BN significantly enhanced its Internet presence last week with the unveiling of a redesigned and restructured web site. In addition to its streamlined navigation and crisp graphics, the site features CBN’s ubiquitous brain art graphic and rotating images of research and education programs. The site is divided into a public “brochure site” at www.cbn-atl.org and a private web services site at www.my-cbn.org for members of the CBN community. Features of the private site include private individual calendars, online forums for dis- cussions about behavioral neuroscience, and an archive of streaming media presentations of lectures and symposia. A library of CBN docu- ments, such as meeting minutes and reports, also is available on the web services site. To access www.my-cbn.org, contact Rob Poh, director of information technology, via e-mail at [email protected]. The organization and content of the new web site are based on extensive interviews conducted by Poh with the CBN management team and collaboratory heads. The look and feel of the site also are aligned with CBN’s visual identity. Additional content and features will be added to the public and private sites over the coming months, including a new standardized system for measuring and identifying animal behaviors. Mook, DVM, CBN graduate students Jennifer Felger and Franklynn Graves, and Kim Wallen, PhD, Dobbs Professor of Psychology and reproduction collabo- ratory head, compared the behavior of four groups of adult female rhesus macaques that were not producing estro- gen. The groups were divided into a placebo group; a group that received estradiol, a natural estrogen; a tamoxifen group; and a tamoxifen-plus-estradiol group. After a three-week period, the researchers observed rates of anxiety-like behaviors were significantly higher in the tamoxifen and tamoxifen-plus-estradiol groups compared with females receiving estradiol only “Tamoxifen not only appears to antagonize estrogen’s anxiety-reducing effect, but also to increase anxiety-like behavior by itself, in the absence of estro- gen,” said Wilson. “While tamoxifen is an extremely effective anti-cancer med- ication, women may stop taking it because of its negative effects on behav- ior and emotion.” In other tests, Wilson and his col- leagues measured serotonin activity, a marker for depression in humans, in the animals’ brains to determine if tamoxifen affected it. As expected, the researchers found estradiol increased serotonin activ- ity in the monkeys. In both the tamoxifen and the tamoxifen-plus-estradiol groups, however, serotonin activity was unaffect- ed compared to placebo treated controls. “We expected tamoxifen would reduce serotonin activity because of its attenuat- ing effects on estradiol,” said Wilson. “Our findings suggest, however, tamox- ifen must be producing its negative behavioral effects through its action on a different neurotransmitter involved in mood.” Wilson and his colleagues’ latest finding about tamoxifen adds to a grow- ing body of evidence about the drug’s negative behavioral effects. In a previous study, Wilson and his colleagues found tamoxifen inhibits sexual behavior in female rhesus macaques. In conjunction with a team of inves- tigators from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University School of Medicine, Wilson currently is examining the interaction between tamoxifen and a commonly pre- scribed class of anti-depression medications—selective serotonin reup- take inhibitors (SSRIs). The 12-month study is following two groups of rhesus macaques, a tamoxifen-only group and a tamoxifen-plus-SSRI group, to determine whether SSRIs diminish anxiety behav- iors. The study will determine whether SSRIs reduce anxiety-like behaviors in tamoxifen-treated monkeys and whether they change the metabolism of tamoxifen thereby reducing its biological activity. Although SSRIs may relieve symptoms of anxiety, they also could reduce the effica- cy of tamoxifen against breast cancer. Such findings will be critical information for clinicians. AROUND CBN C Synapse Spring 2005 Vol. 6, No. 2 News? Story Ideas? We want to know! Call us at 404.463.9433 or e-mail [email protected] Editor: Poul E. Olson A quarterly publication of the CENTER FOR BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE SPRING 2005 A NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY EMORY UNIVERSITY SPELMAN COLLEGE MOREHOUSE COLLEGE MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Neuroscience Expo Touches Thousands of Atlantans Breast Cancer Drug Tamoxifen Increases Anxiety Behaviors in Monkeys What’s inside DIRECTOR’S CORNER 2 ATurning Point? EDUCATION 3 Neuroscience Expo Highlights NEWS 4 Redesigned Web Site Unveiled Synapse Tamoxifen Increases Anxiety Behaviors in Rhesus Macaques Continued from page 1 amoxifen, the most widely prescribed drug for treating and preventing breast cancer in women, increases anxiety behaviors in female rhesus macaques, according to a study conducted at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory by Yerkes, Emory University and CBN researchers. The researchers caution the extent of the side effects could hinder compliance in women using the popular medica- tion. The study is reported in the April edition of Psychoneuroendocrinology. While studies have shown tamoxifen signifi- cantly improves survival rates for women with breast cancer by blocking the effects of estrogen, clinical evidence suggests the drug increases rates of anxiety and the incidence of hot flashes, both of which may result from reduced action of estrogen. To determine if tamoxifen had these behavioral effects in both the presence and absence of estrogen, Mark Wilson, PhD, chief of the Yerkes Division of Psychobiology and a member of CBN’s reproduction collaboratory, and his colleagues, Deborah T Redesigned Web Site Unveiled Streamlined navigation, video archive among new features pringtime in Atlanta has many traditions: Braves preseason, the Dogwood Festival, Screen on the Green in Piedmont Park. Add to that list CBN’s annual Brains Rule! Neuroscience Exposition. In partnership with Zoo Atlanta, CBN touched more than 4,600 Atlantans during the March 18-19 expo, the largest public education event of its type in the country held during Brain Awareness Month (BAM). On March 18, some 100 seventh- graders from Atlanta Public School’s Charles Drew Charter School, a CBN education partner, visited the expo and learned about the brain through interac- tive booths on a range of topics from ion channels to snake venom. “Charles Drew teachers told us this was their students’ favorite field trip of the year,” said CBN educator and expo director Kyle Frantz, PhD. During the March 19 public event, which coincided with Girl Scout Day at the zoo, the public encountered some 35 booths located near animal exhibits around the park. Several booths, most notably “Brain Art,” were inundated with visitors the entire day. More than 400 people completed “sticker cards” after visiting eight booths and earned the opportunity to spin a prize wheel. “The zoo was a terrific venue for the expo,” said Frantz. “Volunteers and visi- tors alike had fun teaching and learning about neuroscience on-site with the ani- mal exhibits.” Frantz credited the expo’s success to the enthusiasm and passion of the more than 200 volunteers, including high school students, undergraduates, gradu- ate students and professional scientists, to inspire the Charles Drew students’ and the public’s interest in neuroscience. (See photo highlights on pg. 3.) In addition to the expo, CBN’s other BAM events included a March 21 screen- ing at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History of the hit amnesia movie Memento followed by a lecture titled “How We Remember, Why We Forget,” led by Stuart Zola, PhD, co-director for knowledge transfer. During March, CBN also worked with the Atlanta Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience to provide neuroscientists as speakers to 29 metro Atlanta schools. Since 2003, the number of school visits by Atlanta neuroscientists during BAM has more than tripled. S John Redmond, PhD, (right), co-chair of CBN’s precollege education commit- tee, shows seventh-grade students from Charles Drew Charter School a real human brain at the neuroscience exposition. The redesigned web site features streamlined navigation, rotating images of CBN research and education programs, and a video archive of lectures and symposia. Continued on page 4 Brain Awareness Month event is largest of its type in the country