66th Annual STS (2006-2007)
Finalists
Rebecca Kaufman

NEW YORK
Rebecca Kaufman, 17, of Croton-on-Hudson, examined the effects of hormone replacement therapy on behavior to better understand the underlying mechanisms of schizophrenia for the medicine and health project she entered in the Intel Science Talent Search. Rebecca used a novel application of the Object Recognition task to study aspects of cognition in male rats that are similar to prefrontal cortex (PFC) processes at risk in people with schizophrenia. She developed her own procedure for quantifying and comparing the observed and recorded actions of various treatment groups. Subjects included previously neutered rats that had received no hormone replacement or had received either testosterone or estrogen. Her findings indicate that without androgens (steroid hormones that increase male characteristics), PFC function in male rats is weakened. She believes this suggests that androgen replacement therapy might be beneficial in treating negative symptoms of human schizophrenia. At Croton-Harmon High School, Rebecca is treasurer of her class and writes for the literary magazine and newspaper. The daughter of Steven and Robin Kaufman, she hopes to attend UC Berkeley or Brown.