Bernard G Schreurs, PhD

Research Interests

Memory is crucial to who we are but there are two sides to that coin. In Alzheimer’s Disease, we cannot remember, and, in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, we remember too much. We use preclinical models to study lifestyle causes of cognitive impairment including high cholesterol, high fat, and high sugar. We assess cognition by using eyeblink conditioning – a simple task in which subjects associate a stimulus like a tone with a second stimulus such as a puff of air that makes them blink. With repeated pairings of the tone and air puff, subjects learn to anticipate the air puff much like Pavlov’s dog salivated to the bell. Surprisingly, a high-fat diet improved an animal’s ability to associate those stimuli, but a high-fat diet combined with high sugar made that ability worse. A diet high in cholesterol can have varying effects on learning and memory – a phenomenon we are still unraveling. We have begun to unlock the secrets to forming these memories at the level of single neurons from which we record and by changes in the extracellular matrix that surrounds these neurons.

Publications

Selected Publications

[2025]

• Wang, D., Irewole, E.A., Bays, L.D., Smith, M.D., Schreurs, B.G. (2025). A long-term, mild, high-fat diet facilitates rabbit discrimination learning and alters glycerophospholipid metabolism. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 219:108053

[2024]

• Schreurs, B.G., O’Dell, D.E., Wang, D. (2024). The role of cerebellar intrinsic neuronal excitability, synaptic plasticity, and perineuronal nets in eyeblink conditioning. Biology, 13: 200. 

[2021]

• O'Dell, D.E., Schreurs, B.G., Smith-Bell, C., Wang D. (2021). Disruption of rat deep cerebellar perineuronal net alters eyeblink conditioning and neuronal electrophysiology. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2021 Jan;177:107358 doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107358.

[2019]

• Burhans LB, Schreurs BG. (2019). Inactivation of the interpositus nucleus during unpaired extinction does not prevent extinction of conditioned eyeblink responses or conditioning-specific reflex modification. Behav Neurosci. 2019 Aug;133(4):398-413.
• Schreurs BG. (2019). Changes in cerebellar intrinsic neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity result from eyeblink conditioning. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2019 Dec;166:107094.

[2018]

• Wang D, Smith-Bell CA, Burhans LB, O'Dell DE, Bell RW, Schreurs BG (2018). Changes in membrane properties of rat deep cerebellar nuclear projection neurons during acquisition of eyeblink conditioning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 115(40):E9419-E9428.
• Burhans LB, Schreurs BG (2018). Inactivation of the interpositus nucleus blocks the acquisition of conditioned responses and timing changes in conditioning-specific reflex modification of the rabbit eyeblink response. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 4;155:143-156.
• Schreurs BG, Smith-Bell CA, Burhans LB (2018). Sex differences in a rabbit eyeblink conditioning model of PTSD. Neurobiol Learn Mem. pii: S1074-7427(18)30100-X.
• Burhans LB, Smith-Bell CA, Schreurs BG (2018). Propranolol produces short-term facilitation of extinction in a rabbit model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Neuropharmacology 135:386-398.
• Schreurs BG, Smith-Bell CA, Burhans LB (2018). Delayed unpaired extinction as a treatment for hyperarousal of the rabbit nictitating membrane response and its implications for treating PTSD. J Psychiatr Res 99:1-9.

[2017]

• Smith-Bell CA, Schreurs BG (2017). Grouping subjects based on conditioning criteria reveals differences in acquisition rates and in strength of conditioning-specific reflex modification. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 145:172-180.
• Burhans LB, Smith-Bell CA, Schreurs BG (2017). Effects of systemic glutamatergic manipulations on conditioned eyeblink responses and hyperarousal in a rabbit model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Behav Pharmacol, 28(7):565-577.
• Brooks SW, Dykes AC, Schreurs BG (2017). A high-cholesterol diet increases 27-hydroxycholesterol and modifies estrogen receptor expression and neurodegeneration in rabbit hippocampus. J Alzheimers Dis, 56(1):185-196.

[2016]

• Schreurs BG, Sparks DL (2016). Dietary high cholesterol and trace metals in the drinking water increase levels of ABCA1 in the rabbit hippocampus and temporal cortex. J Alzheimers Dis. 49(1):201-9.

[2015]

• Schreurs BG, Burhans LB. (2015) Eyeblink classical conditioning and post-traumatic stress disorder - a model systems approach. Front Psychiatry, 6:50.
• Denvira J, Neitch S, Fan J, Niles RM, Boskovic G, Schreurs BG, Primerano DA, Alkon DL (2015). Identification of the PS1 Thr147Ile variant in a family with very early onset dementia and expressive aphasia. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 46, 483-490.
• Schreurs BG. Burhans LB (2015) Eyeblink classical conditioning and post traumatic stress disorder – a model systems approach. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6:50.

[2014]

• Wang D, Schreurs BG (2014). Maturation of membrane properties of neurons in the rat deep cerebellar nuclei. Developmental Neurobiology, 74, 1268-1276.

[2013]

• Schreurs BG, Smith-Bell CA, Wang D, Burhans LB (2013).Dietary cholesterol degrades rabbit long term memory for discrimination learning but facilitates acquisition of discrimination reversal. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 106, 238-245.

[2013]

• Schreurs BG, Burhans LB, Smith-Bell CA, Mrowka SW, Wang D (2013).Ontogeny of trace eyeblink conditioning to shock-shock pairings in the rat pup. Behavioral Neuroscience, 127, 114-120.

[2012]

• Gonzalez-Joekes J, Schreurs BG (2012). Anatomical characterization of a rabbit cerebellar eyeblink premotor pathway using pseudorabies and identification of a local modulatory network in anterior interpositus. Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 12472-12487.