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“Are thereparts ofthe brainthat canbe repaired?”Dr. Roger Reepthe antibodies encouraged neuronsin the damaged regions of the rats’brains to sprout. Over time, in somerats, the new neurons appeared totake over the work the damagedtissue used to do and restorednormal behavior.“By investigating mechanisms ofneural repair in rats, there’s hope fordeveloping a therapy to promoterecovery in humans,” Reep said.“Our question is what kinds ofchanges can the brain make tocompensate for injury from stroke?Are there parts of the brain thatcan be repaired?”with folds of matter. Manatee brainsare smooth and their brains aresmaller relative to their body size.“It’s not so much that their brainsare small but their bodies havebecome large because of the need toeat large amounts of plants per day,and to conserve heat,” Reep said.Mapping the Brain's Possibilitiesto process tactile information,”Reep said. “It’s a neurobiologicalsolution for living in the world.By understanding more about thekind of information the animal hasto work with, we can moreeffectively design protective habitatand alter our behavior in a way thatis meaningful to them.”The research could haveimplications for regulators whohave designed no-wake zones toprotect manatees, Reep said.Scientists are asking whethermanatees can sense fast-movingboats better than they senseslower boats.EEvery 45 seconds, someone inthe United States has a stroke– and a reason to be interested inthe research of University of Floridaphysiologist Roger Reep.Reep studies spatial neglect, asyndrome that robs stroke victims ofthe awareness of half of their world.A stroke on the right side of thebrain, for example, takes away thevictims’ awareness of everything ontheir left. The problem isn’t visual –their eyesight is fine – but they arenot aware of the left side unless theyturn around.“Under normal circumstances,whether you pass on my right or myleft, I will say hello,” said Reep, aprofessor in UF’s College ofVeterinary Medicine and aresearcher in UF’s McKnight BrainInstitute. “If I’ve had a stroke in theright hemisphere of my brain, I’llneglect to say hello to you if youpass on my left.“The interesting thing is that peoplewith neglect don’t even realizethey’re missing half the world, andsince they’re unaware of theproblem, they aren’t motivated toseek therapy.”Filmmaker Federico Fellini, whosuffered a stroke at 73, posted noteseverywhere as reminders to “lookleft.” Artists with spatial neglectshow a strong bias toward the rightside of a painting or sculpture. Butfor the bulk of stroke victims,mostly the elderly, it’s the everydaymanifestations of spatial neglectthat alter their lives: Stroke victimsin nursing homes, for instance, mayeat only the right half of a meal untila worker turns the plate around.During 20 years of research, Reepand his colleagues developed andused a model in rats that allows forthe study of spatial neglectsyndrome. The researchers located aregion of the brain in rats that issimilar to the region of the humanbrain affected by spatial neglectsyndrome. They induced damage tothis region in the rats, thenadministered monoclonalantibodies, which override a proteinthat prevents neuron growth. Theirpreliminary findings indicate thatFor the 700,000 Americans whohave a stroke each year, theanswers will be vital.Florida conservationists, too,have reason to pay attention toReep’s research. Reep also studiesevolution of the brain and recentlyhas focused on the manatee brain,in hopes of developing insights thatcan help in conservation of theprotected animals.“I guess you could say I lead tworesearch lives,” Reep said. “I’m aFlorida native, and because of thatand my own sensibilities, I want topreserve what I can of the naturaldomain of Florida, and that includesthe animals.”Reep says the order Sirenia, towhich manatees belong, evolvedindependently from other lines thatled to elephants and hyraxes,beginning about 50 million yearsago. There are striking differencesbetween manatee brains and thebrains of animals of similar size.Every brain even a third as large as amanatee brain becomes convoluted,In recent years, researchers also havediscovered that manatees use tactilehair – a sense of touch – to detectunderwater currents and vibrations.Reep and his colleagues at MoteMarine Laboratory are currentlyusing behavioral testing todetermine the capacities of thissystem to detect significant watermovement, such as the approach ofother animals from behind.Reep’s group also works closelywith the state marine mammalpathology laboratory andSea World so that the scientists canexamine manatee brains quicklyfollowing a manatee death. Thepostmortem examinations showthat manatees have specific clumpsof cells on the cerebral cortex thatdeal with tactile informationtransmitted from the hairs.“What we have is an indication thatmanatees have an elaborate systemThe common thread in Reep’swork is the brain and using basicscience to understand it. TheNational Institutes of Health is amajor source of funding for hisresearch, which has been publishedin the journal Brain Research.“Purely as science, this isfascinating,” Reep said. Of his workwith spatial neglect, he added, “Asthe population ages, more peoplewill get this, and we will need tolearn more about the higher orderregions of the brain. In a personwith stroke, we have an opportunityto learn from the nature of theirdeficits.”Photo left: Dr. Roger Reep has focusedon the manatee brain in hopes ofdeveloping insights that can help inconservation of the protected animals.34Research • University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine••Environment • www.vetmed.ufl.edu35