This month’s featured researcher is Dr. Alissa A. Nolden, who is an Assistant Professor and holds the Clydesdale Professorship in the Department of Food Science. Her lab studies chemosensory perception in humans. In particular they examine how individual differences in responses to foods and chemicals is associated with genetic variability, and how chemosensory perception changes as a result of dietary exposure, disease or therapeutic compounds. She was recently an author on a paper in the Journal of Voice titled, “Examining the Influence of Chemosensation on Laryngeal Health and Disorders“. She has examined taste loss in cancer patients. She was recently quoted in Science Magazine regarding a study that examined why the COVID-19 remedy paxlovid makes things taste bitter.

Here’s what else is new for ‘ ”University of Massachusetts” AND Amherst AND neuroscience’ in PubMed. These publications appeared online in November. They are just a fraction of the neuroscience research that occurs on campus. You can click on the PubMed ID to find the publication.

1: Kapoulea EA, Ready RE, Ginn JC. Loneliness and risk for cardiovascular disease in the United States and Japan: The effects of nationality, collectivism, and gender. Soc Sci Med. 2023 Nov;337:116299. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116299. Epub 2023 Oct 9. PMID: 37837950.

2: Smiley KO, Munley KM, Aghi K, Lipshutz SE, Patton TM, Pradhan DS, Solomon-Lane TK, Sun SED. Sex diversity in the 21st century: Concepts, frameworks, and approaches for the future of neuroendocrinology. Horm Behav. 2023 Nov 16;157:105445. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105445. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37979209.

3: Osakabe N, Modafferi S, Ontario ML, Rampulla F, Zimbone V, Migliore MR, Fritsch T, Abdelhameed AS, Maiolino L, Lupo G, Anfuso CD, Genovese E, Monzani D, Wenzel U, Calabrese EJ, Vabulas RM, Calabrese V. Polyphenols in Inner Ear Neurobiology, Health and Disease: From Bench to Clinics. Medicina (Kaunas). 2023 Nov 20;59(11):2045. doi: 10.3390/medicina59112045. PMID: 38004094; PMCID: PMC10673256.

4: Chernoff CS, Hynes TJ, Schumacher JD, Ramaiah S, Avramidis DK, Mortazavi L, Floresco SB, Winstanley CA. Noradrenergic regulation of cue-guided decision making and impulsivity is doubly dissociable across frontal brain regions. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2023 Nov 25. doi: 10.1007/s00213-023-06508-2. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38001266.

5: Novaleski CK, Doty RL, Nolden AA, Wise PM, Mainland JD, Dalton PH. Examining the Influence of Chemosensation on Laryngeal Health and Disorders. J Voice. 2023 Mar;37(2):234-244. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2020.12.029. Epub 2021 Jan 15. PMID: 33455853; PMCID: PMC8277875.