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cain_mary

Mary E. Cain, P.h.D

Research Interests

I received my Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Vermont in 2002 under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Kapp. My dissertation examined how Pavlovian fear conditioned stimuli affect the processing of sensory information. From 2002 to 2004, I was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky under the supervision of Dr. Michael Bardo. My postdoctoral research examined individual differences in amphetamine self-administration in the rat.

My research examines the neurobiological basis of drug abuse using a rodent model. I currently have two research areas. The first research area is examining the neural structures that contribute to elevated drug use in rats. Rats who are highly responsive to novel stimuli or who are raised in an isolated environment are more sensitive to drugs of abuse. I use locomotor activity, self-administration, and brain microinfusions to determine the brain areas that may contribute to the elevated responding in these rats. The second area of research is examining the effects of Pavlovian fear conditioning on drug taking behavior in rats. Fear and stress elevate drug taking behavior and I am investigating the brain areas that may contribute to this elevation in a context that has previously been paired with a fearful stimulus. Both my research areas are attempting to determine the neuronal structures that contribute to drug taking behavior in order to develop methods to decrease drug use using both behavioral and neurobiological techniques.

Student Involvement

Undergraduate and graduate students working in my laboratory are involved in all aspects of the research process. Depending upon the students’ interest, they can learn small animal stereotaxic surgery, Pavlovian and operant conditioning models, brain microinfusions, and histology. Students will learn how to design projects, write grants to fund the projects, analyze the data, and will be given the opportunity to contribute to the publication of the results. In addition to publications, students are encouraged to attend scientific meetings to present their research. In general, graduate students are funded with federal grants when money is available or through departmental graduate teaching assistantships. Dr. Cain can be contacted by email (mecain@ksu.edu) or phone (785-532-6884) by students interested in more information about opportunities in her lab.

Current Graduate Students

  • Margaret Gill, B.S. Luther College. Maggie is currently working on her Master’s thesis examining the effects of environmental enrichment on amphetamine-induced c-fos expression. Recent conference presentations:
    • *Gill, M.J., *Gutierrez, M.M., *Dawley, W.B. & Cain, M.E. Effects of visual stimuli on sucrose-reinforced responding in rats raised in enriched versus impoverished environments. Presentation presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association, May 2007.
    • *Steiner, A.P., *Gill, M.J., *Ha, R.A., & Cain, M.E. Dose dependent effects of d-cycloserine on operant responding. Poster submitted at the Midwestern Psychological Association, May 2007.
  • Rosemary Ha, B.S. Kansas State University. Rose is currently working on her Master’s thesis examining the effects of environmental enrichment on nicotine conditioning and reinstatement. Recent conference presentations:
    • *Ha, R.A., *Pittenger, S.T., *Steiner, A.P., *Parrish, M.H., & Cain, M.E. Individual differences in response to nicotine conditioning and reinstatement. Poster presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association, May 2007.
    • *Ha, R.A. *Kabriel, J.R., *Steiner, A. P., *Parrish, M.H., & Cain, M.E. (2006). Effects of Rearing Environment on Pavlovian Conditioned Hyperactivity. Pavlovian Society Annual Meeting.

Current Grant Funding

  • The Amygdala, Individual Differences, and Conditioned Hyperactivity. M.E. Cain
  • (PI). NIH R03 DA021359. National Institute of Drug Abuse. 9/30/06-6/30/08.
  • D- cycloserine and Reinstatement of Sucrose Responding. M.E. Cain (PI). Kansas State University Mentoring Fellowship Sponsored by the Provost’s Office.
  • The Ability of Environmental Enrichment to Decrease Drug Relapse. M.E. Cain (PI). Kansas State University Small Research Grants.

Representative Publications (*indicates student co-author)

  • Cain , M.E. , Deheny, E.D., & Bardo, M.T. (in press). Individual differences in amphetamine self administration: The role of the central nucleus of the amygdala. Neuropsychopharmacology.
  • Cain , M.E. , Green, T.A., & Bardo, M.T. (2006). Environmental enrichment decreases responding for visual novelty. Behavioural Processes, 73(3), 360-366.
  • Cain , M.E . , *Dotson, W.F., & Bardo, M.T. (2006). Individual differences in the effect of novel environmental stimuli prior to amphetamine self administration in rats. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 14(3), 389-401.
  • Cain , M.E . , Saucier, D.A., & Bardo, M.T. (2005). Novelty seeking and drug use: Contribution of an animal model. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 13(4), 367-375.
  • Cain , M.E. , Kapp, B.S., & *Puryear, C.B. (2002).  The contribution of the amygdala to conditioned thalamic arousal.  The Journal of Neuroscience, 22(24), 11026-11034.
  • Cain , M.E. , Kapp, B.S., & *Puryear, C.B. (2000).  Arousal-related associative response characteristics of dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus neurons during acoustic Pavlovian fear conditioning.  Behavioral Neuroscience, 114(2), 241-253.