1. Mentor: Matt Roesch SL: Nadira Ramnarain TEAM RITALIN Team Members: Brian Barnett Valerie Cohen Taylor Hearn Emily Jones Reshma Kariyil Alice Kunin Sen Kwak Jessica Lee Brooke Lubinski Gautam Rao Ashley Zhan Research in Testing ADHD's Link to Impulsivity in Neuroscience

2. Importance of Our Project • Limited research on the neurobiology of Attention Hyperactive Deficit Disorder (ADHD) • Significant increase in number of ADHD stimulants prescribed in recent years (Jensen et al., 1999) • No valid animal model of ADHD developed yet • Women who smoke during pregnancy are three times as likely to have children diagnosed with ADHD (Linnet et al., 2005) • Fetal nicotine rat model to further study ADHD • Research valuable to scientists, psychiatrists, patients, and relatives of patients

3. Literature Review: Impulsivity • Impulsivity • Clinical characteristic of ADHD • The ability to stop an ongoing or habitual movement • Stop-Signal Task • Performance is worse in humans with ADHD and in animal models of ADHD (Bari et al., 2011)

4. Literature Review: Neurophysiology • Dorsal Prelimbic Cortex (dPL) • Previously associated with controlling impulsive behavior • Single-Neuron Recordings • Establish correlation between neural firing and behavior observed (Bari et al., 2011)

5. Literature Review: Application to Human Patients • Fetal Nicotine Rats • Animal model of ADHD • Correlation between smoking during pregnancy and increased diagnosis of children with ADHD • Adderall • Reverses effects of ADHD in patients and rat models • Increases amount of available dopamine & noradrenaline in dPL and reduces impulsivity

6. Research Questions & Hypotheses • Research Questions • Is this neural firing in the dPL disrupted and impulsivity increased in fetal nicotine rats? • Will administration of Adderall improve dPL firing and task performance in fetal nicotine rats? • Hypotheses • Fetal nicotine rats will exhibit reduced neural firing in the dPL and increased impulsivity as compared to control rats. • Adderall administration will increase dPL activity and improve task performance in rats as compared to fetal nicotine rats without drug administration.

7. Variables Methodology: Variables • Independent Variables • Drug administration • Stop-signal timing • Dependent Variables • Neural recording • Task performance • Rat behavior • Control: Long-Evans rats + saline • Experimental 1: Fetal Nicotine rats + saline • Experimental 2: Fetal Nicotine rats + Adderall Test Groups

8. Methodology: Procedure General Overview: Experimental/Control Group Overview:

9. Timeline

10. Anticipated Results & Scientific Impact • Physiological & neurotransmitter pathway disruption in inhibiting impulsivity • Repaired with Adderall • Nicotine exposure as cause of ADHD • Fetal nicotine rats as valid model of ADHD • Applicable to humans

11. References • Bari, A., Mar, A.C., Theobald, D.E., Elands, S.A., Oganya, K.C., Eagle, D.M. & Robbins, T.W. (2011) Prefrontal and monoaminergic contributions to stop-signal task performance in rats. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 9254-9263. • Jensen, P.S., Kettle, L., Roper, M.T., Sloan, M.T., Dulcan, M.K., Hoven, C., Bird, H.R., Bauermiester, J.J., & Payne, J.D. (1999). Are stimulants overprescribed? treatment of ADHD in four U.S. communities. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 794-804. • Linnet, K., Wisborg, K., Obel, C., Secher, N.J., Thomsen, P.H., Agerbo, E., & Henriksen, T.B. (2005) Smoking during pregnancy and the risk for hyperkinetic disorder in offspring. Pediatrics, 116(2), 462-467.

12. Questions?