PSY Student Research Spotlight: Alex Shemke
April 12, 2023 - Shelly DeJong
Alex Shemke, a senior Psychology major with a Women’s Studies minor, has been working in Dr. Alexa Veenema’s lab since March 2022. A multiple PURI award winner, Alex has received valuable hands-on research experience in the Veenema lab that studies the neural circuits that control social behavior like social play. Alex has been involved in a project that aims to identify the role of oxytocin in the neural systems that support the rewarding aspects of social play behavior. We sat down to talk with Alex about how he ended up doing this research, his upcoming presentation at UURAF 2023, and his plans for the future.
Can you tell me why you pursued an experience in research?
Before working in the Veenema lab, I had no idea if I would like research or not. Some classes prepare you for it, but you don’t really know what it entails until you get into it. I wanted to keep my options for the future open, so I thought it would be important to experience it before going directly into a Physician Assistant program or med school.
I started looking for psychology related research opportunities and I decided to apply to the Veenema lab. It was kind of random how I ended up in the lab, but it ended up being a really good fit. I’m really interested in the science behind psychology so, I think it's a perfect pairing because my job involves both psychology and neuroscience.
Can you tell us about your work in the lab?
We are looking at the social behavior of rats in terms of the neuropeptide oxytocin. So basically, we are looking at how oxytocin modulates behavior and social play in rats. To do that, you can inject a certain drug that will inhibit neurons that express the oxytocin receptor. You can then see if that drug will increase play in the animals or not.
It is a very hands-on lab, so I do a lot of various things like mixing solutions together and working directly with the animals. We also do staining on the brain so that cells with oxytocin receptors can be visualized under a microscope. We can also then stimulate different parts of the brain to see what happens in social play. The brain areas we’re currently focusing on are the paraventricular nucleus and the nucleus accumbens.
One thing that has surprised me in the lab is that there's a lot of sex differences that I didn't know about. And that the model of rats can be compared to humans. It's interesting to think about sex having an impact on social behavior in humans too. Prior to this work, I didn’t realize how much animal models are involved in psychology research.
Has anyone at MSU had a particularly big impact on you?
Oh, yeah, for sure. The grad student that I work under, Samantha Bowden, has been super helpful in training me as a researcher, mentoring me through applying to grad school, and pushing me to learn new things. Dr. Alexa Veenema has been really helpful, too.
What classes have you enjoyed taking?
Right now, I'm taking physiology which I really enjoy. My multi-cultural psychology class with Dr. NiCole Buchanan is super interesting. Last semester I had a class on Violence Against Women and Children and it is one of my favorite classes I've ever taken. It was a discussion-based class, and I learned a lot. I’m really interested in that topic. I think it is so important to learn about minority groups, especially when going into a career in psychology and healthcare. I think it's super important to be knowledgeable about the disparities and issues that these groups face.
Your future patients will appreciate that perspective! What do you think made you think that way?
Personally, being a part of the queer community has really opened up my eyes to a lot of that because I've faced certain things that other communities, other minorities also face. That has definitely influenced me to seek out more information about other communities. There's just so many disparities when it comes to minorities. And learning about race and other things has just opened the door to seeing all the different communities that face these disparities in health care and in other realms of life.
We’re excited to see your work at UURAF this year! Can you tell us what your poster will be on?
My poster will focus on oxytocin receptor-expressing neurons in the nucleus accumbens brain region and their role in regulating juvenile social play behavior. The nucleus accumbens is known for its involvement in rewarding behavior in rats and has shown to have a high density of oxytocin receptor-expressing cells by our lab. Among other things, this makes it an important area to study considering my lab’s research connecting oxytocin to the regulation of social play. Finding out more about the regulation of social play could inform potential therapeutics used treat social deficits associated with some neuropsychological disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder.
The experiment I will be presenting involved inhibiting oxytocin receptor-expressing cells and seeing the resulting social behavior of both male and female rats. Although not all of the data has been analyzed yet, we expect that oxytocin receptor-expressing cell inhibition will result in increased social play. I will be analyzing how this affects social play, social investigation, and specific behaviors displayed during social play.