Amanda Facciol

University of Toronto | U of T · Department of Cell and Systems Biology

The dopaminergic neurotransmitter system is involved in numerous brain functions and behavioral processes. Alterations in this neurotransmitter system are associated with the pathogenesis of several human neurological disorders. Pharmacological agents that interact with the dopaminergic system allow the investigation of dopamine- mediated cellular...

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is characterized by a variety of morphological, behavioural and cognitive deficits, ranging from mild to severe. Numerous animal models, including the zebrafish, have been employed to better understand the onset, expression and progression of this disorder. Embryonic ethanol-induced deficits in learning and me...

Social cognition and social behaviors are complex phenomena that involve numerous brain areas and underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Embryonic alcohol exposure may lead to the development of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), a disorder that manifests with varying symptoms including abnormal social behavior and other cognitive deficits. An...

Ediacaran fossils from the Nama Group (Kuibis Subgroup) of southern Namibia have a long history of scientific scrutiny, however many of the fossil localities still require investigation from a sedimentary facies and sequence stratigraphic standpoint. Detailed sedimentary analyses utilizing chemostratigraphy and facies-based approaches resulted in f...

FASD results from the developing fetus being exposed to alcohol, and is characterized by morphological, behavioural and cognitive deficits. However, the expression, severity and age of onset of these symptoms has been found to show variation. This variation may partly be due to the developmental stage at which alcohol reached the developing fetus....

The light dark paradigm is a common behavioral test used to screen a variety of pharmacological agents, including anxiogenics and anxiolytics. Although most often used in rodents, the light dark task has recently been adapted for use in zebrafish. However, a number of inconsistent findings have been reported for this species. Some have found zebraf...

The light-dark preference task has been commonly used in rodents to screen for anxiogenic and anxiolytic drugs. However, recent adaptations of the light-dark preference test for zebrafish have produced inconsistent results. Several studies have reported that zebrafish exhibit a preference for light, while others have found a preference for black. W...

Social isolation can be used to study behavioral, neural, and hormonal mechanisms that regulate interactions in social animals. Although isolation effects have been reported in social mammals and various fish species, systematic studies with isolated zebrafish are rare. Here, the authors examined behavior (social and nonsocial), physiological stres...

The light-dark preference test has been extensively used to screen anxiolytic drugs and investigate mechanisms of anxiety with rodents. Recently, this task has been adapted to zebrafish, but a number of inconsistent findings have emerged. For example, some found zebrafish to avoid and others to prefer dark. Given the translational relevance of the...

Zebrafish have become a popular animal model for studying the development of alcohol addiction. Several behavioral paradigms for studying alcohol addiction have been developed for zebrafish, including conditioned place preference, alcohol-induced tolerance, and withdrawal. However, alcohol choice preference tasks have not been established in zebraf...

Alcohol addiction is a major unmet medical and economic issue for which very few efficacious pharmacological treatment options are currently available. The development and identification of new compounds and drugs to treat alcohol addiction is hampered by the high costs and low amenability of traditional laboratory rodents to high-throughput behavi...

Rationale The dopaminergic system has been proposed to mediate alcohol-induced locomotor activity, yet the mechanisms underlying this behavioral response remain poorly understood. Objectives This study was conducted to investigate the role of dopamine D2-like receptors in mediating alcohol-induced behavioral responses. Methods In experiment 1, we e...

Rationale The function of the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1-R) is poorly understood in zebrafish, and numerous inconsistent effects have been reported on it in the literature. Objective The objective of the present study is to determine whether differences in the reported effects of CB1-R antagonism on anxiety-like behavioural responses, dopamin...

The zebrafish may be uniquely well suited for studying alcohol's mechanisms of action in vivo, since alcohol can be administered via immersion in a non-invasive manner. Despite the robust behavioural effects of alcohol administration in mammals, studies reporting the locomotor stimulant and anxiolytic effects of alcohol in zebrafish have been incon...

Zebrafish express enzymes that metabolize ethanol in a manner comparable to that of mammals, including humans. We previously demonstrated that acute ethanol exposure increases alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity in an inverted U-shaped dose-dependent manner. It was hypothesized that the biphasic dose-response was due to the increased activity of a...

The preservation of soft tissue in the fossil record is quite rare and still poorly understood. In recent years, taphonmic studies have involved monitoring the geological and biological process of decay in order to better understand exceptional preservation, as fossilization is highly dependent on the events that occur to an organism immediately fo...