Neuroscience of injury in Euprymna scolopes on Phil Trans cover
Congratulations to MS graduate Ryan Howard, and BS (Physiology) Graduates Lauren Lopes, Christina Lardie and Paul Perez, for publishing their work titled “Early life injury produces lifelong neural hyperexcitability, cognitive deficit and altered defensive behavior in the squid, Euprymna scolopes” in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. It is part of a special issue on the evolution of mechanisms relation to pain. This paper has a long story in our lab; Lauren and Christina first worked on this project in 2016, when we set out to look at the time course of behavioral changes after injury in juvenile squid. When we found nothing much of note in the 2-3 weeks after injury, we let the squid grow to adults for breeding. We also used some of them for an
electrophysiological study on an unrelated question once they were adults, and Lauren and Paul discovered the life-long sensitization of primary afferents in the squid that had received injury as small juveniles. But, after an unexpected power failure led to the loss of our breeding colony of Euprymna in 2017, the project was put on hold for almost 2 years. Ryan picked it up again in early 2019 and conducted the behavioral assays on a new cohort of adults, showing cognitive effects, and finally we were able to make this wonderful paper come together. Well done to all authors for their perseverance and hard work!!