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Final Topic Proposal

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For my final paper, I would like to write about the use of a hyperthyroid phenotype as a model for mania. While discussing the papers that we have read, I realized that with many models of psychiatric disorders, I am not fully convinced of the validity of the rodent model, or of its clinical applications. When I first began working in a neuroscience lab, the first project I worked on was aimed at investigating hyperthyroidism as a model for bipolar mania. By injecting T3 hormone in mice, it is possible to create a hyperthyroid phenotype and model bipolar mania, quantifying the symptoms of mania through the use of motion sequence (as coined by the Datta lab). Since I began working on this project, I have become very interested in the use of this hyperthyroid model to study the symptomology of mania, and hope to explore this further with my paper. I have listed some sources below:


Bunevicius, R., Prange Jr., A. J., & Velickiene, D. (2005, March 8). Mood and anxiety disorders in women with treated hyperthyroidism and ophthalmopathy caused by Graves' disease. 

Desouza, L. A., Sathanoori, M., Kapoor, R., Rajadhyaksha, N., Gonzalez, L. E., Kottmann, A. H., … Vaidya, V. A. (2011). Thyroid hormone regulates the expression of the sonic hedgehog signaling pathway in the embryonic and adult Mammalian brain. Endocrinology, 152(5), 1989– 2000. doi:10.1210/en.2010-1396 

Diez D, Grijota-Martinez C, Agretti P, De Marco G, Tonacchera M, Pinchera A, de Escobar GM, Bernal J, Morte B. Thyroid hormone action in the adult brain: gene expression profiling of the effects of single and multiple doses of triiodo-L-thyronine in the rat striatum. Endocrinology. 2008; 149:3989-4000. 

Lazarus, J. (1998). The Effects of Lithium Therapy on Thyroid and Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone. Thyroid, 8(10), 909-913. doi:10.1089/thy.1998.8.909 


Rakov, H (2016). Sex-specific phenotypes of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in mice. Biol Sex Differ 7, 36 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-016-0089-3

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