Summer 2013 Research Objectives

This summer the Pittman Lab at Wofford College is investigating the effect of injecting chlordiazepoxide (CDP), a benzodiazepine GABA-A agonist), directly into the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) of rats on their ability to lick to taste solutions during brief-access trials.

This is a diagram of the ascending taste signaling pathway from a rat’s mouth to its taste centers of the brain. We are limiting the effect of the drug to the PBN area of the hindbrain. This is an area that we think is responsible to modifying the taste signal as it travels up to the taste perception area of the brain. And we think that the neurotransmitter GABA is involved in the modification of the taste signal.


This summer the Baird Lab at Amherst College is screening several different GABA-A agonist and antagonist chemicals that are more selective than the CDP, benzodiazepine. Once we can determine the effectiveness of the agonist and antagonist chemicals, we will try to block the effect of CDP with the antagonist drugs injected directly into the PBN in the rat’s brain.

Summer 2013 - Research @ Wofford & Amherst

This summer we are starting our collaborative joint research projects with students working in the Pittman Lab at Wofford College and the Baird Lab at Amherst. Stay tuned for updates on the activity in each laboratory!  - Dr. Pittman

And it begins!

Happy New Year!  Yesterday and today, I'm in Amherst Mass. learning a new surgical technique from my colleague Dr. JP Baird.  Stereotaxic placement of bilateral cannulas into the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) in rats.  This will allow us to deliver GABA-A agonists directly into the PBN area of the brain to analyze the role of GABA receptors in shaping palatibility of tastes. 

I will bring the technique back to the Pittman lab at Wofford and teach my students how to implant the cannulas during the January Interim term so we can start experiements this spring!

Gearing up for January research!

This fall a group of students completed their senior research thesis project examining the influence of benzodiazepines on intake of caloric and non-caloric sweeteners.  They assessed rat licking patterns in both long-term (1 hr) and brief-access (30-60 s) duration tests.  Benzodiazepines continue to affect rat consumption patterns in ways that appear to indicate enhanced palatability of the tastants.  We are currently planing for experiments in January 2013 that will begin to examine potential targets for benzodiazepine actions in the brain.

Broader Impact!

It is crunch time for submitting my revised NSF grant. Yesterday and today, I have been working on my Impact Statement which describes how receiving the NSF grant will enable me to have a broader impact in science and the public interest beyond the actual research objectives of the grant. I have been compiling a list of former students to demonstrate that students working in my lab do go on to be highly successful after graduating from Wofford. I hope you find this data as interesting as I did. 

1. Over the last 9 years as a faculty member at Wofford, 52 students have conducted research under my mentoring in my lab. That's an average of almost 6 students a year!
2. Every psychology major is required to conduct a research thesis during their senior year, therefore a majority (but only slight) of student researchers in my lab are seniors (52%) and thus have limited research exposure. However, of my 52 student researchers 10% were freshmen, 15% were sophomores, and 23% were juniors when they started working in the lab. Many of these underclass students continued to work in the lab for multiple semesters.
3. 68% or 30 of 52 student researchers have gone on to graduate school in fields such as neuroscience PhD (3), medicine (8), health-related professions (6), clinical PhD or counseling (11), and 1 student went to law school and another received her masters in history. Pretty impressive!

Do you want to be the next greatest success story? If so, contact me to learn how you can get invovled in my lab's research!

Students present at National Conference

Molly McGinnis & Lindsey Richardson present their research on benzodiazepine effects on rat licking in long-term tests at the 2009 Association for Chemorecption Sciences (AChemS) conference in Sarasota, FL.  Research was conducted in Dr. Pittman's laboratory at Wofford College.

Students present their research

Wofford College students, Liz Miller, Molly McGinnis, and Lindsey Richardson present their research to faculty and students at a science research symposium held at Wofford College.

To the right, Molly & Lindsey answer questions from the audience.