Kauê Machado Costa- PhD
- Professor (Assistant) at University of Alabama at Birmingham
Kauê Machado Costa
- PhD
- Professor (Assistant) at University of Alabama at Birmingham
About
60
Publications
14,653
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529
Citations
Introduction
I'm a Professor at UAB. I study how neural transmission and activity in basal ganglia and frontal cortex circuits support different types of learning by combining a variety of neural activity recording and manipulation techniques, computational modelling, and theory-inspired behavioral tasks in freely moving rats.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
August 2018 - present
April 2018 - July 2021
April 2013 - April 2018
Education
September 2012 - April 2018
February 2010 - February 2012
School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo
Field of study
- Physiology
January 2009
School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo
Field of study
- Summer Course of Physiology
Publications
Publications (60)
We use mental models of the world—cognitive maps—to guide behavior. The lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) is typically thought to support behavior by deploying these maps to simulate outcomes, but recent evidence suggests that it may instead support behavior by underlying map creation. We tested between these two alternatives using outcome-specif...
Dopamine was first described by George Barger, James Ewens, and Henry Dale in 1910 as an epinephrine-like monoamine compound. Initially believed to be a mere precursor of norepinephrine, it was mostly ignored for the next four decades (Figure 1A). However, in the 1950s Kathleen Montagu showed that dopamine occurred in the brain by itself, and a ser...
Learning is driven by prediction errors, which determine what is learned, and salience, which controls the learning rate. Dopamine in the nucleus accumbens correlates with prediction errors, but salience mechanisms are less clear. We hypothesized that acetylcholine acts as a salience signal, as it regulates dopamine-induced plasticity. To test this...
Dopamine is classically thought to drive learning based on errors in the prediction of rewards and punishments. However, animals also learn to predict cues with no intrinsic value, and it is unclear if such latent learning also relies on dopaminergic prediction errors. Here, we tested this by recording dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and...
Both the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the hippocampus (HC) are implicated in the formation of cognitive maps and their generalization into schemas. However, how these areas interact in supporting this function remains unclear, with some proposals supporting a serial model in which the OFC draws on task representations created by the HC to extract...
Cue reactivity is the maladaptive neurobiological and behavioral response upon exposure to drug cues and is a major driver of relapse. A widely accepted assumption is that drugs of abuse result in disparate dopamine responses to cues that predict drug vs. natural rewards. The leading hypothesis is that drug-induced dopamine release represents a per...
Cue reactivity is the maladaptive neurobiological and behavioral response upon exposure to drug cues and is a major driver of relapse. The leading hypothesis is that dopamine release by addictive drugs represents a persistently positive reward prediction error that causes runaway enhancement of dopamine responses to drug cues, leading to their path...
Dopamine in the nucleus accumbens ramps up as animals approach desired goals. These ramps have received intense scrutiny because they seem to violate long-held hypotheses on dopamine function. Furthermore, it has been proposed that they are driven by local acetylcholine release, i.e., that they are mechanistically separate from dopamine signals rel...
When rats are given discrete choices between social interactions with a peer and opioid or psychostimulant drugs, they choose social interaction, even after extensive drug self-administration experience. Studies show that like drug and nondrug food reinforcers, social interaction is an operant reinforcer and induces dopamine release. However, these...
Purpose
Compare infant suction in babies with and without ankyloglossia using a microprocessor-controlled pressure sensor coupled to a pacifier.
Methods
Fifty-five infants from 0 to 2 months of age underwent clinical examination for ankyloglossia, after which they were offered a silicone pacifier connected to the pressure acquisition
device and su...
Computational approaches hold great promise for identifying novel treatment targets and creating translational therapeutics for substance use disorders. From circuitries underlying decision-making to computationally derived neural markers of drug-cue reactivity, this review is a summary of the approaches to data presented at our 2023 Society for Ne...
Both orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and hippocampus (HC) are implicated in the formation of cognitive maps and their generalization into schemas. However how these areas interact in supporting this function remains an open question, with some proposals supporting a serial model in which OFC draws upon task representations created by HC to extract key b...
Midbrain dopamine neurons are essential for flexible control of adaptive behaviors. DA neurons that project to different target regions have unique biophysical properties, and it is thought that this diversity reflects functional specialization. This assumption implies the presence of specific genetic determinants with precise impacts on behavior....
We often perform actions even when they incur heavy costs or no longer serve any clear purpose. Two recent studies have independently identified heightened phasic dopamine release in the dorsomedial striatum as a predisposing factor for such behavioral inflexibility.
We use internal models of the external world to guide behavior, but little is known about how these cognitive maps are created . The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is typically thought to access these maps to support model-based decision-making, but it has recently been proposed that its critical contribution may be instead to integrate information int...
Olavo Amaral and Kleber Neves argue that collaborative projects to confirm other researchers’ experimental results could help to resolve the reproducibility crisis (see Nature 597, 329–331; 2021). In our view as laboratory researchers, it would be more effective in the long term to test the limits of a paper’s conclusions.
As the authors point out...
Hippocampal place cells represent spatial locations, but it is unclear how they incorporate associations between locations and specific outcomes. A recent study illuminates this issue by showing that place cells in intermediate hippocampus remap their fields following changes in reward.
Animals learn not only what is potentially useful but also what is meaningless and should be disregarded. How this is accomplished is a key but seldom explored question in psychology and neuroscience. Learning to ignore irrelevant cues is evident in latent inhibition-the ubiquitous phenomenon where presenting a cue several times without consequence...
Heterozygous mice that express Cre-recombinase under the dopamine transporter promoter (DAT-Cre knock in mice, or KI) are widely used for targeting midbrain dopamine neurons, under the assumption that their constitutive physiology is not affected. We report here that these mice display striking sex-dependent behavioral and molecular differences in...
Objective
To improve the diagnostic efficiency of current tests for auditory processing disorders (APDs) by creating new test signals using digital filtering methods.
Methods
We conducted a prospective study from August 1, 2014, to August 31, 2019, using 3 low speech redundancy tests with novel test signals that we created with specially designed...
Functional diversity of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons ranges across multiple scales, from differences in intrinsic properties and connectivity to selective task engagement in behaving animals. Distinct in vitro biophysical features of DA neurons have been associated with different axonal projection targets. However, it is unknown how this translat...
Excitatory neurotransmission and its activity-dependent plasticity are largely determined by AMPA-receptors (AMPARs), ion channel complexes whose cell physiology is encoded by their interactome. Here, we delineate the assembly of AMPARs in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of native neurons as multi-state production line controlled by distinct interac...
Textual comprehension is often not adequately acquired despite intense didactic efforts. Textual comprehension quality is mostly evaluated using subjective criteria. Starting from the assumption that word usage statistics may be used to infer the probability of successful semantic representations, we hypothesized that textual comprehension depended...
The functional diversity of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons ranges across multiple scales, from differences in intrinsic properties and synaptic connectivity to selective task engagement in behaving animals. Distinct in vitro biophysical features of DA neurons have been associated with different axonal projection targets. However, it is unknown how...
Chapman & Huffman's moral analysis fails to prove that the exploitation of animals or the environment is causally connected to beliefs about human capacities. Their exposition of the philosophical interpretations of animal cognition ignores historical context and confounds different levels of analysis. Their analysis of the scientific literature, f...
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic disease characterized by progressive tissue damage. In recent decades, novel treatments have greatly extended the life span of SLE patients. This creates a high demand for identifying the overarching symptoms associated with SLE and developing therapies that improve their life quality under chronic ca...
Perceived vocal deficit questionnaire results, filled in by SLE patients in out cohort.
Note that most (29/36) SLE patients reported at least one perceived vocal deficit, with the most prevalent deficits being vocal fatigue (19/36) and hoarseness (17/36).
(DOCX)
Individual values of all SLICC/ACR damage scores for each symptom and for each SLE patient.
(XLSX)
Individual values of all measured objective and subjective vocal parameters for each SLE patient, as well as the means and medians for the group.
(DOCX)
Individual values of daily prescribed prednisone doses, time since diagnosis and age for each SLE-patient, as well as the means and medians for the group.
(DOCX)
Individual values of all measured objective and subjective vocal parameters for each subject of the control group, as well as the means and medians for the group.
(DOCX)
![Examples of processes from P\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}...](profile/Kaue-Costa/publication/311902561/figure/fig4/AS:961703575580684@1606299408963/Examples-of-processes-from-Pdocumentclass12ptminimal-usepackageamsmath_Q320.jpg)
The statistical analysis of neuronal spike trains by models of point processes often relies on the assumption of constant process parameters. However, it is a well-known problem that the parameters of empirical spike trains can be highly variable, such as for example the firing rate. In order to test the null hypothesis of a constant rate and to es...
Humans ascending to high altitudes are submitted to sustained hypoxia (SH), activating peripheral chemoreflex with several autonomic and respiratory responses. We analyzed the effect of short-term SH (24 hours, FIO210%) on the cardiovascular parameters in non-anesthetized rats and on the processing of cardiovascular and respiratory reflexes using i...
The statistical analysis of neuronal spike trains by models of point processes often relies on the assumption of constant process parameters. However, it is a well-known problem that the parameters of empirical spike trains can be highly variable, such as for example the firing rate. In order to test the null hypothesis of a constant rate and to es...
Major evolutionary trends in animal physiology have been heavily influenced by atmospheric O2 levels. Amongst other important factors, the increase in atmospheric O2 which occurred in the Pre-Cambrian and the development of aerobic respiration beckoned the evolution of animal organ systems that were dedicated to the absorption and transportation of...
Introduction
The central nucleus of amygdala plays an important role mediating fear and anxiety responses. It is known that oxytocin microinjections into the central nucleus of amygdala induce hypergrooming, an experimental model of compulsive behavior. We evaluated the behavioral and cardiorespiratory responses of conscious rats microinjected with...
Cystic fibrosis is a common autosomal recessive disorder with drastic respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath and chronic cough. While most of cystic fibrosis treatment is dedicated to mitigating the effects of respiratory dysfunction, the potential effects of this disease on vocal parameters have not been systematically studied. We hyp...
Key points
Hypoxia activates peripheral chemoreceptors producing an increase in breathing and arterial pressure.
In conditions of sustained hypoxia, an increase in ventilation and arterial blood pressure is observed that persists after the return to normoxia.
We show in rats that sustained hypoxia for 24 h produces glutamate‐dependent changes in th...
Short-term sustained hypoxia (SH, 24 hrs) produces changes in the respiratory motor activity. However, the neurochemical and electrophysiological basis of these changes are poorly understood. In the present study, we evaluated the central mechanisms underlying the respiratory changes induced by SH (10% O2) and the correlated changes in sympathetic...
Short‐term sustained hypoxia (SH, 24 hrs) produces changes in the respiratory motor activity. However, the neurochemical and electrophysiological basis of these changes are poorly understood. In the present study, we evaluated the central mechanisms underlying the respiratory changes induced by SH (10% O2) and the correlated changes in sympathetic...
![Table 2 Behavioral glossary, taken from Bertti et al. [10] used to...](profile/Kaue-Costa/publication/233403787/figure/tbl1/AS:667077006344205@1536054960803/Behavioral-glossary-taken-from-Bertti-et-al-10-used-to-build-the-adjacency-matrices_Q320.jpg)
It is widely accepted that epilepsies are complex syndromes due to their multi-factorial origins and manifestations. Different mathematical and computational descriptions use appropriate methods to address nonlinear relationships, chaotic behaviors and emergent properties. These theoretical approaches can be divided into two major categories: descr...
Analyzing cell morphology is crucial in the fields of cell biology and neuroscience. One of the main methods for evaluating cell morphology is by using intracellular fluorescent markers, including various commercially available dyes and genetically encoded fluorescent proteins. These markers can be used as free radical sources in photooxidation rea...
Analyzing cell morphology is crucial in the fields of cell biology and neuroscience. One of the main methods for evaluating cell morphology is by using intracellular fluorescent markers, including various commercially available dyes and genetically encoded fluorescent proteins. These markers can be used as free radical sources in photooxidation rea...
Representative photomicrographs of DiI-filled human retinal neurons before and after the submission of the tissue samples to photooxidation reaction with our novel method. Note that we were able to image the same group of cells under fluorescent microscopy (before photooxidation) and under light microscopy (after photooxidation). These images illus...
Detailed schematics for building the photooxidizer.
(PDF)
Complete list of all custom built components of the photooxidizer apparatus.
(DOCX)
Representative photomicrographs of DiI-filled neocortical neurons before the submission of the tissue samples to the photooxidation reaction. Observe that the neuronal processes are well filled, a factor that is paramount for a good DAB staining in the subsequent photooxidation reaction. Scale bars correspond to 20 µm. A and B: Photomicrographs (40...
Complete list of all commercial components of the photooxidizer apparatus.
(DOCX)
Representative photomicrographs of DAB-stained human retinal neurons photooxidized with our new illumination method and with a traditional mercury lamp-based technique. Note that both illumination methods produce images of similar quality, i.e. they result in a highly detailed staining of the entire cell, including the dendrites and dendritic appen...
The cortical layer 1 contains mainly small interneurons, which have traditionally been classified according to their axonal morphology. The dendritic morphology of these cells, however, has received little attention and remains ill defined. Very little is known about how the dendritic morphology and spatial distribution of these cells may relate to...
Recent studies suggest that neuron-glia interactionsare involved in multiple aspects of neuronal activity regulation. In the nucleus tractussolitarius (NTS) neuron-glia interactions are thought to participate in theintegration of autonomic responses to physiological challenges. However, it remains to be shownwhether NTS glial cells might influence...
Background/Aims: In the last two decades, glial cells have been implicated in a variety of neurophysiological processes, including synaptic regulation, neural network synchronization, respiratory rhythm generation and central chemoreception. In the present study, we investigated whether glial inhibition in the NTS, an important nucleus for the proc...
Systemic (IP) and/or intraseptal (IS) administration of scopolamine (SCP) and diazepam (DZP) induce amnesia, whereas IP injection of the neuropeptide substance P (SP) and choline chloride (ChCl) produce memory facilitation. The septohippocampal cholinergic system has been pointed out as a possible site of SCP and DZP-induced amnesia as well as for...
Questions
Question (1)
I want to inject a virus expressing Cre-recombinase in the mouse nucleus accumbens, but I need to do it in a way so that I don't hit the ventricle that is right above it. The most obvious solution would be to inject at an angle, and thus bypass the ventricle altogether, however, the arm of our stereotaxic apparatus can't bend at an angle. Is it feasible and reliable to perform these injections at an angle by tilting the head of the mice while keeping the stereotax arm at a perpendicular angle, instead of tilting the arm itself (as I usually see in the literature)? If so, what is the best way to calculate the tilt angle need to access a given deep target region?
