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  • Akiva S. Cohen
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Faculty

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Akiva S. Cohen, PhD

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Research Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
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Department: Anesthesiology and Critical Care
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1f Graduate Group Affiliations 8 a
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46 Contact information
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Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
3f Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
23 3401 Civic Center Boulevard
4c Abramson Research Center, Room 816-H
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4399
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30 Office: (215) 590-1472
34 Fax: (267) 426-5165
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Email: cohena@email.chop.edu
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18 Publications
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13 Education:
21 7 BS 19 (Microbiology) c
3c University of Maryland College Park, 1985.
 21 7 MS 14 (Zoology) c
3c University of Maryland College Park, 1989.
 21 8 PhD 17 (Biophysics) c
42 University of Maryland School of Medicine, 1994.
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Links
155 Search PubMed for articles
 76 Laboratory website
40 Pharmacological Sciences graduate group faculty webpage.
3e Neuroscience graduate group faculty webpage.
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5 3 3 90 Permanent link
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Description of Research Expertise

1b KEY WORDS:
36 Head Injury, Hippocampus, Cognitive Impairment
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1a RESEARCH INTERESTS
5e Injury-induced altered brain excitability, circuit rearrangement and synaptic function
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1b RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
135 Intracellular and extracellular recording, whole-cell patch-clamp recording, immunocytochemistry, biochemistry and calcium fluorescence. Visualized and blind in vitro recording techniques. Electrophysiologic recording in neuronal cultures as well as cell lines and conditioned fear response behavior.
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18 RESEARCH SUMMARY
229 Our principal research interest is focused on the fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie cognitive impairments associated with traumatic brain injury. We are primarily concerned with alterations in neuronal excitability in the limbic system of the brain. This system has been shown to play a primary role in higher cognitive function e.g. learning and memory and is damaged in traumatic brain injury. We incorporate a variety of techniques to understand the nature and functional consequences of injury-induced alterations.
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360 Our studies begin with conditioned fear response behavior to assess cognitive impairments and extracellular recording to evaluate injured hippocampal function. Unbiased stereology is then used to quantify the degree of cell death. Excitatory and inhibitory synaptic recording is utilized to further determine the function of surviving neurons. Immunocytochemical and biochemical techniques are used to examine specific proteins that have been altered by injury and may be underlying synaptic and/or circuit dysfunction. The combination of these methodologies should help elucidate putative mechanisms causing injury-induced cognitive deficits. A better understanding of these injury-induced alterations will provide insight for directing the development of potential therapies that would ameliorate cognitive dysfunction in traumatic brain injured patients.
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Selected Publications

147 Xiong G, Tummala SR and Cohen AS: Fool’s gold standard? Immunoperoxidase staining with the mouse monoclonal antibody (Clone 22C11) for detecting axonal pathology after traumatic brain injury. Front. Neurosci. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 19, June 2025.

 a6 Anthony M. Farrugia, Brian N. Johnson, Akiva S. Cohen : Cannabinoid Receptor Agonist Affects Murine Contextual Fear aa Conditioned Memory after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF MEDICINE. THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (eds.). 13(6), June 2025.

 f3 Ubri CE, Farrugia AM, Cohen AS.: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Impairs Fear Extinction and Network Excitability in the Infralimbic Cortex. J Neurotrauma In Press, May 2025.

 201 Corwin DJ, Myers SR, Arbogast KB, Lim MM, Elliott JE, Metzger KB, LeRoux P, Elkind J, Metheny H, Berg J, Pettijohn K, Master CL, Kirschen MP, Cohen AS.: Head Injury Treatment With Healthy and Advanced Dietary Supplements: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Tolerability, Safety, and Efficacy of Branched Chain Amino Acids in the Treatment of Concussion in Adolescents and Young Adults. J Neurotrauma 41(11-12): 1299-1309, June 2024.

 13a Xiong G, Jean I, Farrugia AM, Metheny H, Johnson BN, Cohen NA, Cohen AS.: Temporal and structural sensitivities of major biomarkers for detecting neuropathology after traumatic brain injury in the mouse. Front Neurosci 18: 1339262, Jan 2024.

 163 Xiong G, Metheny H, Hood K, Jean I, Farrugia AM, Johnson BN, Tummala SR, Cohen NA, Cohen AS.: Detection and verification of neurodegeneration after traumatic brain injury in the mouse: Immunohistochemical staining for amyloid precursor protein. Brain Pathol 33(6): e13163, Nov 2023.

 101 Somach RT, Jean I, Farrugia A, Cohen AS.: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Affects Orexin/Hypocretin Physiology Differently in Male and Female Mice. J Neurotrauma 40: 2146–2163. Oct 2023.

 184 Harris JP, Mietus CJ, Browne KD, Wofford KL, Keating CE, Brown DP, Johnson BN, Wolf JA, Smith DH, Cohen AS, Duda JE, Cullen DK.: Neuronal somatic plasmalemmal permeability and dendritic beading caused by head rotational traumatic brain injury in pigs-An exploratory study. Front Cell Neurosci 17: 1055455, Jul 2023.

 d0 Farrugia AM, Delcy SAS, Johnson BN, Cohen AS.: Maintenance of a Lateral Fluid Percussion Injury Device. J Vis Exp 194: 64678, Apr 2023.

 10e Best KM, Mojena MM, Barr GA, Schmidt HD, Cohen AS.: Endogenous Opioid Dynorphin Is a Potential Link between Traumatic Brain Injury, Chronic Pain, and Substance Use Disorder. J Neurotrauma May 2022.

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