Department of Psychology

Research Interests

• Experience and neural plasticity in adolecents 
• Mechanisms of sound-induced seizures 
• Efficacy of undergraduate research

My lab and I are no longer running any new behavioral experiments or conducting any new histology procedures. My lab has “downsized” and work only involves archival data sets and tissue.

Recently, using archival tissue, my interests have focused on neural activity evoked by informal interaction with conspecifics and known and novel environments in adolescent rats. In the past, my work sometimes involved a rodent model of acquired, reflex epilepsy that focused on neural correlates of seizures including plasticity in brain structures and changes in behavior related to seizure activity. All of my research has involved collaboration with students—particularly undergraduates.

I’ve always had an interest in considering and promoting opportunities for students outside the traditional classroom. Since 2016, I have served as faculty advisor to the editorial board of IMPULSE-The Premier Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal. Overall, I am committed to the value of student-faculty collaborative research and other creative endeavor and continue to spend time learning about and hopefully promoting experience-rich curricula and a place for psychology in STEM education.

Education

• Postdoctoral training, Department of Neurophysiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ph.D., University of South Carolina
• B.S., Georgia State University

Representative Publications

• Sheffield, E. N., Kelley, A. L., & Zrull, M. C. (2024). It isn’t the same. Evoked activity in lateral entorhinal cortex in familiar and novel environments. 2024 Neuroscience Meeting Planner, Society for Neuroscience, PSTR424.13 [available online]. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience 53^rd Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL..
• McManus, J. L., Souders, R. M., Lloyd, R. W., Markle, A. N., Becton, G. G., & Zrull, M. C. (2024, October). IMPULSE is in its 21st year of publication and continues to give undergrads the opportunity to publish and review neuroscience research. 2024 Neuroscience Meeting Planner, Society for Neuroscience, TJP04.18SA [available online]. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience 53^rd Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
• Sheffield, E. N., Hayes, B. M., Kelley, A. L., & Zrull, M. C. (2023, November). Prior experience does and does not alter evoked activity in medial entorhinal cortex of adolescent rats exploring a space with or without objects. 2023 Neuroscience Meeting Planner, Society for Neuroscience, PSTR122.18 [available online]. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience 52^nd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.
• Souders, R. M., Strong, T. M., Moe, R. J., & Zrull, M. C. (2023, November). Prior experience does not markedly affect evoked activity in the amygdala of young rats exploring a space with or without objects. 2023 Neuroscience Meeting Planner, Society for Neuroscience, PSTR122.04 [available online]. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience 52^nd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.
• Zrull, M. C., Alewel, D. I., Skinner, H. C., Santiago, S. L., Johnson, H. L., Snouse, S. J., & Arnold, T. J. (2016). Environmental enrichment reduces seizure frequency in adolescent rats prone to sound-induced seizures. 2016 Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 594.22 [available online]. Poster presented at the Society for Neuroscience 46^th Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA
• Zrull, M. C., Rocheleau, C. A., Smith, C., & Bergman,S. M. (2012). Curricular-based learning communities centered within a discipline. In K. Buch &K.E. Barron (Eds.), Discipline-centered learning communities: Creating connections among students, faculty, and curricula. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 132, 19-29. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Zrull, M. C. (2008) Research in the rat lab: Some thoughts on undergraduates doing behavioral neuroscience research. In R.L. Miller, R.F. Rycek, M. Ware, E. Balcetis, S.T. Barney, B.C. Beins, S.R. Burns, R. Smith and M.E. Ware (Eds.) Promoting the undergraduate research experience in psychology (Section 4. pp. 168-172). Washington, DC: Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Available online http://teachpsych.org/resources/e-books/ur2008/ur2008.pdf.
• Dravland, M., Clapp, K., & Zrull, M. C. (2005) Sudden or gradual sound onset differentially affects audiogenic seizure severity in developmentally primed rats. Impulse 2005. Available online: https://impulse.pubpub.org/pub/8lnw3j3z/release/1?readingCollection=34fc3fb5.
• Zrull, M. C. & Coleman, J. R. (1991) Structural features of neurons in whole grafts of the rat inferior colliculus. Hearing Research, 55, 117-132.