain angiotensin peptides, converting enzyme, and AT(1A) receptors
Kidney cortex and proximal tubular angiotensin II (ANG II) levels are greater than can be explained on the basis of circulating ANG II, suggesting intrarenal compartmentalization of these peptides. One possible site of intracellular accumulation is the endosomes. In the present study, we tested for endosomal ANG I, ANG II, angiotensin type 1A receptor (AT(1A)), and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity and determined whether these levels are regulated by salt intake. Male Sprague-Dawley...
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Gene expression in space
No abstract
