Dr. Ünal was invited to speak at the 2025 Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association (SGV) Meeting in Zürich, where he delivered a lecture on the construct validity and translational relevance of rodent tests of affect, generating further interest and discussion around our well-cited review paper on the same topic.
In this paper we investigated the behavioral and neural effects of orally administered ketamine in adult rats. Animals received either saline or ketamine at 15, 30, or 45 mg/kg and were tested in the forced swim test, open field, fear conditioning, and elevated plus maze. We also examined changes in brain activity and NMDA receptor subunits using protein assays and immunohistochemistry. The highest dose (45 mg/kg) reduced immobility in the forced swim test, briefly impaired fear memory, and lowered stress-related vocalizations.
Defne and Sinem attended the FENS Regional Meeting (FRM) 2025, held from June 16–19 in Oslo, Norway, where they presented two posters: Functional and Neurochemical Characterization of CaMKIIα-Expressing Neurons in the Ventral Pallidum and Dopaminergic Circuitry in the Japanese Quail: Fiber Analysis and Synaptic Targets in the Nidopallium Caudolaterale.
In this study, we investigated the role of ERα in the heightened sensitivity of female animals to ketamine’s antidepressant effects. This well-documented sex difference is thought to stem from the faster ketamine metabolism observed in females, potentially regulated by ERα through enzymatic modulation. However, our results indicate that ERα antagonism did not influence behavioral despair in the FST. An interaction between MPP and ketamine emerged in anxiety-like behaviors assessed in the OFT and EPM, though post-hoc analyses did not reveal significant effects.
We have finally published our long-term study on a novel animal–robot interaction paradigm that enables bidirectional learning between rats and robots. As Steinbeck stated, “If you understand each other, you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.” This idea appears to extend to animals and robots as well. In both our in silico and in vivo tests, rat-robot pairs that successfully interpreted each other’s signals adjusted their actions to maximize rewards, fostering mutual learning.
We have published our long-term study on ventral pallidum-amygdala innervation in collaboration with Dr. Nair’s Neural Engineering Laboratory at the University of Missouri. By combining anatomical and computational approaches, we explored whether basal forebrain (BF) projections to the amygdaloid complex modulate local network activity in a manner analogous to the well-characterized septo-hippocampal pathway.
In this study, we examined the impact of an antidepressant dose of ketamine on the encoding, retrieval, and modulation of fear and spatial memory in adult Wistar rats. Ketamine (10 mg/kg, IP) was administered during specific phases of Pavlovian fear conditioning (implicit memory) and the Morris Water Maze (MWM; explicit memory). While it partially impaired fear extinction when administered before acquisition or retrieval, it enhanced memory modulation and improved performance during MWM reversal training.
We successfully completed the Arkhé training on "Brain, Cognition, and Evolution" from August 25–30. The lectures were accompanied by stimulating discussions and engaging interactions. You can find the program details here:
https://archeprojesi.com/kamp/beyin-bilis-ve-evrim-brain-cognition-and-e...
We attended the FENS Forum 2024 in the beautiful city of Vienna! Defne and Sinem presented their work on the "fiber density analysis of the catecholaminergic projections in the Japanese quail" (click for abstract), while Bahar demonstrated that "ketamine exerts differential effects on implicit and explicit memory processes in adult Wistar rats" (click for abstract).
Ketamine is a rapid-acting antidepressant associated with various cognitive side effects. To mitigate these side
effects while enhancing efficacy, it can be co-administered with other antidepressants. In this study, we adopted a
similar strategy by combining ketamine with environmental enrichment, a potent sensory-motor paradigm, in
adult rats, and observed that combining environmental enrichment with ketamine led to a synergistic antidepressant effect!
