Larry I. Crawshaw
Professor of Biology, Portland State University
Adjunct Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU
e-mail: crawshl@psu4.pdx.edu
Major Areas
Thermoregulation; ethanol; comparative physiology
Previous Positions
Assistant/Associate Professor, Department of Biology, PSU
Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine and of Pharmacology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Yale University Medical School and John B. Pierce Foundation
NIMH Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Scripps Inst Oceanog (UCSD)
Education
B.A. (1964) University of California, Los Angeles
Ph.D. (1970) University of California, Santa Barbara
Research Interests
Our laboratory is involved in elucidating the effects of ethanol on physiological systems, with a particular focus on those responses involved in the regulation of body temperature. Studies entail the measurement of behavioral, physiological, and neural variables, and the utilization of genetic techniques to elucidate the genes and their products that underlie the observed responses. We utilize selectively bred lines of mice to pursue these goals. The inbred mouse lines that we study most intensively are those with increased and decreased resistance to ethanol induced hypothermia and the C57 - DBA recombinant inbred series. We have demonstrated that a significant portion of the differential change in body temperature that follows ethanol administration in these lines is due to a direct effect on the regulated body temperature. Ultimately, we hope to elucidate both the mechanism of the effects of ethanol on temperature regulation and the nature of homeostatic hypothalamic function.
Selected Recent Publications
Crawshaw, L.I., Wallace, H.L., Crabbe, J.C., Ramos, C., Duerr, C.J. and O'Connor, C.S. Ethanol disrupts and decreases the regulated body temperature differentially in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. American Journal of Physiology. 273:R696-R702, 1997.
Crawshaw, L.I., Wallace, H.L. and Crabbe, J.C. Ethanol, body temperature and thermoregulation. Clin. Exp. Pharmacol. and Physiol. 25:150-154, 1998.
Rausch, R.N., Crawshaw, L.I. and Wallace, H.L. Effects of hypoxia, anoxia, and endogenous ethanol on thermoregulation in goldfish, Carassius auratus. American Journal of Physiology. 278:R545-R555, 2000.
Crawshaw, L.I., Wollmuth, L.P., & O'Connor, C.S. Intracranial ethanol and ambient anoxia elicit selection of cooler water by goldfish. American Journal of Physiology, 256:R133-R137, 1989.
O'Connor, C.S., Crawshaw, L.I., Kosobud, A., Bedichek, R.C., & Crabbe, J.C. The effect of ethanol on behavioral temperature regulation in mice. Pharmacol Biochem Behav, 33:315-319, 1989.
Crawshaw, L.I., O'Connor, C.S., Crabbe, J.C., & Hayteas, D. L. Temperature regulation in mice during withdrawal from ethanol dependence. American Journal of Physiology, 267:R929-R934, 1994.