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As a psych major, Greg was particularly interested in the effects of drugs on behavior, as well as the underlying neurotransmitter systems in the brain. He did a lot of reading on psychopharmacology and neuroscience for his classes (and on his own!), and got interested in Prof. Williams' laboratory work which investigated behavior and brain systems affected by stress. He began his research with Prof. Jon Williams as a Summer Science Scholar in 1993, looking at the effects of some anti-anxiety drugs on the behaviors of rats that were exposed to fear-evoking odors (from other rats). Normally when the rats were exposed to these odors they showed freezing behavior and reduced responsiveness to pain. The drugs seemed to block these responses. This experiment raised various questions which Greg decided to pursue with Prof. Williams.
Greg and Prof. Williams continued their research at Kenyon during Greg's senior year, following up on the Summer Science Project's findings. They found that diazepam and buspirone (both anti-anxiety drugs) blocked the learning of a fear response to odors from dominant rats, and they could measure this using several different behavioral tests with the rats. Now they were interested in whether there were other odors that triggered the same behavior and brain responses, and in learning more about the underlying neurotransmitter systems that mediated these behavioral effects. Their combined research on the Summer Science Research, Honors research, and yet another experiment were combined into conference presentations and publications listed below.
Kenyon Summer Science students all present their work in a poster session in the fall after completing their projects. Greg presented his work in 1994, and had the opportunity to discuss it with students and professors from other departments at Kenyon.
Hotsenpiller, G., & Williams, J. L. (Sept. 30, 1994). Conditioned anxiety to conspecific odors and the effects of diazepam and buspirone. Kenyon College Summer Science Poster Session, Gambier, OH.
The following year, Prof. Williams presented their collaborative work at a professional conference, to an audience of other researchers in the field. He was able to discuss his findings with other reseachers, and refine his ideas for some of the next experiments he would do based on these discussions.
Williams, J. L., & Hotsenpiller, G. Conditioned fear and analgesia to conspecific odors: GABA and 5-HT1A receptors. Presented at the Psychonomics Society Meeting, Los Angeles, November 10, 1995.
In 1996 and 1997, the various experiments that Greg and Prof. Williams worked on were published in two articles in a respected, peer-reviewed journal, Psychobiology. While it may seem like it took a long time from the Summer Science Research project in 1994 to having a published work appear in 1996 or 1997, that's actually a pretty short time for these types of research studies!
Hotsenpiller, G., & Williams, J. L. (1996). Conditioned anxiety and analgesia: Benzodiazepine and 5-HT1A agonists. Psychobiology, 24, 118-126.
Hotsenpiller, G., & Williams, J. L. (1997). A synthetic predator odor (TMT) enhances conditioned analgesia and fear when paired with a benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist (FG-7142). Psychobiology, 25, 83-88.
Greg's work with Prof. Williams has been cited by many other researchers in other journal articles. They usually cite them in their introduction and/or discussion sections, as they discuss the context of their own work or how it builds off of the work that other researchers have done. Prof. Williams recently published a review article describing his work with various students over the years, and his work with Greg is prominent in that review. While the article does discuss the original work with Greg, it is not primary literature because it is not the first presentation of the research, and it does not have the traditional, detailed structure of the original research article (see the lesson on scholarly literature for more information). This review article, an example of secondary literature, appears in another peer-reviewed journal, The Psychological Record.
Williams, J. L. (1999). Effects of conspecific and predator odors on defensive behavior, analgesia, and spatial working memory. The Psychological Record, 49, 493-536.
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