Basic Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Self-Appraisals in PTSD

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

autobiographical memories associated with success and self- efficacy. In the Control condition, participants recalled any three personally significant memories ...less recruitment in areas associated with the construction of autobiographical memories . In particular, OEF/OIF veterans appears to show...AD_________________ Award Number: W81XWH-13-2-0021 TITLE: Basic Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Self-Appraisals in PTSD PRINCIPAL

Arachnoiditis

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Leukodystrophy

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Anencephaly

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Neuroacanthocytosis

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Syncope

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Dystonias

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Chorea

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Encephalopathy

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Apraxia

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Whiplash

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Menkes Disease

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Pseudotumor Cerebri

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Incontinentia Pigmenti

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Alternating Hemiplegia

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Sotos Syndrome

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Rasmussen's Encephalitis

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Ohtahara Syndrome

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Pinched Nerve

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Krabbe Disease

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Cerebral Hypoxia

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Tarlov Cysts

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Occipital Neuralgia

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Myasthenia Gravis

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Encephalitis Lethargica

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Todd's Paralysis

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Congenital Myasthenia

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Corticobasal Degeneration

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Refsum Disease

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Inflammatory Myopathies

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Thyrotoxic Myopathy

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Arachnoid Cysts

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Alpers' Disease

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Stroke Rehabilitation

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Meningitis and Encephalitis

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Sturge-Weber Syndrome

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Inclusion Body Myositis

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Lipid Storage Diseases

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Giant Axonal Neuropathy

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Dyssynergia Cerebellaris Myoclonica

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Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease

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Klippel-Feil Syndrome

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Parry-Romberg (Syndrome)

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Dandy-Walker Syndrome

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Coffin Lowry Syndrome

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Post-Polio Syndrome

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Infantile Refsum Disease

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Primary Lateral Sclerosis

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Neuronal Migration Disorders

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Holmes-Adie Syndrome

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Miller Fisher Syndrome

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Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis

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Kearns-Sayre Syndrome

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Repetitive Motion Disorders

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Neurological Sequelae of Lupus

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Guillain-Barré Syndrome

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Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

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Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome Disorder

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Deconstructing and Reconstructing Theory of Mind

PubMed Central

Schaafsma, Sara M.; Pfaff, Donald W.; Spunt, Robert P.; Adolphs, Ralph

2014-01-01

Usage of the term Theory of Mind (ToM) has exploded across fields ranging from developmental psychology to social neuroscience and psychiatry research. Yet its meaning is often vague and inconsistent, its biological bases are a subject of debate, and the methods used to study it are highly heterogeneous. Most critically, its original definition does not permit easy downward translation to more basic processes such as those studied by behavioral neuroscience, leaving the interpretation of neuroimaging results opaque. We argue for a reformulation of ToM through a systematic two-stage approach, beginning with a deconstruction of the construct into a comprehensive set of basic component processes, followed by a complementary reconstruction from which a scientifically tractable concept of ToM could be recovered. PMID:25496670

Klüver-Bucy Syndrome

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Questions and Answers about Stroke

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Questions and Answers about Carotid Endarterectomy

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Neurological Complications of Lyme Disease

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Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease

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Ataxias and Cerebellar or Spinocerebellar Degeneration

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The rebirth of neuroscience in psychosomatic medicine, Part I: historical context, methods, and relevant basic science.

PubMed

Lane, Richard D; Waldstein, Shari R; Chesney, Margaret A; Jennings, J Richard; Lovallo, William R; Kozel, Peter J; Rose, Robert M; Drossman, Douglas A; Schneiderman, Neil; Thayer, Julian F; Cameron, Oliver G

2009-02-01

Neuroscience was an integral part of psychosomatic medicine at its inception in the early 20th century. Since the mid-20th century, however, psychosomatic research has largely ignored the brain. The field of neuroscience has burgeoned in recent years largely because a variety of powerful new methods have become available. Many of these methods allow for the noninvasive study of the living human brain and thus are potentially available for integration into psychosomatic medicine research at this time. In this first paper we examine various methods available for human neuroscientific investigation and discuss their relative strengths and weaknesses. We next review some basic functional neuroanatomy involving structures that are increasingly being identified as relevant for psychosomatic processes. We then discuss, and provide examples of, how the brain influences end organs through "information transfer systems," including the autonomic, neuroendocrine, and immune systems. The evidence currently available suggests that neuroscience holds great promise for advancing the goal of understanding the mechanisms by which psychosocial variables influence physical disease outcomes. An increased focus on such mechanistic research in psychosomatic medicine is needed to further its acceptance into the field of medicine.

The Psycholinguistics of Basic Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfetti, Charles A.; Van Dyke, Julie; Hart, Lesley

2001-01-01

Reviews major issues in research on reading, including theories of word reading, cross-writing comparisons, comprehension, reading difficulties, learning how to read, and cognitive neuroscience studies of reading. (Author/VWL)

Multiple System Atrophy with Orthostatic Hypotension (Shy-Drager Syndrome)

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NIH Scientists Try to Crack the Brain's Memory Codes

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Scientists Take a Close-Up of Key Pain-Sensing Molecule

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Questions and Answers about Treating Arterial Stenosis and Preventing Stroke

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SUNCT Headache (Short-Lasting, Unilateral, Neuralgiform with Conjunctival Injection and Tearing)

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Considerations and recent advances in neuroscience.

PubMed

Gorman, Adrienne M; Doyle, Karen M

2009-02-01

Neuroscience is a rapidly developing area of science which has benefitted from the blurring of interdisciplinary boundaries. This was apparent in the range of papers presented at this year's Neuroscience Ireland Conference, held in Galway during August 2008. The event was attended by academics, postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers, scientists from industry and clinicians. The themes of this year's conference, neurodegeneration, neuroregeneration, pain, glial cell biology and psychopharmacology, were chosen for their reflection of areas of strength in neuroscience within Ireland. In addition to basic science, translational research also featured strongly.

Population Disparities in Mental Health: Insights From Cultural Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Blizinsky, Katherine D.

2013-01-01

By 2050, nearly 1 in 5 Americans (19%) will be an immigrant, including Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians, compared to the 1 in 8 (12%) in 2005. They will vary in the extent to which they are at risk for mental health disorders. Given this increase in cultural diversity within the United States and costly population health disparities across cultural groups, it is essential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how culture affects basic psychological and biological mechanisms. We examine these basic mechanisms that underlie population disparities in mental health through cultural neuroscience. We discuss the challenges to and opportunities for cultural neuroscience research to determine sociocultural and biological factors that confer risk for and resilience to mental health disorders across the globe. PMID:23927543

Population disparities in mental health: insights from cultural neuroscience.

PubMed

Chiao, Joan Y; Blizinsky, Katherine D

2013-10-01

By 2050, nearly 1 in 5 Americans (19%) will be an immigrant, including Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians, compared to the 1 in 8 (12%) in 2005. They will vary in the extent to which they are at risk for mental health disorders. Given this increase in cultural diversity within the United States and costly population health disparities across cultural groups, it is essential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how culture affects basic psychological and biological mechanisms. We examine these basic mechanisms that underlie population disparities in mental health through cultural neuroscience. We discuss the challenges to and opportunities for cultural neuroscience research to determine sociocultural and biological factors that confer risk for and resilience to mental health disorders across the globe.

Neuroscience and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, U.

2004-01-01

Neuroscience is a relatively new discipline encompassing neurology, psychology and biology. It has made great strides in the last 100 years, during which many aspects of the physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology and structure of the vertebrate brain have been understood. Understanding of some of the basic perceptual, cognitive, attentional,…

Enacting the ‘neuro’ in practice: Translational research, adhesion and the promise of porosity

PubMed Central

Michael, Mike

2014-01-01

This article attends to the processes through which neuroscience and the neuro are enacted in a specific context: a translational neuroscience research group that was the setting of an ethnographic study. The article therefore provides a close-up perspective on the intersection of neuroscience and translational research. In the scientific setting we studied, the neuro was multiple and irreducible to any particular entity or set of practices across a laboratory and clinical divide. Despite this multiplicity, the group’s work was held together through the ‘promise of porosity’ – that one day there would be translation of lab findings into clinically effective intervention. This promise was embodied in the figure of the Group Leader whose expertise spanned clinical and basic neurosciences. This is theorized in terms of a contrast between cohesion and adhesion in interdisciplinary groupings. We end by speculating on the role of ‘vivification’ – in our case mediated by the Group Leader – in rendering ‘alive’ the expectations of interdisciplinary collaboration. PMID:25362829

Psychiatry chief resident opinions toward basic and clinical neuroscience training and practice.

PubMed

Bennett, Jeffrey I; Handa, Kamna; Mahajan, Aman; Deotale, Pravesh

2014-04-01

The authors queried attendees to a chief resident conference on whether program education and training in neuroscience or in translating neuroscience research into practice is sufficient and what changes are needed. The authors developed and administered a 26-item voluntary questionnaire to each attendee at the Chief Residents' Leadership Conference at the American Psychiatric Association 2013 annual meeting in San Francisco, CA. Out of 94 attendees, 55 completed and returned questionnaires (58.5%). A majority of respondents stated that their program provided adequate training in neuroscience (61.8%); opportunities for neuroscience research existed for them (78.2%), but that their program did not prepare them for translating future neuroscience research findings into clinical practice (78.9%) or educate them on the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (83.3%). A majority of respondents stated that the ACGME should require a specific neuroscience curriculum (79.6%). Chief residents believe that curricular and cultural change is needed in psychiatry residency neuroscience education.

Neuroscience and education.

PubMed

Goswami, Usha

2004-03-01

Neuroscience is a relatively new discipline encompassing neurology, psychology and biology. It has made great strides in the last 100 years, during which many aspects of the physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology and structure of the vertebrate brain have been understood. Understanding of some of the basic perceptual, cognitive, attentional, emotional and mnemonic functions is also making progress, particularly since the advent of the cognitive neurosciences, which focus specifically on understanding higher level processes of cognition via imaging technology. Neuroimaging has enabled scientists to study the human brain at work in vivo, deepening our understanding of the very complex processes underpinning speech and language, thinking and reasoning, reading and mathematics. It seems timely, therefore, to consider how we might implement our increased understanding of brain development and brain function to explore educational questions.

Addiction Studies with Positron Emission Tomography

ScienceCinema

Joanna Fowler

2017-12-09

Brookhaven scientist Joanna Fowler describes Positron Emission Technology (PET) research at BNL which for the past 30 years has focused in the integration of basic research in radiotracer chemistry with the tools of neuroscience to develop new scientific

Addiction Studies with Positron Emission Tomography

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Joanna Fowler

Brookhaven scientist Joanna Fowler describes Positron Emission Technology (PET) research at BNL which for the past 30 years has focused in the integration of basic research in radiotracer chemistry with the tools of neuroscience to develop new scientific

The Neuroscience of Memory: Implications for the Courtroom

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Although memory can be hazy at times, it is often assumed that memories of violent or otherwise stressful events are so well-encoded that they are largely indelible and that confidently retrieved memories are likely to be accurate. However, findings from basic psychological research and neuroscience studies indicate that memory is a reconstructive process that is susceptible to distortion. In the courtroom, even minor memory distortions can have severe consequences that are in part driven by common misunderstandings about memory, e.g. expecting memory to be more veridical than it may actually be. PMID:23942467

75 FR 25273 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-07

... Genetics Integrated Review Group, Molecular Genetics C Study Section. Date: June 3-4, 2010. Time: 8 a.m. to... Committee: Oncology 1-Basic Translational Integrated Review Group, Cancer Molecular Pathobiology Study... Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Cellular and...

Between "Homo Sociologicus" and "Homo Biologicus": The Reflexive Self in the Age of Social Neuroscience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickel, Andreas

2012-01-01

The social sciences rely on assumptions of a unified self for their explanatory logics. Recent work in the new multidisciplinary field of social neuroscience challenges precisely this unproblematic character of the subjective self as basic, well-defined entity. If disciplinary self-insulation is deemed unacceptable, the philosophical challenge…

Psychological constructionism and cultural neuroscience.

PubMed

Hechtman, Lisa A; Pornpattananangkul, Narun; Chiao, Joan Y

2012-06-01

Lindquist et al. argue that emotional categories do not map onto distinct regions within the brain, but rather, arise from basic psychological processes, including conceptualization, executive attention, and core affect. Here, we use examples from cultural neuroscience to argue that psychological constructionism, not locationism, captures the essential role of emotion in the social and cultural brain.

Neuroscience in Nigeria: the past, the present and the future.

PubMed

Balogun, Wasiu Gbolahan; Cobham, Ansa Emmanuel; Amin, Abdulbasit

2018-04-01

The science of the brain and nervous system cuts across almost all aspects of human life and is one of the fastest growing scientific fields worldwide. This necessitates the demand for pragmatic investment by all nations to ensure improved education and quality of research in Neurosciences. Although obvious efforts are being made in advancing the field in developed societies, there is limited data addressing the state of neuroscience in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we review the state of neuroscience development in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and its largest economy, critically evaluating the history, the current situation and future projections. This review specifically addresses trends in clinical and basic neuroscience research and education. We conclude by highlighting potentially helpful strategies that will catalyse development in neuroscience education and research in Nigeria, among which are an increase in research funding, provision of tools and equipment for training and research, and upgrading of the infrastructure at hand.

Brain literate: making neuroscience accessible to a wider audience of undergraduates.

PubMed

Salomon, Danielle; Martin-Harris, Laurel; Mullen, Brian; Odegaard, Brian; Zvinyatskovskiy, Aleksey; Chandler, Scott H

2015-01-01

The ability to critically evaluate neuroscientific findings is a skill that is rapidly becoming important in non-science professions. As neuroscience research is increasingly being used in law, business, education, and politics, it becomes imperative to educate future leaders in all areas of society about the brain. Undergraduate general education courses are an ideal way to expose students to issues of critical importance, but non-science students may avoid taking a neuroscience course because of the perception that neuroscience is more challenging than other science courses. A recently developed general education cluster course at UCLA aims to make neuroscience more palatable to undergraduates by pairing neuroscientific concepts with philosophy and history, and by building a learning community that supports the development of core academic skills and intellectual growth over the course of a year. This study examined the extent to which the course was successful in delivering neuroscience education to a broader undergraduate community. The results indicate that a majority of students in the course mastered the basics of the discipline regardless of their major. Furthermore, 77% of the non-life science majors (approximately two-thirds of students in the course) indicated that they would not have taken an undergraduate neuroscience course if this one was not offered. The findings also demonstrate that the course helped students develop core academic skills and improved their ability to think critically about current events in neuroscience. Faculty reported that teaching the course was highly rewarding and did not require an inordinate amount of time.

Notes on the Recent History of Neuroscience in Africa

PubMed Central

Russell, Vivienne A.

2017-01-01

Neuroscience began with neuroanatomy and neurosurgery in Egypt more than 5000 years ago. Knowledge grew over time and specialized neurosurgery centers were established in north Africa in the eleventh century. However, it was not until the twentieth century that neuroscience research became established in sub-Saharan Africa. In most African countries, clinical research focused on understanding the rationale and improving treatment of epilepsy, infections, nutritional neuropathies, stroke and tumors. Significant advances were made. In the twenty-first century, African knowledge expanded to include all branches of neuroscience, contributing to genetic, biochemical and inflammatory determinants of brain disorders. A major focus of basic neuroscience research has been, and is, investigation of plant extracts, drugs and stress in animal models, providing insight and identifying potential novel therapies. A significant event in the history of African neuroscience was the founding of the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA) in 1993. The International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) supported SONA conferences, as well as workshops and neuroscience training schools in Africa. Thanks to their investment, as well as that of funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN), World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), World Federation of Neurology (WFN) and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), neuroscience research is well-established in Africa today. However, in order to continue to develop, African neuroscience needs continued international support and African neuroscientists need to engage in policy and decision-making to persuade governments to fund studies that address the unique regional needs in Africa. PMID:29163069

Adaptive Capacity: An Evolutionary Neuroscience Model Linking Exercise, Cognition, and Brain Health.

PubMed

Raichlen, David A; Alexander, Gene E

2017-07-01

The field of cognitive neuroscience was transformed by the discovery that exercise induces neurogenesis in the adult brain, with the potential to improve brain health and stave off the effects of neurodegenerative disease. However, the basic mechanisms underlying exercise-brain connections are not well understood. We use an evolutionary neuroscience approach to develop the adaptive capacity model (ACM), detailing how and why physical activity improves brain function based on an energy-minimizing strategy. Building on studies showing a combined benefit of exercise and cognitive challenge to enhance neuroplasticity, our ACM addresses two fundamental questions: (i) what are the proximate and ultimate mechanisms underlying age-related brain atrophy, and (ii) how do lifestyle changes influence the trajectory of healthy and pathological aging? Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Diffusion Tensor Imaging Toolbox

PubMed Central

Alger, Jeffry R.

2012-01-01

During the past few years, the Journal of Neuroscience has published over 30 articles that describe investigations that used Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and related techniques as a primary observation method. This illustrates a growing interest in DTI within the basic and clinical neuroscience communities. This article summarizes DTI methodology in terms that can be immediately understood by the neuroscientist who has little previous exposure to DTI. It describes the fundamentals of water molecular diffusion coefficient measurement in brain tissue and illustrates how these fundamentals can be used to form vivid and useful depictions of white matter macroscopic and microscopic anatomy. It also describes current research applications and the technique’s attributes and limitations. It is hoped that this article will help the readers of this Journal to more effectively evaluate neuroscience studies that use DTI. PMID:22649222

Transcranial electric stimulation (tES) and NeuroImaging: the state-of-the-art, new insights and prospects in basic and clinical neuroscience.

PubMed

Soekadar, Surjo R; Herring, Jim Don; McGonigle, David

2016-10-15

Transcranial electric stimulation (tES) of the brain has attracted an increased interest in recent years. Yet, despite remarkable research efforts to date, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of tES' effects are still incompletely understood. This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the state-of-the-art in studies combining tES and neuroimaging, while introducing most recent insights and outlining future prospects related to this new and rapidly growing field. The findings reported here combine methodological advancements with insights into the underlying mechanisms of tES itself. At the same time, they also point to the many caveats and specific challenges associated with such studies, which can arise from both technical and biological sources. Besides promising to advance basic neuroscience, combined tES and neuroimaging studies may also substantially change previous conceptions about the methods of action of electric or magnetic stimulation on the brain. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Closing the Loop: From Motor Neuroscience to Neurorehabilitation.

PubMed

Roemmich, Ryan T; Bastian, Amy J

2018-04-25

The fields of human motor control, motor learning, and neurorehabilitation have long been linked by the intuition that understanding how we move (and learn to move) leads to better rehabilitation. In reality, these fields have remained largely separate. Our knowledge of the neural control of movement has expanded, but principles that can directly impact rehabilitation efficacy remain somewhat sparse. This raises two important questions: What can basic studies of motor learning really tell us about rehabilitation, and are we asking the right questions to improve the lives of patients? This review aims to contextualize recent advances in computational and behavioral studies of human motor learning within the framework of neurorehabilitation.Wealso discuss our views of the current challenges facing rehabilitation and outline potential clinical applications from recent theoretical and basic studies of motor learning and control. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Neuroscience Volume 41 is July 8, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Guest editorial: From neuroscience to neuro-rehabilitation: transferring basic neuroscientific principles from laboratory to bedside.

PubMed

Koenig, Alexander; Luft, Andreas; Cajigas, Iahn

2013-01-21

Several new approaches for treatment of Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders are currently under investigation, including the use of rehabilitation training strategies, which are often combined with electrical and/or pharmacological modulation of spinal locomotor circuitries. While these approaches show great promise in the laboratory setting, there still exists a large gap in knowledge on how to transfer these treatments to daily clinical use. This thematic series presents a cross section of cutting edge approaches with the goal of transferring basic neuroscience principles from the laboratory to the proverbial "bedside".

Basic Emotions in Human Neuroscience: Neuroimaging and Beyond.

PubMed

Celeghin, Alessia; Diano, Matteo; Bagnis, Arianna; Viola, Marco; Tamietto, Marco

2017-01-01

The existence of so-called 'basic emotions' and their defining attributes represents a long lasting and yet unsettled issue in psychology. Recently, neuroimaging evidence, especially related to the advent of neuroimaging meta-analytic methods, has revitalized this debate in the endeavor of systems and human neuroscience. The core theme focuses on the existence of unique neural bases that are specific and characteristic for each instance of basic emotion. Here we review this evidence, outlining contradictory findings, strengths and limits of different approaches. Constructionism dismisses the existence of dedicated neural structures for basic emotions, considering that the assumption of a one-to-one relationship between neural structures and their functions is central to basic emotion theories. While these critiques are useful to pinpoint current limitations of basic emotions theories, we argue that they do not always appear equally generative in fostering new testable accounts on how the brain relates to affective functions. We then consider evidence beyond PET and fMRI, including results concerning the relation between basic emotions and awareness and data from neuropsychology on patients with focal brain damage. Evidence from lesion studies are indeed particularly informative, as they are able to bring correlational evidence typical of neuroimaging studies to causation, thereby characterizing which brain structures are necessary for, rather than simply related to, basic emotion processing. These other studies shed light on attributes often ascribed to basic emotions, such as automaticity of perception, quick onset, and brief duration. Overall, we consider that evidence in favor of the neurobiological underpinnings of basic emotions outweighs dismissive approaches. In fact, the concept of basic emotions can still be fruitful, if updated to current neurobiological knowledge that overcomes traditional one-to-one localization of functions in the brain. In particular, we propose that the structure-function relationship between brain and emotions is better described in terms of pluripotentiality, which refers to the fact that one neural structure can fulfill multiple functions, depending on the functional network and pattern of co-activations displayed at any given moment.

Basic Guidelines for Brain-Compatible Classrooms: Theory to Praxis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liston, Delores D.

This paper reviews recent findings in the field of neuroscience that may have a direct impact on specific methodologies and practices in education. It focuses on five concepts from neuroscience: (1) the mind-brain processes symbolic information; (2) neurons are imbued with an epistemic hunger and the mind-brain with a cognitive imperative to learn…

Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: A neurophysicalmodel o f mind/brain interaction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stapp, Henry P.; Schwartz, Jeffrey M.; Beauregard, Mario

Contemporary physical theory brings directly and irreducibly into the overall causal structure certain psychologically described choices made by human beings about how they will act. This key development in basic physical theory is applicable to neuroscience, and it provides neuroscientists and psychologists with an alternative conceptual structure for describing neural processes.

The Neurolab mission and biomedical engineering: a partnership for the future.

PubMed

Liskowsky, D R; Frey, M A; Sulzman, F M; White, R J; Likowsky, D R

1996-01-01

Over the last five years, with the advent of flights of U.S. Shuttle/Spacelab missions dedicated entirely to life sciences research, the opportunities for conducting serious studies that use a fully outfitted space laboratory to better understand basic biological processes have increased. The last of this series of Shuttle/Spacelab missions, currently scheduled for 1998, is dedicated entirely to neuroscience and behavioral research. The mission, named Neurolab, includes a broad range of experiments that build on previous research efforts, as well as studies related to less mature areas of space neuroscience. The Neurolab mission provides the global scientific community with the opportunity to use the space environment for investigations that exploit microgravity to increase our understanding of basic processes in neuroscience. The results from this premier mission should lead to a significant advancement in the field as a whole and to the opening of new lines of investigation for future research. Experiments under development for this mission will utilize human subjects as well as a variety of other species. The capacity to carry out detailed experiments on both human and animal subjects in space allows a diverse complement of studies that investigate functional changes and their underlying molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms. In order to conduct these experiments, a wide array of biomedical instrumentation will be used, including some instruments and devices being developed especially for the mission.

The Neurolab mission and biomedical engineering: a partnership for the future

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liskowsky, D. R.; Frey, M. A.; Sulzman, F. M.; White, R. J.; Likowsky, D. R.

1996-01-01

Over the last five years, with the advent of flights of U.S. Shuttle/Spacelab missions dedicated entirely to life sciences research, the opportunities for conducting serious studies that use a fully outfitted space laboratory to better understand basic biological processes have increased. The last of this series of Shuttle/Spacelab missions, currently scheduled for 1998, is dedicated entirely to neuroscience and behavioral research. The mission, named Neurolab, includes a broad range of experiments that build on previous research efforts, as well as studies related to less mature areas of space neuroscience. The Neurolab mission provides the global scientific community with the opportunity to use the space environment for investigations that exploit microgravity to increase our understanding of basic processes in neuroscience. The results from this premier mission should lead to a significant advancement in the field as a whole and to the opening of new lines of investigation for future research. Experiments under development for this mission will utilize human subjects as well as a variety of other species. The capacity to carry out detailed experiments on both human and animal subjects in space allows a diverse complement of studies that investigate functional changes and their underlying molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms. In order to conduct these experiments, a wide array of biomedical instrumentation will be used, including some instruments and devices being developed especially for the mission.

Perspectives on Sensory Processing Disorder: A Call for Translational Research

PubMed Central

Miller, Lucy J.; Nielsen, Darci M.; Schoen, Sarah A.; Brett-Green, Barbara A.

2009-01-01

This article explores the convergence of two fields, which have similar theoretical origins: a clinical field originally known as sensory integration and a branch of neuroscience that conducts research in an area also called sensory integration. Clinically, the term was used to identify a pattern of dysfunction in children and adults, as well as a related theory, assessment, and treatment method for children who have atypical responses to ordinary sensory stimulation. Currently the term for the disorder is sensory processing disorder (SPD). In neuroscience, the term sensory integration refers to converging information in the brain from one or more sensory domains. A recent subspecialty in neuroscience labeled multisensory integration (MSI) refers to the neural process that occurs when sensory input from two or more different sensory modalities converge. Understanding the specific meanings of the term sensory integration intended by the clinical and neuroscience fields and the term MSI in neuroscience is critical. A translational research approach would improve exploration of crucial research questions in both the basic science and clinical science. Refinement of the conceptual model of the disorder and the related treatment approach would help prioritize which specific hypotheses should be studied in both the clinical and neuroscience fields. The issue is how we can facilitate a translational approach between researchers in the two fields. Multidisciplinary, collaborative studies would increase knowledge of brain function and could make a significant contribution to alleviating the impairments of individuals with SPD and their families. PMID:19826493

The cognitive neuroscience of time perception: how psychological studies might help to dissect the timing system.

PubMed

Wearden, John H

2013-01-01

It is argued that the cognitive neuroscience of time perception does not make sufficient use of a range of experimental techniques and theoretical approaches which might be useful in "dissecting" the human timing system, and thus helping to uncover its neural basis. These techniques are mostly inspired by scalar expectancy theory, but do not depend on acceptance of that model. Most of the methods result in the same physical stimuli giving rise to systematically different time judgements, thus they avoid problems of control which have haunted some areas of the cognitive neuroscience of timing. Among the possibilities are (a) changing the basic duration judgement of stimuli and events, (b) manipulating working memory and reference memories for duration, and (c) changing temporal decision processes. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Assessment Study of an Undergraduate Research Training Abroad Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nieto-Fernandez, Fernando; Race, Kathryn; Quarless, Duncan A.

2013-01-01

The Old Westbury Neuroscience International Research Program (OWNIP) encourages undergraduate students from health disparities populations and underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in basic science, biomedical, clinical, and behavioral health research fields. To evaluate this program, several measures were used tracked through an online…

The future of restorative neurosciences in stroke: driving the translational research pipeline from basic science to rehabilitation of people after stroke.

PubMed

Cheeran, Binith; Cohen, Leonardo; Dobkin, Bruce; Ford, Gary; Greenwood, Richard; Howard, David; Husain, Masud; Macleod, Malcolm; Nudo, Randolph; Rothwell, John; Rudd, Anthony; Teo, James; Ward, Nicholas; Wolf, Steven

2009-02-01

Major advances during the past 50 years highlight the immense potential for restoration of function after neural injury, even in the damaged adult human brain. Yet, the translation of these advances into clinically useful treatments is painstakingly slow. Here, we consider why the traditional model of a "translational research pipeline" that transforms basic science into novel clinical practice has failed to improve rehabilitation practice for people after stroke. We find that (1) most treatments trialed in vitro and in animal models have not yet resulted in obviously useful functional gains in patients; (2) most clinical trials of restorative treatments after stroke have been limited to small-scale studies; (3) patient recruitment for larger clinical trials is difficult; (4) the determinants of patient outcomes and what patients want remain complex and ill-defined, so that basic scientists have no clear view of the clinical importance of the problems that they are addressing; (5) research in academic neuroscience centers is poorly integrated with practice in front-line hospitals and the community, where the majority of patients are treated; and (6) partnership with both industry stakeholders and patient pressure groups is poorly developed, at least in the United Kingdom where research in the translational restorative neurosciences in stroke depends on public sector research funds and private charities. We argue that interaction between patients, front-line clinicians, and clinical and basic scientists is essential so that they can explore their different priorities, skills, and concerns. These interactions can be facilitated by funding research consortia that include basic and clinical scientists, clinicians and patient/carer representatives with funds targeted at those impairments that are major determinants of patient and carer outcomes. Consortia would be instrumental in developing a lexicon of common methods, standardized outcome measures, data sharing and long-term goals. Interactions of this sort would create a research-friendly, rather than only target-led, culture in front-line stroke rehabilitation services.

Neuroscience curriculum changes and outcomes: medical university of South Carolina, 2006 to 2010.

PubMed

Holden, Kenton R; Cooper, S Lewis; Wong, Jeffrey G

2012-07-01

To develop future neurologists and translational neuroscientists, we created a neurosciences pathway throughout our medical school curriculum that included early exposure to clinical neurosciences decision-making and added variety to the choices of later clinical neurosciences experiences. Our curricular innovation had 3 parts: (1) integrating basic neurosciences content into an explicit clinical context in a College of Medicine (COM) first year of medical school; (2) expanding pathophysiological principles related to neurosciences in COM second year of medical school; and (3) creating a variety of 3-week clinical neurosciences selectives in COM third year of medical school and 4-week electives/externships for interested learners in COM fourth year of medical school. These new changes were evaluated (1) by comparing national standardized examinations including Neurology Subject examination scores for students choosing clinical neurosciences selectives; (2) by student satisfaction Graduate Questionnaires; and (3) by the total number of our graduates matching in US neurosciences disciplines. Students taking neuroscience selectives demonstrated a nonsignificant trend toward higher Step 2 Clinical Knowledge scores. The students' Neurology Subject examination scores were comparable with those scores reported nationally for other US COM third year of medical school students on 4-week rotations. Student-reported satisfaction in clinical neurology teaching improved from 43.9% (before) to 81.8% (after). The percentage of students matching into clinical neuroscience disciplines rose from 2% (before) to 6% (after). Our neurosciences curricular innovation increased graduating student satisfaction scores, had a mild positive impact on Step 2 Clinical Knowledge scores, and increased the number of students choosing careers in the clinical neurosciences. This model may be a consideration for other medical schools who wish to integrate neurosciences teaching throughout their curriculum.

The interface of self psychology, infant research, and neuroscience in clinical practice.

PubMed

Rustin, Judith

2009-04-01

This article focuses on the integration of self psychology with findings from infant research and neuroscience. While Kohut's psychology of the self provides a useful theoretical model for psychoanalytic practice, aspects of infant research and neuroscience offer specificity and nuance to basic self-psychological concepts. Kohut proposed that self-psychological psychoanalysis ameliorates derailed development through patient-analyst interaction, while a listening stance of empathic immersion begins the curative process of derailed development and sets the stage for reparative psychoanalytic work. Findings from infant research delineate much more specifically the nature of attunement both in early mother-infant and analyst-patient interactions. Findings from neuroscientific research delineate how early mother-infant experiences are encoded in implicit memory and explicates the emotional substrate of affects and feelings. This emotional substrate exists at birth and provides a means of communication both in infancy and adulthood. Additionally, infant research delineates the mutuality of the interactive process. Thus, both infant research and neuroscience add subtlety and nuance to basic self-psychological concepts. This subtlety opens up new ways of understanding patients and expands the clinical repertoire. Three clinical vignettes demonstrate how this nuance and expansion of self-psychological concepts are applied in the context of an ongoing psychoanalytic treatment.

The OpenPicoAmp: an open-source planar lipid bilayer amplifier for hands-on learning of neuroscience.

PubMed

Shlyonsky, Vadim; Dupuis, Freddy; Gall, David

2014-01-01

Understanding the electrical biophysical properties of the cell membrane can be difficult for neuroscience students as it relies solely on lectures of theoretical models without practical hands on experiments. To address this issue, we developed an open-source lipid bilayer amplifier, the OpenPicoAmp, which is appropriate for use in introductory courses in biophysics or neurosciences at the undergraduate level, dealing with the electrical properties of the cell membrane. The amplifier is designed using the common lithographic printed circuit board fabrication process and off-the-shelf electronic components. In addition, we propose a specific design for experimental chambers allowing the insertion of a commercially available polytetrafluoroethylene film. We provide a complete documentation allowing to build the amplifier and the experimental chamber. The students hand-out giving step-by step instructions to perform a recording is also included. Our experimental setup can be used in basic experiments in which students monitor the bilayer formation by capacitance measurement and record unitary currents produced by ionic channels like gramicidin A dimers. Used in combination with a low-cost data acquisition board this system provides a complete solution for hands-on lessons, therefore improving the effectiveness in teaching basic neurosciences or biophysics.

The OpenPicoAmp: An Open-Source Planar Lipid Bilayer Amplifier for Hands-On Learning of Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Shlyonsky, Vadim; Dupuis, Freddy; Gall, David

2014-01-01

Understanding the electrical biophysical properties of the cell membrane can be difficult for neuroscience students as it relies solely on lectures of theoretical models without practical hands on experiments. To address this issue, we developed an open-source lipid bilayer amplifier, the OpenPicoAmp, which is appropriate for use in introductory courses in biophysics or neurosciences at the undergraduate level, dealing with the electrical properties of the cell membrane. The amplifier is designed using the common lithographic printed circuit board fabrication process and off-the-shelf electronic components. In addition, we propose a specific design for experimental chambers allowing the insertion of a commercially available polytetrafluoroethylene film. We provide a complete documentation allowing to build the amplifier and the experimental chamber. The students hand-out giving step-by step instructions to perform a recording is also included. Our experimental setup can be used in basic experiments in which students monitor the bilayer formation by capacitance measurement and record unitary currents produced by ionic channels like gramicidin A dimers. Used in combination with a low-cost data acquisition board this system provides a complete solution for hands-on lessons, therefore improving the effectiveness in teaching basic neurosciences or biophysics. PMID:25251830

Basic Emotions in Human Neuroscience: Neuroimaging and Beyond

PubMed Central

Celeghin, Alessia; Diano, Matteo; Bagnis, Arianna; Viola, Marco; Tamietto, Marco

2017-01-01

The existence of so-called ‘basic emotions’ and their defining attributes represents a long lasting and yet unsettled issue in psychology. Recently, neuroimaging evidence, especially related to the advent of neuroimaging meta-analytic methods, has revitalized this debate in the endeavor of systems and human neuroscience. The core theme focuses on the existence of unique neural bases that are specific and characteristic for each instance of basic emotion. Here we review this evidence, outlining contradictory findings, strengths and limits of different approaches. Constructionism dismisses the existence of dedicated neural structures for basic emotions, considering that the assumption of a one-to-one relationship between neural structures and their functions is central to basic emotion theories. While these critiques are useful to pinpoint current limitations of basic emotions theories, we argue that they do not always appear equally generative in fostering new testable accounts on how the brain relates to affective functions. We then consider evidence beyond PET and fMRI, including results concerning the relation between basic emotions and awareness and data from neuropsychology on patients with focal brain damage. Evidence from lesion studies are indeed particularly informative, as they are able to bring correlational evidence typical of neuroimaging studies to causation, thereby characterizing which brain structures are necessary for, rather than simply related to, basic emotion processing. These other studies shed light on attributes often ascribed to basic emotions, such as automaticity of perception, quick onset, and brief duration. Overall, we consider that evidence in favor of the neurobiological underpinnings of basic emotions outweighs dismissive approaches. In fact, the concept of basic emotions can still be fruitful, if updated to current neurobiological knowledge that overcomes traditional one-to-one localization of functions in the brain. In particular, we propose that the structure-function relationship between brain and emotions is better described in terms of pluripotentiality, which refers to the fact that one neural structure can fulfill multiple functions, depending on the functional network and pattern of co-activations displayed at any given moment. PMID:28883803

The 'whole-animal approach' as a heuristic principle in neuroscience research.

PubMed

Serani-Merlo, Alejandro; Paz, Rodrigo; Castillo, Andrés

2005-01-01

Neuroscience embraces a heterogeneous group of disciplines. A conceptual framework that allows a better articulation of these different theoretical and experimental perspectives is needed. A 'whole-animal approach is proposed as a theoretical and hermeneutic tool. To illustrate the potential of this point of view, an overview of the research that has been performed in the extinction of fear-conditioned responses from Pavlov to the present is discussed. This is an example of how a whole-animal-based approach may help to organize and integrate basic and clinical neuroscience research. Our proposal is in agreement with recent statements calling for more integrative approaches in biological and neuropsychiatric research.

Welcome to Molecular Brain

PubMed Central

Mei, Lin; Cho, Kei; Lee, C Justin; Li, Xiao-Jiang; Zhuo, Min; Kaang, Bong-Kiun

2008-01-01

We are delighted to announce the arrival of a brand new journal dedicated to the ever-expanding field of neuroscience. Molecular Brain is a peer-reviewed, open-access online journal that aims at publishing high quality articles as rapidly as possible. The journal will cover a broad spectrum of neuroscience ranging from molecular/cellular to behavioral/cognitive neuroscience and from basic to clinical research. Molecular Brain will publish not only research articles, but also methodology articles, editorials, reviews, and short reports. It will be a premier platform for neuroscientists to exchange their ideas with researchers from around the world to help improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the brain and mind. PMID:18803854

Trends in authorship based on gender and nationality in published neuroscience literature.

PubMed

Dubey, Divyanshu; Sawhney, Anshudha; Atluru, Aparna; Amritphale, Amod; Dubey, Archana; Trivedi, Jaya

2016-01-01

To evaluate the disparity in authorship based on gender and nationality of institutional affiliation among journals from developed and developing countries. Original articles from two neuroscience journals, with a 5 year impact factor >15 (Neuron and Nature Neuroscience) and from two neurology journals from a developing country (Neurology India and Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology) were categorized by gender and institutional affiliation of first and senior authors. Articles were further divided by the type of research (basic/translational/clinical), study/target population (adult/pediatrics/both) and field of neurology. Data was collected for the years 2002 and 2012. There are large disparities in authorship by women and from developing countries in high impact factor neuroscience journals. However, there was a non-statistical rise in female first and senior authorship over a 10 year period. Additionally there was a significant increase in first authorship from institutions based in developing countries in the two neuroscience journals examined (P < 0.05). In the two neurology journals based in India there was a significant increase in the number of articles published by international investigators between 2002 and 2012 (P < 0.05). Over the last decade, there has been a non-statistical increase in proportion of female first and senior authors, and a significant increase in authors from developing countries in high impact factor neuroscience journals. However they continue to constitute a minority. The disparity in authorship based on gender also exists in neurology journals based in a developing country (India).

Why (and how) should we study the interplay between emotional arousal, Theory of Mind, and inhibitory control to understand moral cognition?

PubMed

Buon, Marine; Seara-Cardoso, Ana; Viding, Essi

2016-12-01

Findings in the field of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience have shed new light on our understanding of the psychological and biological bases of morality. Although a lot of attention has been devoted to understanding the processes that underlie complex moral dilemmas, attempts to represent the way in which individuals generate moral judgments when processing basic harmful actions are rare. Here, we will outline a model of morality which proposes that the evaluation of basic harmful actions relies on complex interactions between emotional arousal, Theory of Mind (ToM) capacities, and inhibitory control resources. This model makes clear predictions regarding the cognitive processes underlying the development of and ability to generate moral judgments. We draw on data from developmental and cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and psychopathology research to evaluate the model and propose several conceptual and methodological improvements that are needed to further advance our understanding of moral cognition and its development.

Evaluation of a Lecture Recording System in a Medical Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bacro, Thierry R. H.; Gebregziabher, Mulugeta; Fitzharris, Timothy P.

2010-01-01

Recently, the Medical University of South Carolina adopted a lecture recording system (LRS). A retrospective study of LRS was implemented to document the students' perceptions, pattern of usage, and impact on the students' grades in three basic sciences courses (Cell Biology/Histology, Physiology, and Neurosciences). The number of accesses and…

Aggression, the Prequel: Preventing the Need

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gartrell, Dan

2011-01-01

An authority on neuroscience (the study of the structure and functioning of the brain) and human relationships, Daniel Siegel (2001) begins his classic work, "The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are," with a basic concept: the brain is an open system that physically changes throughout life in response to…

Education Research: Neurology training reassessed

PubMed Central

Maas, Matthew B.; Coleman, Mary; Jozefowicz, Ralph; Engstrom, John

2012-01-01

Objective: To assess the strengths and weaknesses of neurology resident education using survey methodology. Methods: A 27-question survey was sent to all neurology residents completing residency training in the United States in 2011. Results: Of eligible respondents, 49.8% of residents returned the survey. Most residents believed previously instituted duty hour restrictions had a positive impact on resident quality of life without impacting patient care. Most residents rated their faculty and clinical didactics favorably. However, many residents reported suboptimal preparation in basic neuroscience and practice management issues. Most residents (71%) noted that the Residency In-service Training Examination (RITE) assisted in self-study. A minority of residents (14%) reported that the RITE scores were used for reasons other than self-study. The vast majority (86%) of residents will enter fellowship training following residency and were satisfied with the fellowship offers they received. Conclusions: Graduating residents had largely favorable neurology training experiences. Several common deficiencies include education in basic neuroscience and clinical practice management. Importantly, prior changes to duty hours did not negatively affect the resident perception of neurology residency training. PMID:23091077

Education research: neurology training reassessed. The 2011 American Academy of Neurology Resident Survey results.

PubMed

Johnson, Nicholas E; Maas, Matthew B; Coleman, Mary; Jozefowicz, Ralph; Engstrom, John

2012-10-23

To assess the strengths and weaknesses of neurology resident education using survey methodology. A 27-question survey was sent to all neurology residents completing residency training in the United States in 2011. Of eligible respondents, 49.8% of residents returned the survey. Most residents believed previously instituted duty hour restrictions had a positive impact on resident quality of life without impacting patient care. Most residents rated their faculty and clinical didactics favorably. However, many residents reported suboptimal preparation in basic neuroscience and practice management issues. Most residents (71%) noted that the Residency In-service Training Examination (RITE) assisted in self-study. A minority of residents (14%) reported that the RITE scores were used for reasons other than self-study. The vast majority (86%) of residents will enter fellowship training following residency and were satisfied with the fellowship offers they received. Graduating residents had largely favorable neurology training experiences. Several common deficiencies include education in basic neuroscience and clinical practice management. Importantly, prior changes to duty hours did not negatively affect the resident perception of neurology residency training.

Designing Interventions Informed by Scientific Knowledge About Effects of Early Adversity: A Translational Neuroscience Agenda for Next Generation Addictions Research

PubMed Central

Fisher, Philip A.; Berkman, Elliot T.

2015-01-01

In spite of extensive scientific knowledge about the neurobiological systems and neural pathways underlying addictions, only limited progress has been made to reduce the population-level incidence of addictions by using prevention and treatment programs. In this area of research the translation of basic neuroscience of causal mechanisms to effective interventions has not been fully realized. In this article we describe how an understanding of the effects of early adverse experiences on brain and biological development may provide new opportunities to achieve impact at scale with respect to reduction of addictions. We propose four categories of new knowledge that translational neuroscience investigations of addictions should incorporate to be successful. We then describe a translational neuroscience-informed smoking cessation intervention based on this model. PMID:26985399

Joint Estimation of Effective Brain Wave Activation Modes Using EEG/MEG Sensor Arrays and Multimodal MRI Volumes.

PubMed

Galinsky, Vitaly L; Martinez, Antigona; Paulus, Martin P; Frank, Lawrence R

2018-04-13

In this letter, we present a new method for integration of sensor-based multifrequency bands of electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography data sets into a voxel-based structural-temporal magnetic resonance imaging analysis by utilizing the general joint estimation using entropy regularization (JESTER) framework. This allows enhancement of the spatial-temporal localization of brain function and the ability to relate it to morphological features and structural connectivity. This method has broad implications for both basic neuroscience research and clinical neuroscience focused on identifying disease-relevant biomarkers by enhancing the spatial-temporal resolution of the estimates derived from current neuroimaging modalities, thereby providing a better picture of the normal human brain in basic neuroimaging experiments and variations associated with disease states.

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: a spatial model for cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Burgess, Neil

2014-12-17

Understanding how the cognitive functions of the brain arise from its basic physiological components has been an enticing final frontier in science for thousands of years. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 was awarded one half to John O'Keefe, the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain." This prize recognizes both a paradigm shift in the study of cognitive neuroscience, and some of the amazing insights that have followed from it concerning how the world is represented within the brain. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Between Homo Sociologicus and Homo Biologicus: The Reflexive Self in the Age of Social Neuroscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pickel, Andreas

2012-10-01

The social sciences rely on assumptions of a unified self for their explanatory logics. Recent work in the new multidisciplinary field of social neuroscience challenges precisely this unproblematic character of the subjective self as basic, well-defined entity. If disciplinary self-insulation is deemed unacceptable, the philosophical challenge arises of systematically bringing together neurological, psychological, sociological, and anthropological dimensions of analysis in one framework such as dynamic systems theory; and of finding bridging concepts such as memory, social cognition, and cultural scripts that can facilitate the cross disciplinary study of the reflexive self. Relying on the systemic philosophy of science developed by Mario Bunge, this paper takes some steps in this direction.

Highest cited papers published in Neurology India: An analysis for the years 1993-2014.

PubMed

Pandey, Paritosh; Subeikshanan, V; Madhugiri, Venkatesh S

2016-01-01

The highest cited papers published in a journal provide a snapshot of the clinical practice and research in that specialty and/or region. The aim of this study was to determine the highest cited papers published in Neurology India and analyze their attributes. This study was a citation analysis of all papers published in Neurology India since online archiving commenced in 1993. All papers published in Neurology India between the years 1993-2014 were listed. The number of times each paper had been cited up till the time of performing this study was determined by performing a Google Scholar search. Published papers were then ranked on the basis of total times cited since publication and the annual citation rate. Statistical Techniques: Simple counts and percentages were used to report most results. The mean citations received by papers in various categories were compared using the Student's t-test or a one-way analysis of variance, as appropriate. All analyses were carried out on SAS University Edition (SAS/STAT®, SAS Institute Inc, NC, USA) and graphs were generated on MS Excel 2016. The top papers on the total citations and annual citation rate rank lists pertained to basic neuroscience research. The highest cited paper overall had received 139 citations. About a quarter of the papers published had never been cited at all. The major themes represented were vascular diseases and infections. The highest cited papers reflect the diseases that are of major concern in India. Certain domains such as trauma, allied neurosciences, and basic neuroscience research were underrepresented.

China Brain Project: Basic Neuroscience, Brain Diseases, and Brain-Inspired Computing.

PubMed

Poo, Mu-Ming; Du, Jiu-Lin; Ip, Nancy Y; Xiong, Zhi-Qi; Xu, Bo; Tan, Tieniu

2016-11-02

The China Brain Project covers both basic research on neural mechanisms underlying cognition and translational research for the diagnosis and intervention of brain diseases as well as for brain-inspired intelligence technology. We discuss some emerging themes, with emphasis on unique aspects. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Big Science, Team Science, and Open Science for Neuroscience.

PubMed

Koch, Christof; Jones, Allan

2016-11-02

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a non-profit private institution dedicated to basic brain science with an internal organization more commonly found in large physics projects-large teams generating complete, accurate and permanent resources for the mouse and human brain. It can also be viewed as an experiment in the sociology of neuroscience. We here describe some of the singular differences to more academic, PI-focused institutions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Future of Restorative Neurosciences in Stroke: Driving the Translational Research Pipeline From Basic Science to Rehabilitation of People After Stroke

PubMed Central

Cheeran, Binith; Cohen, Leonardo; Dobkin, Bruce; Ford, Gary; Greenwood, Richard; Howard, David; Husain, Masud; Macleod, Malcolm; Nudo, Randolph; Rothwell, John; Rudd, Anthony; Teo, James; Ward, Nicholas; Wolf, Steven

2011-01-01

Background Major advances during the past 50 years highlight the immense potential for restoration of function after neural injury, even in the damaged adult human brain. Yet, the translation of these advances into clinically useful treatments is painstakingly slow. Objective Here, we consider why the traditional model of a “translational research pipeline” that transforms basic science into novel clinical practice has failed to improve rehabilitation practice for people after stroke. Results We find that (1) most treatments trialed in vitro and in animal models have not yet resulted in obviously useful functional gains in patients; (2) most clinical trials of restorative treatments after stroke have been limited to small-scale studies; (3) patient recruitment for larger clinical trials is difficult; (4) the determinants of patient outcomes and what patients want remain complex and ill-defined, so that basic scientists have no clear view of the clinical importance of the problems that they are addressing; (5) research in academic neuroscience centers is poorly integrated with practice in front-line hospitals and the community, where the majority of patients are treated; and (6) partnership with both industry stakeholders and patient pressure groups is poorly developed, at least in the United Kingdom where research in the translational restorative neurosciences in stroke depends on public sector research funds and private charities. Conclusions We argue that interaction between patients, front-line clinicians, and clinical and basic scientists is essential so that they can explore their different priorities, skills, and concerns. These interactions can be facilitated by funding research consortia that include basic and clinical scientists, clinicians and patient/carer representatives with funds targeted at those impairments that are major determinants of patient and carer outcomes. Consortia would be instrumental in developing a lexicon of common methods, standardized outcome measures, data sharing and long-term goals. Interactions of this sort would create a research-friendly, rather than only target-led, culture in front-line stroke rehabilitation services. PMID:19189939

Autism Research: Music Aptitude's Effect on Developmental/Academic Gains for Students with Significant Cognitive/Language Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sobol, Elise S.

2014-01-01

This research study was built upon findings in neuroscience of the brain's natural ability to physically change itself through cognitive modifiability by creating new pathways and neural connections. The purpose of the research was to investigate instructional music applications for improvement in basic math skills with students who are on the…

[Clinical neuropsychology in perspective: future challenges based on current developments].

PubMed

Verdejo-García, Antonio; Tirapu-Ustárroz, Javier

2012-02-01

New lines of translational, interdisciplinary research are emerging among different fields of the neurosciences, which often point at clinical neuropsychology as the hinge discipline capable of linking the basic findings with their clinical implications and thereby endow them with some meaning for phenomenological experience. To establish the great lines of progress made in the fields of neuroscience and neuropsychology in recent years, so as to be able to foresee the strategic lines and priorities of neuroscience in the near future. To achieve this aim, the first step will be to identify the changes of paradigm that have taken place in the areas of neuroscience and psychology in the last two decades. The next step will be to propose new topics and fields of application that these changes in paradigm offer and demand from neuroscience. The false dichotomies of genes versus environment, mind versus brain, and reason versus emotion are considered, as are the new applications of neuropsychology to the understanding of psychopathological disorders, from the neurodegenerative to neurodevelopment, from 'dirty' drugs to cognitive and affective enhancers.

Adapting Social Neuroscience Measures for Schizophrenia Clinical Trials, Part 3: Fathoming External Validity

PubMed Central

Olbert, Charles M.

2013-01-01

It is unknown whether measures adapted from social neuroscience linked to specific neural systems will demonstrate relationships to external variables. Four paradigms adapted from social neuroscience were administered to 173 clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia to determine their relationships to functionally meaningful variables and to investigate their incremental validity beyond standard measures of social and nonsocial cognition. The 4 paradigms included 2 that assess perception of nonverbal social and action cues (basic biological motion and emotion in biological motion) and 2 that involve higher level inferences about self and others’ mental states (self- referential memory and empathic accuracy). Overall, social neuroscience paradigms showed significant relationships to functional capacity but weak relationships to community functioning; the paradigms also showed weak correlations to clinical symptoms. Evidence for incremental validity beyond standard measures of social and nonsocial cognition was mixed with additional predictive power shown for functional capacity but not community functioning. Of the newly adapted paradigms, the empathic accuracy task had the broadest external validity. These results underscore the difficulty of translating developments from neuroscience into clinically useful tasks with functional significance. PMID:24072806

Adapting social neuroscience measures for schizophrenia clinical trials, part 3: fathoming external validity.

PubMed

Olbert, Charles M; Penn, David L; Kern, Robert S; Lee, Junghee; Horan, William P; Reise, Steven P; Ochsner, Kevin N; Marder, Stephen R; Green, Michael F

2013-11-01

It is unknown whether measures adapted from social neuroscience linked to specific neural systems will demonstrate relationships to external variables. Four paradigms adapted from social neuroscience were administered to 173 clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia to determine their relationships to functionally meaningful variables and to investigate their incremental validity beyond standard measures of social and nonsocial cognition. The 4 paradigms included 2 that assess perception of nonverbal social and action cues (basic biological motion and emotion in biological motion) and 2 that involve higher level inferences about self and others' mental states (self-referential memory and empathic accuracy). Overall, social neuroscience paradigms showed significant relationships to functional capacity but weak relationships to community functioning; the paradigms also showed weak correlations to clinical symptoms. Evidence for incremental validity beyond standard measures of social and nonsocial cognition was mixed with additional predictive power shown for functional capacity but not community functioning. Of the newly adapted paradigms, the empathic accuracy task had the broadest external validity. These results underscore the difficulty of translating developments from neuroscience into clinically useful tasks with functional significance.

John Hughlings Jackson and the conceptual foundations of the neurosciences.

PubMed

Greenblatt, S H

1999-01-01

Cerebral localization, including hierarchical organization of the nervous system, was the critical conceptual advance that made possible the development of modern neuroscience in the nineteenth century. Some of our most basic ideas about neural organization were contributed by Hughlings Jackson. In the early twentieth century, Charles Sherrington combined localization with the neurone theory to create the paradigm of neurophysiological integration. Because Sherrington was educated in the Jacksonian tradition of British neurology, Sherringtonian integration contains ideas that are derived from Jackson and from Herbert Spencer.

Catastrophic childhood epilepsy: a recent convergence of basic and clinical neuroscience.

PubMed

Katsnelson, Alla; Buzsáki, Gyorgy; Swann, John W

2014-11-12

Advances in understanding the genetics and underlying pathology of the catastrophic childhood epilepsies are pointing toward treatments. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Neuroscience discipline science plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

Over the past two decades, NASA's efforts in the neurosciences have developed into a program of research directed at understanding the acute changes that occur in the neurovestibular and sensorimotor systems during short-duration space missions. However, the proposed extended-duration flights of up to 28 days on the Shuttle orbiter and 6 months on Space Station Freedom, a lunar outpost, and Mars missions of perhaps 1-3 years in space, make it imperative that NASA's Life Sciences Division begin to concentrate research in the neurosciences on the chronic effects of exposure to microgravity on the nervous system. Major areas of research will be directed at understanding (1) central processing, (2) motor systems, (3) cognitive/spatial orientation, and (4) sensory receptors. The purpose of the Discipline Science Plan is to provide a conceptual strategy for NASA's Life Sciences Division research and development activities in the comprehensive area of neurosciences. It covers the significant research areas critical to NASA's programmatic requirements for the Extended-Duration Orbiter, Space Station Freedom, and exploration mission science activities. These science activities include ground-based and flight; basic, applied, and operational; and animal and human research and development. This document summarizes the current status of the program, outlines available knowledge, establishes goals and objectives, identifies science priorities, and defines critical questions in the subdiscipline areas of nervous system function. It contains a general plan that will be used by NASA Headquarters Program Offices and the field centers to review and plan basic, applied, and operational intramural and extramural research and development activities in this area.

Using Case Studies to Promote Student Engagement in Primary Literature Data Analysis and Evaluation

PubMed Central

Cook-Snyder, Denise R.

2017-01-01

Analyzing and evaluating primary literature data is a common learning objective in undergraduate neuroscience courses. However, students with more clinically focused career goals often dismiss the relevance of evaluating basic neuroscience literature. Here, we describe using case studies to promote student engagement in primary literature in a cellular and molecular neuroscience course. Two example literature-based case studies are provided: Untwisting Pretzel Syndrome, a neurodevelopment case exploring synapse formation in a pretzel syndrome patient, and The Trials of ALS, a neurodegeneration case exploring axon degeneration and repair in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient. These cases were assigned after neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration lectures covering key concepts. Both cases begin by introducing the patient and hypothesizing symptoms and diagnoses, followed by scenes incorporating primary data to illustrate disease pathogenesis and treatments. Students complete questions embedded in these cases as homework, and class time is used to discuss their answers. Discussion emphasizes that there can be multiple “correct” answers, and the best answers are accurate and well-supported. Accordingly, students edit their answers in class, and these annotations are factored into a pass/fail grade on the case. Additional scenes and questions from the same case studies are used on the course’s take-home exams, thereby allowing students to practice primary data analysis and evaluation before a graded assignment. Student evaluations support literature-based case studies as an effective learning tool, with students identifying cases as the most valuable aspect of the course, and reporting increased confidence in understanding cellular and molecular neuroscience. PMID:29371850

Using Case Studies to Promote Student Engagement in Primary Literature Data Analysis and Evaluation.

PubMed

Cook-Snyder, Denise R

2017-01-01

Analyzing and evaluating primary literature data is a common learning objective in undergraduate neuroscience courses. However, students with more clinically focused career goals often dismiss the relevance of evaluating basic neuroscience literature. Here, we describe using case studies to promote student engagement in primary literature in a cellular and molecular neuroscience course. Two example literature-based case studies are provided: Untwisting Pretzel Syndrome, a neurodevelopment case exploring synapse formation in a pretzel syndrome patient, and The Trials of ALS, a neurodegeneration case exploring axon degeneration and repair in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient. These cases were assigned after neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration lectures covering key concepts. Both cases begin by introducing the patient and hypothesizing symptoms and diagnoses, followed by scenes incorporating primary data to illustrate disease pathogenesis and treatments. Students complete questions embedded in these cases as homework, and class time is used to discuss their answers. Discussion emphasizes that there can be multiple "correct" answers, and the best answers are accurate and well-supported. Accordingly, students edit their answers in class, and these annotations are factored into a pass/fail grade on the case. Additional scenes and questions from the same case studies are used on the course's take-home exams, thereby allowing students to practice primary data analysis and evaluation before a graded assignment. Student evaluations support literature-based case studies as an effective learning tool, with students identifying cases as the most valuable aspect of the course, and reporting increased confidence in understanding cellular and molecular neuroscience.

Similarities and Differences in Psychology.

PubMed

Chen, Yu; Sun, Yan; Ai, Si-Zhi; Li, Jason J; Lu, Lin; Shi, Jie

2017-01-01

Addiction is marked by repeating a certain behavior while ignoring the potential physical or mental consequences. Non-substance addiction provides an ideal model for researching the emergence and development of addiction's basic mechanism. Comparative studies of substance and non-substance addiction are helpful to reveal the common basis of addiction development. This article explores this topic from a psychological angle, touching upon sensation seeking, inhibitory control, attentional bias, intertemporal choice and environment. A review of previous literature urges future research to propose a biopsychosocial model of addiction and consider addiction's effect on basic cognitive function alongside cognitive neuroscience technology.

Genome Engineering with TALE and CRISPR Systems in Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Lee, Han B.; Sundberg, Brynn N.; Sigafoos, Ashley N.; Clark, Karl J.

2016-01-01

Recent advancement in genome engineering technology is changing the landscape of biological research and providing neuroscientists with an opportunity to develop new methodologies to ask critical research questions. This advancement is highlighted by the increased use of programmable DNA-binding agents (PDBAs) such as transcription activator-like effector (TALE) and RNA-guided clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated (Cas) systems. These PDBAs fused or co-expressed with various effector domains allow precise modification of genomic sequences and gene expression levels. These technologies mirror and extend beyond classic gene targeting methods contributing to the development of novel tools for basic and clinical neuroscience. In this Review, we discuss the recent development in genome engineering and potential applications of this technology in the field of neuroscience. PMID:27092173

Genome Engineering with TALE and CRISPR Systems in Neuroscience.

PubMed

Lee, Han B; Sundberg, Brynn N; Sigafoos, Ashley N; Clark, Karl J

2016-01-01

Recent advancement in genome engineering technology is changing the landscape of biological research and providing neuroscientists with an opportunity to develop new methodologies to ask critical research questions. This advancement is highlighted by the increased use of programmable DNA-binding agents (PDBAs) such as transcription activator-like effector (TALE) and RNA-guided clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated (Cas) systems. These PDBAs fused or co-expressed with various effector domains allow precise modification of genomic sequences and gene expression levels. These technologies mirror and extend beyond classic gene targeting methods contributing to the development of novel tools for basic and clinical neuroscience. In this Review, we discuss the recent development in genome engineering and potential applications of this technology in the field of neuroscience.

A competency-based longitudinal core curriculum in medical neuroscience.

PubMed

Merlin, Lisa R; Horak, Holli A; Milligan, Tracey A; Kraakevik, Jeff A; Ali, Imran I

2014-07-29

Current medical educational theory encourages the development of competency-based curricula. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's 6 core competencies for resident education (medical knowledge, patient care, professionalism, interpersonal and communication skills, practice-based learning, and systems-based practice) have been embraced by medical schools as the building blocks necessary for becoming a competent licensed physician. Many medical schools are therefore changing their educational approach to an integrated model in which students demonstrate incremental acquisition and mastery of all competencies as they progress through medical school. Challenges to medical schools include integration of preclinical and clinical studies as well as development of learning objectives and assessment measures for each competency. The Undergraduate Education Subcommittee (UES) of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) assembled a group of neuroscience educators to outline a longitudinal competency-based curriculum in medical neuroscience encompassing both preclinical and clinical coursework. In development of this curriculum, the committee reviewed United States Medical Licensing Examination content outlines, Liaison Committee on Medical Education requirements, prior AAN-mandated core curricula for basic neuroscience and clinical neurology, and survey responses from educators in US medical schools. The newly recommended curriculum provides an outline of learning objectives for each of the 6 competencies, listing each learning objective in active terms. Documentation of experiences is emphasized, and assessment measures are suggested to demonstrate adequate achievement in each competency. These guidelines, widely vetted and approved by the UES membership, aspire to be both useful as a stand-alone curriculum and also provide a framework for neuroscience educators who wish to develop a more detailed focus in certain areas of study. © 2014 American Academy of Neurology.

Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy in Neuroscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulte, Albert; Nebel, Michaela; Schuhmann, Wolfgang

2010-07-01

This article reviews recent work involving the application of scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) to the study of individual cultured living cells, with an emphasis on topographical and functional imaging of neuronal and secretory cells of the nervous and endocrine system. The basic principles of biological SECM and associated negative amperometric-feedback and generator/collector-mode SECM imaging are discussed, and successful use of the methodology for screening soft and fragile membranous objects is outlined. The drawbacks of the constant-height mode of probe movement and the benefits of the constant-distance mode of SECM operation are described. Finally, representative examples of constant-height and constant-distance mode SECM on a variety of live cells are highlighted to demonstrate the current status of single-cell SECM in general and of SECM in neuroscience in particular.

Back to the Basics: Cnidarians Start to Fire

PubMed Central

Bosch, Thomas C. G.; Klimovich, Alexander; Domazet-Lošo, Tomislav; Gründer, Stefan; Holstein, Thomas W.; Jékely, Gáspár; Miller, David J.; Murillo-Rincon, Andrea P.; Rentzsch, Fabian; Richards, Gemma S.; Schröder, Katja; Technau, Ulrich; Yuste, Rafael

2016-01-01

The nervous systems of cnidarians, pre-bilaterian animals that diverged close to the base of the metazoan radiation, are structurally simple and thus have great potential to inform us about basic structural and functional principles of neural circuits. Unfortunately, cnidarians have thus far been relatively intractable to electrophysiological and genetic techniques and consequently have been largely passed over by neurobiologists. However, recent advances in molecular and imaging methods are fueling a renaissance of interest in and research into cnidarians nervous systems. Here, we review current knowledge on the nervous systems of some cnidarian species and propose that researchers should seize this opportunity and undertake the study of this phylum as strategic experimental systems with great basic and translational relevance for neuroscience. PMID:28041633

The psychology and neuroscience of curiosity

PubMed Central

Kidd, Celeste; Hayden, Benjamin Y.

2015-01-01

SUMMARY Curiosity is a basic element of our cognition, yet its biological function, mechanisms, and neural underpinning remain poorly understood. It is nonetheless a motivator for learning, influential in decision-making, and crucial for healthy development. One factor limiting our understanding of it is the lack of a widely agreed upon delineation of what is and is not curiosity; another factor is the dearth of standardized laboratory tasks that manipulate curiosity in the lab. Despite these barriers, recent years have seen a major growth of interest in both the neuroscience and psychology of curiosity. In this Perspective, we advocate for the importance of the field, provide a selective overview of its current state, and describe tasks that are used to study curiosity and information-seeking. We propose that, rather than worry about defining curiosity, it is more helpful to consider the motivations for information-seeking behavior and to study it in its ethological context. PMID:26539887

The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity.

PubMed

Kidd, Celeste; Hayden, Benjamin Y

2015-11-04

Curiosity is a basic element of our cognition, but its biological function, mechanisms, and neural underpinning remain poorly understood. It is nonetheless a motivator for learning, influential in decision-making, and crucial for healthy development. One factor limiting our understanding of it is the lack of a widely agreed upon delineation of what is and is not curiosity. Another factor is the dearth of standardized laboratory tasks that manipulate curiosity in the lab. Despite these barriers, recent years have seen a major growth of interest in both the neuroscience and psychology of curiosity. In this Perspective, we advocate for the importance of the field, provide a selective overview of its current state, and describe tasks that are used to study curiosity and information-seeking. We propose that, rather than worry about defining curiosity, it is more helpful to consider the motivations for information-seeking behavior and to study it in its ethological context. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Translating birdsong: songbirds as a model for basic and applied medical research.

PubMed

Brainard, Michael S; Doupe, Allison J

2013-07-08

Songbirds, long of interest to basic neuroscience, have great potential as a model system for translational neuroscience. Songbirds learn their complex vocal behavior in a manner that exemplifies general processes of perceptual and motor skill learning and, more specifically, resembles human speech learning. Song is subserved by circuitry that is specialized for vocal learning and production but that has strong similarities to mammalian brain pathways. The combination of highly quantifiable behavior and discrete neural substrates facilitates understanding links between brain and behavior, both in normal states and in disease. Here we highlight (a) behavioral and mechanistic parallels between birdsong and aspects of speech and social communication, including insights into mirror neurons, the function of auditory feedback, and genes underlying social communication disorders, and (b) contributions of songbirds to understanding cortical-basal ganglia circuit function and dysfunction, including the possibility of harnessing adult neurogenesis for brain repair.

Identifying Cognitive Mechanisms Targeted for Treatment Development in Schizophrenia: An Overview of the First Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (CNTRICS) Initiative

PubMed Central

Carter, Cameron S.; Barch, Deanna M.; Buchanan, Robert W.; Bullmore, Ed; Krystal, John H.; Cohen, Jonathan; Geyer, Mark; Green, Michael; Nuechterlein, Keith H.; Robbins, Trevor; Silverstein, Steven; Smith, Edward E.; Strauss, Milton; Wykes, Til; Heinssen, Robert

2008-01-01

This overview describes the generation and development of the ideas that led to the Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (CNTRICS) initiative. It also describes the organization, process and products of the first meeting. The CNTRICS initiative involves a series of three conferences that will systematically address barriers to translating paradigms developed in the basic animal and human cognitive neuroscience fields for use in translational research aimed at developing novel treatments for cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. The articles in this special section report on the results of the first conference, which used a criterion based consensus-building process to develop a set of cognitive constructs to be targeted for translation efforts. PMID:18466880

Interview: interview with P Jeffrey Conn. Interview by Hannah Coaker.

PubMed

Conn, P Jeffrey

2013-09-01

Dr Conn is the Lee E Limbird Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (VCNDD). Dr Conn received a PhD in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt in 1986 and pursued postdoctoral studies at Yale University. He served as a professor of Pharmacology at Emory University from 1988 to 2000, before moving to Merck and Co. (PA, USA) as head of the Department of Neuroscience. Dr Conn moved to Vanderbilt University in 2003 where he is the founding director of the VCNDD, with a primary mission of facilitating translation of recent advances in basic science to novel therapeutics. The VCNDD consists of approximately 100 full-time scientists and has advanced novel molecules from four major programs as development candidates for clinical testing with industry partners. Dr Conn has served in editorial positions with multiple international journals and has served the scientific advisory boards of multiple foundations and companies. He has received numerous awards based on the impact of his basic and translational research. Dr Conn's current research is focused on development of novel treatment strategies for schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and other serious brain disorders. Interview conducted by Hannah Coaker, Assistant Commissioning Editor.

Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal.

PubMed

Jack, Rachael E; Garrod, Oliver G B; Yu, Hui; Caldara, Roberto; Schyns, Philippe G

2012-05-08

Since Darwin's seminal works, the universality of facial expressions of emotion has remained one of the longest standing debates in the biological and social sciences. Briefly stated, the universality hypothesis claims that all humans communicate six basic internal emotional states (happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) using the same facial movements by virtue of their biological and evolutionary origins [Susskind JM, et al. (2008) Nat Neurosci 11:843-850]. Here, we refute this assumed universality. Using a unique computer graphics platform that combines generative grammars [Chomsky N (1965) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA] with visual perception, we accessed the mind's eye of 30 Western and Eastern culture individuals and reconstructed their mental representations of the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Cross-cultural comparisons of the mental representations challenge universality on two separate counts. First, whereas Westerners represent each of the six basic emotions with a distinct set of facial movements common to the group, Easterners do not. Second, Easterners represent emotional intensity with distinctive dynamic eye activity. By refuting the long-standing universality hypothesis, our data highlight the powerful influence of culture on shaping basic behaviors once considered biologically hardwired. Consequently, our data open a unique nature-nurture debate across broad fields from evolutionary psychology and social neuroscience to social networking via digital avatars.

Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal

PubMed Central

Jack, Rachael E.; Garrod, Oliver G. B.; Yu, Hui; Caldara, Roberto; Schyns, Philippe G.

2012-01-01

Since Darwin’s seminal works, the universality of facial expressions of emotion has remained one of the longest standing debates in the biological and social sciences. Briefly stated, the universality hypothesis claims that all humans communicate six basic internal emotional states (happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) using the same facial movements by virtue of their biological and evolutionary origins [Susskind JM, et al. (2008) Nat Neurosci 11:843–850]. Here, we refute this assumed universality. Using a unique computer graphics platform that combines generative grammars [Chomsky N (1965) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA] with visual perception, we accessed the mind’s eye of 30 Western and Eastern culture individuals and reconstructed their mental representations of the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Cross-cultural comparisons of the mental representations challenge universality on two separate counts. First, whereas Westerners represent each of the six basic emotions with a distinct set of facial movements common to the group, Easterners do not. Second, Easterners represent emotional intensity with distinctive dynamic eye activity. By refuting the long-standing universality hypothesis, our data highlight the powerful influence of culture on shaping basic behaviors once considered biologically hardwired. Consequently, our data open a unique nature–nurture debate across broad fields from evolutionary psychology and social neuroscience to social networking via digital avatars. PMID:22509011

Computational neuropharmacology: dynamical approaches in drug discovery.

PubMed

Aradi, Ildiko; Erdi, Péter

2006-05-01

Computational approaches that adopt dynamical models are widely accepted in basic and clinical neuroscience research as indispensable tools with which to understand normal and pathological neuronal mechanisms. Although computer-aided techniques have been used in pharmaceutical research (e.g. in structure- and ligand-based drug design), the power of dynamical models has not yet been exploited in drug discovery. We suggest that dynamical system theory and computational neuroscience--integrated with well-established, conventional molecular and electrophysiological methods--offer a broad perspective in drug discovery and in the search for novel targets and strategies for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases.

Revolutionary Impact of Nanodrug Delivery on Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Khanbabaie, Reza; Jahanshahi, Mohsen

2012-01-01

Brain research is the most expanding interdisciplinary research that is using the state of the art techniques to overcome limitations in order to conduct more accurate and effective experiments. Drug delivery to the target site in the central nervous system (CNS) is one of the most difficult steps in neuroscience researches and therapies. Taking advantage of the nanoscale structure of neural cells (both neurons and glia); nanodrug delivery (second generation of biotechnological products) has a potential revolutionary impact into the basic understanding, visualization and therapeutic applications of neuroscience. Current review article firstly provides an overview of preparation and characterization, purification and separation, loading and delivering of nanodrugs. Different types of nanoparticle bioproducts and a number of methods for their fabrication and delivery systems including (carbon) nanotubes are explained. In the second part, neuroscience and nervous system drugs are deeply investigated. Different mechanisms in which nanoparticles enhance the uptake and clearance of molecules form cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are discussed. The focus is on nanodrugs that are being used or have potential to improve neural researches, diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative disorders. PMID:23730260

Building a functional multiple intelligences theory to advance educational neuroscience.

PubMed

Cerruti, Carlo

2013-01-01

A key goal of educational neuroscience is to conduct constrained experimental research that is theory-driven and yet also clearly related to educators' complex set of questions and concerns. However, the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience use different levels of description to characterize human ability. An important advance in research in educational neuroscience would be the identification of a cognitive and neurocognitive framework at a level of description relatively intuitive to educators. I argue that the theory of multiple intelligences (MI; Gardner, 1983), a conception of the mind that motivated a past generation of teachers, may provide such an opportunity. I criticize MI for doing little to clarify for teachers a core misunderstanding, specifically that MI was only an anatomical map of the mind but not a functional theory that detailed how the mind actually processes information. In an attempt to build a "functional MI" theory, I integrate into MI basic principles of cognitive and neural functioning, namely interregional neural facilitation and inhibition. In so doing I hope to forge a path toward constrained experimental research that bears upon teachers' concerns about teaching and learning.

Neurotree: a collaborative, graphical database of the academic genealogy of neuroscience.

PubMed

David, Stephen V; Hayden, Benjamin Y

2012-01-01

Neurotree is an online database that documents the lineage of academic mentorship in neuroscience. Modeled on the tree format typically used to describe biological genealogies, the Neurotree web site provides a concise summary of the intellectual history of neuroscience and relationships between individuals in the current neuroscience community. The contents of the database are entirely crowd-sourced: any internet user can add information about researchers and the connections between them. As of July 2012, Neurotree has collected information from 10,000 users about 35,000 researchers and 50,000 mentor relationships, and continues to grow. The present report serves to highlight the utility of Neurotree as a resource for academic research and to summarize some basic analysis of its data. The tree structure of the database permits a variety of graphical analyses. We find that the connectivity and graphical distance between researchers entered into Neurotree early has stabilized and thus appears to be mostly complete. The connectivity of more recent entries continues to mature. A ranking of researcher fecundity based on their mentorship reveals a sustained period of influential researchers from 1850-1950, with the most influential individuals active at the later end of that period. Finally, a clustering analysis reveals that some subfields of neuroscience are reflected in tightly interconnected mentor-trainee groups.

Neurotree: A Collaborative, Graphical Database of the Academic Genealogy of Neuroscience

PubMed Central

David, Stephen V.; Hayden, Benjamin Y.

2012-01-01

Neurotree is an online database that documents the lineage of academic mentorship in neuroscience. Modeled on the tree format typically used to describe biological genealogies, the Neurotree web site provides a concise summary of the intellectual history of neuroscience and relationships between individuals in the current neuroscience community. The contents of the database are entirely crowd-sourced: any internet user can add information about researchers and the connections between them. As of July 2012, Neurotree has collected information from 10,000 users about 35,000 researchers and 50,000 mentor relationships, and continues to grow. The present report serves to highlight the utility of Neurotree as a resource for academic research and to summarize some basic analysis of its data. The tree structure of the database permits a variety of graphical analyses. We find that the connectivity and graphical distance between researchers entered into Neurotree early has stabilized and thus appears to be mostly complete. The connectivity of more recent entries continues to mature. A ranking of researcher fecundity based on their mentorship reveals a sustained period of influential researchers from 1850–1950, with the most influential individuals active at the later end of that period. Finally, a clustering analysis reveals that some subfields of neuroscience are reflected in tightly interconnected mentor-trainee groups. PMID:23071595

Neuroscience in the residency curriculum: the psychoanalytic psychotherapy perspective.

PubMed

Watson, Brendon O; Michels, Robert

2014-04-01

Educators of future psychiatrists tend to teach an array of approaches to the mind and brain, including among them the neurobiologic perspective and the psychoanalytic perspective. These may be considered at opposite ends of many spectra, including the fact that psychoanalysis takes a large-scale and treatment-oriented perspective and has helped countless patients over the years, while neuroscience has tended to be reductionistic, focused on understanding, and has helped very few people. A tension, therefore, exists for the educator in teaching neuroscience: is it wise to spend valuable time and energy teaching this interesting but, thus far, impractical field to future practitioners? Here, we argue that neuroscience is re-orienting itself towards more psychoanalytically relevant questions and is likely, in future years, to give new insights into the nature of basic drives and social relations. We additionally argue for balance on the part of providers in both acknowledging biologic underpinnings for clinical phenomena and yet continuing to take a stance oriented towards appropriate change. Given the burgeoning new focus within neuroscience on topics directly relating to the human internal experience and the novel challenges in both understanding those advances and appropriately using them, we encourage educators to continue to give future psychiatrists the educational foundation they need to follow neuroscientific discoveries into the future.

S & T for National Security

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-05-01

basic-science surprises, and informed observers of neuroscience believe that remarkable developments will occur in that field during the next few...programs in the three military departments and all of the defense agencies, including DNA, ARPA, and NSA . Additional de jure responsibilities included

Neuroart: picturing the neuroscience of intentional actions in art and science.

PubMed

Siler, Todd

2015-01-01

Intentional actions cover a broad spectrum of human behaviors involving consciousness, creativity, innovative thinking, problem-solving, critical thinking, and other related cognitive processes self-evident in the arts and sciences. The author discusses the brain activity associated with action intentions, connecting this activity with the creative process. Focusing on one seminal artwork created and exhibited over a period of three decades, Thought Assemblies (1979-82, 2014), he describes how this symbolic art interprets the neuropsychological processes of intuition and analytical reasoning. It explores numerous basic questions concerning observed interactions between artistic and scientific inquiries, conceptions, perceptions, and representations connecting mind and nature. Pointing to some key neural mechanisms responsible for forming and implementing intentions, he considers why and how we create, discover, invent, and innovate. He suggests ways of metaphorical thinking and symbolic modeling that can help integrate the neuroscience of intentional actions with the neuroscience of creativity, art and neuroaesthetics.

Neuroart: picturing the neuroscience of intentional actions in art and science

PubMed Central

Siler, Todd

2015-01-01

Intentional actions cover a broad spectrum of human behaviors involving consciousness, creativity, innovative thinking, problem-solving, critical thinking, and other related cognitive processes self-evident in the arts and sciences. The author discusses the brain activity associated with action intentions, connecting this activity with the creative process. Focusing on one seminal artwork created and exhibited over a period of three decades, Thought Assemblies (1979–82, 2014), he describes how this symbolic art interprets the neuropsychological processes of intuition and analytical reasoning. It explores numerous basic questions concerning observed interactions between artistic and scientific inquiries, conceptions, perceptions, and representations connecting mind and nature. Pointing to some key neural mechanisms responsible for forming and implementing intentions, he considers why and how we create, discover, invent, and innovate. He suggests ways of metaphorical thinking and symbolic modeling that can help integrate the neuroscience of intentional actions with the neuroscience of creativity, art and neuroaesthetics. PMID:26257629

Editorial.

PubMed

Al-Deeb, Saleh M; Khan, Sonia

2009-01-01

Neurosciences continues to be the leading journal for Neurosciences in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. In January 2007, Neurosciences was indexed by Thomson ISI in Science Citation Index Expanded online at ISI Web of KnowledgeSM and Neurosciences Citation Index. Since then a significantly increased volume of scientific articles continues to be submitted to the journal by enthusiastic authors, a fact that enriches the scientific contents of the journal. In 2008, we had a total number of website hits of 495,625 with a monthly average of 41,000. We received a total of 155 manuscripts, with a monthly average of 13 and an average rejection rate of 29%. From these, we published a total of 100 articles, totaling 523 pages for the entire volume. Forty-nine percent of these were original articles. Fifty-eight percent of published articles were from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), with 30% from KSA, 5% from the Gulf, and 23% from other Arab and EMR countries. The remaining 42% of published articles we received from Canada, India, Japan, Malaysia, and Turkey. The average time from received to acceptance of original articles was 4 months and 4.9 months for acceptance to publication. Reasons for rejection included unrelated topics, poor contents, or duplicate publication. In addition to our 4 regular issues in 2008, we published a supplement of abstracts presented at the 16th Saudi Neuroscience Symposium. We would like to thank the Editorial and Advisory Board Members for their significant contribution to maintain the standards of Neuroscience and looking forward to their important continued role in achieving our goals for 2009. In 2009, we aim to increase the number of issues to meet the increased load of manuscripts. Our objective is to enrich the scientific Neuroscience material presented by the journal with important topic reviews and regular neuroscience quizzes to achieve PubMed indexing. We will continue to promote our new web-based manuscript submission interface; strive to reduce the time from received to acceptance and acceptance to publication to no more than 3 to 4 months each; attend regional conferences, and participate in academic activities to encourage submission of high quality articles; encourage editorial board members to solicit potential authors from conferences; and commission our best reviewers to write good articles and encourage editorial board members to contribute material for a regular editorial feature on topical issues. We would also like to introduce a number of new features, such as highlights from international neuroscience meetings, regular basic neuroscience review articles, and 5 MCQs on basic/clinical neuroscience in each issue. These features will greatly enhance the journal and make it more attractive to trainees and board residents. However, their success will rely heavily on the contributions that we receive. The strict check for duplicate publication and plagiarism will continue, and if detected appropriate action will be taken in accordance with international guidelines. A small number of articles were rejected last year due to extensive plagiarism and duplicate publication. We hope all our readers benefitted from the introduction of the Arabic abstracts, and enjoyed the new look and the feel of the journal. We extend our sincerest thanks to our authors, readers, reviewers, and board members, and wish all a successful year.

Adapting Social Neuroscience Measures for Schizophrenia Clinical Trials, Part 2: Trolling the Depths of Psychometric Properties

PubMed Central

Kern, Robert S.

2013-01-01

The psychometric properties of 4 paradigms adapted from the social neuroscience literature were evaluated to determine their suitability for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. This 2-site study (University of California, Los Angeles and University of North Carolina) included 173 clinically stable schizophrenia outpatients and 88 healthy controls. The social cognition battery was administered twice to the schizophrenia group (baseline, 4-week retest) and once to the control group. The 4 paradigms included 2 that assess perception of nonverbal social and action cues (basic biological motion and emotion in biological motion) and 2 that involve higher level inferences about self and others’ mental states (self-referential memory and empathic accuracy). Each paradigm was evaluated on (1) patient vs healthy control group differences, (2) test-retest reliability, (3) utility as a repeated measure, and (4) tolerability. Of the 4 paradigms, empathic accuracy demonstrated the strongest characteristics, including large between-group differences, adequate test-retest reliability (.72), negligible practice effects, and good tolerability ratings. The other paradigms showed weaker psychometric characteristics in their current forms. These findings highlight challenges in adapting social neuroscience paradigms for use in clinical trials. PMID:24072805

Are We Ready for Real-world Neuroscience?

PubMed

Matusz, Pawel J; Dikker, Suzanne; Huth, Alexander G; Perrodin, Catherine

2018-06-19

Real-world environments are typically dynamic, complex, and multisensory in nature and require the support of top-down attention and memory mechanisms for us to be able to drive a car, make a shopping list, or pour a cup of coffee. Fundamental principles of perception and functional brain organization have been established by research utilizing well-controlled but simplified paradigms with basic stimuli. The last 30 years ushered a revolution in computational power, brain mapping, and signal processing techniques. Drawing on those theoretical and methodological advances, over the years, research has departed more and more from traditional, rigorous, and well-understood paradigms to directly investigate cognitive functions and their underlying brain mechanisms in real-world environments. These investigations typically address the role of one or, more recently, multiple attributes of real-world environments. Fundamental assumptions about perception, attention, or brain functional organization have been challenged-by studies adapting the traditional paradigms to emulate, for example, the multisensory nature or varying relevance of stimulation or dynamically changing task demands. Here, we present the state of the field within the emerging heterogeneous domain of real-world neuroscience. To be precise, the aim of this Special Focus is to bring together a variety of the emerging "real-world neuroscientific" approaches. These approaches differ in their principal aims, assumptions, or even definitions of "real-world neuroscience" research. Here, we showcase the commonalities and distinctive features of the different "real-world neuroscience" approaches. To do so, four early-career researchers and the speakers of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2017 Meeting symposium under the same title answer questions pertaining to the added value of such approaches in bringing us closer to accurate models of functional brain organization and cognitive functions.

Positron Emission Tomography: Human Brain Function and Biochemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phelps, Michael E.; Mazziotta, John C.

1985-01-01

Describes the method, present status, and application of positron emission tomography (PET), an analytical imaging technique for "in vivo" measurements of the anatomical distribution and rates of specific biochemical reactions. Measurements and image dynamic biochemistry link basic and clinical neurosciences with clinical findings…

“C.R.E.A.T.E.”-ing Unique Primary-Source Research Paper Assignments for a Pleasure and Pain Course Teaching Neuroscientific Principles in a Large General Education Undergraduate Course

PubMed Central

Bodnar, Richard J.; Rotella, Francis M.; Loiacono, Ilyssa; Coke, Tricia; Olsson, Kerstin; Barrientos, Alicia; Blachorsky, Lauren; Warshaw, Deena; Buras, Agata; Sanchez, Ciara M.; Azad, Raihana; Stellar, James R.

2016-01-01

A large (250 registrants) General Education lecture course, Pleasure and Pain, presented basic neuroscience principles as they related to animal and human models of pleasure and pain by weaving basic findings related to food and drug addiction and analgesic states with human studies examining empathy, social neuroscience and neuroeconomics. In its first four years, the course grade was based on weighted scores from two multiple-choice exams and a five-page review of three unique peer-reviewed research articles. Although well-registered and well-received, 18% of the students received Incomplete grades, primarily due to failing to submit the paper that went largely unresolved and eventually resulted in a failing grade. To rectify this issue, a modified version of the C.R.E.A.T.E. (Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze and interpret data, Think of the next Experiment) method replaced the paper with eight structured assignments focusing on an initial general-topic article, the introduction-methods, and results-discussion of each of three related peer-review neuroscience-related articles, and a final summary. Compliance in completing these assignments was very high, resulting in only 11 INC grades out of 228 students. Thus, use of the C.R.E.A.T.E. method reduced the percentage of problematic INC grades from 18% to 4.8%, a 73% decline, without changing the overall grade distribution. Other analyses suggested the students achieved a deeper understanding of the scientific process using the C.R.E.A.T.E. method relative to the original term paper assignment. PMID:27385918

"C.R.E.A.T.E."-ing Unique Primary-Source Research Paper Assignments for a Pleasure and Pain Course Teaching Neuroscientific Principles in a Large General Education Undergraduate Course.

PubMed

Bodnar, Richard J; Rotella, Francis M; Loiacono, Ilyssa; Coke, Tricia; Olsson, Kerstin; Barrientos, Alicia; Blachorsky, Lauren; Warshaw, Deena; Buras, Agata; Sanchez, Ciara M; Azad, Raihana; Stellar, James R

2016-01-01

A large (250 registrants) General Education lecture course, Pleasure and Pain, presented basic neuroscience principles as they related to animal and human models of pleasure and pain by weaving basic findings related to food and drug addiction and analgesic states with human studies examining empathy, social neuroscience and neuroeconomics. In its first four years, the course grade was based on weighted scores from two multiple-choice exams and a five-page review of three unique peer-reviewed research articles. Although well-registered and well-received, 18% of the students received Incomplete grades, primarily due to failing to submit the paper that went largely unresolved and eventually resulted in a failing grade. To rectify this issue, a modified version of the C.R.E.A.T.E. (Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze and interpret data, Think of the next Experiment) method replaced the paper with eight structured assignments focusing on an initial general-topic article, the introduction-methods, and results-discussion of each of three related peer-review neuroscience-related articles, and a final summary. Compliance in completing these assignments was very high, resulting in only 11 INC grades out of 228 students. Thus, use of the C.R.E.A.T.E. method reduced the percentage of problematic INC grades from 18% to 4.8%, a 73% decline, without changing the overall grade distribution. Other analyses suggested the students achieved a deeper understanding of the scientific process using the C.R.E.A.T.E. method relative to the original term paper assignment.

Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: A neurophysicalmodel of the mind/brain interaction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwartz, Jeffrey M.; Stapp, Henry P.; Beauregard, Mario

Neuropsychological research on the neural basis of behavior generally posits that brain mechanisms will ultimately suffice to explain all psychologically described phenomena. This assumption stems from the idea that the brain is made up entirely of material particles and fields, and that all causal mechanisms relevant to neuroscience can therefore be formulated solely in terms of properties of these elements. Thus terms having intrinsic mentalistic and/or experiential content (e.g., ''feeling,'' ''knowing,'' and ''effort'') are not included as primary causal factors. This theoretical restriction is motivated primarily by ideas about the natural world that have been known to be fundamentally incorrectmore » for more than three quarters of a century. Contemporary basic physical theory differs profoundly from classical physics on the important matter of how the consciousness of human agents enters into the structure of empirical phenomena. The new principles contradict the older idea that local mechanical processes alone can account for the structure of all observed empirical data. Contemporary physical theory brings directly and irreducibly into the overall causal structure certain psychologically described choices made by human agents about how they will act. This key development in basic physical theory is applicable to neuroscience, and it provides neuroscientists and psychologists with an alternative conceptual framework for describing neural processes. Indeed, due to certain structural features of ion channels critical to synaptic function, contemporary physical theory must in principle be used when analyzing human brain dynamics. The new framework, unlike its classical-physics-based predecessor is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics, and is able to represent more adequately than classical concepts the neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort to systematically alter brain function.« less

Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: a neurophysical model of mind–brain interaction

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Jeffrey M; Stapp, Henry P; Beauregard, Mario

2005-01-01

Neuropsychological research on the neural basis of behaviour generally posits that brain mechanisms will ultimately suffice to explain all psychologically described phenomena. This assumption stems from the idea that the brain is made up entirely of material particles and fields, and that all causal mechanisms relevant to neuroscience can therefore be formulated solely in terms of properties of these elements. Thus, terms having intrinsic mentalistic and/or experiential content (e.g. ‘feeling’, ‘knowing’ and ‘effort’) are not included as primary causal factors. This theoretical restriction is motivated primarily by ideas about the natural world that have been known to be fundamentally incorrect for more than three-quarters of a century. Contemporary basic physical theory differs profoundly from classic physics on the important matter of how the consciousness of human agents enters into the structure of empirical phenomena. The new principles contradict the older idea that local mechanical processes alone can account for the structure of all observed empirical data. Contemporary physical theory brings directly and irreducibly into the overall causal structure certain psychologically described choices made by human agents about how they will act. This key development in basic physical theory is applicable to neuroscience, and it provides neuroscientists and psychologists with an alternative conceptual framework for describing neural processes. Indeed, owing to certain structural features of ion channels critical to synaptic function, contemporary physical theory must in principle be used when analysing human brain dynamics. The new framework, unlike its classic-physics-based predecessor, is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics. It is able to represent more adequately than classic concepts the neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort to systematically alter brain function. PMID:16147524

Dissociative Experience and Cultural Neuroscience: Narrative, Metaphor and Mechanism

PubMed Central

Kirmayer, Laurence J.

2016-01-01

Approaches to trance and possession in anthropology have tended to use outmoded models drawn from psychodynamic theory or treated such dissociative phenomena as purely discursive processes of attributing action and experience to agencies other than the self. Within psychology and psychiatry, understanding of dissociative disorders has been hindered by polemical “either/or” arguments: either dissociative disorders are real, spontaneous alterations in brain states that reflect basic neurobiological phenomena, or they are imaginary, socially constructed role performances dictated by interpersonal expectations, power dynamics and cultural scripts. In this paper, we outline an approach to dissociative phenomena, including trance, possession and spiritual and healing practices, that integrates the neuropsychological notions of underlying mechanism with sociocultural processes of the narrative construction and social presentation of the self. This integrative model, grounded in a cultural neuroscience, can advance ethnographic studies of dissociation and inform clinical approaches to dissociation through careful consideration of the impact of social context. PMID:18213511

Dissociative experience and cultural neuroscience: narrative, metaphor and mechanism.

PubMed

Seligman, Rebecca; Kirmayer, Laurence J

2008-03-01

Approaches to trance and possession in anthropology have tended to use outmoded models drawn from psychodynamic theory or treated such dissociative phenomena as purely discursive processes of attributing action and experience to agencies other than the self. Within psychology and psychiatry, understanding of dissociative disorders has been hindered by polemical "either/or" arguments: either dissociative disorders are real, spontaneous alterations in brain states that reflect basic neurobiological phenomena, or they are imaginary, socially constructed role performances dictated by interpersonal expectations, power dynamics and cultural scripts. In this paper, we outline an approach to dissociative phenomena, including trance, possession and spiritual and healing practices, that integrates the neuropsychological notions of underlying mechanism with sociocultural processes of the narrative construction and social presentation of the self. This integrative model, grounded in a cultural neuroscience, can advance ethnographic studies of dissociation and inform clinical approaches to dissociation through careful consideration of the impact of social context.

Transgenic mouse models enabling photolabeling of individual neurons in vivo.

PubMed

Peter, Manuel; Bathellier, Brice; Fontinha, Bruno; Pliota, Pinelopi; Haubensak, Wulf; Rumpel, Simon

2013-01-01

One of the biggest tasks in neuroscience is to explain activity patterns of individual neurons during behavior by their cellular characteristics and their connectivity within the neuronal network. To greatly facilitate linking in vivo experiments with a more detailed molecular or physiological analysis in vitro, we have generated and characterized genetically modified mice expressing photoactivatable GFP (PA-GFP) that allow conditional photolabeling of individual neurons. Repeated photolabeling at the soma reveals basic morphological features due to diffusion of activated PA-GFP into the dendrites. Neurons photolabeled in vivo can be re-identified in acute brain slices and targeted for electrophysiological recordings. We demonstrate the advantages of PA-GFP expressing mice by the correlation of in vivo firing rates of individual neurons with their expression levels of the immediate early gene c-fos. Generally, the mouse models described in this study enable the combination of various analytical approaches to characterize living cells, also beyond the neurosciences.

Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) fMRI: advantages, theoretical constrains, and experimental challenges in neurosciences.

PubMed

Borogovac, Ajna; Asllani, Iris

2012-01-01

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is a well-established correlate of brain function and therefore an essential parameter for studying the brain at both normal and diseased states. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a noninvasive fMRI technique that uses arterial water as an endogenous tracer to measure CBF. ASL provides reliable absolute quantification of CBF with higher spatial and temporal resolution than other techniques. And yet, the routine application of ASL has been somewhat limited. In this review, we start by highlighting theoretical complexities and technical challenges of ASL fMRI for basic and clinical research. While underscoring the main advantages of ASL versus other techniques such as BOLD, we also expound on inherent challenges and confounds in ASL perfusion imaging. In closing, we expound on several exciting developments in the field that we believe will make ASL reach its full potential in neuroscience research.

Using chick forebrain neurons to model neurodegeneration and protection in an undergraduate neuroscience laboratory course.

PubMed

Burdo, Joseph R

2013-01-01

Since 2009 at Boston College, we have been offering a Research in Neuroscience course using cultured neurons in an in vitro model of stroke. The students work in groups to learn how to perform sterile animal cell culture and run several basic bioassays to assess cell viability. They are then tasked with analyzing the scientific literature in an attempt to identify and predict the intracellular pathways involved in neuronal death, and identify dietary antioxidant compounds that may provide protection based on their known effects in other cells. After each group constructs a hypothesis pertaining to the potential neuroprotection, we purchase one compound per group and the students test their hypotheses using a commonly performed viability assay. The groups generate quantitative data and perform basic statistics on that data to analyze it for statistical significance. Finally, the groups compile their data and other elements of their research experience into a poster for our departmental research celebration at the end of the spring semester.

Using Chick Forebrain Neurons to Model Neurodegeneration and Protection in an Undergraduate Neuroscience Laboratory Course

PubMed Central

Burdo, Joseph R.

2013-01-01

Since 2009 at Boston College, we have been offering a Research in Neuroscience course using cultured neurons in an in vitro model of stroke. The students work in groups to learn how to perform sterile animal cell culture and run several basic bioassays to assess cell viability. They are then tasked with analyzing the scientific literature in an attempt to identify and predict the intracellular pathways involved in neuronal death, and identify dietary antioxidant compounds that may provide protection based on their known effects in other cells. After each group constructs a hypothesis pertaining to the potential neuroprotection, we purchase one compound per group and the students test their hypotheses using a commonly performed viability assay. The groups generate quantitative data and perform basic statistics on that data to analyze it for statistical significance. Finally, the groups compile their data and other elements of their research experience into a poster for our departmental research celebration at the end of the spring semester. PMID:23805059

Building a functional multiple intelligences theory to advance educational neuroscience

PubMed Central

Cerruti, Carlo

2013-01-01

A key goal of educational neuroscience is to conduct constrained experimental research that is theory-driven and yet also clearly related to educators’ complex set of questions and concerns. However, the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience use different levels of description to characterize human ability. An important advance in research in educational neuroscience would be the identification of a cognitive and neurocognitive framework at a level of description relatively intuitive to educators. I argue that the theory of multiple intelligences (MI; Gardner, 1983), a conception of the mind that motivated a past generation of teachers, may provide such an opportunity. I criticize MI for doing little to clarify for teachers a core misunderstanding, specifically that MI was only an anatomical map of the mind but not a functional theory that detailed how the mind actually processes information. In an attempt to build a “functional MI” theory, I integrate into MI basic principles of cognitive and neural functioning, namely interregional neural facilitation and inhibition. In so doing I hope to forge a path toward constrained experimental research that bears upon teachers’ concerns about teaching and learning. PMID:24391613

Credibility, Replicability, and Reproducibility in Simulation for Biomedicine and Clinical Applications in Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Mulugeta, Lealem; Drach, Andrew; Erdemir, Ahmet; Hunt, C. A.; Horner, Marc; Ku, Joy P.; Myers Jr., Jerry G.; Vadigepalli, Rajanikanth; Lytton, William W.

2018-01-01

Modeling and simulation in computational neuroscience is currently a research enterprise to better understand neural systems. It is not yet directly applicable to the problems of patients with brain disease. To be used for clinical applications, there must not only be considerable progress in the field but also a concerted effort to use best practices in order to demonstrate model credibility to regulatory bodies, to clinics and hospitals, to doctors, and to patients. In doing this for neuroscience, we can learn lessons from long-standing practices in other areas of simulation (aircraft, computer chips), from software engineering, and from other biomedical disciplines. In this manuscript, we introduce some basic concepts that will be important in the development of credible clinical neuroscience models: reproducibility and replicability; verification and validation; model configuration; and procedures and processes for credible mechanistic multiscale modeling. We also discuss how garnering strong community involvement can promote model credibility. Finally, in addition to direct usage with patients, we note the potential for simulation usage in the area of Simulation-Based Medical Education, an area which to date has been primarily reliant on physical models (mannequins) and scenario-based simulations rather than on numerical simulations. PMID:29713272

Credibility, Replicability, and Reproducibility in Simulation for Biomedicine and Clinical Applications in Neuroscience.

PubMed

Mulugeta, Lealem; Drach, Andrew; Erdemir, Ahmet; Hunt, C A; Horner, Marc; Ku, Joy P; Myers, Jerry G; Vadigepalli, Rajanikanth; Lytton, William W

2018-01-01

Modeling and simulation in computational neuroscience is currently a research enterprise to better understand neural systems. It is not yet directly applicable to the problems of patients with brain disease. To be used for clinical applications, there must not only be considerable progress in the field but also a concerted effort to use best practices in order to demonstrate model credibility to regulatory bodies, to clinics and hospitals, to doctors, and to patients. In doing this for neuroscience, we can learn lessons from long-standing practices in other areas of simulation (aircraft, computer chips), from software engineering, and from other biomedical disciplines. In this manuscript, we introduce some basic concepts that will be important in the development of credible clinical neuroscience models: reproducibility and replicability; verification and validation; model configuration; and procedures and processes for credible mechanistic multiscale modeling. We also discuss how garnering strong community involvement can promote model credibility. Finally, in addition to direct usage with patients, we note the potential for simulation usage in the area of Simulation-Based Medical Education, an area which to date has been primarily reliant on physical models (mannequins) and scenario-based simulations rather than on numerical simulations.

[Education and training in neurology: update].

PubMed

Yanagisawa, Nobuo

2010-11-01

Progress in basic neurosciences and advances in technology in the last decades have contributed to clarification of neural mechanisms in behavior or cognition in health and disease. They have elaborated diagnosis and treatment of nervous diseases remarkably. Needs in neurologists in both primary and specific medical services are rapidly increasing, with aging society and progresses in medical care in Japan. Attraction of neurology for students and junior residents is a great concern of Japanese Society of Neurology. In the undergraduate education, recent achievement in basic neurosciences including neurogenetics, molecular cytology, physio-pathology and imaging technique should be taught comprehensively. In the early postgraduate course for two years, neurology is either elective or obligatory depending on the curriculum of training institutions. Work at the stroke care unit is strongly recommended in the course of emergency service, which is mandatory. Experiences in acute infectious diseases, in various stages of neurodegenerative diseases, in collaboration with other specialist doctors for systemic diseases including metabolic or collagen diseases, in collaboration with other medical personnel in care of dementia are all included in advanced stages of postgraduate education before board examination. In summary, studies for practical services as well as clinical researches, teaching of symptoms and signs based on neural functions, and socio-economical issues for chronic nervous diseases in aged society are important in the education in neurology.

Semantic memory is impaired in patients with unilateral anterior temporal lobe resection for temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Lambon Ralph, Matthew A; Ehsan, Sheeba; Baker, Gus A; Rogers, Timothy T

2012-01-01

Contemporary clinical and basic neuroscience studies have increasingly implicated the anterior temporal lobe regions, bilaterally, in the formation of coherent concepts. Mounting convergent evidence for the importance of the anterior temporal lobe in semantic memory is found in patients with bilateral anterior temporal lobe damage (e.g. semantic dementia), functional neuroimaging and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation studies. If this proposal is correct, then one might expect patients with anterior temporal lobe resection for long-standing temporal lobe epilepsy to be semantically impaired. Such patients, however, do not present clinically with striking comprehension deficits but with amnesia and variable anomia, leading some to conclude that semantic memory is intact in resection for temporal lobe epilepsy and thus casting doubt over the conclusions drawn from semantic dementia and linked basic neuroscience studies. Whilst there is a considerable neuropsychological literature on temporal lobe epilepsy, few studies have probed semantic memory directly, with mixed results, and none have undertaken the same type of systematic investigation of semantic processing that has been conducted with other patient groups. In this study, therefore, we investigated the semantic performance of 20 patients with resection for chronic temporal lobe epilepsy with a full battery of semantic assessments, including more sensitive measures of semantic processing. The results provide a bridge between the current clinical observations about resection for temporal lobe epilepsy and the expectations from semantic dementia and other neuroscience findings. Specifically, we found that on simple semantic tasks, the patients' accuracy fell in the normal range, with the exception that some patients with left resection for temporal lobe epilepsy had measurable anomia. Once the semantic assessments were made more challenging, by probing specific-level concepts, lower frequency/more abstract items or measuring reaction times on semantic tasks versus those on difficulty-matched non-semantic assessments, evidence of a semantic impairment was found in all individuals. We conclude by describing a unified, computationally inspired framework for capturing the variable degrees of semantic impairment found across different patient groups (semantic dementia, temporal lobe epilepsy, glioma and stroke) as well as semantic processing in neurologically intact participants.

Semantic memory is impaired in patients with unilateral anterior temporal lobe resection for temporal lobe epilepsy

PubMed Central

Ehsan, Sheeba; Baker, Gus A.; Rogers, Timothy T.

2012-01-01

Contemporary clinical and basic neuroscience studies have increasingly implicated the anterior temporal lobe regions, bilaterally, in the formation of coherent concepts. Mounting convergent evidence for the importance of the anterior temporal lobe in semantic memory is found in patients with bilateral anterior temporal lobe damage (e.g. semantic dementia), functional neuroimaging and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation studies. If this proposal is correct, then one might expect patients with anterior temporal lobe resection for long-standing temporal lobe epilepsy to be semantically impaired. Such patients, however, do not present clinically with striking comprehension deficits but with amnesia and variable anomia, leading some to conclude that semantic memory is intact in resection for temporal lobe epilepsy and thus casting doubt over the conclusions drawn from semantic dementia and linked basic neuroscience studies. Whilst there is a considerable neuropsychological literature on temporal lobe epilepsy, few studies have probed semantic memory directly, with mixed results, and none have undertaken the same type of systematic investigation of semantic processing that has been conducted with other patient groups. In this study, therefore, we investigated the semantic performance of 20 patients with resection for chronic temporal lobe epilepsy with a full battery of semantic assessments, including more sensitive measures of semantic processing. The results provide a bridge between the current clinical observations about resection for temporal lobe epilepsy and the expectations from semantic dementia and other neuroscience findings. Specifically, we found that on simple semantic tasks, the patients’ accuracy fell in the normal range, with the exception that some patients with left resection for temporal lobe epilepsy had measurable anomia. Once the semantic assessments were made more challenging, by probing specific-level concepts, lower frequency/more abstract items or measuring reaction times on semantic tasks versus those on difficulty-matched non-semantic assessments, evidence of a semantic impairment was found in all individuals. We conclude by describing a unified, computationally inspired framework for capturing the variable degrees of semantic impairment found across different patient groups (semantic dementia, temporal lobe epilepsy, glioma and stroke) as well as semantic processing in neurologically intact participants. PMID:22287382

Consumer nueroscience: a new area of study for biomedical engineers.

PubMed

Babiloni, Fabio

2012-01-01

In scientific literature, the most accepted definition of consumer neuroscience or neuromarketing is that it is a field of study concerning the application of neuroscience methods to analyze and understand human behavior related to markets and marketing exchanges. First, it might seem strange that marketers would be interested in using neuroscience to understand consumer's preferences. Yet in practice, the basic goal of marketers is to guide the design and presentation of products in such a way that they are highly compatible with consumer preferences. To understand consumers preferences, several standard research tools are commonly used by marketers, such as personal interviews with the consumers, scoring questionnaries gathered from consumers, and focus groups. The reason marketing researchers are interested in using brain imaging tools instead of simply asking people for their preferences in front of marketing stimuli, arises from the assumption that people cannot (or do not want to) fully explain their preference when explicitly asked. Researchers in the field hypothesize that neuroimaging tools can access information within the consumer's brain during the generation of a preference or the observation of a commercial advertisement. The question of will this information be useful in further promoting the product is still up for debate in marketing literature. From the marketing researchers point of view, there is a hope that this body of brain imaging techniques will provide an efficient tradeoff between costs and benefits of the research. Currently, neuroscience methodology includes powerful brain imaging tools based on the gathering of hemodynamic or electromagnetic signals related to the human brain activity during the performance of a relevant task for marketing objectives. These tools are briefly reviewed in this article.

Tracking Social Motivation Systems Deficits: The Affective Neuroscience View of Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carré, Arnaud; Chevallier, Coralie; Robel, Laurence; Barry, Caroline; Maria, Anne-Solène; Pouga, Lydia; Philippe, Anne; Pinabel, François; Berthoz, Sylvie

2015-01-01

Abnormal functioning of primary brain systems that express and modulate basic emotional drives are increasingly considered to underlie mental disorders including autism spectrum disorders. We hypothesized that ASD are characterized by disruptions in the primary systems involved in the motivation for social bonding. Twenty adults with ASD were…

Attention Performance in Young Adults with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sterr, Annette M.

2004-01-01

Attention acts as the mind's "gatekeeper" by regulating and prioritizing the stimuli processed by the central nervous system. It is essential for cognitive performance, memory, and behavior, and we know that even slight deficiencies in attention compromise learning. Basic neuroscience research further indicates that attention consists of (fairly)…

Learning "Number Sense" through Digital Games with Intrinsic Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laurillard, Diana

2016-01-01

The paper proposes a new interdisciplinary approach to helping low attaining learners in basic mathematics. It reports on the research-informed design and user testing of an adaptive digital game based on constructionist tasks with intrinsic feedback. The approach uses findings from the neuroscience of dyscalculia, cognitive science research on…

Laughter as a scientific problem: An adventure in sidewalk neuroscience.

PubMed

Provine, Robert R

2016-06-01

Laughter is a stereotyped, innate, human play vocalization that provides an ideal simple system for neurobehavioral analyses of the sort usually associated with such animal models as walking, wing-flapping, and bird song. Laughter research is in its early stages, where the frontiers are near and accessible to simple observational procedures termed "sidewalk neuroscience." The basic, nontechnical approach of describing the act of laughter and when humans do it has revealed a variety of phenomena of social and neurological significance. Findings include the acoustic structure of laughter, the minimal voluntary control of laughter, contagiousness, the "punctuation effect" that describes the placement of laughter in conversation, the dominance of speech over laughter, the role of breath control in the evolution of speech, the evolutionary trajectory of laughter in primates, and the role of laughter in human matching and mating. If one knows where to look and how to see, advances in neuroscience are accessible to anyone and require minimal resources. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The SpikerBox: A Low Cost, Open-Source BioAmplifier for Increasing Public Participation in Neuroscience Inquiry

PubMed Central

Marzullo, Timothy C.; Gage, Gregory J.

2012-01-01

Although people are generally interested in how the brain functions, neuroscience education for the public is hampered by a lack of low cost and engaging teaching materials. To address this, we developed an open-source tool, the SpikerBox, which is appropriate for use in middle/high school educational programs and by amateurs. This device can be used in easy experiments in which students insert sewing pins into the leg of a cockroach, or other invertebrate, to amplify and listen to the electrical activity of neurons. With the cockroach leg preparation, students can hear and see (using a smartphone oscilloscope app we have developed) the dramatic changes in activity caused by touching the mechanosensitive barbs. Students can also experiment with other manipulations such as temperature, drugs, and microstimulation that affect the neural activity. We include teaching guides and other resources in the supplemental materials. These hands-on lessons with the SpikerBox have proven to be effective in teaching basic neuroscience. PMID:22470415

The brain commission of the international association of academies: the first international society of neurosciences.

PubMed

Richter, J

2000-08-01

International associations of scientists, set up to organize cooperative scientific investigations in an international scope and to lay down global binding standards of research, are of great and still growing importance for the advancement of science. This was also recognized at the beginning of the 20th century by the community of researchers in basic and clinical neurological sciences, who created their first international organization following the trend initiated by scholars in astronomy and geophysics. Thus, the so-called "Brain Commission" of the International Association of Academies was founded in 1903 and was active until the outbreak of the First World War. The Brain Commission had no successor for nearly half a century, until the "International Brain Research Organization" (IBRO) was founded in 1961. Although the Brain Commission could exert an impact on neurosciences only for one decade, this international scientific association inspired and promoted the foundation of a series of Brain Research Institutes, which in part still exist in Europe, and long-lasting innovations in the neurosciences.

A History and Overview of the Behavioral Neuroscience of Learning and Memory.

PubMed

Clark, Robert E

2018-01-01

Here, I provide a basic history of important milestones in the development of theories for how the brain accomplishes the phenomenon of learning and memory. Included are the ideas of Plato, René Descartes, Théodule Ribot, William James, Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Karl Lashley, and others. The modern era of learning and memory research begins with the description of H.M. by Brenda Milner and the gradual discovery that the brain contains multiple learning and memory systems that are supported by anatomically discrete brain structures. Finally, a brief overview is provided for the chapters that are included in current topics in Behavioral Neuroscience-Learning and Memory.

A History and Overview of the Behavioral Neuroscience of Learning and Memory.

PubMed

Clark, Robert E

2018-01-05

Here, I provide a basic history of important milestones in the development of theories for how the brain accomplishes the phenomenon of learning and memory. Included are the ideas of Plato, René Descartes, Théodule Ribot, William James, Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Karl Lashley, and others. The modern era of learning and memory research begins with the description of H.M. by Brenda Milner and the gradual discovery that the brain contains multiple learning and memory systems that are supported by anatomically discrete brain structures. Finally, a brief overview is provided for the chapters that are included in current topics in Behavioral Neuroscience-Learning and Memory.

Back to the Basics: Cnidarians Start to Fire.

PubMed

Bosch, Thomas C G; Klimovich, Alexander; Domazet-Lošo, Tomislav; Gründer, Stefan; Holstein, Thomas W; Jékely, Gáspár; Miller, David J; Murillo-Rincon, Andrea P; Rentzsch, Fabian; Richards, Gemma S; Schröder, Katja; Technau, Ulrich; Yuste, Rafael

2017-02-01

The nervous systems of cnidarians, pre-bilaterian animals that diverged close to the base of the metazoan radiation, are structurally simple and thus have great potential to reveal fundamental principles of neural circuits. Unfortunately, cnidarians have thus far been relatively intractable to electrophysiological and genetic techniques and consequently have been largely passed over by neurobiologists. However, recent advances in molecular and imaging methods are fueling a renaissance of interest in and research into cnidarians nervous systems. Here, we review current knowledge on the nervous systems of cnidarian species and propose that researchers should seize this opportunity and undertake the study of members of this phylum as strategic experimental systems with great basic and translational relevance for neuroscience. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterizing and Modulating Brain Circuitry through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Combined with Electroencephalography.

PubMed

Farzan, Faranak; Vernet, Marine; Shafi, Mouhsin M D; Rotenberg, Alexander; Daskalakis, Zafiris J; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro

2016-01-01

The concurrent combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) is a powerful technology for characterizing and modulating brain networks across developmental, behavioral, and disease states. Given the global initiatives in mapping the human brain, recognition of the utility of this technique is growing across neuroscience disciplines. Importantly, TMS-EEG offers translational biomarkers that can be applied in health and disease, across the lifespan, and in humans and animals, bridging the gap between animal models and human studies. However, to utilize the full potential of TMS-EEG methodology, standardization of TMS-EEG study protocols is needed. In this article, we review the principles of TMS-EEG methodology, factors impacting TMS-EEG outcome measures, and the techniques for preventing and correcting artifacts in TMS-EEG data. To promote the standardization of this technique, we provide comprehensive guides for designing TMS-EEG studies and conducting TMS-EEG experiments. We conclude by reviewing the application of TMS-EEG in basic, cognitive and clinical neurosciences, and evaluate the potential of this emerging technology in brain research.

Characterizing and Modulating Brain Circuitry through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Combined with Electroencephalography

PubMed Central

Farzan, Faranak; Vernet, Marine; Shafi, Mouhsin M. D.; Rotenberg, Alexander; Daskalakis, Zafiris J.; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro

2016-01-01

The concurrent combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) is a powerful technology for characterizing and modulating brain networks across developmental, behavioral, and disease states. Given the global initiatives in mapping the human brain, recognition of the utility of this technique is growing across neuroscience disciplines. Importantly, TMS-EEG offers translational biomarkers that can be applied in health and disease, across the lifespan, and in humans and animals, bridging the gap between animal models and human studies. However, to utilize the full potential of TMS-EEG methodology, standardization of TMS-EEG study protocols is needed. In this article, we review the principles of TMS-EEG methodology, factors impacting TMS-EEG outcome measures, and the techniques for preventing and correcting artifacts in TMS-EEG data. To promote the standardization of this technique, we provide comprehensive guides for designing TMS-EEG studies and conducting TMS-EEG experiments. We conclude by reviewing the application of TMS-EEG in basic, cognitive and clinical neurosciences, and evaluate the potential of this emerging technology in brain research. PMID:27713691

Assessing the Effectiveness of Neurofeedback Training in the Context of Clinical and Social Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Orndorff-Plunkett, Franklin; Singh, Fiza

2017-01-01

Social neuroscience benefits from the experimental manipulation of neuronal activity. One possible manipulation, neurofeedback, is an operant conditioning-based technique in which individuals sense, interact with, and manage their own physiological and mental states. Neurofeedback has been applied to a wide variety of psychiatric illnesses, as well as to treat sub-clinical symptoms, and even to enhance performance in healthy populations. Despite growing interest, there persists a level of distrust and/or bias in the medical and research communities in the USA toward neurofeedback and other functional interventions. As a result, neurofeedback has been largely ignored, or disregarded within social neuroscience. We propose a systematic, empirically-based approach for assessing the effectiveness, and utility of neurofeedback. To that end, we use the term perturbative physiologic plasticity to suggest that biological systems function as an integrated whole that can be perturbed and guided, either directly or indirectly, into different physiological states. When the intention is to normalize the system, e.g., via neurofeedback, we describe it as self-directed neuroplasticity, whose outcome is persistent functional, structural, and behavioral changes. We argue that changes in physiological, neuropsychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and societal functioning following neurofeedback can serve as objective indices and as the metrics necessary for assessing levels of efficacy. In this chapter, we examine the effects of neurofeedback on functional connectivity in a few clinical disorders as case studies for this approach. We believe this broader perspective will open new avenues of investigation, especially within social neuroscience, to further elucidate the mechanisms and effectiveness of these types of interventions, and their relevance to basic research. PMID:28783134

Assessing the Effectiveness of Neurofeedback Training in the Context of Clinical and Social Neuroscience.

PubMed

Orndorff-Plunkett, Franklin; Singh, Fiza; Aragón, Oriana R; Pineda, Jaime A

2017-08-07

Social neuroscience benefits from the experimental manipulation of neuronal activity. One possible manipulation, neurofeedback, is an operant conditioning-based technique in which individuals sense, interact with, and manage their own physiological and mental states. Neurofeedback has been applied to a wide variety of psychiatric illnesses, as well as to treat sub-clinical symptoms, and even to enhance performance in healthy populations. Despite growing interest, there persists a level of distrust and/or bias in the medical and research communities in the USA toward neurofeedback and other functional interventions. As a result, neurofeedback has been largely ignored, or disregarded within social neuroscience. We propose a systematic, empirically-based approach for assessing the effectiveness, and utility of neurofeedback. To that end, we use the term perturbative physiologic plasticity to suggest that biological systems function as an integrated whole that can be perturbed and guided, either directly or indirectly, into different physiological states. When the intention is to normalize the system, e.g., via neurofeedback, we describe it as self-directed neuroplasticity, whose outcome is persistent functional, structural, and behavioral changes. We argue that changes in physiological, neuropsychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and societal functioning following neurofeedback can serve as objective indices and as the metrics necessary for assessing levels of efficacy. In this chapter, we examine the effects of neurofeedback on functional connectivity in a few clinical disorders as case studies for this approach. We believe this broader perspective will open new avenues of investigation, especially within social neuroscience, to further elucidate the mechanisms and effectiveness of these types of interventions, and their relevance to basic research.

Vision and art: an interdisciplinary approach to neuroscience education.

PubMed

Lafer-Sousa, Rosa; Conway, Bevil R

2009-01-01

Undergraduate institutions are increasingly adopting neuroscience within their curricula, although it is unclear how best to implement this material given the interdisciplinary nature of the field, which requires knowledge of basic physics, chemistry, biology and psychology. This difficulty is compounded by declines over recent decades in the amount of physics education that students receive in high school, which hinders students' ability to grasp basic principles of neuroscience. Here we discuss our experiences as teacher (BRC) and student (RLS) with an undergraduate course in Vision and Art. The course capitalizes on students' prior interest in visual art to motivate an understanding of the physiological and computational neural processes that underlie vision; our aim is that the learning strategies that students acquire as a result of the format and interdisciplinary approach of the course will increase students' critical thinking skills and benefit them as they pursue other domains of inquiry. The course includes both expert lectures on central themes of vision along with a problem-based learning (PBL) laboratory component that directly engages the students as empirical scientists. We outline the syllabus, the motivation for using PBL, and describe a number of hands-on laboratory exercises, many of which require only inexpensive and readily available equipment. We have developed a website that we hope will facilitate student-driven inquiry beyond the classroom and foster inter-institutional collaboration in this endeavor. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the potential limitations of the course and how to evaluate the success of the course and the website.

What does semantic tiling of the cortex tell us about semantics?

PubMed

Barsalou, Lawrence W

2017-10-01

Recent use of voxel-wise modeling in cognitive neuroscience suggests that semantic maps tile the cortex. Although this impressive research establishes distributed cortical areas active during the conceptual processing that underlies semantics, it tells us little about the nature of this processing. While mapping concepts between Marr's computational and implementation levels to support neural encoding and decoding, this approach ignores Marr's algorithmic level, central for understanding the mechanisms that implement cognition, in general, and conceptual processing, in particular. Following decades of research in cognitive science and neuroscience, what do we know so far about the representation and processing mechanisms that implement conceptual abilities? Most basically, much is known about the mechanisms associated with: (1) feature and frame representations, (2) grounded, abstract, and linguistic representations, (3) knowledge-based inference, (4) concept composition, and (5) conceptual flexibility. Rather than explaining these fundamental representation and processing mechanisms, semantic tiles simply provide a trace of their activity over a relatively short time period within a specific learning context. Establishing the mechanisms that implement conceptual processing in the brain will require more than mapping it to cortical (and sub-cortical) activity, with process models from cognitive science likely to play central roles in specifying the intervening mechanisms. More generally, neuroscience will not achieve its basic goals until it establishes algorithmic-level mechanisms that contribute essential explanations to how the brain works, going beyond simply establishing the brain areas that respond to various task conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A case for human systems neuroscience.

PubMed

Gardner, J L

2015-06-18

Can the human brain itself serve as a model for a systems neuroscience approach to understanding the human brain? After all, how the brain is able to create the richness and complexity of human behavior is still largely mysterious. What better choice to study that complexity than to study it in humans? However, measurements of brain activity typically need to be made non-invasively which puts severe constraints on what can be learned about the internal workings of the brain. Our approach has been to use a combination of psychophysics in which we can use human behavioral flexibility to make quantitative measurements of behavior and link those through computational models to measurements of cortical activity through magnetic resonance imaging. In particular, we have tested various computational hypotheses about what neural mechanisms could account for behavioral enhancement with spatial attention (Pestilli et al., 2011). Resting both on quantitative measurements and considerations of what is known through animal models, we concluded that weighting of sensory signals by the magnitude of their response is a neural mechanism for efficient selection of sensory signals and consequent improvements in behavioral performance with attention. While animal models have many technical advantages over studying the brain in humans, we believe that human systems neuroscience should endeavor to validate, replicate and extend basic knowledge learned from animal model systems and thus form a bridge to understanding how the brain creates the complex and rich cognitive capacities of humans. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Integrated Neuroscience Perspective on Formulation and Treatment Planning for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Educational Review.

PubMed

Ross, David A; Arbuckle, Melissa R; Travis, Michael J; Dwyer, Jennifer B; van Schalkwyk, Gerrit I; Ressler, Kerry J

2017-04-01

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychiatric illness, increasingly in the public spotlight in the United States due its prevalence in the soldiers returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. This educational review presents a contemporary approach for how to incorporate a modern neuroscience perspective into an integrative case formulation. The article is organized around key neuroscience "themes" most relevant for PTSD. Within each theme, the article highlights how seemingly diverse biological, psychological, and social perspectives all intersect with our current understanding of neuroscience. Any contemporary neuroscience formulation of PTSD should include an understanding of fear conditioning, dysregulated circuits, memory reconsolidation, epigenetics, and genetic factors. Fear conditioning and other elements of basic learning theory offer a framework for understanding how traumatic events can lead to a range of behaviors associated with PTSD. A circuit dysregulation framework focuses more broadly on aberrant network connectivity, including between the prefrontal cortex and limbic structures. In the process of memory reconsolidation, it is now clear that every time a memory is reactivated it becomes momentarily labile-with implications for the genesis, maintenance, and treatment of PTSD. Epigenetic changes secondary to various experiences, especially early in life, can have long-term effects, including on the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, thereby affecting an individual's ability to regulate the stress response. Genetic factors are surprisingly relevant: PTSD has been shown to be highly heritable despite being definitionally linked to specific experiences. The relevance of each of these themes to current clinical practice and its potential to transform future care are discussed. Together, these perspectives contribute to an integrative, neuroscience-informed approach to case formulation and treatment planning. This may help to bridge the gap between the traditionally distinct viewpoints of clinicians and researchers.

[Neuropathology in the neurosciences. A system in transition].

PubMed

Seitelberger, F

1993-08-01

Neuropathology (Np) is a full member of the neurosciences. As a basic neuroscience it is directed to the behaviour of nervous tissues under pathogenic conditions. The theoretical and methodical core of Np concerns the morphological features of pathological disorders and processes of the nervous system. The goal of Np data presentation is an objective description of the structural changes; their time course as processes, and if possible their causal constellations. Complementary to this analytical task is that of reconstructing the pathological process and at a higher level the conception of pathomorphological entities, e.g. as syndromes. Clinical Np is an alliance of Np with neurology, psychiatry and neurosurgery for representing the structural basis of diseases and the role of morphology in diagnosis and clinical management. Prerequisite for the proper functioning of Np is an integration with these other specialist fields. The clinical neuropathologist therefore has to be in certain respects also a neurologist. The same is true of the alliances of Np with other neurosciences, which is already reflected in recent neuropathological methodology. Detailed training programs are necessary for clinical Np, covering all aspects of its medical and social implications. Enough options should be offered for horizontal flexibility of curricula, futherance of secondary special training and support of good unconventional approaches by junior scientists.

Semantic SenseLab: implementing the vision of the Semantic Web in neuroscience

PubMed Central

Samwald, Matthias; Chen, Huajun; Ruttenberg, Alan; Lim, Ernest; Marenco, Luis; Miller, Perry; Shepherd, Gordon; Cheung, Kei-Hoi

2011-01-01

Summary Objective Integrative neuroscience research needs a scalable informatics framework that enables semantic integration of diverse types of neuroscience data. This paper describes the use of the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and other Semantic Web technologies for the representation and integration of molecular-level data provided by several of SenseLab suite of neuroscience databases. Methods Based on the original database structure, we semi-automatically translated the databases into OWL ontologies with manual addition of semantic enrichment. The SenseLab ontologies are extensively linked to other biomedical Semantic Web resources, including the Subcellular Anatomy Ontology, Brain Architecture Management System, the Gene Ontology, BIRNLex and UniProt. The SenseLab ontologies have also been mapped to the Basic Formal Ontology and Relation Ontology, which helps ease interoperability with many other existing and future biomedical ontologies for the Semantic Web. In addition, approaches to representing contradictory research statements are described. The SenseLab ontologies are designed for use on the Semantic Web that enables their integration into a growing collection of biomedical information resources. Conclusion We demonstrate that our approach can yield significant potential benefits and that the Semantic Web is rapidly becoming mature enough to realize its anticipated promises. The ontologies are available online at http://neuroweb.med.yale.edu/senselab/ PMID:20006477

Semantic SenseLab: Implementing the vision of the Semantic Web in neuroscience.

PubMed

Samwald, Matthias; Chen, Huajun; Ruttenberg, Alan; Lim, Ernest; Marenco, Luis; Miller, Perry; Shepherd, Gordon; Cheung, Kei-Hoi

2010-01-01

Integrative neuroscience research needs a scalable informatics framework that enables semantic integration of diverse types of neuroscience data. This paper describes the use of the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and other Semantic Web technologies for the representation and integration of molecular-level data provided by several of SenseLab suite of neuroscience databases. Based on the original database structure, we semi-automatically translated the databases into OWL ontologies with manual addition of semantic enrichment. The SenseLab ontologies are extensively linked to other biomedical Semantic Web resources, including the Subcellular Anatomy Ontology, Brain Architecture Management System, the Gene Ontology, BIRNLex and UniProt. The SenseLab ontologies have also been mapped to the Basic Formal Ontology and Relation Ontology, which helps ease interoperability with many other existing and future biomedical ontologies for the Semantic Web. In addition, approaches to representing contradictory research statements are described. The SenseLab ontologies are designed for use on the Semantic Web that enables their integration into a growing collection of biomedical information resources. We demonstrate that our approach can yield significant potential benefits and that the Semantic Web is rapidly becoming mature enough to realize its anticipated promises. The ontologies are available online at http://neuroweb.med.yale.edu/senselab/. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cooing, Crying, Cuddling: Infant Brain Development. [Videotape].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC.

Noting recent neuroscience research findings suggesting that caregivers play a vital role in brain development, this videotape explores the process of brain development during the first 15 months of life and presents implications for infant care. Part 1 of the 28-minute video discusses basic infant development and brain research, focusing on how…

Harnessing Brain Plasticity through Behavioral Techniques to Produce New Treatments in Neurorehabilitation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taub, Edward

2004-01-01

Basic behavioral neuroscience research with monkeys has given rise to an efficacious new approach to the rehabilitation of movement after stroke, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, and other types of neurological injury in humans termed Constraint-Induced Movement therapy or CI therapy. For the upper extremity, the treatment involves…

Brain Chemistry and Behaviour: An Update on Neuroscience Research and Its Implications for Understanding Drug Addiction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Emma S. J.

2011-01-01

Psychiatric disorders such as drug addiction represent one of the biggest challenges to society. This article reviews clinical and basic science research to illustrate how developments in research methodology have enabled neuroscientists to understand more about the brain mechanisms involved in addiction biology. Treating addiction represents a…

What is important in transdisciplinary pain neuroscience education? A qualitative study.

PubMed

Wijma, Amarins J; Speksnijder, Caroline M; Crom-Ottens, Astrid F; Knulst-Verlaan, J M Corine; Keizer, Doeke; Nijs, Jo; van Wilgen, C Paul

2017-05-19

The main focus of Pain Neuroscience Education is around changing patients' pain perceptions and minimizing further medical care. Even though Pain Neuroscience Education has been studied extensively, the experiences of patients regarding the Pain Neuroscience Education process remain to be explored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the experiences in patients with non-specific chronic pain. Fifteen patients with non-specific chronic pain from a transdisciplinary treatment centre were in-depth interviewed. Data collection and analysis were performed according to Grounded Theory. Five interacting topics emerged: (1) "the pre-Pain Neuroscience Education phase", involving the primary needs to provide Pain Neuroscience Education, with subthemes containing (a) "a broad intake" and (b) "the healthcare professionals"; (2) "a comprehensible Pain Neuroscience Education" containing (a) "understandable explanation" and (b) "interaction between the physiotherapist and psychologist"; (3) "outcomes of Pain Neuroscience Education" including (a) "awareness", b) "finding peace of mind", and (c) "fewer symptoms"; 4) "scepticism" containing (a) "doubt towards the diagnosis and Pain Neuroscience Education", (b) "disagreement with the diagnosis and Pain Neuroscience Education", and (c) "Pain Neuroscience Education can be confronting". This is the first study providing insight into the constructs contributing to the Pain Neuroscience Education experience of patients with non-specific chronic pain. The results reveal the importance of the therapeutic alliance between the patient and caregiver, taking time, listening, providing a clear explanation, and the possible outcomes when doing so. The findings from this study can be used to facilitate healthcare professionals in providing Pain Neuroscience Education to patients with non-specific chronic pain. Implications for Rehabilitation An extensive biopsychosocial patient centred intake is crucial prior to providing Pain Neuroscience Education. Repetitions of Pain Neuroscience Education, in different forms (verbal and written information, examples, drawings, etc.) help patients to understand the theory of neurophysiology. Pain Neuroscience Education induces insight into the patient's complaints, improved coping with complaints, improved self-control, and induces in some cases peace of mind. Healthcare professionals providing Pain Neuroscience Education should be aware of the possible confronting nature of the contributing factors.

75 FR 52009 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-24

[email protected] . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review... Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Sensorimotor Integration Study Section. Date: October 5...: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Cognitive Neuroscience Study...

Theory of drives and emotions - from Sigmund Freud to Jaak Panksepp.

PubMed

Żechowski, Cezary

2017-12-30

The article discusses the development of psychoanalytic theory in the direction of broadening the reflection on their own based on data derived from empirical studies other than clinical case study. Particularly noteworthy is the convergence that followed between neuroscience and psychoanalysis and the rise of the so-called neuropsychoanalysis. Consequently, this led to eject empirical hypotheses and begin research on defense mechanisms, self, memory, dreams, empathy, dynamic unconscious and emotional-motivational processes (theory of drives). Currently neuropsychoanalysis constituted itself as a discipline contained in itself three separate areas: the psychodynamic neuroscience, clinical neuropsychoanalysis and theory building. The article introduces the theory of Jaak Panksepp emotional systems as an example of anintegrated neurobiology of affect, behavioral biology, evolutionary psychology and psychoanalysis. The theory of emotional systems includes the description of the SEEKING system representing basic motivational system of the organism. Apart from a new perspective on the theory of drives described by Sigmund Freud, it offers the possibility to take into account the emotional and motivational systems within the understanding of mental disorders such as depression, addiction and psychosis, which is the core of psychoanalytic thinking.

Tracking social motivation systems deficits: the affective neuroscience view of autism.

PubMed

Carré, Arnaud; Chevallier, Coralie; Robel, Laurence; Barry, Caroline; Maria, Anne-Solène; Pouga, Lydia; Philippe, Anne; Pinabel, François; Berthoz, Sylvie

2015-10-01

Abnormal functioning of primary brain systems that express and modulate basic emotional drives are increasingly considered to underlie mental disorders including autism spectrum disorders. We hypothesized that ASD are characterized by disruptions in the primary systems involved in the motivation for social bonding. Twenty adults with ASD were compared to 20 neurotypical participants on the basis of self-reports and clinical assessments, including the Social Anhedonia Scale (SAS) and the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). ASD diagnosis was related to SAS, as well as to positive (PLAYFULNESS) and negative (FEAR) ANPS-traits. In the overall sample, levels of autistic traits (AQ) were related to SAS and PLAYFULNESS. We argue that PLAYFULNESS could be at the root of social bonding impairments in ASD.

Integrated neuroscience program: an alternative approach to teaching neurosciences to chiropractic students.

PubMed

He, Xiaohua; La Rose, James; Zhang, Niu

2009-01-01

Most chiropractic colleges do not offer independent neuroscience courses because of an already crowded curriculum. The Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida has developed and implemented an integrated neuroscience program that incorporates neurosciences into different courses. The goals of the program have been to bring neurosciences to students, excite students about the interrelationship of neuroscience and chiropractic, improve students' understanding of neuroscience, and help the students understand the mechanisms underpinning the chiropractic practice. This study provides a descriptive analysis on how the integrated neuroscience program is taught via students' attitudes toward neuroscience and the comparison of students' perceptions of neuroscience content knowledge at different points in the program. A questionnaire consisting of 58 questions regarding the neuroscience courses was conducted among 339 students. The questionnaire was developed by faculty members who were involved in teaching neuroscience and administered in the classroom by faculty members who were not involved in the study. Student perceptions of their neuroscience knowledge, self-confidence, learning strategies, and knowledge application increased considerably through the quarters, especially among the 2nd-year students. The integrated neuroscience program achieved several of its goals, including an increase in students' confidence, positive attitude, ability to learn, and perception of neuroscience content knowledge. The authors believe that such gains can expand student ability to interpret clinical cases and inspire students to become excited about chiropractic research. The survey provides valuable information for teaching faculty to make the course content more relevant to chiropractic students.

Light Vision Color

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valberg, Arne

2005-04-01

Light Vision Color takes a well-balanced, interdisciplinary approach to our most important sensory system. The book successfully combines basics in vision sciences with recent developments from different areas such as neuroscience, biophysics, sensory psychology and philosophy. Originally published in 1998 this edition has been extensively revised and updated to include new chapters on clinical problems and eye diseases, low vision rehabilitation and the basic molecular biology and genetics of colour vision. Takes a broad interdisciplinary approach combining basics in vision sciences with the most recent developments in the area Includes an extensive list of technical terms and explanations to encourage student understanding Successfully brings together the most important areas of the subject in to one volume

Attitudes toward neuroscience education among psychiatry residents and fellows.

PubMed

Fung, Lawrence K; Akil, Mayada; Widge, Alik; Roberts, Laura Weiss; Etkin, Amit

2014-04-01

The purpose of this study is to assess the attitudes of psychiatry trainees toward neuroscience education in psychiatry residency and subsequent training in order to inform neuroscience education approaches in the future. This online survey was designed to capture demographic information, self-assessed neuroscience knowledge, attitudes toward neuroscience education, preferences in learning modalities, and interest in specific neuroscience topics. Volunteers were identified through the American Psychiatric Association, which invited 2,563 psychiatry trainees among their members. Four hundred thirty-six trainees completed the survey. Nearly all agreed that there is a need for more neuroscience education in psychiatry residency training (94%) and that neuroscience education could help destigmatize mental illness (91%). Nearly all (94%) expressed interest in attending a 3-day course on neuroscience. Many neuroscience topics and modes of learning were viewed favorably by participants. Residents in their first 2 years of training expressed attitudes similar to those of more advanced residents and fellows. Some differences were found based on the level of interest in a future academic role. This web-based study demonstrates that psychiatry residents see neuroscience education as important in their training and worthy of greater attention. Our results suggest potential opportunities for advancing neuroscience education.

Neuroscience and approach/avoidance personality traits: a two stage (valuation-motivation) approach.

PubMed

Corr, Philip J; McNaughton, Neil

2012-11-01

Many personality theories link specific traits to the sensitivities of the neural systems that control approach and avoidance. But there is no consensus on the nature of these systems. Here we combine recent advances in economics and neuroscience to provide a more solid foundation for a neuroscience of approach/avoidance personality. We propose a two-stage integration of valuation (loss/gain) sensitivities with motivational (approach/avoidance/conflict) sensitivities. Our key conclusions are: (1) that valuation of appetitive and aversive events (e.g. gain and loss as studied by behavioural economists) is an independent perceptual input stage--with the economic phenomenon of loss aversion resulting from greater negative valuation sensitivity compared to positive valuation sensitivity; (2) that valuation of an appetitive stimulus then interacts with a contingency of presentation or omission to generate a motivational 'attractor' or 'repulsor', respectively (vice versa for an aversive stimulus); (3) the resultant behavioural tendencies to approach or avoid have distinct sensitivities to those of the valuation systems; (4) while attractors and repulsors can reinforce new responses they also, more usually, elicit innate or previously conditioned responses and so the perception/valuation-motivation/action complex is best characterised as acting as a 'reinforcer' not a 'reinforcement'; and (5) approach-avoidance conflict must be viewed as activating a third motivation system that is distinct from the basic approach and avoidance systems. We provide examples of methods of assessing each of the constructs within approach-avoidance theories and of linking these constructs to personality measures. We sketch a preliminary five-element reinforcer sensitivity theory (RST-5) as a first step in the integration of existing specific approach-avoidance theories into a coherent neuroscience of personality. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some predictions of Rafael Lorente de Nó 80 years later.

PubMed

Larriva-Sahd, Jorge A

2014-01-01

Rafael Lorente de Nó, the youngest of Santiago Ramón y Cajal disciples, was one of the last Century's more influential researches in neuroscience. This assay highlights two fundamental contributions of Rafael Lorente de Nó to neurobiology: the intrinsic organization of the mammalian cerebral cortex and the basic physiology of the neuron processes.

The Mind Research Network - Mental Illness Neuroscience Discovery Grant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roberts, J.; Calhoun, V.

The scientific and technological programs of the Mind Research Network (MRN), reflect DOE missions in basic science and associated instrumentation, computational modeling, and experimental techniques. MRN's technical goals over the course of this project have been to develop and apply integrated, multi-modality functional imaging techniques derived from a decade of DOE-support research and technology development.

Let's Burn Them All: Reflections on the Learning-Inhibitory Nature of Introduction to Management and Introduction to Organizational Behavior Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Robert A.

2014-01-01

This essay provides evidence from the neurosciences that standard Introduction to Management and "Introduction to Organizational Behavior" textbooks may inhibit, rather than facilitate, learning of the basic concepts and the rudimentary knowledge-basis that underlie the complex skills business students should learn in subsequent…

Principles of Experience-Dependent Neural Plasticity: Implications for Rehabilitation after Brain Damage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleim, Jeffrey A.; Jones, Theresa A.

2008-01-01

Purpose: This paper reviews 10 principles of experience-dependent neural plasticity and considerations in applying them to the damaged brain. Method: Neuroscience research using a variety of models of learning, neurological disease, and trauma are reviewed from the perspective of basic neuroscientists but in a manner intended to be useful for the…

The use of fish models to study human neurological disorders.

PubMed

Matsui, Hideaki

2017-07-01

Small teleost fish including zebrafish and medaka have been used as animal models in basic science research due to the relative ease of handling and transparency during embryogenesis. Current advances in genetic engineering and progress in disease genetics allowed utilization of these fish to study neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. This review summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of using fish for neuropsychiatric research using primarily our own studies as examples. We discuss how fish belong to a class of vertebrates, are feasible for imaging, and include diverse species with multiple research possibilities yet to be discovered. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

What does addiction medicine expect from neuroscience? From genes and neurons to treatment responses.

PubMed

Le Foll, Bernard

2016-01-01

The field of neuroscience is rapidly growing as evidenced by the mapping of the human genome, the progress in brain imaging technologies, and the refinement of sophisticated molecular tools that can be combined with innovative preclinical models. With these advances, it seems that our understanding of processes underlying addiction has never been so great. In comparison, the clinical domain has evolved at a much slower pace. Nonetheless, the addiction medical field has seen some gradual improvements in clinical care with the availability of a larger range of pharmacological options. Notably, several therapeutic alternatives are now offered for the treatment of nicotine, alcohol, and opioid use disorders. Some of these developments in treatment regimens have directly emerged from basic neuroscience research and represent a success story for the bench to beside translational approach. However, the clinical and research needs in addiction medicine are huge. There are still no pharmacological interventions available for psychostimulant and cannabis use disorders. Further, major questions remain unanswered: Would a better understanding of the neurocircuitry of addiction lead to therapeutic intervention? Would a better understanding of the neurochemical signature of addiction lead to the validation of a therapeutic target? Will pharmacogenetics hold its promise as a personalized medicine treatment approach? Using recent research developments, we will illustrate the potential of neuroscience to address some of the pressing questions in Addiction Medicine. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In vivo robotics: the automation of neuroscience and other intact-system biological fields

PubMed Central

Kodandaramaiah, Suhasa B.; Boyden, Edward S.; Forest, Craig R.

2013-01-01

Robotic and automation technologies have played a huge role in in vitro biological science, having proved critical for scientific endeavors such as genome sequencing and high-throughput screening. Robotic and automation strategies are beginning to play a greater role in in vivo and in situ sciences, especially when it comes to the difficult in vivo experiments required for understanding the neural mechanisms of behavior and disease. In this perspective, we discuss the prospects for robotics and automation to impact neuroscientific and intact-system biology fields. We discuss how robotic innovations might be created to open up new frontiers in basic and applied neuroscience, and present a concrete example with our recent automation of in vivo whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology of neurons in the living mouse brain. PMID:23841584

Applications of neuroscience in criminal law: legal and methodological issues.

PubMed

Meixner, John B

2015-01-01

The use of neuroscience in criminal law applications is an increasingly discussed topic among legal and psychological scholars. Over the past 5 years, several prominent federal criminal cases have referenced neuroscience studies and made admissibility determinations regarding neuroscience evidence. Despite this growth, the field is exceptionally young, and no one knows for sure how significant of a contribution neuroscience will make to criminal law. This article focuses on three major subfields: (1) neuroscience-based credibility assessment, which seeks to detect lies or knowledge associated with a crime; (2) application of neuroscience to aid in assessments of brain capacity for culpability, especially among adolescents; and (3) neuroscience-based prediction of future recidivism. The article briefly reviews these fields as applied to criminal law and makes recommendations for future research, calling for the increased use of individual-level data and increased realism in laboratory studies.

What Are the Parts of the Nervous System?

MedlinePlus

... Research Information Find a Study Resources and Publications Neuroscience Condition Information NICHD Research Information Find a Study ... functions does the nervous system control? Why study neuroscience? What are the areas of neuroscience? NICHD Research ...

Integrating Case Topics in Medical School Curriculum to Enhance Multiple Skill Learning: Using Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders as an Exemplary Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paley, Blair; O'Connor, Mary J.; Baillie, Susan J.; Guiton, Gretchen; Stuber, Margaret L.

2009-01-01

Objectives: This article describes the use of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) as a theme to connect the learning of basic neurosciences with clinical applications across the age span within a systems-based, integrated curricular structure that emphasizes problem-based learning. Methods: In collaboration with the Centers for Disease…

How to Improve Schooling Outcomes in Low-Income Countries? the Challenges and Hopes of Cognitive Neuroscience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abadzi, Helen

2014-01-01

The international Education for All initiative to bring about universal primary education has resulted in large enrollment increases in lower income countries but with limited outcomes. Due to scarcity in material and human resources, all but the better off often fail to learn basic skills. To improve performance within the very limited capacities…

Cajal and the Conceptual Weakness of Neural Sciences

PubMed Central

Delgado-García, José M.

2015-01-01

The experimental and conceptual contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal remain almost as fresh and valuable as when his original proposals were published more than a century ago—a rare example, contrasting with other related sciences. His basic concepts on the neuron as the main building block of the central nervous system, the dynamic polarization principle as a way to understand how neurons deal with ongoing active processes, and brain local structural arrangements as a result of the functional specialization of selected neural circuits are concepts still surviving in present research papers dealing with brain function during the performance of cognitive and/or behavioral activities. What is more, the central dogma of the Neuroscience of today, i.e., brain plasticity as the morpho-functional substrate of memory and learning processes, was already proposed and documented with notable insights by Ramón y Cajal. From this background, I will try to discuss in this chapter which new functional and structural concepts have been introduced in contemporary Neuroscience and how we will be able to construct a set of basic principles underlying brain functions for the twenty-first century. PMID:26483644

Achieving "organic compositionality" through self-organization: reviews on brain-inspired robotics experiments.

PubMed

Tani, Jun; Nishimoto, Ryunosuke; Paine, Rainer W

2008-05-01

The current paper examines how compositional structures can self-organize in given neuro-dynamical systems when robot agents are forced to learn multiple goal-directed behaviors simultaneously. Firstly, we propose a basic model accounting for the roles of parietal-premotor interactions for representing skills for goal-directed behaviors. The basic model had been implemented in a set of robotics experiments employing different neural network architectures. The comparative reviews among those experimental results address the issues of local vs distributed representations in representing behavior and the effectiveness of level structures associated with different sensory-motor articulation mechanisms. It is concluded that the compositional structures can be acquired "organically" by achieving generalization in learning and by capturing the contextual nature of skilled behaviors under specific conditions. Furthermore, the paper discusses possible feedback for empirical neuroscience studies in the future.

Life science-based neuroscience education at large Western Public Universities.

PubMed

Coskun, Volkan; Carpenter, Ellen M

2016-12-01

The last 40 years have seen a remarkable increase in the teaching of neuroscience at the undergraduate level. From its origins as a component of anatomy or physiology departments to its current status as an independent interdisciplinary field, neuroscience has become the chosen field of study for many undergraduate students, particularly for those interested in medical school or graduate school in neuroscience or related fields. We examined how life science-based neuroscience education is offered at large public universities in the Western United States. By examining publicly available materials posted online, we found that neuroscience education may be offered as an independent program, or as a component of biological or physiological sciences at many institutions. Neuroscience programs offer a course of study involving a core series of courses and a collection of topical electives. Many programs provide the opportunity for independent research, or for laboratory-based training in neuroscience. Features of neuroscience programs at Western universities closely matched those seen at the top 25 public universities, as identified by U.S. News & World Report. While neuroscience programs were identified in many Western states, there were several states in which public universities appeared not to provide opportunities to major in neuroscience. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Seven challenges for neuroscience.

PubMed

Markram, Henry

2013-01-01

Although twenty-first century neuroscience is a major scientific enterprise, advances in basic research have not yet translated into benefits for society. In this paper, I outline seven fundamental challenges that need to be overcome. First, neuroscience has to become "big science" - we need big teams with the resources and competences to tackle the big problems. Second, we need to create interlinked sets of data providing a complete picture of single areas of the brain at their different levels of organization with "rungs" linking the descriptions for humans and other species. Such "data ladders" will help us to meet the third challenge - the development of efficient predictive tools, enabling us to drastically increase the information we can extract from expensive experiments. The fourth challenge goes one step further: we have to develop novel hardware and software sufficiently powerful to simulate the brain. In the future, supercomputer-based brain simulation will enable us to make in silico manipulations and recordings, which are currently completely impossible in the lab. The fifth and sixth challenges are translational. On the one hand we need to develop new ways of classifying and simulating brain disease, leading to better diagnosis and more effective drug discovery. On the other, we have to exploit our knowledge to build new brain-inspired technologies, with potentially huge benefits for industry and for society. This leads to the seventh challenge. Neuroscience can indeed deliver huge benefits but we have to be aware of widespread social concern about our work. We need to recognize the fears that exist, lay them to rest, and actively build public support for neuroscience research. We have to set goals for ourselves that the public can recognize and share. And then we have to deliver on our promises. Only in this way, will we receive the support and funding we need.

Power-up: A Reanalysis of 'Power Failure' in Neuroscience Using Mixture Modeling

PubMed Central

Wood, John

2017-01-01

Recently, evidence for endemically low statistical power has cast neuroscience findings into doubt. If low statistical power plagues neuroscience, then this reduces confidence in the reported effects. However, if statistical power is not uniformly low, then such blanket mistrust might not be warranted. Here, we provide a different perspective on this issue, analyzing data from an influential study reporting a median power of 21% across 49 meta-analyses (Button et al., 2013). We demonstrate, using Gaussian mixture modeling, that the sample of 730 studies included in that analysis comprises several subcomponents so the use of a single summary statistic is insufficient to characterize the nature of the distribution. We find that statistical power is extremely low for studies included in meta-analyses that reported a null result and that it varies substantially across subfields of neuroscience, with particularly low power in candidate gene association studies. Therefore, whereas power in neuroscience remains a critical issue, the notion that studies are systematically underpowered is not the full story: low power is far from a universal problem. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recently, researchers across the biomedical and psychological sciences have become concerned with the reliability of results. One marker for reliability is statistical power: the probability of finding a statistically significant result given that the effect exists. Previous evidence suggests that statistical power is low across the field of neuroscience. Our results present a more comprehensive picture of statistical power in neuroscience: on average, studies are indeed underpowered—some very seriously so—but many studies show acceptable or even exemplary statistical power. We show that this heterogeneity in statistical power is common across most subfields in neuroscience. This new, more nuanced picture of statistical power in neuroscience could affect not only scientific understanding, but potentially policy and funding decisions for neuroscience research. PMID:28706080

Positron Emission Tomography Molecular Imaging in Late-Life Depression

PubMed Central

Hirao, Kentaro; Smith, Gwenn S.

2017-01-01

Molecular imaging represents a bridge between basic and clinical neuroscience observations and provides many opportunities for translation and identifying mechanisms that may inform prevention and intervention strategies in late-life depression (LLD). Substantial advances in instrumentation and radiotracer chemistry have resulted in improved sensitivity and spatial resolution and the ability to study in vivo an increasing number of neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and, importantly, neuropathological processes. Molecular brain imaging studies in LLD will be reviewed, with a primary focus on positron emission tomography. Future directions for the field of molecular imaging in LLD will be discussed, including integrating molecular imaging with genetic, neuropsychiatric, and cognitive outcomes and multimodality neuroimaging. PMID:24394152

The Selective Allure of Neuroscientific Explanations

PubMed Central

Scurich, Nicholas; Shniderman, Adam

2014-01-01

Some claim that recent advances in neuroscience will revolutionize the way we think about human nature and legal culpability. Empirical support for this proposition is mixed. Two highly-cited empirical studies found that irrelevant neuroscientific explanations and neuroimages were highly persuasive to laypersons. However, attempts to replicate these effects have largely been unsuccessful. Two separate experiments tested the hypothesis that neuroscience is susceptible to motivated reasoning, which refers to the tendency to selectively credit or discredit information in a manner that reinforces preexisting beliefs. Participants read a newspaper article about a cutting-edge neuroscience study. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants deemed the hypothetical study sound and the neuroscience persuasive when the outcome of the study was congruent with their prior beliefs, but gave the identical study and neuroscience negative evaluations when it frustrated their beliefs. Neuroscience, it appears, is subject to the same sort of cognitive dynamics as other types of scientific evidence. These findings qualify claims that neuroscience will play a qualitatively different role in the way in which it shapes people’s beliefs and informs issues of social policy. PMID:25207921

The selective allure of neuroscientific explanations.

PubMed

Scurich, Nicholas; Shniderman, Adam

2014-01-01

Some claim that recent advances in neuroscience will revolutionize the way we think about human nature and legal culpability. Empirical support for this proposition is mixed. Two highly-cited empirical studies found that irrelevant neuroscientific explanations and neuroimages were highly persuasive to laypersons. However, attempts to replicate these effects have largely been unsuccessful. Two separate experiments tested the hypothesis that neuroscience is susceptible to motivated reasoning, which refers to the tendency to selectively credit or discredit information in a manner that reinforces preexisting beliefs. Participants read a newspaper article about a cutting-edge neuroscience study. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants deemed the hypothetical study sound and the neuroscience persuasive when the outcome of the study was congruent with their prior beliefs, but gave the identical study and neuroscience negative evaluations when it frustrated their beliefs. Neuroscience, it appears, is subject to the same sort of cognitive dynamics as other types of scientific evidence. These findings qualify claims that neuroscience will play a qualitatively different role in the way in which it shapes people's beliefs and informs issues of social policy.

Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: Blueprints for the 21st Century

PubMed Central

Wiertelak, Eric P.; Ramirez, Julio J.

2008-01-01

Paralleling the explosive growth of neuroscientific knowledge over the last two decades, numerous institutions from liberal arts colleges to research universities have either implemented or begun exploring the possibility of implementing undergraduate programs in neuroscience. In 1995, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) partnered with Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) to offer a workshop exploring how undergraduate neuroscience education should proceed. Four blueprints were created to provide direction to the burgeoning interest in developing programs in undergraduate neuroscience education: 1) Neuroscience nested in psychology; 2) Neuroscience nested in biology; 3) Neuroscience as a minor; and 4) Neuroscience as a major. In 2005, FUN again partnered with PKAL to revisit the blueprints in order to align the blueprints with modern pedagogical philosophy and technology. The original four blueprints were modified and updated. One particularly exciting outgrowth of the 2005 workshop was the introduction of a fifth curricular blueprint that strongly emphasizes the integration of the humanities and social sciences into neuroscience: Neuroscience Studies. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience, an education in neuroscience will prepare the next generation of students to think critically, synthetically, and creatively as they confront the problems facing humanity in the 21st century. PMID:23493318

76 FR 55400 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-07

...: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Auditory System Study Section... Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neurotoxicology and Alcohol Study Section. Date: October 13, 2011. Time... Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Developmental Brain Disorders Study Section...

What songbirds teach us about learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brainard, Michael S.; Doupe, Allison J.

2002-05-01

Bird fanciers have known for centuries that songbirds learn their songs. This learning has striking parallels to speech acquisition: like humans, birds must hear the sounds of adults during a sensitive period, and must hear their own voice while learning to vocalize. With the discovery and investigation of discrete brain structures required for singing, songbirds are now providing insights into neural mechanisms of learning. Aided by a wealth of behavioural observations and species diversity, studies in songbirds are addressing such basic issues in neuroscience as perceptual and sensorimotor learning, developmental regulation of plasticity, and the control and function of adult neurogenesis.

Unraveling Cajal's view of the olfactory system

PubMed Central

Figueres-Oñate, María; Gutiérrez, Yolanda; López-Mascaraque, Laura

2014-01-01

The olfactory system has a highly regular organization of interconnected synaptic circuits from the periphery. It is therefore an excellent model for understanding general principles about how the brain processes information. Cajal revealed the basic cell types and their interconnections at the end of the XIX century. Since his original descriptions, the observation and analysis of the olfactory system and its components represents a major topic in neuroscience studies, providing important insights into the neural mechanisms. In this review, we will highlight the importance of Cajal contributions and his legacy to the actual knowledge of the olfactory system. PMID:25071462

[The Biology of Learning].

PubMed

Campo-Cabal, Gerardo

2012-01-01

The effort to relate mental and biological functioning has fluctuated between two doctrines: 1) an attempt to explain mental functioning as a collective property of the brain and 2) as one relatied to other mental processes associated with specific regions of the brain. The article reviews the main theories developed over the last 200 years: phrenology, the psuedo study of the brain, mass action, cellular connectionism and distributed processing among others. In addition, approaches have emerged in recent years that allows for an understanding of the biological determinants and individual differences in complex mental processes through what is called cognitive neuroscience. Knowing the definition of neuroscience, the learning of memory, the ways in which learning occurs, the principles of the neural basis of memory and learning and its effects on brain function, among other things, allows us the basic understanding of the processes of memory and learning and is an important requirement to address the best manner to commit to the of training future specialists in Psychiatry. Copyright © 2012 Asociación Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Psychotropic medication, psychiatric disorders, and higher brain functions

PubMed Central

Schulz, Pierre; Steimer, Thierry

2000-01-01

Conventional psychiatric diagnosis is founded on symptom description; this then governs the choice of psychotropic medication. This purely descriptive approach resembles a description of diphtheria from the premicrobiology era. Based on current advances in basic and clinical neuroscience, we propose inserting an intermediate level of analysis between psychiatric symptoms and pharmacologic modes of action. Paradigm 1 is to analyze psychiatric symptoms in terms of which higher brain function(s) is (are) abnormal, ie, symptoms should be analyzed as higher brain dysfunction: a case study in obsessive-compulsive disorder reveals pointers in four common symptoms to the higher functions of working memory, emotional overlay, absence of voluntary control, and the ability to evaluate personal mental phenomena. Paradigm 2 is to view psychotropic drugs as modifying normal higher brain functions, rather than merely treating symptoms, which they do only secondarily: thus depression may respond to agents that act on related aspects of mental life derived from higher brain functions, eg, the ability to enhance bonding. We advocate a strategy in which psychiatric illness is progressively reclassified through knowledge in clinical neuroscience and treatment targets are revised accordingly. PMID:22034249

Toward an account of clinical anxiety predicated on basic, neurally mapped mechanisms of Pavlovian fear-learning: the case for conditioned overgeneralization.

PubMed

Lissek, Shmuel

2012-04-01

The past two decades have brought dramatic progress in the neuroscience of anxiety due, in no small part, to animal findings specifying the neurobiology of Pavlovian fear-conditioning. Fortuitously, this neurally mapped process of fear learning is widely expressed in humans, and has been centrally implicated in the etiology of clinical anxiety. Fear-conditioning experiments in anxiety patients thus represent a unique opportunity to bring recent advances in animal neuroscience to bear on working, brain-based models of clinical anxiety. The current presentation details the neural basis and clinical relevance of fear conditioning, and highlights generalization of conditioned fear to stimuli resembling the conditioned danger cue as one of the more robust conditioning markers of clinical anxiety. Studies testing such generalization across a variety of anxiety disorders (panic, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder) with systematic methods developed in animals will next be presented. Finally, neural accounts of overgeneralization deriving from animal and human data will be described with emphasis given to implications for the neurobiology and treatment of clinical anxiety. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

77 FR 28886 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-16

..., Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Sensorimotor Integration Study Section. Date... and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neural Oxidative Metabolism and Death Study...: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neurodifferentiation, Plasticity...

A theory of eu-estrogenemia: a unifying concept

PubMed Central

Turner, Ralph J.; Kerber, Irwin J.

2017-01-01

Abstract Objective: The aim of the study was to propose a unifying theory for the role of estrogen in postmenopausal women through examples in basic science, randomized controlled trials, observational studies, and clinical practice. Methods: Review and evaluation of the literature relating to estrogen. Discussion: The role of hormone therapy and ubiquitous estrogen receptors after reproductive senescence gains insight from basic science models. Observational studies and individualized patient care in clinical practice may show outcomes that are not reproduced in randomized clinical trials. The understanding gained from the timing hypothesis for atherosclerosis, the critical window theory in neurosciences, randomized controlled trials, and numerous genomic and nongenomic actions of estrogen discovered in basic science provides new explanations to clinical challenges that practitioners face. Consequences of a hypo-estrogenemic duration in women's lives are poorly understood. The Study of Women Across the Nation suggests its magnitude is greater than was previously acknowledged. We propose that the healthy user bias was the result of surgical treatment (hysterectomy with oophorectomy) for many gynecological maladies followed by pharmacological and physiological doses of estrogen to optimize patient quality of life. The past decade of research has begun to demonstrate the role of estrogen in homeostasis. Conclusions: The theory of eu-estrogenemia provides a robust framework to unify the timing hypothesis, critical window theory, randomized controlled trials, the basic science of estrogen receptors, and clinical observations of patients over the past five decades. PMID:28562489

Computer Science Research Funding: How Much Is Too Little?

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

Bioinformatics Parallel computing Computational biology Principles of programming Computational neuroscience Real-time and embedded systems Scientific...National Security Agency ( NSA ) • Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and others The various research programs have been coordinated through the DDR&E...DOD funding included only DARPA and OSD programs. FY07 and FY08 PBR funding included DARPA, NSA , some of the Services’ basic and applied research

A Guerilla Guide to Common Problems in ‘Neurostatistics’: Essential Statistical Topics in Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Smith, Paul F.

2017-01-01

Effective inferential statistical analysis is essential for high quality studies in neuroscience. However, recently, neuroscience has been criticised for the poor use of experimental design and statistical analysis. Many of the statistical issues confronting neuroscience are similar to other areas of biology; however, there are some that occur more regularly in neuroscience studies. This review attempts to provide a succinct overview of some of the major issues that arise commonly in the analyses of neuroscience data. These include: the non-normal distribution of the data; inequality of variance between groups; extensive correlation in data for repeated measurements across time or space; excessive multiple testing; inadequate statistical power due to small sample sizes; pseudo-replication; and an over-emphasis on binary conclusions about statistical significance as opposed to effect sizes. Statistical analysis should be viewed as just another neuroscience tool, which is critical to the final outcome of the study. Therefore, it needs to be done well and it is a good idea to be proactive and seek help early, preferably before the study even begins. PMID:29371855

A Guerilla Guide to Common Problems in 'Neurostatistics': Essential Statistical Topics in Neuroscience.

PubMed

Smith, Paul F

2017-01-01

Effective inferential statistical analysis is essential for high quality studies in neuroscience. However, recently, neuroscience has been criticised for the poor use of experimental design and statistical analysis. Many of the statistical issues confronting neuroscience are similar to other areas of biology; however, there are some that occur more regularly in neuroscience studies. This review attempts to provide a succinct overview of some of the major issues that arise commonly in the analyses of neuroscience data. These include: the non-normal distribution of the data; inequality of variance between groups; extensive correlation in data for repeated measurements across time or space; excessive multiple testing; inadequate statistical power due to small sample sizes; pseudo-replication; and an over-emphasis on binary conclusions about statistical significance as opposed to effect sizes. Statistical analysis should be viewed as just another neuroscience tool, which is critical to the final outcome of the study. Therefore, it needs to be done well and it is a good idea to be proactive and seek help early, preferably before the study even begins.

An Online, Interactive Approach to Teaching Neuroscience to Adolescents

PubMed Central

Moreno, Janette; Willcockson, Irmgard; Smith, Donna; Mayes, Janice

2006-01-01

Most of today's students are skilled in instant messaging, Web browsing, online games, and blogs. These have become part of the social landscape and have changed how we learn and where we learn. The question becomes how to harness the attractiveness and ubiquity of electronic venues toward the goal of teaching neuroscience. At the Rice University Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning, a central focus is the creation of innovative materials that appeal to middle school students. A recent project was undertaken through a Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award (R25 DA15063) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to inform adolescents about the neurobiology of substance abuse and the current research dealing with a class of drugs known as club drugs. Problem-based learning, multimedia pedagogy, and the National Science Content Standards were integrated to produce The Reconstructors™, an episodic series available via the World Wide Web at http://reconstructors.rice.edu. A field test of students from five schools assessed the retention of content after “playing” The Reconstructors™ series titled Nothing to Rave About. Gain scores indicated that middle school students' knowledge about club drugs and the basic neuroscience concepts that explain their effects improved significantly. PMID:17012204

The challenge of understanding the brain: where we stand in 2015

PubMed Central

Lisman, John

2015-01-01

Starting with the work of Cajal more than 100 years ago, neuroscience has sought to understand how the cells of the brain give rise to cognitive functions. How far has neuroscience progressed in this endeavor? This Perspective assesses progress in elucidating five basic brain processes: visual recognition, long-term memory, short-term memory, action selection, and motor control. Each of these processes entails several levels of analysis: the behavioral properties, the underlying computational algorithm, and the cellular/network mechanisms that implement that algorithm. At this juncture, while many questions remain unanswered, achievements in several areas of research have made it possible to relate specific properties of brain networks to cognitive functions. What has been learned reveals, at least in rough outline, how cognitive processes can be an emergent property of neurons and their connections. PMID:25996132

Developmental neuroscience of time and number: implications for autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities

PubMed Central

Allman, Melissa J.; Pelphrey, Kevin A.; Meck, Warren H.

2011-01-01

Estimations of time and number share many similarities in both non-humans and man. The primary focus of this review is on the development of time and number sense across infancy and childhood, and neuropsychological findings as they relate to time and number discrimination in infants and adults. Discussion of these findings is couched within a mode-control model of timing and counting which assumes time and number share a common magnitude representation system. A basic sense of time and number likely serves as the foundation for advanced numerical and temporal competence, and aspects of higher cognition—this will be discussed as it relates to typical childhood, and certain developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder. Directions for future research in the developmental neuroscience of time and number (NEUTIN) will also be highlighted. PMID:22408612

In vivo robotics: the automation of neuroscience and other intact-system biological fields.

PubMed

Kodandaramaiah, Suhasa B; Boyden, Edward S; Forest, Craig R

2013-12-01

Robotic and automation technologies have played a huge role in in vitro biological science, having proved critical for scientific endeavors such as genome sequencing and high-throughput screening. Robotic and automation strategies are beginning to play a greater role in in vivo and in situ sciences, especially when it comes to the difficult in vivo experiments required for understanding the neural mechanisms of behavior and disease. In this perspective, we discuss the prospects for robotics and automation to influence neuroscientific and intact-system biology fields. We discuss how robotic innovations might be created to open up new frontiers in basic and applied neuroscience and present a concrete example with our recent automation of in vivo whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology of neurons in the living mouse brain. © 2013 New York Academy of Sciences.

Attitudes toward neuroscience education in psychiatry: a national multi-stakeholder survey.

PubMed

Fung, Lawrence K; Akil, Mayada; Widge, Alik; Roberts, Laura Weiss; Etkin, Amit

2015-04-01

The objective of this study is to assess the attitudes of chairs of psychiatry departments, psychiatrists, and psychiatry trainees toward neuroscience education in residency programs and beyond in order to inform future neuroscience education approaches. This multi-stakeholder survey captured data on demographics, self-assessments of neuroscience knowledge, attitudes toward neuroscience education, preferences in learning modalities, and interests in specific neuroscience topics. In 2012, the authors distributed the surveys: by paper to 133 US psychiatry department chairs and electronically through the American Psychiatric Association to 3,563 of its members (1,000 psychiatrists and 2,563 trainees). The response rates for the chair, psychiatrist, and trainee surveys were 53, 9, and 18 %, respectively. A large majority of respondents agreed with the need for more neuroscience education in general and with respect to their own training. Most respondents believed that neuroscience will help destigmatize mental illness and begin producing new treatments or personalized medicines in 5-10 years. Only a small proportion of trainees and psychiatrists, however, reported a strong knowledge base in neuroscience. Respondents also reported broad enthusiasm for transdiagnostic topics in neuroscience (such as emotion regulation and attention/cognition) and description at the level of neural circuits. This study demonstrates the opportunity and enthusiasm for teaching more neuroscience in psychiatry among a broad range of stakeholder groups. A high level of interest was also found for transdiagnostic topics and approaches. We suggest that a transdiagnostic framework may be an effective way to deliver neuroscience education to the psychiatric community and illustrate this through a case example, drawing the similarity between this neuroscience approach and problem-based formulations familiar to clinicians.

Power-up: A Reanalysis of 'Power Failure' in Neuroscience Using Mixture Modeling.

PubMed

Nord, Camilla L; Valton, Vincent; Wood, John; Roiser, Jonathan P

2017-08-23

Recently, evidence for endemically low statistical power has cast neuroscience findings into doubt. If low statistical power plagues neuroscience, then this reduces confidence in the reported effects. However, if statistical power is not uniformly low, then such blanket mistrust might not be warranted. Here, we provide a different perspective on this issue, analyzing data from an influential study reporting a median power of 21% across 49 meta-analyses (Button et al., 2013). We demonstrate, using Gaussian mixture modeling, that the sample of 730 studies included in that analysis comprises several subcomponents so the use of a single summary statistic is insufficient to characterize the nature of the distribution. We find that statistical power is extremely low for studies included in meta-analyses that reported a null result and that it varies substantially across subfields of neuroscience, with particularly low power in candidate gene association studies. Therefore, whereas power in neuroscience remains a critical issue, the notion that studies are systematically underpowered is not the full story: low power is far from a universal problem. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recently, researchers across the biomedical and psychological sciences have become concerned with the reliability of results. One marker for reliability is statistical power: the probability of finding a statistically significant result given that the effect exists. Previous evidence suggests that statistical power is low across the field of neuroscience. Our results present a more comprehensive picture of statistical power in neuroscience: on average, studies are indeed underpowered-some very seriously so-but many studies show acceptable or even exemplary statistical power. We show that this heterogeneity in statistical power is common across most subfields in neuroscience. This new, more nuanced picture of statistical power in neuroscience could affect not only scientific understanding, but potentially policy and funding decisions for neuroscience research. Copyright © 2017 Nord, Valton et al.

Attention Is Required for Knowledge-Based Sequential Grouping: Insights from the Integration of Syllables into Words.

PubMed

Ding, Nai; Pan, Xunyi; Luo, Cheng; Su, Naifei; Zhang, Wen; Zhang, Jianfeng

2018-01-31

How the brain groups sequential sensory events into chunks is a fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience. This study investigates whether top-down attention or specific tasks are required for the brain to apply lexical knowledge to group syllables into words. Neural responses tracking the syllabic and word rhythms of a rhythmic speech sequence were concurrently monitored using electroencephalography (EEG). The participants performed different tasks, attending to either the rhythmic speech sequence or a distractor, which was another speech stream or a nonlinguistic auditory/visual stimulus. Attention to speech, but not a lexical-meaning-related task, was required for reliable neural tracking of words, even when the distractor was a nonlinguistic stimulus presented cross-modally. Neural tracking of syllables, however, was reliably observed in all tested conditions. These results strongly suggest that neural encoding of individual auditory events (i.e., syllables) is automatic, while knowledge-based construction of temporal chunks (i.e., words) crucially relies on top-down attention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Why we cannot understand speech when not paying attention is an old question in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Speech processing is a complex process that involves multiple stages, e.g., hearing and analyzing the speech sound, recognizing words, and combining words into phrases and sentences. The current study investigates which speech-processing stage is blocked when we do not listen carefully. We show that the brain can reliably encode syllables, basic units of speech sounds, even when we do not pay attention. Nevertheless, when distracted, the brain cannot group syllables into multisyllabic words, which are basic units for speech meaning. Therefore, the process of converting speech sound into meaning crucially relies on attention. Copyright © 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/381178-11$15.00/0.

76 FR 54238 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-31

...-806-2515, [email protected] . Name of Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience... Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Neurogenesis and Cell Fate Study Section. Date: October 5, 2011. Time: 8... Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology, Rhythms and Sleep Study...

An evaluation of post-registration neuroscience focused education and neuroscience nurses' perceived educational needs.

PubMed

Braine, Mary E; Cook, Neal

2015-11-01

People with complex neurological conditions require co-ordinated care provided by nurses educated in meeting service needs, understanding the pathophysiological processes of disease and the preparation to care for those with complex needs. However, evidence suggests that neuroscience specific education provision is largely unregulated and set outside of a cohesive professional development context. Furthermore, it largely seems to only address the induction phase into working within neurosciences. To evaluate the nature of post-registration neuroscience focused education across Europe and neuroscience nurses' perceived educational needs. Post qualifying nurses working in the field of neurosciences were invited to complete a self-reported 29-item on-line questionnaire that contained closed and open-ended questions exploring professional background, clinical and educational experience, educational opportunities available to them and their perspectives on their educational needs. 154 participants from fourteen countries across Europe completed the survey. 75% (n=110) of respondents had undertaken neuroscience focused education with the most accessible education opportunities found to be conferences 77% (n=96) and study days 69% (n=86). Overall, 52.6% of courses were multidisciplinary in nature, and 47.4% were exclusively nursing. Most identified that their courses were funded by their employer (57%, n=63) or partly funded by their employer. Results illustrate a significant variance across Europe, highlighting the need for more effective communication between neuroscience nurses across Europe. Implications for future education provision, recruitment/retention, and funding are discussed, resulting in recommendations for the future of neuroscience nursing. This study, the largest of its kind to survey neuroscience nurses, illustrates the absence of a cohesive career development pathway for neuroscience nurses in Europe. Nurses need quality assured specialist education to deliver high quality appropriate healthcare. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mentoring undergraduate students in neuroscience research: a model system at baldwin-wallace college.

PubMed

Mickley, G Andrew; Kenmuir, Cynthia; Remmers-Roeber, Dawn

2003-01-01

As neuroscience research and discovery undergoes phenomenal growth worldwide, undergraduate students are seeking complete laboratory experiences that go beyond the classic classroom curriculum and provide mentoring in all aspects of science. Stock, in-class, laboratory experiences with known outcomes are less desirable than discovery-based projects in which students become full partners with faculty in the design, conduct and documentation of experiments that find their way into the peer-reviewed literature. The challenges of providing such experiences in the context of a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) can be daunting. Faculty teaching loads are high, and student time is spread over a variety of courses and co-curricular activities. In this context, undergraduates are often reluctant, or ill equipped, to take individual initiative to generate and perform empirical studies. They are more likely to become involved in a sustained, faculty-initiated research program. This paper describes such a program at Baldwin-Wallace College. Students frequently start their laboratory activities in the freshman or sophomore year and enter into a system of faculty and peer mentoring that leads them to experience all aspects of the research enterprise. Students begin with learning basic laboratory tasks and may eventually achieve the status of "Senior Laboratory Associate" (SLA). SLAs become involved in laboratory management, training of less-experienced students, manuscript preparation, and grant proposal writing. The system described here provides a structured, but encouraging, community in which talented undergraduates can develop and mature as they are mentored in the context of a modern neuroscience laboratory. Retention is very good - as most students continue their work in the laboratory for 2-3 years. Student self-reports regarding their growth and satisfaction with the experiences in the laboratory have been excellent and our neuroscience students' acceptance rate in graduate, medical and veterinary schools has been well above the College average. The system also fosters faculty productivity and satisfaction in the context of the typical challenges of conducting research at a PUI.

Introduction to Concepts in Artificial Neural Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Niebur, Dagmar

1995-01-01

This introduction to artificial neural networks summarizes some basic concepts of computational neuroscience and the resulting models of artificial neurons. The terminology of biological and artificial neurons, biological and machine learning and neural processing is introduced. The concepts of supervised and unsupervised learning are explained with examples from the power system area. Finally, a taxonomy of different types of neurons and different classes of artificial neural networks is presented.

Tools of the trade: theory and method in mindfulness neuroscience.

PubMed

Tang, Yi-Yuan; Posner, Michael I

2013-01-01

Mindfulness neuroscience is an emerging research field that investigates the underlying mechanisms of different mindfulness practices, different stages and different states of practice as well as different effects of practice over the lifespan. Mindfulness neuroscience research integrates theory and methods from eastern contemplative traditions, western psychology and neuroscience, and from neuroimaging techniques, physiological measures and behavioral tests. We here review several key theoretical and methodological challenges in the empirical study of mindfulness neuroscience and provide suggestions for overcoming these challenges.

C-130J Breathing Resistance Study

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-01

Neuroscience Branch Applied Neuroscience Branch Warfighter Interface Division //signed// WILLIAM E. RUSSELL Chief, Warfighter Interface...PERFORMING ORGANIZATION Applied Neuroscience Branch Aerospace Physiology & Performance Section Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7951 REPORT NUMBER 9

Explaining the Alluring Influence of Neuroscience Information on Scientific Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhodes, Rebecca E.; Rodriguez, Fernando; Shah, Priti

2014-01-01

Previous studies have investigated the influence of neuroscience information or images on ratings of scientific evidence quality but have yielded mixed results. We examined the influence of neuroscience information on evaluations of flawed scientific studies after taking into account individual differences in scientific reasoning skills, thinking…

Conceptions and Misconceptions about Neuroscience in Preschool Teachers: A Study from Argentina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hermida, M. J.; Segretin, M. S.; Soni García, A.; Lipina, S. J.

2016-01-01

Background: Teachers' conceptions and misconceptions about neuroscience are crucial in establishing a proper dialogue between neuroscience and education. In recent years, studies in different countries have examined primary and secondary school teachers' conceptions. However, although preschool education has proved its importance to later academic…

Extending the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations effect to popular articles about educational topics.

PubMed

Im, Soo-Hyun; Varma, Keisha; Varma, Sashank

2017-12-01

The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations (SANE) is the finding that people overweight psychological arguments when framed in terms of neuroscience findings. This study extended this finding to arguments concerning the application of psychological findings to educational topics. Participants (n = 320) were recruited from the general public, specifically among English-speaking Amazon Mechanical Turk workers residing in the United States. We developed eight articles that orthogonally varied two processes (learning vs. development) with two disciplines (cognitive vs. affective psychology). We increased neuroscience framing across four levels: psychological finding alone, with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal), with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal) and graph, and with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal) and brain image. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of neuroscience framing and rated the credibility of each article's argument. Seductive allure of neuroscience explanations effects were not ubiquitous. Extraneous verbal neuroscience framings, either alone or accompanied by graphs, did not influence the credibility of the application of psychological findings to educational topics. However, there was a SANE effect when educational articles were accompanied by both extraneous verbal neuroscience findings and brain images. This effect persisted even after controlling for individual differences in familiarity with education, attitude towards psychology, and knowledge of neuroscience. The results suggest that there is a SANE effect for articles about educational topics among the general public when they are accompanied by both extraneous verbal neuroscience findings and brain images. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Interactive social neuroscience to study autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Rolison, Max J; Naples, Adam J; McPartland, James C

2015-03-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and relationships, but the neural mechanisms underlying these difficulties remain largely unknown. While social difficulties in ASD are most apparent in the context of interactions with other people, most neuroscience research investigating ASD have provided limited insight into the complex dynamics of these interactions. The development of novel, innovative "interactive social neuroscience" methods to study the brain in contexts with two interacting humans is a necessary advance for ASD research. Studies applying an interactive neuroscience approach to study two brains engaging with one another have revealed significant differences in neural processes during interaction compared to observation in brain regions that are implicated in the neuropathology of ASD. Interactive social neuroscience methods are crucial in clarifying the mechanisms underlying the social and communication deficits that characterize ASD.

Culture and neuroscience: additive or synergistic?

PubMed Central

Dapretto, Mirella; Iacoboni, Marco

2010-01-01

The investigation of cultural phenomena using neuroscientific methods—cultural neuroscience (CN)—is receiving increasing attention. Yet it is unclear whether the integration of cultural study and neuroscience is merely additive, providing additional evidence of neural plasticity in the human brain, or truly synergistic, yielding discoveries that neither discipline could have achieved alone. We discuss how the parent fields to CN: cross-cultural psychology, psychological anthropology and cognitive neuroscience inform the investigation of the role of cultural experience in shaping the brain. Drawing on well-established methodologies from cross-cultural psychology and cognitive neuroscience, we outline a set of guidelines for CN, evaluate 17 CN studies in terms of these guidelines, and provide a summary table of our results. We conclude that the combination of culture and neuroscience is both additive and synergistic; while some CN methodologies and findings will represent the direct union of information from parent fields, CN studies employing the methodological rigor required by this logistically challenging new field have the potential to transform existing methodologies and produce unique findings. PMID:20083533

Constructivist developmental theory is needed in developmental neuroscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arsalidou, Marie; Pascual-Leone, Juan

2016-12-01

Neuroscience techniques provide an open window previously unavailable to the origin of thoughts and actions in children. Developmental cognitive neuroscience is booming, and knowledge from human brain mapping is finding its way into education and pediatric practice. Promises of application in developmental cognitive neuroscience rests however on better theory-guided data interpretation. Massive amounts of neuroimaging data from children are being processed, yet published studies often do not frame their work within developmental models—in detriment, we believe, to progress in this field. Here we describe some core challenges in interpreting the data from developmental cognitive neuroscience, and advocate the use of constructivist developmental theories of human cognition with a neuroscience interpretation.

Interactionist Neuroscience.

PubMed

Badre, David; Frank, Michael J; Moore, Christopher I

2015-12-02

We argue that bidirectional interaction between animal and human studies is essential for understanding the human brain. The revolution in meso-scale study of circuits in non-human species provides a historical opportunity. However, to fully realize its potential requires integration with human neuroscience. We describe three strategies for successful interactionist neuroscience. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Visualizing Neuroscience: Learning about the Brain through Art

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chudler, Eric H.; Konrady, Paula

2006-01-01

Neuroscience is a subject that can motivate, excite, and stimulate the curiosity of everyone However, the study of the brain is made difficult by an abundance of new vocabulary words and abstract concepts. Although neuroscience has the potential to inspire students, many teachers find it difficult to include a study of the brain in their…

Methods and successes of New York University workshops for science graduate students and post-docs in science writing for general audiences (readers and radio listeners)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, S. S.

2012-12-01

Scientists and science administrators often stress the importance of communication to the general public, but rarely develop educational infrastructures to achieve this goal. Since 2009, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University has offered a series of basic and advanced writing workshops for graduate students and post-docs in NYU's eight scientific divisions (neuroscience, psychology, physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, anthropology, and computer science). The basic methodology of the NYU approach will be described, along with successful examples of both written and radio work by students that have been either published or broadcast by general interest journalism outlets.

From student to steward: the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown University as a case study in professional development during doctoral training.

PubMed

Ullrich, Lauren; Dumanis, Sonya B; Evans, Tanya M; Jeannotte, Alexis M; Leonard, Carrie; Rozzi, Summer J; Taylor, Caitlin M; Gale, Karen; Kanwal, Jagmeet S; Maguire-Zeiss, Kathleen A; Wolfe, Barry B; Forcelli, Patrick A

2014-01-01

A key facet of professional development is the formation of professional identity. At its most basic level, professional identity for a scientist centers on mastery of a discipline and the development of research skills during doctoral training. To develop a broader understanding of professional identity in the context of doctoral training, the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID) ran a multi-institutional study from 2001 to 2005. A key outcome of the CID was the development of the concept of 'stewards of the discipline'. The Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN) at Georgetown University participated in CID from 2003 to 2005. Here, we describe the IPN and highlight the programmatic developments resulting from participation in the CID. In particular, we emphasize programmatic activities that are designed to promote professional skills in parallel with scientific development. We describe activities in the domains of leadership, communication, teaching, public outreach, ethics, collaboration, and mentorship. Finally, we provide data that demonstrate that traditional metrics of academic success are not adversely affected by the inclusion of professional development activities in the curricula. By incorporating these seven 'professional development' activities into the required coursework and dissertation research experience, the IPN motivates students to become stewards of the discipline.

Translational Research in Alzheimer’s and Prion Diseases

PubMed Central

Di Fede, Giuseppe; Giaccone, Giorgio; Salmona, Mario; Tagliavini, Fabrizio

2017-01-01

Translational neuroscience integrates the knowledge derived by basic neuroscience with the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools that may be applied to clinical practice in neurological diseases. This information can be used to improve clinical trial designs and outcomes that will accelerate drug development, and to discover novel biomarkers which can be efficiently employed to early recognize neurological disorders and provide information regarding the effects of drugs on the underlying disease biology. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and prion disease are two classes of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by incomplete knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying their occurrence and the lack of valid biomarkers and effective treatments. For these reasons, the design of therapies that prevent or delay the onset, slow the progression, or improve the symptoms associated to these disorders is urgently needed. During the last few decades, translational research provided a framework for advancing development of new diagnostic devices and promising disease-modifying therapies for patients with prion encephalopathies and AD. In this review, we provide present evidence of how supportive can be the translational approach to the study of dementias and show some results of our preclinical studies which have been translated to the clinical application following the ‘bed-to-bench-and-back’ research model. PMID:29172000

Affective neuroscience of the emotional BrainMind: evolutionary perspectives and implications for understanding depression

PubMed Central

Panksepp, Jaak

2010-01-01

Cross-species affective neuroscience studies confirm that primary-process emotional feelings are organized within primitive subcortical regions of the brain that are anatomically, neurochemically, and functionally homologous in all mammals that have been studied. Emotional feelings (affects) are intrinsic values that inform animals how they are faring in the quest to survive. The various positive affects indicate that animals are returning to “comfort zones” that support survival, and negative affects reflect “discomfort zones” that indicate that animals are in situations that may impair survival. They are ancestral tools for living - evolutionary memories of such importance that they were coded into the genome in rough form (as primary brain processes), which are refined by basic learning mechanisms (secondary processes) as well as by higher-order cognitions/thoughts (tertiary processes). To understand why depression feels horrible, we must fathom the affective infrastructure of the mammalian brain. Advances in our understanding of the nature of primary-process emotional affects can promote the development of better preclinical models of psychiatric disorders and thereby also allow clinicians new and useful ways to understand the foundational aspects of their clients' problems. These networks are of clear importance for understanding psychiatric disorders and advancing psychiatric practice. PMID:21319497

The contribution of brain reward circuits to the obesity epidemic

PubMed Central

Stice, Eric; Figlewicz, Dianne P.; Gosnell, Blake A.; Levine, Allen S.; Pratt, Wayne E.

2012-01-01

One of the defining characteristics of the research of Ann E. Kelley was her recognition that the neuroscience underlying basic learning and motivation processes also shed significant light upon mechanisms underlying drug addiction and maladaptive eating patterns. In this review, we examine the parallels that exist in the neural pathways that process both food and drug reward, as determined by recent studies in animal models and human neuroimaging experiments. We discuss contemporary research that suggests that hyperphagia leading to obesity is associated with substantial neurochemical changes in the brain. These findings verify the relevance of reward pathways for promoting consumption of palatable, calorically dense foods, and lead to the important question of whether changes in reward circuitry in response to intake of such foods serve a causal role in the development and maintenance of some cases of obesity. Finally, we discuss the potential value for future studies at the intersection of the obesity epidemic and the neuroscience of motivation, as well as the potential concerns that arise from viewing excessive food intake as an “addiction”. We suggest that it might be more useful to focus on overeating that results in frank obesity, and multiple health, interpersonal, and occupational negative consequences as a form of food “abuse”. PMID:23237885

Muscle synergies in neuroscience and robotics: from input-space to task-space perspectives.

PubMed

Alessandro, Cristiano; Delis, Ioannis; Nori, Francesco; Panzeri, Stefano; Berret, Bastien

2013-01-01

In this paper we review the works related to muscle synergies that have been carried-out in neuroscience and control engineering. In particular, we refer to the hypothesis that the central nervous system (CNS) generates desired muscle contractions by combining a small number of predefined modules, called muscle synergies. We provide an overview of the methods that have been employed to test the validity of this scheme, and we show how the concept of muscle synergy has been generalized for the control of artificial agents. The comparison between these two lines of research, in particular their different goals and approaches, is instrumental to explain the computational implications of the hypothesized modular organization. Moreover, it clarifies the importance of assessing the functional role of muscle synergies: although these basic modules are defined at the level of muscle activations (input-space), they should result in the effective accomplishment of the desired task. This requirement is not always explicitly considered in experimental neuroscience, as muscle synergies are often estimated solely by analyzing recorded muscle activities. We suggest that synergy extraction methods should explicitly take into account task execution variables, thus moving from a perspective purely based on input-space to one grounded on task-space as well.

75 FR 52764 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-27

... Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior Study Section. Date....gov . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group...- 9664. [email protected] . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience...

77 FR 54920 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-06

... . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review [email protected] . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review... Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Sensorimotor Integration Study Section. Date: October 2...

What changes in neural oscillations can reveal about developmental cognitive neuroscience: language development as a case in point.

PubMed

Maguire, Mandy J; Abel, Alyson D

2013-10-01

EEG is a primary method for studying temporally precise neuronal processes across the lifespan. Most of this work focuses on event related potentials (ERPs); however, using time-locked time frequency analysis to decompose the EEG signal can identify and distinguish multiple changes in brain oscillations underlying cognition (Bastiaansen et al., 2010). Further this measure is thought to reflect changes in inter-neuronal communication more directly than ERPs (Nunez and Srinivasan, 2006). Although time frequency has elucidated cognitive processes in adults, applying it to cognitive development is still rare. Here, we review the basics of neuronal oscillations, some of what they reveal about adult cognitive function, and what little is known relating to children. We focus on language because it develops early and engages complex cortical networks. Additionally, because time frequency analysis of the EEG related to adult language comprehension has been incredibly informative, using similar methods with children will shed new light on current theories of language development and increase our understanding of how neural processes change over the lifespan. Our goal is to emphasize the power of this methodology and encourage its use throughout developmental cognitive neuroscience. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brain disorders and the biological role of music.

PubMed

Clark, Camilla N; Downey, Laura E; Warren, Jason D

2015-03-01

Despite its evident universality and high social value, the ultimate biological role of music and its connection to brain disorders remain poorly understood. Recent findings from basic neuroscience have shed fresh light on these old problems. New insights provided by clinical neuroscience concerning the effects of brain disorders promise to be particularly valuable in uncovering the underlying cognitive and neural architecture of music and for assessing candidate accounts of the biological role of music. Here we advance a new model of the biological role of music in human evolution and the link to brain disorders, drawing on diverse lines of evidence derived from comparative ethology, cognitive neuropsychology and neuroimaging studies in the normal and the disordered brain. We propose that music evolved from the call signals of our hominid ancestors as a means mentally to rehearse and predict potentially costly, affectively laden social routines in surrogate, coded, low-cost form: essentially, a mechanism for transforming emotional mental states efficiently and adaptively into social signals. This biological role of music has its legacy today in the disordered processing of music and mental states that characterizes certain developmental and acquired clinical syndromes of brain network disintegration. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press.

Brain disorders and the biological role of music

PubMed Central

Clark, Camilla N.; Downey, Laura E.

2015-01-01

Despite its evident universality and high social value, the ultimate biological role of music and its connection to brain disorders remain poorly understood. Recent findings from basic neuroscience have shed fresh light on these old problems. New insights provided by clinical neuroscience concerning the effects of brain disorders promise to be particularly valuable in uncovering the underlying cognitive and neural architecture of music and for assessing candidate accounts of the biological role of music. Here we advance a new model of the biological role of music in human evolution and the link to brain disorders, drawing on diverse lines of evidence derived from comparative ethology, cognitive neuropsychology and neuroimaging studies in the normal and the disordered brain. We propose that music evolved from the call signals of our hominid ancestors as a means mentally to rehearse and predict potentially costly, affectively laden social routines in surrogate, coded, low-cost form: essentially, a mechanism for transforming emotional mental states efficiently and adaptively into social signals. This biological role of music has its legacy today in the disordered processing of music and mental states that characterizes certain developmental and acquired clinical syndromes of brain network disintegration. PMID:24847111

Evolution of neuroarchitecture, multi-level analyses and calibrative reductionism

PubMed Central

Berntson, Gary G.; Norman, Greg J.; Hawkley, Louise C.; Cacioppo, John T.

2012-01-01

Evolution has sculpted the incredibly complex human nervous system, among the most complex functions of which extend beyond the individual to an intricate social structure. Although these functions are deterministic, those determinants are legion, heavily interacting and dependent on a specific evolutionary trajectory. That trajectory was directed by the adaptive significance of quasi-random genetic variations, but was also influenced by chance and caprice. With a different evolutionary pathway, the same neural elements could subserve functions distinctly different from what they do in extant human brains. Consequently, the properties of higher level neural networks cannot be derived readily from the properties of the lower level constituent elements, without studying these elements in the aggregate. Thus, a multi-level approach to integrative neuroscience may offer an optimal strategy. Moreover, the process of calibrative reductionism, by which concepts and understandings from one level of organization or analysis can mutually inform and ‘calibrate’ those from other levels (both higher and lower), may represent a viable approach to the application of reductionism in science. This is especially relevant in social neuroscience, where the basic subject matter of interest is defined by interacting organisms across diverse environments. PMID:23386961

Culture in social neuroscience: a review.

PubMed

Rule, Nicholas O; Freeman, Jonathan B; Ambady, Nalini

2013-01-01

The aim of this review is to highlight an emerging field: the neuroscience of culture. This new field links cross-cultural psychology with cognitive neuroscience across fundamental domains of cognitive and social psychology. We present a summary of studies on emotion, perspective-taking, memory, object perception, attention, language, and the self, showing cultural differences in behavior as well as in neural activation. Although it is still nascent, the broad impact of merging the study of culture with cognitive neuroscience holds mutual distributed benefits for multiple related fields. Thus, cultural neuroscience may be uniquely poised to provide insights and breakthroughs for longstanding questions and problems in the study of behavior and thought, and its capacity for integration across multiple levels of analysis is especially high. These findings attest to the plasticity of the brain and its adaptation to cultural contexts.

Applied Neuroscience at the AFRL 711th Human Performance Wing

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-09-01

Support teaming and collaboration research performed by RHCPT 25 History of Applied Neuroscience Research First EEG studies of workload at AFRL...First to classify mental workload based on integrated EEG /ECG 26 First successful real- time workload classification Measured EEG workload in...complex tasks Closed-loop adaptive aiding based on EEG /ECG History of Applied Neuroscience Research 27 Current Applied Neuroscience Research • Mix of in

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Theory and methods in cultural neuroscience

PubMed Central

Hariri, Ahmad R.; Harada, Tokiko; Mano, Yoko; Sadato, Norihiro; Parrish, Todd B.; Iidaka, Tetsuya

2010-01-01

Cultural neuroscience is an emerging research discipline that investigates cultural variation in psychological, neural and genomic processes as a means of articulating the bidirectional relationship of these processes and their emergent properties. Research in cultural neuroscience integrates theory and methods from anthropology, cultural psychology, neuroscience and neurogenetics. Here, we review a set of core theoretical and methodological challenges facing researchers when planning and conducting cultural neuroscience studies, and provide suggestions for overcoming these challenges. In particular, we focus on the problems of defining culture and culturally appropriate experimental tasks, comparing neuroimaging data acquired from different populations and scanner sites and identifying functional genetic polymorphisms relevant to culture. Implications of cultural neuroscience research for addressing current issues in population health disparities are discussed. PMID:20592044

Assessing Development of an Interdisciplinary Perspective in an Undergraduate Neuroscience Course

PubMed Central

Crisp, Kevin M.; Muir, Gary M.

2012-01-01

Neuroscience is an intrinsically interdisciplinary (ID) field yet little has been published regarding assessment of ID learning in undergraduate neuroscience students. This study attempted to empirically assess the development of an interdisciplinary perspective in 25 undergraduate neuroscience students in a neuroscience program core course. Data were collected using two simple assessment instruments: 1) written responses to the open-ended question “What is neuroscience?” and 2) a term-discipline relevance survey in which students indicated all disciplinary perspectives to which terms (such as electrode, taste, dx/dt) were relevant. Comparison of student responses early in the course (week 1 or 5) and at the end of the course (week 15) showed evidence of development of an interdisciplinary perspective, with students using significantly more integrative terms in their responses and demonstrating an increased awareness of the complexity of the field of neuroscience. PMID:23504673

Applying the neuroscience of creativity to creativity training

PubMed Central

Onarheim, Balder; Friis-Olivarius, Morten

2013-01-01

This article investigates how neuroscience in general, and neuroscience of creativity in particular, can be used in teaching “applied creativity” and the usefulness of this approach to creativity training. The article is based on empirical data and our experiences from the Applied NeuroCreativity (ANC) program, taught at business schools in Denmark and Canada. In line with previous studies of successful creativity training programs the ANC participants are first introduced to cognitive concepts of creativity, before applying these concepts to a relevant real world creative problem. The novelty in the ANC program is that the conceptualization of creativity is built on neuroscience, and a crucial aspect of the course is giving the students a thorough understanding of the neuroscience of creativity. Previous studies have reported that the conceptualization of creativity used in such training is of major importance for the success of the training, and we believe that the neuroscience of creativity offers a novel conceptualization for creativity training. Here we present pre/post-training tests showing that ANC students gained more fluency in divergent thinking (a traditional measure of trait creativity) than those in highly similar courses without the neuroscience component, suggesting that principles from neuroscience can contribute effectively to creativity training and produce measurable results on creativity tests. The evidence presented indicates that the inclusion of neuroscience principles in a creativity course can in 8 weeks increase divergent thinking skills with an individual relative average of 28.5%. PMID:24137120

The 9th annual computational and systems neuroscience (cosyne) meeting

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

The 9th annual Computational and Systems Neuroscience meeting (Cosyne) was held 23–26 February in Salt Lake City, Utah. Cosyne meeting is the forum for exchange of experimental and theoretical/computational approaches to studying systems neuroscience. PMID:22464174

Neuroscience study abroad: developing a short-term summer course.

PubMed

Ruscio, Michael G; Korey, Christopher

2012-01-01

Collaborative and international scientific efforts continue to be of increasing importance in the development of successful educational and research programs. The goal of our study abroad program, Neuroscience Seminar in Germany, is to bring this fact to light for undergraduates and make them aware of the global opportunities that exist in the neurosciences and related biological sciences. Here we discuss our experience of conducting a four-week summer study abroad course in collaboration with two universities associated with the German Graduate Schools of Neuroscience: Munich Center for Neurosciences - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (MCN-LMU) and Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Berlin (a joint institution of the Freie Universität and the Humboldt-Universität). This course combined the historical foundations of neuroscience in Germany with current research programs at these two prominent German research universities. Two weeks were spent at each location and faculty members from the participating universities provided seminars, laboratory exercises, demonstrations and tours. Students were presented with background reading and lecture material prior to the seminars and activities. Additionally, they were responsible for leading seminar-style class discussions through brief presentations and submitting written critical analyses of primary research papers associated with the laboratory exercises. These assignments provided a means to assess learning outcomes, coupled with course evaluations. Overall, this experience may serve as a template for those interested in study abroad course development and research opportunities in the neurosciences.

Integrating Brain Science into Health Studies: An Interdisciplinary Course in Contemplative Neuroscience and Yoga

PubMed Central

Wolfe, Uta; Moran, Amy

2017-01-01

As neuroscience knowledge grows in its scope of societal applications so does the need to educate a wider audience on how to critically evaluate its research findings. Efforts at finding teaching approaches that are interdisciplinary, accessible and highly applicable to student experience are thus ongoing. The article describes an interdisciplinary undergraduate health course that combines the academic study of contemplative neuroscience with contemplative practice, specifically yoga. The class aims to reach a diverse mix of students by teaching applicable, health-relevant neuroscience material while directly connecting it to first-hand experience. Outcomes indicate success on these goals: The course attracted a wide range of students, including nearly 50% non-science majors. On a pre/post test, students showed large increases in their knowledge of neuroscience. Students’ ratings of the course overall, of increases in positive feelings about its field, and of their progress on specific course objectives were highly positive. Finally, students in their written work applied neuroscience course content to their personal and professional lives. Such results indicate that this approach could serve as a model for the interdisciplinary, accessible and applied integration of relevant neuroscience material into the undergraduate health curriculum. PMID:29371845

Brains Rule!: a model program for developing professional stewardship among neuroscientists.

PubMed

Zardetto-Smith, Andrea M; Mu, Keli; Carruth, Laura L; Frantz, Kyle J

2006-01-01

Brains Rule! Neuroscience Expositions, funded through a National Institute on Drug Abuse Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award, has developed a successful model for informal neuroscience education. Each Exposition is a "reverse science fair" in which neuroscientists present short neuroscience teaching modules to students. This study focuses on results of assessments conducted with neuroscientist presenters during Expositions at two sites, Atlanta, Georgia and Corpus Christi, Texas. The effects of participating in the Expositions on presenters' perceptions of their own presentation and communication skills were evaluated, as was the potential for increased active participation by neuroscientists in future outreach programs. In four of the five Expositions studied, pre- versus post-event surveys demonstrated significant changes in presenters' perceptions of their own abilities to explain neuroscience concepts to children. Over the course of an Exposition, presenters learned to fit their approaches to conveying neuroscience concepts to fifth through eighth graders and learned to link information they presented about the brain and nervous system to children's past experiences to improve comprehension. The present data suggest that Brains Rule! Neuroscience Expositions are effective in improving communication and teaching skills among neuroscience professionals and contribute to professional stewardship by increasing motivation to participate in future informal education programs.

Teachers' Beliefs about Neuroscience and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zambo, Debby; Zambo, Ron

2011-01-01

Information from neuroscience is readily available to educators, yet instructors of educational psychology and related fields have not investigated teachers' beliefs regarding this information. The purpose of this survey study was to uncover the beliefs 62 teachers held about neuroscience and education. Results indicate there were three types of…

Mapping of Indian neuroscience research: a scientometric analysis of research output during 1999-2008.

PubMed

Bala, Adarsh; Gupta, B M

2010-01-01

This study analyses the research output in India in neurosciences during the period 1999-2008 and the analyses included research growth, rank, global publications' share, citation impact, share of international collaborative papers and major collaborative partner countries and patterns of research communication in most productive journals. It also analyses the characteristics of most productive institutions, authors and high-cited papers. The publication output and impact of India is also compared with China, Brazil and South Korea. Scopus Citation database was used for retrieving the publications' output of India and other countries in neurosciences during 1999-2008. India's global publications' share in neurosciences during the study period was 0.99% (with 4503 papers) and it ranked 21 st among the top 26 countries in neurosciences. The average annual publication growth rate was 11.37%, shared 17.34% of international collaborative papers and the average citation per paper was 4.21. India was far behind China, Brazil and South Korea in terms of publication output, citation quality and share of international collaborative papers in neurosciences. India is far behind in terms of publication output, citation quality and share of international collaborative papers in neurosciences when compared to other countries with an emerging economy. There is an urgent need to substantially increase the research activities in the field of neurosciences in India.

The Clinical Neuroscience Course: Viewing Mental Health from Neurobiological Perspectives

PubMed Central

Lambert, Kelly G.

2005-01-01

Although the field of neuroscience is booming, a challenge for researchers in mental health disciplines is the integration of basic research findings into applied clinical approaches leading to effective therapies. Recently the National Institute of Mental Health called for translational research grants to encourage collaboration between neuroscientists and mental health professionals. In order for this “clinical neuroscience” to emerge and thrive, an important first step is the provision of appropriate course offerings so that future neuroscience researchers and mental health practitioners will have a common neurobiological base from which to make informed decisions about the most efficacious treatments for mental illnesses. Accordingly, an integrative course, Clinical Neuroscience, was developed to address these issues. After reviewing the historical origins of this emerging discipline, students are exposed to fundamental overviews of neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and neural development before approaching the neurobiological components of several disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, Tourette’s syndrome, drug abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder). Finally, the maintenance of mental health is emphasized as topics such as psychoneuroimmunology, coping with stress, and eating regulation are discussed. Important themes emphasized in this course include (1) the consideration of only empirically based evidence, (2) the view that mental illness represents a disruption of neurobiological homeostasis, (3) the acknowledgement that, because the brain is a plastic organ, the clinical relevance of environmental and behavioral influences is difficult to overestimate, and (4) the recognition of the value of ecologically relevant animal models in the investigation of various aspects of mental illness. Because of the importance of stress maintenance in mental health, exercises have been developed to increase students’ awareness of their own coping strategies. Finally, several books and movies are incorporated to provide additional points of view of the topics discussed in the course. PMID:23494100

[The need for experiments using primates from a scientific point of view].

PubMed

Kaup, F J

2007-03-01

Concerning the public discussion on animal experiments using primates, various research fields are demonstrated where non-human primates are necessary for certain scientific reasons at this time. Non-human Primates are used in Germany mainly in regulatory toxicology and pharmaceutical safety studies.A small amount is disposed in different fields of biological or biomedical basic research. This includes in particular neurosciences and infection research. 2006 New and Old World monkeys were needed in Germany in 2005. No chimpanzees are used anymore as laboratory animals in Germany since many years. Several examples are presented to demonstrate that certain research fields need non-human primates as laboratory animals in the foreseeable future.

Convergent Cross Mapping: Basic concept, influence of estimation parameters and practical application.

PubMed

Schiecke, Karin; Pester, Britta; Feucht, Martha; Leistritz, Lutz; Witte, Herbert

2015-01-01

In neuroscience, data are typically generated from neural network activity. Complex interactions between measured time series are involved, and nothing or only little is known about the underlying dynamic system. Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) provides the possibility to investigate nonlinear causal interactions between time series by using nonlinear state space reconstruction. Aim of this study is to investigate the general applicability, and to show potentials and limitation of CCM. Influence of estimation parameters could be demonstrated by means of simulated data, whereas interval-based application of CCM on real data could be adapted for the investigation of interactions between heart rate and specific EEG components of children with temporal lobe epilepsy.

From neuroscience to evidence based psychological treatments - The promise and the challenge, ECNP March 2016, Nice, France.

PubMed

Goodwin, Guy M; Holmes, Emily A; Andersson, Erik; Browning, Michael; Jones, Andrew; Lass-Hennemann, Johanna; Månsson, Kristoffer Nt; Moessnang, Carolin; Salemink, Elske; Sanchez, Alvaro; van Zutphen, Linda; Visser, Renée M

2018-02-01

This ECNP meeting was designed to build bridges between different constituencies of mental illness treatment researchers from a range of backgrounds with a specific focus on enhancing the development of novel, evidence based, psychological treatments. In particular we wished to explore the potential for basic neuroscience to support the development of more effective psychological treatments, just as this approach is starting to illuminate the actions of drugs. To fulfil this aim, a selection of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists were invited to sit at the same table. The starting point of the meeting was the proposition that we know certain psychological treatments work, but we have only an approximate understanding of why they work. The first task in developing a coherent mental health science would therefore be to uncover the mechanisms (at all levels of analysis) of effective psychological treatments. Delineating these mechanisms, a task that will require input from both the clinic and the laboratory, will provide a key foundation for the rational optimisation of psychological treatments. As reviewed in this paper, the speakers at the meeting reviewed recent advances in the understanding of clinical and cognitive psychology, neuroscience, experimental psychopathology, and treatment delivery technology focussed primarily on anxiety disorders and depression. We started by asking three rhetorical questions: What has psychology done for treatment? What has technology done for psychology? What has neuroscience done for psychology? We then addressed how research in five broad research areas could inform the future development of better treatments: Attention, Conditioning, Compulsions and addiction, Emotional Memory, and Reward and emotional bias. Research in all these areas (and more) can be harnessed to neuroscience since psychological therapies are a learning process with a biological basis in the brain. Because current treatment approaches are not fully satisfactory, there is an imperative to understand why not. And when psychological therapies do work we need to understand why this is the case, and how we can improve them. We may be able to improve accessibility to treatment without understanding mechanisms. But for treatment innovation and improvement, mechanistic insights may actually help. Applying neuroscience in this way will become an additional mission for ECNP. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New perspectives on forced migration in the history of twentieth-century neuroscience.

PubMed

Stahnisch, Frank W; Russell, Gül

2016-01-01

This special issue of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, comprised of six articles and one commentary, reflects on the multifold dimensions of intellectual migration in the neurosciences and illustrates them by relevant case studies, biographies, and surveys from twentieth-century history of science and medicine perspectives. The special issue as a whole strives to emphasize the impact of forced migration in the neurosciences and psychiatry from an interdisciplinary perspective by, first, describing the general research topic, second, by showing how new models can be applied to the historiography and social studies of twentieth-century neuroscience, and, third, by providing a deeper understanding of the impact of European émigré researchers on emerging allied fields, such as neurogenetics, biological psychiatry, psychosomatics, and public mental health, etc. as resulting from this process at large.

Neuroscience Study Abroad: Developing a Short-Term Summer Course

PubMed Central

Ruscio, Michael G.; Korey, Christopher

2012-01-01

Collaborative and international scientific efforts continue to be of increasing importance in the development of successful educational and research programs. The goal of our study abroad program, Neuroscience Seminar in Germany, is to bring this fact to light for undergraduates and make them aware of the global opportunities that exist in the neurosciences and related biological sciences. Here we discuss our experience of conducting a four-week summer study abroad course in collaboration with two universities associated with the German Graduate Schools of Neuroscience: Munich Center for Neurosciences – Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (MCN-LMU) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin (a joint institution of the Freie Universität and the Humboldt-Universität). This course combined the historical foundations of neuroscience in Germany with current research programs at these two prominent German research universities. Two weeks were spent at each location and faculty members from the participating universities provided seminars, laboratory exercises, demonstrations and tours. Students were presented with background reading and lecture material prior to the seminars and activities. Additionally, they were responsible for leading seminar-style class discussions through brief presentations and submitting written critical analyses of primary research papers associated with the laboratory exercises. These assignments provided a means to assess learning outcomes, coupled with course evaluations. Overall, this experience may serve as a template for those interested in study abroad course development and research opportunities in the neurosciences. PMID:23493243

Advancing Ethical Neuroscience Research.

PubMed

Borah, B Rashmi; Strand, Nicolle K; Chillag, Kata L

2016-12-01

As neuroscience research advances, researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders will face a host of ethical challenges. The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (Bioethics Commission) has published two reports that provide recommendations on how to advance research endeavors ethically. The commission addressed, among other issues, how to prioritize different types of neuroscience research and how to include research participants who have impaired consent capacity. The Bioethics Commission's recommendations provide a foundation for ethical guidelines as neuroscience research advances and progresses. © 2016 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.

78 FR 54664 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-05

..., Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Sensorimotor Integration Study Section. Date... Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology, Rhythms and Sleep Study...

Culture in the mind's mirror: how anthropology and neuroscience can inform a model of the neural substrate for cultural imitative learning.

PubMed

Losin, Elizabeth A Reynolds; Dapretto, Mirella; Iacoboni, Marco

2009-01-01

Cultural neuroscience, the study of how cultural experience shapes the brain, is an emerging subdiscipline in the neurosciences. Yet, a foundational question to the study of culture and the brain remains neglected by neuroscientific inquiry: "How does cultural information get into the brain in the first place?" Fortunately, the tools needed to explore the neural architecture of cultural learning - anthropological theories and cognitive neuroscience methodologies - already exist; they are merely separated by disciplinary boundaries. Here we review anthropological theories of cultural learning derived from fieldwork and modeling; since cultural learning theory suggests that sophisticated imitation abilities are at the core of human cultural learning, we focus our review on cultural imitative learning. Accordingly we proceed to discuss the neural underpinnings of imitation and other mechanisms important for cultural learning: learning biases, mental state attribution, and reinforcement learning. Using cultural neuroscience theory and cognitive neuroscience research as our guides, we then propose a preliminary model of the neural architecture of cultural learning. Finally, we discuss future studies needed to test this model and fully explore and explain the neural underpinnings of cultural imitative learning.

Does Homeland Security Constitute an Emerging Academic Discipline?

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

Postgraduate School NSA National Security Agency OED Oxford English Dictionary U.S. United States xiv THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK xv...Curriculum Design: A Case Study in Neuroscience ,” The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education 10, no. 1 (2011): A71–A79. 37 physical reaction...article entitled, “A Conceptual Framework for Interdisciplinary Curriculum Design: A Case Study in Neuroscience :”140 Table 2. An Overview of

Who's afraid of Homo sapiens?

PubMed

Preuss, Todd M

2006-11-29

Understanding how humans differ from other animals, as well as how we are like them, requires comparative investigations. For the purpose of documenting the distinctive features of humans, the most informative research involves comparing humans to our closest relatives-the chimpanzees and other great apes. Psychology and anthropology have maintained a tradition of empirical comparative research on human specializations of cognition. The neurosciences, by contrast, have been dominated by the model-animal research paradigm, which presupposes the commonality of "basic" features of brain organization across species and discourages serious treatment of species differences. As a result, the neurosciences have made little progress in understanding human brain specializations. Recent developments in neuroimaging, genomics, and other non-invasive techniques make it possible to directly compare humans and nonhuman species at levels of organization that were previously inaccessible, offering the hope of gaining a better understanding of the species-specific features of the human brain. This hope will be dashed, however, if chimpanzees and other great ape species become unavailable for even non-invasive research.

Gene Transfer into Rat Brain Using Adenoviral Vectors

PubMed Central

Puntel, Mariana; Kroeger, Kurt M.; Sanderson, Nicholas S.R.; Thomas, Clare E.; Castro, Maria G.; Lowenstein, Pedro R.

2010-01-01

Viral vector–mediated gene delivery is an attractive procedure for introducing genes into the brain, both for purposes of basic neuroscience research and to develop gene therapy for neurological diseases. Replication-defective adenoviruses possess many features which make them ideal vectors for this purpose—efficiently transducing terminally differentiated cells such as neurons and glial cells, resulting in high levels of transgene expression in vivo. Also, in the absence of anti-adenovirus immunity, these vectors can sustain very long-term transgene expression within the brain parenchyma. This unit provides protocols for the stereotactic injection of adenoviral vectors into the brain, followed by protocols to detect transgene expression or infiltrates of immune cells by immunocytochemistry or immunofluorescence. ELISPOT and neutralizing antibody assay methodologies are provided to quantitate the levels of cellular and humoral immune responses against adenoviruses. Quantitation of adenoviral vector genomes within the rat brain using qPCR is also described. Curr. Protoc. Neurosci. 50:4.24.1–4.24.49. © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. PMID:20066657

The promises and pitfalls of applying computational models to neurological and psychiatric disorders.

PubMed

Teufel, Christoph; Fletcher, Paul C

2016-10-01

Computational models have become an integral part of basic neuroscience and have facilitated some of the major advances in the field. More recently, such models have also been applied to the understanding of disruptions in brain function. In this review, using examples and a simple analogy, we discuss the potential for computational models to inform our understanding of brain function and dysfunction. We argue that they may provide, in unprecedented detail, an understanding of the neurobiological and mental basis of brain disorders and that such insights will be key to progress in diagnosis and treatment. However, there are also potential problems attending this approach. We highlight these and identify simple principles that should always govern the use of computational models in clinical neuroscience, noting especially the importance of a clear specification of a model's purpose and of the mapping between mathematical concepts and reality. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.

Indestructible plastic: the neuroscience of the new aging brain.

PubMed

Holman, Constance; de Villers-Sidani, Etienne

2014-01-01

In recent years, research on experience-dependent plasticity has provided valuable insight on adaptation to environmental input across the lifespan, and advances in understanding the minute cellular changes underlying the brain's capacity for self-reorganization have opened exciting new possibilities for treating illness and injury. Ongoing work in this line of inquiry has also come to deeply influence another field: cognitive neuroscience of the normal aging. This complex process, once considered inevitable or beyond the reach of treatment, has been transformed into an arena of intense investigation and strategic intervention. However, important questions remain about this characterization of the aging brain, and the assumptions it makes about the social, cultural, and biological space occupied by cognition in the older individual and body. The following paper will provide a critical examination of the move from basic experiments on the neurophysiology of experience-dependent plasticity to the growing market for (and public conception of) cognitive aging as a medicalized space for intervention by neuroscience-backed technologies. Entangled with changing concepts of normality, pathology, and self-preservation, we will argue that this new understanding, led by personalized cognitive training strategies, is approaching a point where interdisciplinary research is crucial to provide a holistic and nuanced understanding of the aging process. This new outlook will allow us to move forward in a space where our knowledge, like our new conception of the brain, is never static.

Neuroscience is awaiting for a breakthrough: an essay bridging the concepts of Descartes, Einstein, Heisenberg, Hebb and Hayek with the explanatory formulations in this special issue.

PubMed

Başar, Erol; Karakaş, Sirel

2006-05-01

The paper presents gedankenmodels which, based on the theories and models in the present special issue, describe the conditions for a breakthrough in brain sciences and neuroscience. The new model is based on contemporary findings which show that the brain and its cognitive processes show super-synchronization. Accordingly, understanding the brain/body-mind complex is possible only when these three are considered as a wholistic entity and not as discrete structures or functions. Such a breakthrough and the related perspectives to the brain/body-mind complex will involve a transition from the mechanistic Cartesian system to a nebulous Cartesian system, one that is basically characterized by parallel computing and is further parallel to quantum mechanics. This integrated outlook on the brain/body-mind, or dynamic functionality, will make the treatment of also the meta-cognitive processes and the greater part of the iceberg, the unconscious, possible. All this will be possible only through the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach that will bring together the knowledge and the technology of the four P's which consist of physics, physiology, psychology and philosophy. The genetic approach to the functional dynamics of the brain/body-mind, where the oscillatory responses were found to be laws of brain activity, is presented in this volume as one of the most recent perspectives of neuroscience.

Indestructible plastic: the neuroscience of the new aging brain

PubMed Central

Holman, Constance; de Villers-Sidani, Etienne

2014-01-01

In recent years, research on experience-dependent plasticity has provided valuable insight on adaptation to environmental input across the lifespan, and advances in understanding the minute cellular changes underlying the brain’s capacity for self-reorganization have opened exciting new possibilities for treating illness and injury. Ongoing work in this line of inquiry has also come to deeply influence another field: cognitive neuroscience of the normal aging. This complex process, once considered inevitable or beyond the reach of treatment, has been transformed into an arena of intense investigation and strategic intervention. However, important questions remain about this characterization of the aging brain, and the assumptions it makes about the social, cultural, and biological space occupied by cognition in the older individual and body. The following paper will provide a critical examination of the move from basic experiments on the neurophysiology of experience-dependent plasticity to the growing market for (and public conception of) cognitive aging as a medicalized space for intervention by neuroscience-backed technologies. Entangled with changing concepts of normality, pathology, and self-preservation, we will argue that this new understanding, led by personalized cognitive training strategies, is approaching a point where interdisciplinary research is crucial to provide a holistic and nuanced understanding of the aging process. This new outlook will allow us to move forward in a space where our knowledge, like our new conception of the brain, is never static. PMID:24782746

Generative models for clinical applications in computational psychiatry.

PubMed

Frässle, Stefan; Yao, Yu; Schöbi, Dario; Aponte, Eduardo A; Heinzle, Jakob; Stephan, Klaas E

2018-05-01

Despite the success of modern neuroimaging techniques in furthering our understanding of cognitive and pathophysiological processes, translation of these advances into clinically relevant tools has been virtually absent until now. Neuromodeling represents a powerful framework for overcoming this translational deadlock, and the development of computational models to solve clinical problems has become a major scientific goal over the last decade, as reflected by the emergence of clinically oriented neuromodeling fields like Computational Psychiatry, Computational Neurology, and Computational Psychosomatics. Generative models of brain physiology and connectivity in the human brain play a key role in this endeavor, striving for computational assays that can be applied to neuroimaging data from individual patients for differential diagnosis and treatment prediction. In this review, we focus on dynamic causal modeling (DCM) and its use for Computational Psychiatry. DCM is a widely used generative modeling framework for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magneto-/electroencephalography (M/EEG) data. This article reviews the basic concepts of DCM, revisits examples where it has proven valuable for addressing clinically relevant questions, and critically discusses methodological challenges and recent methodological advances. We conclude this review with a more general discussion of the promises and pitfalls of generative models in Computational Psychiatry and highlight the path that lies ahead of us. This article is categorized under: Neuroscience > Computation Neuroscience > Clinical Neuroscience. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Brain Goes to School: Strengthening the Education-Neuroscience Connection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ansari, Daniel

2008-01-01

Investigations on the brain processes using a technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have led to the creation of a new field of research that bridges the gap between cognitive psychology and neuroscience: "cognitive neuroscience." Within this new field, studies examining the processes of learning and developing are…

The Brain in Space: A Teacher's Guide with Activities for Neuroscience.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacLeish, Marlene Y.; McLean, Bernice R.

This educators guide discusses the brain and contains activities on neuroscience. Activities include: (1) "The Space Life Sciences"; (2) "Space Neuroscience: A Special Area within the Space Life Sciences"; (3) "Space Life Sciences Research"; (4) "Neurolab: A Special Space Mission to Study the Nervous System"; (5) "The Nervous System"; (6)…

Extending the Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations Effect to Popular Articles about Educational Topics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Im, Soo-hyun; Varma, Keisha; Varma, Sashank

2017-01-01

Background: The "seductive allure of neuroscience explanations" (SANE) is the finding that people overweight psychological arguments when framed in terms of neuroscience findings. Aim: This study extended this finding to arguments concerning the application of psychological findings to educational topics. Sample Participants (n = 320)…

Undergraduate Neuroscience Majors: A Missed Opportunity for Psychiatry Workforce Development.

PubMed

Goldenberg, Matthew N; Krystal, John H

2017-04-01

This study sought to determine whether and to what extent medical students with an undergraduate college major in neuroscience, relative to other college majors, pursue psychiatry relative to other brain-based specialties (neurology and neurosurgery) and internal medicine. The authors analyzed data from AAMC matriculation and graduation surveys for all students who graduated from US medical schools in 2013 and 2014 (n = 29,714). Students who majored in neuroscience, psychology, and biology were compared to all other students in terms of their specialty choice at both time points. For each major, the authors determined rates of specialty choice of psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, and, for comparison, internal medicine. This study employed Chi-square statistic to compare odds of various specialty choices among different majors. Among medical students with an undergraduate neuroscience major (3.5% of all medical students), only 2.3% preferred psychiatry at matriculation, compared to 21.5% who chose neurology, 13.1% neurosurgery, and 11% internal medicine. By graduation, psychiatry specialty choice increased to 5.1% among neuroscience majors while choice of neurology and neurosurgery declined. Psychology majors (OR = 3.16, 95% CI 2.60-4.47) but not neuroscience majors (OR 1.28, 0.92-1.77) were more likely than their peers to choose psychiatry. Psychiatry struggles to attract neuroscience majors to the specialty. This missed opportunity is an obstacle to developing the neuroscience literacy of the workforce and jeopardizes the neuroscientific future of our field. Several potential strategies to address the recruitment challenges exist.

The modern search for the Holy Grail: is neuroscience a solution?

PubMed Central

Naor, Navot; Ben-Ze'ev, Aaron; Okon-Singer, Hadas

2014-01-01

Neuroscience has become prevalent in recent years; nevertheless, its value in the examination of psychological and philosophical phenomena is still a matter of debate. The examples reviewed here suggest that neuroscientific tools can be significant in the investigation of such complex phenomena. In this article, we argue that it is important to study concepts that do not have a clear characterization and emphasize the role of neuroscience in this quest for knowledge. The data reviewed here suggest that neuroscience may (1) enrich our knowledge; (2) outline the nature of an explanation; and (3) lead to substantial empirical and theoretical discoveries. To that end, we review work on hedonia and eudaimonia in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. These studies demonstrate the importance of neuroscientific tools in the investigation of phenomena that are difficult to define using other methods. PMID:24926246

Details for Manuscript Number: SSM-D-09-00651 R2 “Contemporary neuroscience in the media”

PubMed Central

Racine, Eric; Waldman, Sarah; Rosenberg, Jarett; Illes, Judy

2010-01-01

Technological innovations in neuroscience have opened new windows to the understanding of brain function and the neuronal underpinnings of brain activity in neuropsychiatric disorders and social behavior. Public interest and support for neuroscience research through initiatives like the Decade of the Brain project and increasingly diverse brain-related initiatives have created new interfaces between neuroscience and society. Against this backdrop of dynamic innovation, we set out to examine how different features of neuroscience are depicted in print media. We used the ‘guided news’ function of the LexisNexis Academic database with keyword searches to find news articles published between 1995 and 2004 in major U.S. and U.K. English-language news sources. We performed searches on headlines, lead paragraphs, and body terms to maximize search yields. All articles were coded for overall tone of coverage, details on reported studies, presence of ethical, legal, and social discussion as well as the emerging interpretations of neuroscience – in the form of neuro-essentialism, neuro-realism, and neuro-policy. We found that print media coverage of the use of neurotechnology for diagnosis or therapy in neuropsychiatric disorders was generally optimistic. We also found that, even within articles that were identified as research reports, many did not provide details about research studies. We also gained additional insights into the previously identified phenomena of neuro-essentialism, neuro-realism, and neuro-policy showing some profound impacts of neuroscience on personal identity and policy-making. Our results highlight the implications of transfer of neuroscience knowledge to society given the substantial and authoritative weight ascribed to neuroscience knowledge in defining who we are. We also discuss the impact of these findings on neuroscience and on the respective contributions of the social sciences and the biological sciences in contemporary psychiatry and mental health policy. PMID:20609506

Mind the Gap: Bridging economic and naturalistic risk-taking with cognitive neuroscience

PubMed Central

Schonberg, Tom; Fox, Craig R.; Poldrack, Russell A.

2010-01-01

Economists define risk in terms of variability of possible outcomes whereas clinicians and laypeople generally view risk as exposure to possible loss or harm. Neuroeconomic studies using relatively simple behavioral tasks have identified a network of brain regions that respond to economic risk, but these studies have had limited success predicting naturalistic risk-taking. In contrast, more complex behavioral tasks developed by clinicians (e.g., Balloon Analogue Risk Task and Iowa Gambling Task) correlate with naturalistic risk-taking but resist decomposition into distinct cognitive constructs. We propose that to bridge this gap and better understand neural substrates of naturalistic risk-taking, new tasks are needed that: (1) are decomposable into basic cognitive/economic constructs; (2) predict naturalistic risk-taking; and (3) engender dynamic, affective engagement. PMID:21130018

Heterarchies: Reconciling Networks and Hierarchies.

PubMed

Cumming, Graeme S

2016-08-01

Social-ecological systems research suffers from a disconnect between hierarchical (top-down or bottom-up) and network (peer-to-peer) analyses. The concept of the heterarchy unifies these perspectives in a single framework. Here, I review the history and application of 'heterarchy' in neuroscience, ecology, archaeology, multiagent control systems, business and organisational studies, and politics. Recognising complex system architecture as a continuum along vertical and lateral axes ('flat versus hierarchical' and 'individual versus networked') suggests four basic types of heterarchy: reticulated, polycentric, pyramidal, and individualistic. Each has different implications for system functioning and resilience. Systems can also shift predictably and abruptly between architectures. Heterarchies suggest new ways of contextualising and generalising from case studies and new methods for analysing complex structure-function relations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-declarative memory in the rehabilitation of amnesia.

PubMed

Cavaco, S; Malec, J F; Bergquist, T

2005-09-01

The ability of amnesic patients to learn and retain non-declarative information has been consistently demonstrated in the literature. This knowledge provided by basic cognitive neuroscience studies has been widely neglected in neuropsychological rehabilitation of memory impaired patients. This study reports the case of a 43 year old man with severe amnesia following an anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm rupture. The patient integrated a comprehensive (holistic) day treatment programme for rehabilitation of brain injury. The programme explored the advantages of using preserved non-declarative memory capacities, in the context of commonly used rehabilitation approaches (i.e. compensation for lost function and domain-specific learning). The patient's ability to learn and retain new cognitive and perceptual-motor skills was found to be critical for the patient's improved independence and successful return to work.

Brain Matters: A Journey with Neuroscience and Religious Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blevins, Dean G.

2011-01-01

Neuroscience continues to enjoy a renaissance of study and a range of responses, both in explorations of religious experience and in educational practice. Neuroscience, as an interdisciplinary field, attained a new ascendancy at the end of the 20th century, known as the decade of the brain. New insights continue to influence education and public…

Preserved dopaminergic homeostasis and dopamine-related behaviour in hemizygous TH-Cre mice.

PubMed

Runegaard, Annika H; Jensen, Kathrine L; Fitzpatrick, Ciarán M; Dencker, Ditte; Weikop, Pia; Gether, Ulrik; Rickhag, Mattias

2017-01-01

Cre-driver mouse lines have been extensively used as genetic tools to target and manipulate genetically defined neuronal populations by expression of Cre recombinase under selected gene promoters. This approach has greatly advanced neuroscience but interpretations are hampered by the fact that most Cre-driver lines have not been thoroughly characterized. Thus, a phenotypic characterization is of major importance to reveal potential aberrant phenotypes prior to implementation and usage to selectively inactivate or induce transgene expression. Here, we present a biochemical and behavioural assessment of the dopaminergic system in hemizygous tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-Cre mice in comparison to wild-type (WT) controls. Our data show that TH-Cre mice display preserved dopaminergic homeostasis with unaltered levels of TH and dopamine as well as unaffected dopamine turnover in striatum. TH-Cre mice also show preserved dopamine transporter expression and function supporting sustained dopaminergic transmission. In addition, TH-Cre mice demonstrate normal responses in basic behavioural paradigms related to dopaminergic signalling including locomotor activity, reward preference and anxiolytic behaviour. Our results suggest that TH-Cre mice represent a valid tool to study the dopamine system, though careful characterization must always be performed to prevent false interpretations following Cre-dependent transgene expression and manipulation of selected neuronal pathways. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

And the Winner Is: Inviting Hollywood into the Neuroscience Classroom

PubMed Central

Wiertelak, Eric P.

2002-01-01

Both short excerpts from, and full-length presentation of feature films have been used with success in undergraduate instruction. Studies of such use of films has revealed that incorporation of film viewing within courses can promote both content mastery and the development of critical thinking skills. This article discusses and provides examples of successful use of two methods that may be used to incorporate a variety of full-length feature films into neuroscience instruction. One, the “neuro-cinema” pairs the presentation of a film featuring extensive neuroscience content with primary literature reading assignments, group discussion and writing exercises. The second, a neuroscience film series, features group discussion of movies of perhaps more limited relevance to neuroscience. An additional goal of this article is provide the reader with initial resources for the selection of potential film titles for use in neuroscience education. Three extensive tables are included to provide a wide range of title suggestions appropriate for use in activities such as the neuro-cinema, the neuroscience film series, or for more limited use as short “clips” in classroom instruction. PMID:23493171

Interactive Social Neuroscience to Study Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Rolison, Max J.; Naples, Adam J.; McPartland, James C.

2015-01-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and relationships, but the neural mechanisms underlying these difficulties remain largely unknown. While social difficulties in ASD are most apparent in the context of interactions with other people, most neuroscience research investigating ASD have provided limited insight into the complex dynamics of these interactions. The development of novel, innovative “interactive social neuroscience” methods to study the brain in contexts with two interacting humans is a necessary advance for ASD research. Studies applying an interactive neuroscience approach to study two brains engaging with one another have revealed significant differences in neural processes during interaction compared to observation in brain regions that are implicated in the neuropathology of ASD. Interactive social neuroscience methods are crucial in clarifying the mechanisms underlying the social and communication deficits that characterize ASD. PMID:25745371

Language learning impairments: integrating basic science, technology, and remediation.

PubMed

Tallal, P; Merzenich, M M; Miller, S; Jenkins, W

1998-11-01

One of the fundamental goals of the modern field of neuroscience is to understand how neuronal activity gives rise to higher cortical function. However, to bridge the gap between neurobiology and behavior, we must understand higher cortical functions at the behavioral level at least as well as we have come to understand neurobiological processes at the cellular and molecular levels. This is certainly the case in the study of speech processing, where critical studies of behavioral dysfunction have provided key insights into the basic neurobiological mechanisms relevant to speech perception and production. Much of this progress derives from a detailed analysis of the sensory, perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities of children who fail to acquire speech, language, and reading skills normally within the context of otherwise normal development. Current research now shows that a dysfunction in normal phonological processing, which is critical to the development of oral and written language, may derive, at least in part, from difficulties in perceiving and producing basic sensory-motor information in rapid succession--within tens of ms (see Tallal et al. 1993a for a review). There is now substantial evidence supporting the hypothesis that basic temporal integration processes play a fundamental role in establishing neural representations for the units of speech (phonemes), which must be segmented from the (continuous) speech stream and combined to form words, in order for the normal development of oral and written language to proceed. Results from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) studies, as well as studies of behavioral performance in normal and language impaired children and adults, will be reviewed to support the view that the integration of rapidly changing successive acoustic events plays a primary role in phonological development and disorders. Finally, remediation studies based on this research, coupled with neuroplasticity research, will be presented.

Views on Careers in Clinical Neurosciences Among Neurosurgeons and Neurologists in China.

PubMed

Lukas, Rimas V; Ma, Chao; Chen, Jingcao; Dong, Hongmei; Li, Jinxin; Wang, Zefen; Jiang, Ivy; Fu, Kai; Satnarayan, Samita; Albert, Dara V F; Sherer, Renslow

2017-02-01

China has a large and aging population. The need for physicians with training in clinical neurosciences will grow. There is little known regarding the factors that lead physicians in China to pursue careers in clinical neurosciences. The objective of this study was to garner a clearer understanding of factors that influence physicians to pursue careers in neurosurgery and neurology in China. We surveyed attendees at a national neuroscience conference on the factors that influence their pursuit of careers in clinical neurosciences. Responses were quantified on a Likert scale. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare different groups of respondents. Factors associated with the intellectual elements of the specialties were rated most highly. Differences were noted between respondents, with trainees rating lifestyle-related factors more highly compared with attending physicians. The intellectual challenges are important factors for physicians in China influencing the pursuit of careers in the clinical neurosciences. This finding echoes results found elsewhere in the world. However, differences with trainees elsewhere in the world emerge when evaluating additional factors influencing trainees pursuing careers in the clinical neurosciences. Trainees in China rate educational experiences and mentorship more highly, whereas U.S. trainees rate altruistic goals more highly. This study provides a clearer understanding of factors influencing career choice among clinical neuroscientists in China. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

phMRI: methodological considerations for mitigating potential confounding factors

PubMed Central

Bourke, Julius H.; Wall, Matthew B.

2015-01-01

Pharmacological Magnetic Resonance Imaging (phMRI) is a variant of conventional MRI that adds pharmacological manipulations in order to study the effects of drugs, or uses pharmacological probes to investigate basic or applied (e.g., clinical) neuroscience questions. Issues that may confound the interpretation of results from various types of phMRI studies are briefly discussed, and a set of methodological strategies that can mitigate these problems are described. These include strategies that can be employed at every stage of investigation, from study design to interpretation of resulting data, and additional techniques suited for use with clinical populations are also featured. Pharmacological MRI is a challenging area of research that has both significant advantages and formidable difficulties, however with due consideration and use of these strategies many of the key obstacles can be overcome. PMID:25999812

Segmentation of human brain using structural MRI.

PubMed

Helms, Gunther

2016-04-01

Segmentation of human brain using structural MRI is a key step of processing in imaging neuroscience. The methods have undergone a rapid development in the past two decades and are now widely available. This non-technical review aims at providing an overview and basic understanding of the most common software. Starting with the basis of structural MRI contrast in brain and imaging protocols, the concepts of voxel-based and surface-based segmentation are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the typical contrast features and morphological constraints of cortical and sub-cortical grey matter. In addition to the use for voxel-based morphometry, basic applications in quantitative MRI, cortical thickness estimations, and atrophy measurements as well as assignment of cortical regions and deep brain nuclei are briefly discussed. Finally, some fields for clinical applications are given.

Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development

PubMed Central

Dubinsky, Janet M; Roehrig, Gillian; Varma, Sashank

2015-01-01

Bruer (1997) advocated connecting neuroscience and education indirectly through the intermediate discipline of psychology. We argue for a parallel route: the neurobiology of learning, and in particular the core concept of plasticity, have the potential to directly transform teacher preparation and professional development, and ultimately to affect how students think about their own learning. We present a case study of how the core concepts of neuroscience can be brought to in-service teachers – the BrainU workshops. We then discuss how neuroscience can be meaningfully integrated into pre-service teacher preparation, focusing on institutional and cultural barriers. PMID:26139861

Written pain neuroscience education in fibromyalgia: a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

van Ittersum, Miriam W; van Wilgen, C Paul; van der Schans, Cees P; Lambrecht, Luc; Groothoff, Johan W; Nijs, Jo

2014-11-01

Mounting evidence supports the use of face-to-face pain neuroscience education for the treatment of chronic pain patients. This study aimed at examining whether written education about pain neuroscience improves illness perceptions, catastrophizing, and health status in patients with fibromyalgia. A double-blind, multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial with 6-month follow-up was conducted. Patients with FM (n = 114) that consented to participate were randomly allocated to receive either written pain neuroscience education or written relaxation training. Written pain neuroscience education comprised of a booklet with pain neuroscience education plus a telephone call to clarify any difficulties; the relaxation group received a booklet with relaxation education and a telephone call. The revised illness perception questionnaire, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and fibromyalgia impact questionnaire were used as outcome measures. Both patients and assessors were blinded. Repeated-measures analyses with last observation carried forward principle were performed. Cohen's d effect sizes (ES) were calculated for all within-group changes and between-group differences. The results reveal that written pain neuroscience education does not change the impact of FM on daily life, catastrophizing, or perceived symptoms of patients with FM. Compared with written relaxation training, written pain neuroscience education improved beliefs in a chronic timeline of FM (P = 0.03; ES = 0.50), but it does not impact upon other domains of illness perceptions. Compared with written relaxation training, written pain neuroscience education slightly improved illness perceptions of patients with FM, but it did not impart clinically meaningful effects on pain, catastrophizing, or the impact of FM on daily life. Face-to-face sessions of pain neuroscience education are required to change inappropriate cognitions and perceived health in patients with FM. © 2013 World Institute of Pain.

Intentional Excellence in the Baldwin Wallace University Neuroscience Program

PubMed Central

Morris, Jacqueline K.; Peppers, Kieth; Mickley, G. Andrew

2015-01-01

The Society for Neuroscience recognized Baldwin Wallace University’s (BWU) undergraduate Neuroscience program as their Program of the Year for 2012. This award acknowledged the “accomplishments of a neuroscience department or program for excellence in educating neuroscientists and providing innovative models to which other programs can aspire.” The Neuroscience program grew out of students interested in studying the biological basis of behavior. BWU’s neuroscience major is research-intensive, and all students are required to produce an empirically-based senior thesis. This requirement challenges program resources, and the demand for faculty attention is high. Thus, we developed an intentional 3-step peer mentoring system that encourages our students to collaborate with and learn from, not only faculty, but each other. Peer mentoring occurs in the curriculum, faculty research labs, and as students complete their senior theses. As the program has grown with over 80 current majors, we have developed a new Neuroscience Methods course to train students on the safety, ethics, and practice of research in the neuroscience laboratory space. Students in this course leave with the skills and knowledge to assist senior level students with their theses and to begin the process of developing their own projects in the laboratory. Further, our students indicate that their “peer mentorship was excellent,” “helped them gain confidence,” and “allowed them to be more successful in their research.” PMID:26240522

A physiological perspective on the neuroscience of eating.

PubMed

Geary, Nori

2014-09-01

I present the thesis that 'being physiological,' i.e., analyzing eating under conditions that do not perturb, or minimally perturb, the organism's endogenous processes, should be a central goal of the neuroscience of eating. I describe my understanding of 'being physiological' based on [i] the central neural-network heuristic of CNS function that traces back to Cajal and Sherrington, [ii] research on one of the simpler problems in the neuroscience of eating, identification of endocrine signals that control eating. In this context I consider natural meals, physiological doses and ranges, and antagonist studies. Several examples involve CCK. Next I describe my view of the cutting edge in the molecular neuroscience of eating as it has evolved from the discovery of leptin signaling through the application of optogenetic and pharmacogenetic methods. Finally I describe some novel approaches that may advance the neuroscience of eating in the foreseeable future. I conclude that [i] the neuroscience of eating may soon be able to discern 'physiological' function in the operation of CNS networks mediating eating, [ii] the neuroscience of eating should capitalize on methods developed in other areas of neuroscience, e.g., improved methods to record and manipulate CNS function in behaving animals, identification of canonical regional circuits, use of population electrophysiology, etc., and [iii] subjective aspects of eating are crucial aspects of eating science, but remain beyond mechanistic understanding. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using the Humanities to Teach Neuroscience to Non-majors.

PubMed

McFarlane, Hewlet G; Richeimer, Joel

2015-01-01

We developed and offered a sequence of neuroscience courses geared toward changing the way non-science students interact with the sciences. Although we accepted students from all majors and at all class levels, our target population was first and second year students who were majoring in the fine arts or the humanities, or who had not yet declared a major. Our goal was to engage these students in science in general and neuroscience in particular by teaching science in a way that was accessible and relevant to their intellectual experiences. Our methodology was to teach scientific principles through the humanities by using course material that is at the intersection of the sciences and the humanities and by changing the classroom experience for both faculty and students. Examples of our course materials included the works of Oliver Sacks, V.S. Ramachandran, Martha Nussbaum, Virginia Woolf and Karl Popper, among others. To change the classroom experience we used a model of team-teaching, which required the simultaneous presence of two faculty members in the classroom for all classes. We changed the structure of the classroom experience from the traditional authority model to a model in which inquiry, debate, and intellectual responsibility were central. We wanted the students to have an appreciation of science not only as an endeavor guided by evidence and experimentation, but also a public discourse driven by creativity and controversy. The courses attracted a significant number of humanities and fine arts students, many of whom had already completed their basic science requirement.

Culturing the adolescent brain: what can neuroscience learn from anthropology?

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Cultural neuroscience is set to flourish in the next few years. As the field develops, it is necessary to reflect on what is meant by ‘culture’ and how this can be translated for the laboratory context. This article uses the example of the adolescent brain to discuss three aspects of culture that may help us to shape and reframe questions, interpretations and applications in cultural neuroscience: cultural contingencies of categories, cultural differences in experience and cultural context of neuroscience research. The last few years have seen a sudden increase in the study of adolescence as a period of both structural and functional plasticity, with new brain-based explanations of teenage behaviour being taken up in education, policy and medicine. However, the concept of adolescence, as an object of behavioural science, took shape relatively recently, not much more than a hundred years ago and was shaped by a number of cultural and historical factors. Moreover, research in anthropology and cross-cultural psychology has shown that the experience of adolescence, as a period of the lifespan, is variable and contingent upon culture. The emerging field of cultural neuroscience has begun to tackle the question of cultural differences in social cognitive processing in adults. In this article, I explore what a cultural neuroscience can mean in the case of adolescence. I consider how to integrate perspectives from social neuroscience and anthropology to conceptualize, and to empirically study, adolescence as a culturally variable phenomenon, which, itself, has been culturally constructed. PMID:19959484

The emperor's new wardrobe: Rebalancing diversity of animal models in neuroscience research.

PubMed

Yartsev, Michael M

2017-10-27

The neuroscience field is steaming ahead, fueled by a revolution in cutting-edge technologies. Concurrently, another revolution has been underway-the diversity of species utilized for neuroscience research is sharply declining, as the field converges on a few selected model organisms. Here, from the perspective of a young scientist, I naively ask: Is the great diversity of questions in neuroscience best studied in only a handful of animal models? I review some of the limitations the field is facing following this convergence and how these can be rectified by increasing the diversity of appropriate model species. I propose that at this exciting time of revolution in genetics and device technologies, neuroscience might be ready to diversify again, if provided the appropriate support. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Imaging Mass Spectrometry in Neuroscience

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Imaging mass spectrometry is an emerging technique of great potential for investigating the chemical architecture in biological matrices. Although the potential for studying neurobiological systems is evident, the relevance of the technique for application in neuroscience is still in its infancy. In the present Review, a principal overview of the different approaches, including matrix assisted laser desorption ionization and secondary ion mass spectrometry, is provided with particular focus on their strengths and limitations for studying different neurochemical species in situ and in vitro. The potential of the various approaches is discussed based on both fundamental and biomedical neuroscience research. This Review aims to serve as a general guide to familiarize the neuroscience community and other biomedical researchers with the technique, highlighting its great potential and suitability for comprehensive and specific chemical imaging. PMID:23530951

Canis familiaris As a Model for Non-Invasive Comparative Neuroscience.

PubMed

Bunford, Nóra; Andics, Attila; Kis, Anna; Miklósi, Ádám; Gácsi, Márta

2017-07-01

There is an ongoing need to improve animal models for investigating human behavior and its biological underpinnings. The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is a promising model in cognitive neuroscience. However, before it can contribute to advances in this field in a comparative, reliable, and valid manner, several methodological issues warrant attention. We review recent non-invasive canine neuroscience studies, primarily focusing on (i) variability among dogs and between dogs and humans in cranial characteristics, and (ii) generalizability across dog and dog-human studies. We argue not for methodological uniformity but for functional comparability between methods, experimental designs, and neural responses. We conclude that the dog may become an innovative and unique model in comparative neuroscience, complementing more traditional models. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computational Foundations of Natural Intelligence

PubMed Central

van Gerven, Marcel

2017-01-01

New developments in AI and neuroscience are revitalizing the quest to understanding natural intelligence, offering insight about how to equip machines with human-like capabilities. This paper reviews some of the computational principles relevant for understanding natural intelligence and, ultimately, achieving strong AI. After reviewing basic principles, a variety of computational modeling approaches is discussed. Subsequently, I concentrate on the use of artificial neural networks as a framework for modeling cognitive processes. This paper ends by outlining some of the challenges that remain to fulfill the promise of machines that show human-like intelligence. PMID:29375355

Challenges and opportunities in social neuroscience

PubMed Central

Cacioppo, John T.; Decety, Jean

2010-01-01

Social species are so characterized because they form organizations that extend beyond the individual. The goal of social neuroscience is to investigate the biological mechanisms that underlie these social structures, processes, and behavior and the influences between social and neural structures and processes. Such an endeavor is challenging because it necessitates the integration of multiple levels. Mapping across systems and levels (from genome to social groups and cultures) requires interdisciplinary expertise, comparative studies, innovative methods, and integrative conceptual analysis. Examples of how social neuroscience is contributing to our understanding of the functions of the brain and nervous system are described, and societal implications of social neuroscience are considered. PMID:21251011

PA6 Stromal Cell Co-Culture Enhances SH-SY5Y and VSC4.1 Neuroblastoma Differentiation to Mature Phenotypes

PubMed Central

Ferguson, Ross; Subramanian, Vasanta

2016-01-01

Neuroblastoma cell lines such as SH-SY5Y have been used for modelling neurodegenerative diseases and for studying basic mechanisms in neuroscience. Since neuroblastoma cells proliferate and generally do not express markers of mature or functional neurons, we exploited a co-culture system with the stromal cell line PA6 to better induce differentiation to a more physiologically relevant status. We found that co-culture of the neuroblastoma cell lines in the presence of neural inducers such retinoic acid was able to generate a high proportion of quiescent neurons with very long neurites expressing differentiation markers. The co-culture system additionally cuts short the time taken to produce a more mature phenotype. We also show the application of this system to study proteins implicated in motor neuron disease. PMID:27391595

PA6 Stromal Cell Co-Culture Enhances SH-SY5Y and VSC4.1 Neuroblastoma Differentiation to Mature Phenotypes.

PubMed

Ferguson, Ross; Subramanian, Vasanta

2016-01-01

Neuroblastoma cell lines such as SH-SY5Y have been used for modelling neurodegenerative diseases and for studying basic mechanisms in neuroscience. Since neuroblastoma cells proliferate and generally do not express markers of mature or functional neurons, we exploited a co-culture system with the stromal cell line PA6 to better induce differentiation to a more physiologically relevant status. We found that co-culture of the neuroblastoma cell lines in the presence of neural inducers such retinoic acid was able to generate a high proportion of quiescent neurons with very long neurites expressing differentiation markers. The co-culture system additionally cuts short the time taken to produce a more mature phenotype. We also show the application of this system to study proteins implicated in motor neuron disease.

Mind the gap: bridging economic and naturalistic risk-taking with cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Schonberg, Tom; Fox, Craig R; Poldrack, Russell A

2011-01-01

Economists define risk in terms of the variability of possible outcomes, whereas clinicians and laypeople generally view risk as exposure to possible loss or harm. Neuroeconomic studies using relatively simple behavioral tasks have identified a network of brain regions that respond to economic risk, but these studies have had limited success predicting naturalistic risk-taking. By contrast, more complex behavioral tasks developed by clinicians (e.g. Balloon Analogue Risk Task and Iowa Gambling Task) correlate with naturalistic risk-taking but resist decomposition into distinct cognitive constructs. We propose here that to bridge this gap and better understand neural substrates of naturalistic risk-taking, new tasks are needed that: are decomposable into basic cognitive and/or economic constructs; predict naturalistic risk-taking; and engender dynamic, affective engagement. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Theory and method at the intersection of anthropology and cultural neuroscience

PubMed Central

Brown, Ryan A.

2010-01-01

Anthropologists have become increasingly interested in embodiment—that is, the ways that socio-cultural factors influence the form, behavior and subjective experience of human bodies. At the same time, social cognitive neuroscience has begun to reveal the mechanisms of embodiment by investigating the neural underpinnings and consequences of social experience. Despite this overlap, the two fields have barely engaged one another. We suggest three interconnected domains of inquiry in which the intersection of neuroscience and anthropology can productively inform our understanding of the relationship between human brains and their socio-cultural contexts. These are: the social construction of emotion, cultural psychiatry, and the embodiment of ritual. We build on both current research findings in cultural neuroscience and ethnographic data on cultural differences in thought and behavior, to generate novel, ecologically informed hypotheses for future study. In addition, we lay out a specific suggestion for operationalizing insights from anthropology in the context of cultural neuroscience research. Specifically, we advocate the development of field studies that use portable measurement technologies to connect individual patterns of biological response with socio-cultural processes. We illustrate the potential of such an approach with data from a study of psychophysiology and religious devotion in Northeastern Brazil. PMID:19965815

PRN: a preprint service for catalyzing R-fMRI and neuroscience related studies

PubMed Central

Yan, Chao-gan; Li, Qingyang; Gao, Lei

2015-01-01

Sharing drafts of scientific manuscripts on preprint hosting services for early exposure and pre-publication feedback is a well-accepted practice in fields such as physics, astronomy, or mathematics. The field of neuroscience, however, has yet to adopt the preprint model. A reason for this reluctance might partly be the lack of central preprint services for the field of neuroscience. To address this issue, we announce the launch of Preprints of the R-fMRI Network (PRN), a community funded preprint hosting service. PRN provides free-submission and free hosting of manuscripts for resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) and neuroscience related studies. Submitted articles are openly discussed and receive feedback from readers and a panel of invited consultants from the R-fMRI Network. All manuscripts and feedback are freely accessible online with citable permanent URL for open-access. The goal of PRN is to supplement the peer reviewed journal publication system – by more rapidly communicating the latest research achievements throughout the world. We hope PRN would help the field to embrace the preprint model and thus further accelerate R-fMRI and neuroscience related studies, eventually enhancing human mental health. PMID:25844159

Theory and method at the intersection of anthropology and cultural neuroscience.

PubMed

Seligman, Rebecca; Brown, Ryan A

2010-06-01

Anthropologists have become increasingly interested in embodiment-that is, the ways that socio-cultural factors influence the form, behavior and subjective experience of human bodies. At the same time, social cognitive neuroscience has begun to reveal the mechanisms of embodiment by investigating the neural underpinnings and consequences of social experience. Despite this overlap, the two fields have barely engaged one another. We suggest three interconnected domains of inquiry in which the intersection of neuroscience and anthropology can productively inform our understanding of the relationship between human brains and their socio-cultural contexts. These are: the social construction of emotion, cultural psychiatry, and the embodiment of ritual. We build on both current research findings in cultural neuroscience and ethnographic data on cultural differences in thought and behavior, to generate novel, ecologically informed hypotheses for future study. In addition, we lay out a specific suggestion for operationalizing insights from anthropology in the context of cultural neuroscience research. Specifically, we advocate the development of field studies that use portable measurement technologies to connect individual patterns of biological response with socio-cultural processes. We illustrate the potential of such an approach with data from a study of psychophysiology and religious devotion in Northeastern Brazil.

Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches to Understanding Behavior Change in Alcohol Use Disorder Treatments.

PubMed

Naqvi, Nasir H; Morgenstern, Jon

2015-01-01

Researchers have begun to apply cognitive neuroscience concepts and methods to study behavior change mechanisms in alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatments. This review begins with an examination of the current state of treatment mechanisms research using clinical and social psychological approaches. It then summarizes what is currently understood about the pathophysiology of addiction from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Finally, it reviews recent efforts to use cognitive neuroscience approaches to understand the neural mechanisms of behavior change in AUD, including studies that use neural functioning to predict relapse and abstinence; studies examining neural mechanisms that operate in current evidence-based behavioral interventions for AUD; as well as research on novel behavioral interventions that are being derived from our emerging understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms of behavior change in AUD. The article highlights how the regulation of subcortical regions involved in alcohol incentive motivation by prefrontal cortical regions involved in cognitive control may be a core mechanism that plays a role in these varied forms of behavior change in AUD. We also lay out a multilevel framework for integrating cognitive neuroscience approaches with more traditional methods for examining AUD treatment mechanisms.

Integrating the Allen Brain Institute Cell Types Database into Automated Neuroscience Workflow.

PubMed

Stockton, David B; Santamaria, Fidel

2017-10-01

We developed software tools to download, extract features, and organize the Cell Types Database from the Allen Brain Institute (ABI) in order to integrate its whole cell patch clamp characterization data into the automated modeling/data analysis cycle. To expand the potential user base we employed both Python and MATLAB. The basic set of tools downloads selected raw data and extracts cell, sweep, and spike features, using ABI's feature extraction code. To facilitate data manipulation we added a tool to build a local specialized database of raw data plus extracted features. Finally, to maximize automation, we extended our NeuroManager workflow automation suite to include these tools plus a separate investigation database. The extended suite allows the user to integrate ABI experimental and modeling data into an automated workflow deployed on heterogeneous computer infrastructures, from local servers, to high performance computing environments, to the cloud. Since our approach is focused on workflow procedures our tools can be modified to interact with the increasing number of neuroscience databases being developed to cover all scales and properties of the nervous system.

Applications of Optical Coherence Tomography in Pediatric Clinical Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Avery, Robert A.; Rajjoub, Raneem D.; Trimboli-Heidler, Carmelina; Waldman, Amy T.

2015-01-01

For nearly two centuries, the ophthalmoscope has permitted examination of the retina and optic nerve—the only axons directly visualized by the physician. The retinal ganglion cells project their axons, which travel along the innermost retina to form the optic nerve, marking the beginning of the anterior visual pathway. Both the structure and function of the visual pathway are essential components of the neurologic examination as it can be involved in numerous acquired, congenital and genetic central nervous system conditions. The development of optical coherence tomography now permits the pediatric neuroscientist to visualize and quantify the optic nerve and retinal layers with unprecedented resolution. As optical coherence tomography becomes more accessible and integrated into research and clinical care, the pediatric neuroscientist may have the opportunity to utilize and/or interpret results from this device. This review describes the basic technical features of optical coherence tomography and highlights its potential clinical and research applications in pediatric clinical neuroscience including optic nerve swelling, optic neuritis, tumors of the visual pathway, vigabatrin toxicity, nystagmus, and neurodegenerative conditions. PMID:25803824

Linking psychoanalysis with neuroscience: the concept of ego.

PubMed

Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Semi, Antonio Alberto; Fabbri-Destro, Maddalena

2014-03-01

Through his whole life Marc Jeannerod was fascinated by Freud's thinking. His interest in Freud is witnessed by several of his writings in which he expresses interest in building a bridge between psychoanalysis and cognitive neuroscience. Following Jeannerod's ideas we discuss here a fundamental point of Freud's construction, the concept of ego, from a neurophysiological point of view. We maintain that, in order both to act coherently and to have a basic, first person, understanding of the behavior of others, it is necessary to posit the existence of a neurophysiological "motor" ego similar to the "rider" of the Freudian metaphor. We review then a series of neurophysiological findings showing that the systems underlying the organization of action and conscious perception are both mediated by a cortical motor network formed by parieto-frontal circuits. In conclusion, we show that the activity of this network has strong similarities to that postulated by Freud for the conscious part of ego. We also propose that the default-mode network might represent that part of ego that is mostly involved in unconscious processes. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Applications of optical coherence tomography in pediatric clinical neuroscience.

PubMed

Avery, Robert A; Rajjoub, Raneem D; Trimboli-Heidler, Carmelina; Waldman, Amy T

2015-04-01

For nearly two centuries, the ophthalmoscope has permitted examination of the retina and optic nerve-the only axons directly visualized by the physician. The retinal ganglion cells project their axons, which travel along the innermost retina to form the optic nerve, marking the beginning of the anterior visual pathway. Both the structure and function of the visual pathway are essential components of the neurologic examination as it can be involved in numerous acquired, congenital and genetic central nervous system conditions. The development of optical coherence tomography now permits the pediatric neuroscientist to visualize and quantify the optic nerve and retinal layers with unprecedented resolution. As optical coherence tomography becomes more accessible and integrated into research and clinical care, the pediatric neuroscientist may have the opportunity to utilize and/or interpret results from this device. This review describes the basic technical features of optical coherence tomography and highlights its potential clinical and research applications in pediatric clinical neuroscience including optic nerve swelling, optic neuritis, tumors of the visual pathway, vigabatrin toxicity, nystagmus, and neurodegenerative conditions. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Logical and Methodological Issues Affecting Genetic Studies of Humans Reported in Top Neuroscience Journals.

PubMed

Grabitz, Clara R; Button, Katherine S; Munafò, Marcus R; Newbury, Dianne F; Pernet, Cyril R; Thompson, Paul A; Bishop, Dorothy V M

2018-01-01

Genetics and neuroscience are two areas of science that pose particular methodological problems because they involve detecting weak signals (i.e., small effects) in noisy data. In recent years, increasing numbers of studies have attempted to bridge these disciplines by looking for genetic factors associated with individual differences in behavior, cognition, and brain structure or function. However, different methodological approaches to guarding against false positives have evolved in the two disciplines. To explore methodological issues affecting neurogenetic studies, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 30 consecutive articles in 12 top neuroscience journals that reported on genetic associations in nonclinical human samples. It was often difficult to estimate effect sizes in neuroimaging paradigms. Where effect sizes could be calculated, the studies reporting the largest effect sizes tended to have two features: (i) they had the smallest samples and were generally underpowered to detect genetic effects, and (ii) they did not fully correct for multiple comparisons. Furthermore, only a minority of studies used statistical methods for multiple comparisons that took into account correlations between phenotypes or genotypes, and only nine studies included a replication sample or explicitly set out to replicate a prior finding. Finally, presentation of methodological information was not standardized and was often distributed across Methods sections and Supplementary Material, making it challenging to assemble basic information from many studies. Space limits imposed by journals could mean that highly complex statistical methods were described in only a superficial fashion. In summary, methods that have become standard in the genetics literature-stringent statistical standards, use of large samples, and replication of findings-are not always adopted when behavioral, cognitive, or neuroimaging phenotypes are used, leading to an increased risk of false-positive findings. Studies need to correct not just for the number of phenotypes collected but also for the number of genotypes examined, genetic models tested, and subsamples investigated. The field would benefit from more widespread use of methods that take into account correlations between the factors corrected for, such as spectral decomposition, or permutation approaches. Replication should become standard practice; this, together with the need for larger sample sizes, will entail greater emphasis on collaboration between research groups. We conclude with some specific suggestions for standardized reporting in this area.

Characterizing the Undergraduate Neuroscience Major in the U.S.: An Examination of Course Requirements and Institution-Program Associations

PubMed Central

Pinard-Welyczko, Kira M.; Garrison, Anna C. S.; Ramos, Raddy L.; Carter, Bradley S.

2017-01-01

Neuroscience is a rapidly expanding field, and many colleges and universities throughout the country are implementing new neuroscience degree programs. Despite the field’s growth and popularity, little data exists on the structural character of current undergraduate neuroscience programs. We collected and examined comprehensive data on existing undergraduate neuroscience programs, including academic major requirements and institution characteristics such as size, financial resources, and research opportunities. Thirty-one variables covering information about course requirements, department characteristics, financial resources, and institution characteristics were collected from 118 colleges and universities in the United States that offer a major titled “neuroscience” or “neural sciences.” Data was collected from publicly available sources (online databases, institutions’ neuroscience program websites) and then analyzed to define the average curriculum and identify associations between institution and program characteristics. Our results suggest that the average undergraduate neuroscience major requires 3 chemistry, 3 biology, 3 laboratory, 2–3 neuroscience, 1 physics, 1 math, and 2 psychology courses, suggesting that most neuroscience programs emphasize the natural sciences over the social sciences. Additionally, while 98% of institutions in our database offer research opportunities, only 31% required majors to perform research. Of note, 70% of institutions offering a neuroscience major do not have a neuroscience department, suggesting that most institutions offer neuroscience as an interdisciplinary major spanning several departments. Finally, smaller liberal arts colleges account for the majority of institutions offering a neuroscience major. Overall, these findings may be useful for informing groups interested in undergraduate neuroscience training, including institutions looking to improve or establish programs, students wanting to major in neuroscience and employers hiring neuroscience graduates. PMID:29371843

Complementary aspects of diffusion imaging and fMRI; I: structure and function.

PubMed

Mulkern, Robert V; Davis, Peter E; Haker, Steven J; Estepar, Raul San Jose; Panych, Lawrence P; Maier, Stephan E; Rivkin, Michael J

2006-05-01

Studying the intersection of brain structure and function is an important aspect of modern neuroscience. The development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over the last 25 years has provided new and powerful tools for the study of brain structure and function. Two tools in particular, diffusion imaging and functional MRI (fMRI), are playing increasingly important roles in elucidating the complementary aspects of brain structure and function. In this work, we review basic technical features of diffusion imaging and fMRI for studying the integrity of white matter structural components and for determining the location and extent of cortical activation in gray matter, respectively. We then review a growing body of literature in which the complementary aspects of diffusion imaging and fMRI, applied as separate examinations but analyzed in tandem, have been exploited to enhance our knowledge of brain structure and function.

Neuroimaging and psychophysiological measurement in organizational research: an agenda for research in organizational cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Lee, Nick; Chamberlain, Laura

2007-11-01

Although organizational research has made tremendous strides in the last century, recent advances in neuroscience and the imaging of functional brain activity remain underused. In fact, even the use of well-established psychophysiological measurement tools is comparatively rare. Following the lead of social cognitive neuroscience, in this review, we conceptualize organizational cognitive neuroscience as a field dedicated to exploring the processes within the brain that underlie or influence human decisions, behaviors, and interactions either (a) within organizations or (b) in response to organizational manifestations or institutions. We discuss organizational cognitive neuroscience, bringing together work that may previously have been characterized rather atomistically, and provide a brief overview of individual methods that may be of use. Subsequently, we discuss the possible convergence and integration of the different neuroimaging and psychophysiological measurement modalities. A brief review of prior work in the field shows a significant need for a more coherent and theory-driven approach to organizational cognitive neuroscience. In response, we discuss a recent example of such work, along with three hypothetical case studies that exemplify the link between organizational and psychological theory and neuroscientific methods.

Advancing Neuroscience Research in Africa: Invertebrate Species to the Rescue.

PubMed

Balogun, Wasiu Gbolahan; Cobham, Ansa Emmanuel; Amin, Abdulbasit; Seeni, Azman

2018-03-15

Neuroscience research and training in many African countries are difficult due to funding and infrastructure deficit. This has resulted in few neuroscientists within Africa. However, invertebrates such as Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans could provide the perfect answer to these difficulties. These organisms are cheap, easy to handle and offer a comparable advantage over vertebrates in neuroscience research modeling because they have a simple nervous system and exhibit well-defined behaviors. Studies using invertebrates have helped to understand neurosciences and the complexes associated with it. If Africa wants to catch up with the rest of the world in neuroscience research, it needs to employ this innovative cost-effective approach in its research. To improve invertebrate neuroscience within the Africa continent, the authors advocated the establishment of invertebrate research centers either at regional or national level across Africa. Finally, there is also a need to provide public funding to consolidate the gains that have been made by not-for-profit international organizations over the years. Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decreasing Neuroscience Anxiety in an Introductory Neuroscience Course: An Analysis Using Data from a Modified Science Anxiety Scale

PubMed Central

Birkett, Melissa; Shelton, Kerisa

2011-01-01

To determine whether participation in a neuroscience course reduced neuroscience anxiety, a modified version of the Science Anxiety Scale was administered to students at the beginning and end of an introductory course. Neuroscience anxiety scores were significantly reduced at the end of the course and correlated with higher final grades. Reduced neuroscience anxiety did not correlate with reduced science anxiety, suggesting that neuroscience anxiety is a distinct subtype of anxiety. PMID:23626491

Critical ethnography: An under-used research methodology in neuroscience nursing.

PubMed

Ross, Cheryl; Rogers, Cath; Duff, Diane

2016-01-01

Critical ethnography is a qualitative research method that endeavours to explore and understand dominant discourses that are seen as being the 'right' way to think, see, talk about or enact a particular 'action' or situation in society and recommend ways to re-dress social power inequities. In health care, vulnerable populations, including many individuals who have experienced neurological illnesses or injuries that leave them susceptible to the influence of others, would be suitable groups for study using critical ethnography methodology. Critical ethnography has also been used to study workplace culture. While ethnography has been effectively used to underpin other phenomena of interest to neuroscience nurses, only one example of the use of critical ethnography exists in the published literature related to neuroscience nursing. In our "Research Corner" in this issue of the Canadian Journal of Neuroscience Nursing (CJNN) our guest editors, Dr. Cheryl Ross and Dr. Cath Rogers will briefly highlight the origins of qualitative research, ethnography, and critical ethnography and describe how they are used and, as the third author, I will discuss the relevance of critical ethnography findings for neuroscience nurses.

[Social neuroscience and psychiatry].

PubMed

Takahashi, Hidehiko

2013-01-01

The topics of emotion, decision-making, and consciousness have been traditionally dealt with in the humanities and social sciences. With the dissemination of noninvasive human neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and the advancement of cognitive science, neuroimaging studies focusing on emotions, social cognition, and decision-making have become established. I overviewed the history of social neurosciences. The emerging field of social brain research or social neuroscience will greatly contribute to clinical psychiatry. In the first part. I introduced our early fMRI studies on social emotions such as guilt, embarrassment, pride, and envy. Dysfunction of social emotions can be observed in various forms of psychiatric disorder, and the findings should contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of psychiatric conditions. In the second part, I introduced our recent interdisciplinary neuroscience approach combining molecular neuroimaging techniques(positron emission tomography: PET), cognitive sciences, and economics to understand the neural as well as molecular basis of altered decision-making in neuropsychiatric disorders. An interdisciplinary approach combing molecular imaging techniques and cognitive neuroscience and clinical psychiatry will provide new perspectives for understanding the neurobiology of impaired decision-making in neuropsychiatric disorders and drug development.

Neuroscience research on aging and implications for counseling psychology.

PubMed

Wright, Stephen L; Díaz, Fernando

2014-10-01

The advances in neuroscience have led to an increase in scientific understanding of the aging process, and counseling psychologists can benefit from familiarity with the research on the neuroscience of aging. In this article, we have focused on the cognitive neuroscience of aging, and we describe the progression of healthy aging to Alzheimer's disease, given its high prevalence rate among older adults (Alzheimer's Association, 2013). Common techniques used to study the cognitive neuroscience of aging are explained in regards to measuring age-related changes in the brain and the role of biomarkers in identifying cognitive decline related to Alzheimer's disease. Using this information and in collaboration with cognitive neuroscientists, it is our hope that counseling psychologists may further pursue research areas on aging as well as design appropriate interventions for older individuals who may be experiencing cognitive impairment. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Mapping the semantic structure of cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Beam, Elizabeth; Appelbaum, L Gregory; Jack, Jordynn; Moody, James; Huettel, Scott A

2014-09-01

Cognitive neuroscience, as a discipline, links the biological systems studied by neuroscience to the processing constructs studied by psychology. By mapping these relations throughout the literature of cognitive neuroscience, we visualize the semantic structure of the discipline and point to directions for future research that will advance its integrative goal. For this purpose, network text analyses were applied to an exhaustive corpus of abstracts collected from five major journals over a 30-month period, including every study that used fMRI to investigate psychological processes. From this, we generate network maps that illustrate the relationships among psychological and anatomical terms, along with centrality statistics that guide inferences about network structure. Three terms--prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex--dominate the network structure with their high frequency in the literature and the density of their connections with other neuroanatomical terms. From network statistics, we identify terms that are understudied compared with their importance in the network (e.g., insula and thalamus), are underspecified in the language of the discipline (e.g., terms associated with executive function), or are imperfectly integrated with other concepts (e.g., subdisciplines like decision neuroscience that are disconnected from the main network). Taking these results as the basis for prescriptive recommendations, we conclude that semantic analyses provide useful guidance for cognitive neuroscience as a discipline, both by illustrating systematic biases in the conduct and presentation of research and by identifying directions that may be most productive for future research.

77 FR 52042 - Center For Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-28

... and Training Neurosciences Integrated Review; Group; Molecular Neurogenetics Study Section. [email protected] . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Study Section. Date: September 28, 2012. Time: 8 a.m. to 6 p...

An Analysis of the Abstracts Presented at the Annual Meetings of the Society for Neuroscience from 2001 to 2006

PubMed Central

Lin, John M.; Bohland, Jason W.; Andrews, Peter; Burns, Gully A. P. C.; Allen, Cara B.; Mitra, Partha P.

2008-01-01

Annual meeting abstracts published by scientific societies often contain rich arrays of information that can be computationally mined and distilled to elucidate the state and dynamics of the subject field. We extracted and processed abstract data from the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) annual meeting abstracts during the period 2001–2006 in order to gain an objective view of contemporary neuroscience. An important first step in the process was the application of data cleaning and disambiguation methods to construct a unified database, since the data were too noisy to be of full utility in the raw form initially available. Using natural language processing, text mining, and other data analysis techniques, we then examined the demographics and structure of the scientific collaboration network, the dynamics of the field over time, major research trends, and the structure of the sources of research funding. Some interesting findings include a high geographical concentration of neuroscience research in the north eastern United States, a surprisingly large transient population (66% of the authors appear in only one out of the six studied years), the central role played by the study of neurodegenerative disorders in the neuroscience community, and an apparent growth of behavioral/systems neuroscience with a corresponding shrinkage of cellular/molecular neuroscience over the six year period. The results from this work will prove useful for scientists, policy makers, and funding agencies seeking to gain a complete and unbiased picture of the community structure and body of knowledge encapsulated by a specific scientific domain. PMID:18446237

Neuroscience and humanistic psychiatry: a residency curriculum.

PubMed

Griffith, James L

2014-04-01

Psychiatry residencies with a commitment to humanism commonly prioritize training in psychotherapy, cultural psychiatry, mental health policy, promotion of human rights, and similar areas reliant upon dialogue and collaborative therapeutic relationships. The advent of neuroscience as a defining paradigm for psychiatry has challenged residencies with a humanistic focus due to common perceptions that it would entail constriction of psychiatric practice to diagnostic and psychopharmacology roles. The author describes a neuroscience curriculum that has taught psychopharmacology effectively, while also advancing effectiveness of language-based and relationship-based therapeutics. In 2000, the George Washington University psychiatry residency initiated a neuroscience curriculum consisting of (1) a foundational postgraduate year 2 seminar teaching cognitive and social neuroscience and its integration into clinical psychopharmacology, (2) advanced seminars that utilized a neuroscience perspective in teaching specific psychotherapeutic skill sets, and (3) case-based teaching in outpatient clinical supervisions that incorporated a neuroscience perspective into traditional psychotherapy supervisions. Curricular assessment was conducted by (1) RRC reaccreditation site visit feedback, (2) examining career trajectories of residency graduates, (3) comparing PRITE exam Somatic Treatments subscale scores for 2010-2012 residents with pre-implementation residents, and (4) postresidency survey assessment by 2010-2012 graduates. The 2011 RRC site visit report recommended a "notable practice" citation for "innovative neurosciences curriculum." Three of twenty 2010-2012 graduates entered neuroscience research fellowships, as compared to none before the new curriculum. PRITE Somatic Treatments subscale scores improved from the 23rd percentile to the 62nd percentile in pre- to post-implementation of curriculum (p < .001). Recent graduates rated effectiveness of clinical psychopharmacology training as 8.6 on ten-point Likert scale. From multiple vantage points of assessment, these outcome results support effectiveness of this neuroscience curriculum for a residency committed to humanistic psychiatry as its primary mission. As a naturalistic study, further examination of its methods in pretest and posttest assessments and a multisite comparison is warranted.

3D Shape Perception in Posterior Cortical Atrophy: A Visual Neuroscience Perspective

PubMed Central

Gillebert, Céline R.; Schaeverbeke, Jolien; Bastin, Christine; Neyens, Veerle; Bruffaerts, Rose; De Weer, An-Sofie; Seghers, Alexandra; Sunaert, Stefan; Van Laere, Koen; Versijpt, Jan; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu; Salmon, Eric; Todd, James T.; Orban, Guy A.

2015-01-01

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a rare focal neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive visuoperceptual and visuospatial deficits, most often due to atypical Alzheimer's disease (AD). We applied insights from basic visual neuroscience to analyze 3D shape perception in humans affected by PCA. Thirteen PCA patients and 30 matched healthy controls participated, together with two patient control groups with diffuse Lewy body dementia (DLBD) and an amnestic-dominant phenotype of AD, respectively. The hierarchical study design consisted of 3D shape processing for 4 cues (shading, motion, texture, and binocular disparity) with corresponding 2D and elementary feature extraction control conditions. PCA and DLBD exhibited severe 3D shape-processing deficits and AD to a lesser degree. In PCA, deficient 3D shape-from-shading was associated with volume loss in the right posterior inferior temporal cortex. This region coincided with a region of functional activation during 3D shape-from-shading in healthy controls. In PCA patients who performed the same fMRI paradigm, response amplitude during 3D shape-from-shading was reduced in this region. Gray matter volume in this region also correlated with 3D shape-from-shading in AD. 3D shape-from-disparity in PCA was associated with volume loss slightly more anteriorly in posterior inferior temporal cortex as well as in ventral premotor cortex. The findings in right posterior inferior temporal cortex and right premotor cortex are consistent with neurophysiologically based models of the functional anatomy of 3D shape processing. However, in DLBD, 3D shape deficits rely on mechanisms distinct from inferior temporal structural integrity. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive visuoperceptual dysfunction and most often an atypical presentation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) affecting the ventral and dorsal visual streams rather than the medial temporal system. We applied insights from fundamental visual neuroscience to analyze 3D shape perception in PCA. 3D shape-processing deficits were affected beyond what could be accounted for by lower-order processing deficits. For shading and disparity, this was related to volume loss in regions previously implicated in 3D shape processing in the intact human and nonhuman primate brain. Typical amnestic-dominant AD patients also exhibited 3D shape deficits. Advanced visual neuroscience provides insight into the pathogenesis of PCA that also bears relevance for vision in typical AD. PMID:26377458

A four-part working bibliography of neuroethics: Part 4 - Ethical issues in clinical and social applications of neuroscience.

PubMed

Becker, Kira; Shook, John R; Darragh, Martina; Giordano, James

2017-05-31

As a discipline, neuroethics addresses a range of questions and issues generated by basic neuroscientific research (inclusive of studies of putative neurobiological processes involved in moral and ethical cognition and behavior), and its use and meanings in the clinical and social spheres. Here, we present Part 4 of a four-part bibliography of the neuroethics literature focusing on clinical and social applications of neuroscience, to include: the treatment-enhancement discourse; issues arising in neurology, psychiatry, and pain care; neuroethics education and training; neuroethics and the law; neuroethics and policy and political issues; international neuroethics; and discourses addressing "trans-" and "post-" humanity. To complete a systematic survey of the literature, 19 databases and 4 individual open-access journals were employed. Searches were conducted using the indexing language of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). A Python code was used to eliminate duplications in the final bibliography. When taken with Parts 1-3, this bibliography aims to provide a listing of international peerreviewed papers, books, and book chapters published from 2002 through 2016. While seeking to be as comprehensive as possible, it may be that some works were inadvertently and unintentionally not included. We therefore invite commentary from the field to afford completeness and contribute to this bibliography as a participatory work-in-progress.

"Do octopuses have a brain?" Knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards neuroscience at school.

PubMed

Sperduti, Alessandra; Crivellaro, Federica; Rossi, Paola Francesca; Bondioli, Luca

2012-01-01

The present study contributes to the question of school literacy about the brain, with an original survey conducted on Italian students from the 3(rd) to 10(th) grades (n=508). The main goal was to test student's knowledge, attitudes, and interests about neuroscience, to assess needs, prospects, and difficulties in teaching about the brain from elementary to high school. A written questionnaire, maintaining anonymity, asked 12 close-ended multiple choice questions on topics related to human and animal brains, plus one facultative open-ended question about interests and curiosities on brain topics. The results show that respondents have a fragmentary level of basic knowledge about the brain, with aspects related to brain functions and consciousness the most challenging. As expected, degrees of performance improve with school level; elementary school students answered correctly an average number of 5.3 questions, middle school 6.5, and high school 7.4. Overall, students show great interest in the brain, as shown by the large number of questions gathered through the open-ended question (n=384). Other topics are addressed, mostly related to brain structure/functions and the role of the brain in the everyday life. The survey indicates the need of more thorough school programs on this subject, reinforced by interdisciplinary teaching where comparative anatomy and evolutionary aspects of brain development are covered.

[Neurotransmission in developmental disorders].

PubMed

Takeuchi, Yoshihiro

2008-11-01

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) is a heterogeneous developmental disorder with an etiology that is not fully understood. AD/HD has been considered to occur due to a disturbance in cathecholaminergic neurotransmission, with particular emphasis on dopamine. The neurotransmission of dopamine in subcortical regions such as the basal ganglia and limbic areas is synaptic; on the other hand, dopamine neurotransmission in the frontal cortex is quite different, because there are very few dopamine transporters (DAT) in the frontal cortex that allow dopamine to diffuse away from the dopamine synapse ("volume transmission"). It is now clear that noradrenergic neurons play a key regulatory role in dopaminergic function in the frontal cortex. Furthermore, serotonergic neurons exert an inhibitory effect on midbrain dopamine cell bodies, and they have an influence on dopamine release in terminal regions. There is accumulating neurobiological evidence pointing toward a role of the serotonin system in AD/HD. The etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is still unclear, but information from genetics, neuropathology, brain imaging, and basic neuroscience has provided insights into the understanding of this developmental disorder. In addition to abnormal circuitry in specific limbic and neocortical areas of the cerebral cortex, impairments in brainstem, cerebellar, thalamic, and basal ganglia connections have been reported. Numerous studies have pointed to abnormalities in serotonin and glutamate neurotransmission. Three important aspects involved in the pathophysiology of ASD have been proposed. The first is cell migration, the second is unbalanced excitatory-inhibitory networks, and the third is synapse formation and pruning, the key factors being reelin, neurexin, and neuroligin. Serotonin is considered to play an important role in all of these aspects of the pathophysiology of ASD. Finally, I would like to emphasize that it is crucial in the field of child neurology medical examination and treatment should be based on the basic neuroscience, always taking "neurons" into consideration.

Neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience: contributions to neurology.

PubMed

Javor, Andrija; Koller, Monika; Lee, Nick; Chamberlain, Laura; Ransmayr, Gerhard

2013-02-06

'Neuromarketing' is a term that has often been used in the media in recent years. These public discussions have generally centered around potential ethical aspects and the public fear of negative consequences for society in general, and consumers in particular. However, positive contributions to the scientific discourse from developing a biological model that tries to explain context-situated human behavior such as consumption have often been neglected. We argue for a differentiated terminology, naming commercial applications of neuroscientific methods 'neuromarketing' and scientific ones 'consumer neuroscience'. While marketing scholars have eagerly integrated neuroscientific evidence into their theoretical framework, neurology has only recently started to draw its attention to the results of consumer neuroscience. In this paper we address key research topics of consumer neuroscience that we think are of interest for neurologists; namely the reward system, trust and ethical issues. We argue that there are overlapping research topics in neurology and consumer neuroscience where both sides can profit from collaboration. Further, neurologists joining the public discussion of ethical issues surrounding neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience could contribute standards and experience gained in clinical research. We identify the following areas where consumer neuroscience could contribute to the field of neurology:First, studies using game paradigms could help to gain further insights into the underlying pathophysiology of pathological gambling in Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, epilepsy, and Huntington's disease.Second, we identify compulsive buying as a common interest in neurology and consumer neuroscience. Paradigms commonly used in consumer neuroscience could be applied to patients suffering from Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal dementia to advance knowledge of this important behavioral symptom.Third, trust research in the medical context lacks empirical behavioral and neuroscientific evidence. Neurologists entering this field of research could profit from the extensive knowledge of the biological foundation of trust that scientists in economically-orientated neurosciences have gained.Fourth, neurologists could contribute significantly to the ethical debate about invasive methods in neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience. Further, neurologists should investigate biological and behavioral reactions of neurological patients to marketing and advertising measures, as they could show special consumer vulnerability and be subject to target marketing.

On the origins of anticipation as an evolutionary framework: functional systems perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurismaa, Andres

2015-08-01

This paper discusses the problem of anticipation from an evolutionary and systems-theoretical perspective, developed in the context of Russian/Soviet evolutionary biological and neurophysiological schools in the early and mid-twentieth century. On this background, an outline is given of the epigenetic interpretation of anticipatory capacities formulated and substantiated by the eminent Russian neurophysiologist academician Peter K. Anokhin in the framework of functional systems theory. It is considered that several key positions of this theory are well confirmed by recent evidence on anticipation as an evolutionarily basic adaptive capacity, possibly inherent to the organization of life. In the field of neuroscience, the theory of functional systems may potentially facilitate future studies at the intersection of learning, development and evolution by representing an integrative approach to the problem of anticipation.

The Molecular Genetics of Autism Spectrum Disorders: Genomic Mechanisms, Neuroimmunopathology, and Clinical Implications

PubMed Central

Guerra, Daniel J.

2011-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have become increasingly common in recent years. The discovery of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and accompanying copy number variations within the genome has increased our understanding of the architecture of the disease. These genetic and genomic alterations coupled with epigenetic phenomena have pointed to a neuroimmunopathological mechanism for ASD. Model animal studies, developmental biology, and affective neuroscience laid a foundation for dissecting the neural pathways impacted by these disease-generating mechanisms. The goal of current autism research is directed toward a systems biological approach to find the most basic genetic and environmental causes to this severe developmental disease. It is hoped that future genomic and neuroimmunological research will be directed toward finding the road toward prevention, treatment, and cure of ASD. PMID:22937247

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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-30

..., Oral and Skin Sciences Integrated Review Group, Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Study Section. [email protected] . Name of Committee: Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Clinical Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration Study Section. Date: February 26, 2013. Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00...

What Can Neuroscience Bring to Education?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferrari, Michel

2011-01-01

Educational neuroscience promises to incorporate emerging insights from neuroscience into education, and is an exiting renovation of cognitive science in education. But unlike cognitive neuroscience--which aims to explain how the mind is embodied--educational neuroscience necessarily incorporates values that reflect the kind of citizen and the…

A four-part working bibliography of neuroethics: part 1: overview and reviews--defining and describing the field and its practices.

PubMed

Buniak, Liana; Darragh, Martina; Giordano, James

2014-05-16

Neuroethics entails investigations of neurocognitive mechanisms of morality and ethics; and studies and address of the ethical issues spawned by the use of neuroscience and its technologies to investigate cognition, emotion and actions. These two principal emphases, or what have been called "traditions" of neuroethics both mirror traditional bioethical discussions (such as debates about the safety of technological and pharmaceutical advances and ethical implications of new scientific and technological discoveries), and engage discourse about neuroscientific investigations of (proto-moral and moral) cognition, emotions and behaviors, and what such findings may mean for human beliefs and conduct - from the individual to the political levels.Given the growth, range, and rapid maturation of the field of neuroethics we provide an iterative, four-part document that affords a repository of international papers, books, and chapters that address the field in overview, and present discussion(s) of more particular aspects and topics of neuroethics. This first installment lists reviews and overviews of the discipline, and broad summaries of basic developments and issues of the field. To systematically survey the neuroethics literature, searches were performed by accessing 11 databases, 8 additional literature depositories, and 4 individual journal searches using indexing language for National Library of Medicine (NLM) Medical Subject Heading databases. Searches and assurance against overlapping coverage were conducted using the RefWorks citation management program. Overview, review and reflections upon the history and multicultural perspectives of neuroethics were obtained and relevant listings from international journals, books, and book chapters are provided. Part I will be followed by three installments that will address a): the neuroscience of morality and ethics, including discussions of free will, and personal autonomy; b) "second tradition neuroethics", to include specific ethical issues in neuroscience; clinical neuroethics; and c) neuroethics education/training; neuroethics and society; neuroethics and law; neuroethics and policy; and international neuroethics.

A four-part working bibliography of neuroethics: part 1: overview and reviews – defining and describing the field and its practices

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Neuroethics entails investigations of neurocognitive mechanisms of morality and ethics; and studies and address of the ethical issues spawned by the use of neuroscience and its technologies to investigate cognition, emotion and actions. These two principal emphases, or what have been called “traditions” of neuroethics both mirror traditional bioethical discussions (such as debates about the safety of technological and pharmaceutical advances and ethical implications of new scientific and technological discoveries), and engage discourse about neuroscientific investigations of (proto-moral and moral) cognition, emotions and behaviors, and what such findings may mean for human beliefs and conduct - from the individual to the political levels. Given the growth, range, and rapid maturation of the field of neuroethics we provide an iterative, four-part document that affords a repository of international papers, books, and chapters that address the field in overview, and present discussion(s) of more particular aspects and topics of neuroethics. This first installment lists reviews and overviews of the discipline, and broad summaries of basic developments and issues of the field. Methods To systematically survey the neuroethics literature, searches were performed by accessing 11 databases, 8 additional literature depositories, and 4 individual journal searches using indexing language for National Library of Medicine (NLM) Medical Subject Heading databases. Searches and assurance against overlapping coverage were conducted using the RefWorks citation management program. Results Overview, review and reflections upon the history and multicultural perspectives of neuroethics were obtained and relevant listings from international journals, books, and book chapters are provided. Part I will be followed by three installments that will address a): the neuroscience of morality and ethics, including discussions of free will, and personal autonomy; b) “second tradition neuroethics”, to include specific ethical issues in neuroscience; clinical neuroethics; and c) neuroethics education/training; neuroethics and society; neuroethics and law; neuroethics and policy; and international neuroethics. PMID:24885037

Neurosciences

MedlinePlus

... this page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007456.htm Neurosciences To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. Neurosciences (or clinical neurosciences) refers to the branch of ...

Learning with Interactive Computer Graphics in the Undergraduate Neuroscience Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pani, John R.; Chariker, Julia H.; Naaz, Farah; Mattingly, William; Roberts, Joshua; Sephton, Sandra E.

2014-01-01

Instruction of neuroanatomy depends on graphical representation and extended self-study. As a consequence, computer-based learning environments that incorporate interactive graphics should facilitate instruction in this area. The present study evaluated such a system in the undergraduate neuroscience classroom. The system used the method of…

The Implications of Social Neuroscience for Social Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPartland, James C.; Pelphrey, Kevin A.

2012-01-01

Social disability represents a unifying feature in the diverse group of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Social neuroscience is the study of brain mechanisms supporting interpersonal interaction. In this paper, we review brain imaging studies of the social brain and highlight practical applications of these scientific insights.…

Theory and practice in sport psychology and motor behaviour needs to be constrained by integrative modelling of brain and behaviour.

PubMed

Keil, D; Holmes, P; Bennett, S; Davids, K; Smith, N

2000-06-01

Because of advances in technology, the non-invasive study of the human brain has enhanced the knowledge base within the neurosciences, resulting in an increased impact on the psychological study of human behaviour. We argue that application of this knowledge base should be considered in theoretical modelling within sport psychology and motor behaviour alongside existing ideas. We propose that interventions founded on current theoretical and empirical understanding in both psychology and the neurosciences may ultimately lead to greater benefits for athletes during practice and performance. As vehicles for exploring the arguments of a greater integration of psychology and neurosciences research, imagery and perception-action within the sport psychology and motor behaviour domains will serve as exemplars. Current neuroscience evidence will be discussed in relation to theoretical developments; the implications for sport scientists will be considered.

The bridge between two worlds: psychoanalysis and fMRI.

PubMed

Marini, Stefano; Di Tizio, Laura; Dezi, Sira; Armuzzi, Silvia; Pelaccia, Simona; Valchera, Alessandro; Sepede, Gianna; Girinelli, Gabriella; De Berardis, Domenico; Martinotti, Giovanni; Gambi, Francesco; Di Giannantonio, Massimo

2016-02-01

In recent years, a connection between psychoanalysis and neuroscience has been sought. The meeting point between these two branches is represented by neuropsychoanalysis. The goal of the relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience is to test psychoanalytic hypotheses in the human brain, using a scientific method. A literature search was conducted on May 2015. PubMed and Scopus databases were used to find studies for the inclusion in the systematic review. Common results of the studies investigated are represented by a reduction, a modulation, or a normalization of the activation patterns found after the psychoanalytic therapy. New findings in the possible and useful relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience could change the modalities of relating to patients for psychoanalysts and the way in which neuroscientists plan their research. Researchers should keep in mind that in any scientific research that has to do with people, neuroscience and a scientific method cannot avoid subjective interpretation.

The neuroscience information framework: a data and knowledge environment for neuroscience.

PubMed

Gardner, Daniel; Akil, Huda; Ascoli, Giorgio A; Bowden, Douglas M; Bug, William; Donohue, Duncan E; Goldberg, David H; Grafstein, Bernice; Grethe, Jeffrey S; Gupta, Amarnath; Halavi, Maryam; Kennedy, David N; Marenco, Luis; Martone, Maryann E; Miller, Perry L; Müller, Hans-Michael; Robert, Adrian; Shepherd, Gordon M; Sternberg, Paul W; Van Essen, David C; Williams, Robert W

2008-09-01

With support from the Institutes and Centers forming the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, we have designed and implemented a new initiative for integrating access to and use of Web-based neuroscience resources: the Neuroscience Information Framework. The Framework arises from the expressed need of the neuroscience community for neuroinformatic tools and resources to aid scientific inquiry, builds upon prior development of neuroinformatics by the Human Brain Project and others, and directly derives from the Society for Neuroscience's Neuroscience Database Gateway. Partnered with the Society, its Neuroinformatics Committee, and volunteer consultant-collaborators, our multi-site consortium has developed: (1) a comprehensive, dynamic, inventory of Web-accessible neuroscience resources, (2) an extended and integrated terminology describing resources and contents, and (3) a framework accepting and aiding concept-based queries. Evolving instantiations of the Framework may be viewed at http://nif.nih.gov , http://neurogateway.org , and other sites as they come on line.

Neuroethics, confidentiality, and a cultural imperative in early onset Alzheimer disease: a case study with a First Nation population

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The meaningful consideration of cultural practices, values and beliefs is a necessary component in the effective translation of advancements in neuroscience to clinical practice and public discourse. Society’s immense investment in biomedical science and technology, in conjunction with an increasingly diverse socio-cultural landscape, necessitates the study of how potential discoveries in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease are perceived and utilized across cultures. Building on the work of neuroscientists, ethicists and philosophers, we argue that the growing field of neuroethics provides a pragmatic and constructive pathway to guide advancements in neuroscience in a manner that is culturally nuanced and relevant. Here we review a case study of one issue in culturally oriented neuroscience research where it is evident that traditional research ethics must be broadened and the values and needs of diverse populations considered for meaningful and relevant research practices. A global approach to neuroethics has the potential to furnish critical engagement with cultural considerations of advancements in neuroscience. PMID:24131854

Critical Essay: Building new management theories on sound data? The case of neuroscience

PubMed Central

Lindebaum, Dirk

2015-01-01

In this critical essay, I contend that accelerating demands for novel theories in management studies imply that new methodologies and data are sometimes accepted prematurely as supply of these novel theories. This point is illustrated with reference to how neuroscience can inform management research. I propose two demand forces that foster the increased focus on neuroscience in management studies, these being (i) the direction of public research funding, and (ii) publication bias as a boost for journal impact factor. Looking at the supply side, I note that (i) the statistical power of studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (or fMRI, the ‘gold’ standard) is unacceptably low, (ii) the use of imprecise ‘motherhood’ statements, and (iii) the dismissal of ethical concerns in the formulation of management theories and practice informed by neuroscience. I then briefly outline the bad consequences of this for management theory and practice, emphasize why it is important to prevent these consequences, and offer some methodological suggestions for future research. PMID:27041766

Population Neuroscience: Dementia Epidemiology Serving Precision Medicine and Population Health.

PubMed

Ganguli, Mary; Albanese, Emiliano; Seshadri, Sudha; Bennett, David A; Lyketsos, Constantine; Kukull, Walter A; Skoog, Ingmar; Hendrie, Hugh C

2018-01-01

Over recent decades, epidemiology has made significant contributions to our understanding of dementia, translating scientific discoveries into population health. Here, we propose reframing dementia epidemiology as "population neuroscience," blending techniques and models from contemporary neuroscience with those of epidemiology and biostatistics. On the basis of emerging evidence and newer paradigms and methods, population neuroscience will minimize the bias typical of traditional clinical research, identify the relatively homogenous subgroups that comprise the general population, and investigate broader and denser phenotypes of dementia and cognitive impairment. Long-term follow-up of sufficiently large study cohorts will allow the identification of cohort effects and critical windows of exposure. Molecular epidemiology and omics will allow us to unravel the key distinctions within and among subgroups and better understand individuals' risk profiles. Interventional epidemiology will allow us to identify the different subgroups that respond to different treatment/prevention strategies. These strategies will inform precision medicine. In addition, insights into interactions between disease biology, personal and environmental factors, and social determinants of health will allow us to measure and track disease in communities and improve population health. By placing neuroscience within a real-world context, population neuroscience can fulfill its potential to serve both precision medicine and population health.

Human white matter and knowledge representation

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Understanding how knowledge is represented in the human brain is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. To date, most of the work on this topic has focused on knowledge representation in cortical areas and debated whether knowledge is represented in a distributed or localized fashion. Fang and colleagues provide evidence that brain connections and the white matter supporting such connections might play a significant role. The work opens new avenues of investigation, breaking through disciplinary boundaries across network neuroscience, computational neuroscience, cognitive science, and classical lesion studies. PMID:29698391

Human white matter and knowledge representation.

PubMed

Pestilli, Franco

2018-04-01

Understanding how knowledge is represented in the human brain is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. To date, most of the work on this topic has focused on knowledge representation in cortical areas and debated whether knowledge is represented in a distributed or localized fashion. Fang and colleagues provide evidence that brain connections and the white matter supporting such connections might play a significant role. The work opens new avenues of investigation, breaking through disciplinary boundaries across network neuroscience, computational neuroscience, cognitive science, and classical lesion studies.

Using the Humanities to Teach Neuroscience to Non-majors

PubMed Central

McFarlane, Hewlet G.; Richeimer, Joel

2015-01-01

We developed and offered a sequence of neuroscience courses geared toward changing the way non-science students interact with the sciences. Although we accepted students from all majors and at all class levels, our target population was first and second year students who were majoring in the fine arts or the humanities, or who had not yet declared a major. Our goal was to engage these students in science in general and neuroscience in particular by teaching science in a way that was accessible and relevant to their intellectual experiences. Our methodology was to teach scientific principles through the humanities by using course material that is at the intersection of the sciences and the humanities and by changing the classroom experience for both faculty and students. Examples of our course materials included the works of Oliver Sacks, V.S. Ramachandran, Martha Nussbaum, Virginia Woolf and Karl Popper, among others. To change the classroom experience we used a model of team-teaching, which required the simultaneous presence of two faculty members in the classroom for all classes. We changed the structure of the classroom experience from the traditional authority model to a model in which inquiry, debate, and intellectual responsibility were central. We wanted the students to have an appreciation of science not only as an endeavor guided by evidence and experimentation, but also a public discourse driven by creativity and controversy. The courses attracted a significant number of humanities and fine arts students, many of whom had already completed their basic science requirement. PMID:26240533

Dynamical principles in neuroscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabinovich, Mikhail I.; Varona, Pablo; Selverston, Allen I.; Abarbanel, Henry D. I.

2006-10-01

Dynamical modeling of neural systems and brain functions has a history of success over the last half century. This includes, for example, the explanation and prediction of some features of neural rhythmic behaviors. Many interesting dynamical models of learning and memory based on physiological experiments have been suggested over the last two decades. Dynamical models even of consciousness now exist. Usually these models and results are based on traditional approaches and paradigms of nonlinear dynamics including dynamical chaos. Neural systems are, however, an unusual subject for nonlinear dynamics for several reasons: (i) Even the simplest neural network, with only a few neurons and synaptic connections, has an enormous number of variables and control parameters. These make neural systems adaptive and flexible, and are critical to their biological function. (ii) In contrast to traditional physical systems described by well-known basic principles, first principles governing the dynamics of neural systems are unknown. (iii) Many different neural systems exhibit similar dynamics despite having different architectures and different levels of complexity. (iv) The network architecture and connection strengths are usually not known in detail and therefore the dynamical analysis must, in some sense, be probabilistic. (v) Since nervous systems are able to organize behavior based on sensory inputs, the dynamical modeling of these systems has to explain the transformation of temporal information into combinatorial or combinatorial-temporal codes, and vice versa, for memory and recognition. In this review these problems are discussed in the context of addressing the stimulating questions: What can neuroscience learn from nonlinear dynamics, and what can nonlinear dynamics learn from neuroscience?

Probing for Neuroadaptations to Unpredictable Stressors in Addiction: Translational Methods and Emerging Evidence

PubMed Central

Kaye, Jesse T.; Bradford, Daniel E.; Magruder, Katherine P.; Curtin, John J.

2017-01-01

Stressors clearly contribute to addiction etiology and relapse in humans, but our understanding of specific mechanisms remains limited. Rodent models of addiction offer the power, flexibility, and precision necessary to delineate the causal role and specific mechanisms through which stressors influence alcohol and other drug use. This review describes a program of research using startle potentiation to unpredictable stressors that is well positioned to translate between animal models and clinical research with humans on stress neuroadaptations in addiction. This research rests on a solid foundation provided by three separate pillars of evidence from (a) rodent behavioral neuroscience on stress neuroadaptations in addiction, (b) rodent affective neuroscience on startle potentiation, and (c) human addiction and affective science with startle potentiation. Rodent stress neuroadaptation models implicate adaptations in corticotropin-releasing factor and norepinephrine circuits within the central extended amygdala following chronic alcohol and other drug use that mediate anxious behaviors and stress-induced reinstatement among drug-dependent rodents. Basic affective neuroscience indicates that these same neural mechanisms are involved in startle potentiation to unpredictable stressors in particular (vs. predictable stressors). We believe that synthesis of these evidence bases should focus us on the role of unpredictable stressors in addiction etiology and relapse. Startle potentiation in unpredictable stressor tasks is proposed to provide an attractive and flexible test bed to encourage tight translation and reverse translation between animal models and human clinical research on stress neuroadaptations. Experimental therapeutics approaches focused on unpredictable stressors hold high promise to identify, repurpose, or refine pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for addiction. PMID:28499100

Probing for Neuroadaptations to Unpredictable Stressors in Addiction: Translational Methods and Emerging Evidence.

PubMed

Kaye, Jesse T; Bradford, Daniel E; Magruder, Katherine P; Curtin, John J

2017-05-01

Stressors clearly contribute to addiction etiology and relapse in humans, but our understanding of specific mechanisms remains limited. Rodent models of addiction offer the power, flexibility, and precision necessary to delineate the causal role and specific mechanisms through which stressors influence alcohol and other drug use. This review describes a program of research using startle potentiation to unpredictable stressors that is well positioned to translate between animal models and clinical research with humans on stress neuroadaptations in addiction. This research rests on a solid foundation provided by three separate pillars of evidence from (a) rodent behavioral neuroscience on stress neuroadaptations in addiction, (b) rodent affective neuroscience on startle potentiation, and (c) human addiction and affective science with startle potentiation. Rodent stress neuroadaptation models implicate adaptations in corticotropin-releasing factor and norepinephrine circuits within the central extended amygdala following chronic alcohol and other drug use that mediate anxious behaviors and stress-induced reinstatement among drug-dependent rodents. Basic affective neuroscience indicates that these same neural mechanisms are involved in startle potentiation to unpredictable stressors in particular (vs. predictable stressors). We believe that synthesis of these evidence bases should focus us on the role of unpredictable stressors in addiction etiology and relapse. Startle potentiation in unpredictable stressor tasks is proposed to provide an attractive and flexible test bed to encourage tight translation and reverse translation between animal models and human clinical research on stress neuroadaptations. Experimental therapeutics approaches focused on unpredictable stressors hold high promise to identify, repurpose, or refine pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for addiction.

Dynamical principles in neuroscience

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rabinovich, Mikhail I.; Varona, Pablo; Selverston, Allen I.

Dynamical modeling of neural systems and brain functions has a history of success over the last half century. This includes, for example, the explanation and prediction of some features of neural rhythmic behaviors. Many interesting dynamical models of learning and memory based on physiological experiments have been suggested over the last two decades. Dynamical models even of consciousness now exist. Usually these models and results are based on traditional approaches and paradigms of nonlinear dynamics including dynamical chaos. Neural systems are, however, an unusual subject for nonlinear dynamics for several reasons: (i) Even the simplest neural network, with only amore » few neurons and synaptic connections, has an enormous number of variables and control parameters. These make neural systems adaptive and flexible, and are critical to their biological function. (ii) In contrast to traditional physical systems described by well-known basic principles, first principles governing the dynamics of neural systems are unknown. (iii) Many different neural systems exhibit similar dynamics despite having different architectures and different levels of complexity. (iv) The network architecture and connection strengths are usually not known in detail and therefore the dynamical analysis must, in some sense, be probabilistic. (v) Since nervous systems are able to organize behavior based on sensory inputs, the dynamical modeling of these systems has to explain the transformation of temporal information into combinatorial or combinatorial-temporal codes, and vice versa, for memory and recognition. In this review these problems are discussed in the context of addressing the stimulating questions: What can neuroscience learn from nonlinear dynamics, and what can nonlinear dynamics learn from neuroscience?.« less

Lacking quality in research: Is behavioral neuroscience affected more than other areas of biomedical science?

PubMed

Bespalov, Anton; Steckler, Thomas

2018-04-15

There are many reasons why novel therapeutics fail in clinical trials but these failures are often attributed to lacking quality of preclinical data. These problems are not limited to any specific therapeutic area, academic or industrial research and are due in large part to several generic factors influencing research quality (e.g., related to definition of pre-specified endpoints, principles of study design and analysis, biased reporting, and lack of proper training). Yet, neuroscience drug discovery is often said to be affected more than the other fields. Within neuroscience, behavioral studies are the most blamed for being poorly designed, underpowered and mis-reported and there are indeed several factors that may be rather unique for behavioral research, such as a multitude of environmental conditions that are difficult to control and that are often not reported, ethical concerns about in vivo research and the pressure to reduce animal numbers, contributing to under-powered studies, and the complexity of study design and analysis, creating too much room for post hoc data massaging and selective reporting. Also, the blood-brain barrier as a frequently neglected complicating factor has to be considered in CNS research. The importance of these factors is increasingly recognized and urgent efforts are needed to demonstrate that behavioral methods of preclinical neuroscience research deliver results that can be as robust as with the non-behavioral methods Until this goal is achieved, behavioral neuroscience and neuroscience in general may be losing young talent, CNS drug discovery may lack the needed investment and this field may indeed be amongst the most affected by the current preclinical data quality crisis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Applying a cognitive neuroscience perspective to the disorder of psychopathy.

PubMed

Blair, R J R

2005-01-01

Four models of psychopathy (frontal lobe dysfunction, response set modulation, fear dysfunction, and violence inhibition mechanism hypotheses) are reviewed from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Each model is considered both with respect to the psychopathy data and, more importantly, for the present purposes, with respect to the broader cognitive neuroscience fields to which the model refers (e.g., models of attention with respect to the response set modulation account and models of emotion with respect to the fear dysfunction and violence inhibition mechanism models). The paper concludes with an articulation of the more recent integrated emotion systems model, an account inspired both by recent findings in affective cognitive neuroscience as well as in the study of psychopathy. Some directions for future work are considered.

A survey of the neuroscience resource landscape: perspectives from the neuroscience information framework.

PubMed

Cachat, Jonathan; Bandrowski, Anita; Grethe, Jeffery S; Gupta, Amarnath; Astakhov, Vadim; Imam, Fahim; Larson, Stephen D; Martone, Maryann E

2012-01-01

The number of available neuroscience resources (databases, tools, materials, and networks) available via the Web continues to expand, particularly in light of newly implemented data sharing policies required by funding agencies and journals. However, the nature of dense, multifaceted neuroscience data and the design of classic search engine systems make efficient, reliable, and relevant discovery of such resources a significant challenge. This challenge is especially pertinent for online databases, whose dynamic content is largely opaque to contemporary search engines. The Neuroscience Information Framework was initiated to address this problem of finding and utilizing neuroscience-relevant resources. Since its first production release in 2008, NIF has been surveying the resource landscape for the neurosciences, identifying relevant resources and working to make them easily discoverable by the neuroscience community. In this chapter, we provide a survey of the resource landscape for neuroscience: what types of resources are available, how many there are, what they contain, and most importantly, ways in which these resources can be utilized by the research community to advance neuroscience research. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Changing requirements and resulting needs for IT-infrastructure for longitudinal research in the neurosciences.

PubMed

Buckow, Karoline; Quade, Matthias; Rienhoff, Otto; Nussbeck, Sara Y

2016-01-01

The observation of growing "difficulties" in IT-infrastructures in neuroscience research during the last years led to a search for reasons and an analysis on how this phenomenon is reflected in the scientific literature. With a retrospective analysis of nine examples of multicenter research projects in the neurosciences and a literature review the observation was systematically analyzed. Results show that the rise in complexity mainly stems from two reasons: (1) more and more need for information on quality and context of research data (metadata) and (2) long-term requirements to handle the consent and identity/pseudonyms of study participants and biomaterials in relation to legal requirements. The combination of these two aspects together with very long study times and data evaluation periods are components of the subjectively perceived "difficulties". A direct consequence of this result is that big multicenter trials are becoming part of integrated research data environments and are not standing alone for themselves anymore. This drives up the resource needs regarding the IT-infrastructure in neuroscience research. In contrast to these findings, literature on this development is scarce and the problem probably underestimated. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

75 FR 3241 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-20

... Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neurodifferentiation..., (301) 435- 1178, [email protected] . Name of Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Cellular and Molecular Biology of Neurodegeneration Study Section. Date...

Do brain lesions in stroke affect basic emotions and attachment?

PubMed

Farinelli, Marina; Panksepp, Jaak; Gestieri, Laura; Maffei, Monica; Agati, Raffaele; Cevolani, Daniela; Pedone, Vincenzo; Northoff, Georg

2015-01-01

The aim of the current study was to investigate basic emotions and attachment in a sample of 86 stroke patients. We included a control group of 115 orthopedic patients (matched for age and cognitive status) without brain lesions to control for unspecific general illness effects of a traumatic recent event on basic emotions and attachment. In order to measure basic emotions and attachment style we applied the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) and the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ). The stroke patients showed significantly different scores in the SEEKING, SADNESS, and ANGER subscales of the ANPS as well as in the Relationship as Secondary Attachment dimension of the ASQ when compared to the control group. These differences show a pattern influenced by lesion location mainly as concerns basic emotions. Anterior, medial, left, and subcortical patients provide scores significantly lower in ANPS-SEEKING than the control group; ANPS-SADNESS scores in anterior, right, medial, and subcortical patients were significantly higher than those of the control group. ANPS-ANGER scores in posterior, right, and lateral patients were significantly higher than those in the control group; finally, the ANPS-FEAR showed slightly lower scores in posterior patients than in the control group. Minor effects on brain lesions were also individuated in the attachment style. Anterior lesion patients showed a significantly higher average score in the ASQ-Need for Approval subscale than the control group. ASQ-Confidence subscale scores differed significantly in stroke patients with lesions in medial brain regions when compared to control subjects. Scores at ANPS and ASQ subscales appear significantly more correlated in stroke patients than in the control group. Such finding of abnormalities, especially concerning basic emotions in stroke brain-lesioned patients, indicates that the effect of brain lesions may enhance the interrelation between basic emotions and attachment with respect to the control group.

Wikipedia neuroscience stub editing in an introductory undergraduate neuroscience course.

PubMed

Burdo, Joseph R

2012-01-01

In response to the Society for Neuroscience initiative to help improve the neuroscience related content in Wikipedia, I implemented Wikipedia article construction and revision in my Introduction to Neuroscience course at Boston College as a writing intensive and neuroscience related outreach activity. My students worked in small groups to revise neuroscience "stubs" of their choice, many of which had little or no useful content. The exercise resulted in the successful development of well-written Wikipedia neuroscience articles, and was received well by my students, receiving positive marks in our course evaluations. Much of the student guidance and assessment was done by student peer groups as well as other Wikipedia editors outside of our course, reducing the instructor involvement to below that of a typical term paper.

Neuroethics: a modern context for ethics in neuroscience

PubMed Central

Illes, Judy; Bird, Stephanie J.

2006-01-01

Neuroethics, a recently modernized field at the intersection of bioethics and neuroscience, is founded on centuries of discussion of the ethical issues associated with mind and behavior. Broadly defined, neuroethics is concerned with ethical, legal and social policy implications of neuroscience, and with aspects of neuroscience research itself. Advances in neuroscience increasingly challenge long-held views of the self and the individual's relationship to society. Neuroscience also has led to innovations in clinical medicine that have not only therapeutic but also non-therapeutic dimensions that extend well beyond previously charted boundaries. The exponential increase in cross-disciplinary research, the commercialization of cognitive neuroscience, the impetus for training in ethics, and the increased attention being paid to public understanding of science all illuminate the important role of neuroethics in neuroscience. PMID:16859760

Strategies for Fostering Synergy between Neuroscience Programs and Chemistry Departments

PubMed Central

Ulness, Darin J.; Mach, Julie R.

2011-01-01

The successful model of the Neuroscience Program at Concordia College is used as a source of illustrative examples in a presentation of strategies to foster synergy between neuroscience programs and chemistry departments. Chemistry is an increasing voice in the dialog of modern neuroscience. To be well-prepared to engage in this dialog, students must have strong chemistry training and be comfortable applying it to situations in neuroscience. The strategies presented here are designed to stimulate thought and discussion in the undergraduate neuroscience education community. Hopefully this will lead to greater interaction between chemistry and neuroscience at the undergraduate level in other institutions. PMID:23626488

Automated measurement of zebrafish larval movement

PubMed Central

Cario, Clinton L; Farrell, Thomas C; Milanese, Chiara; Burton, Edward A

2011-01-01

Abstract The zebrafish is a powerful vertebrate model that is readily amenable to genetic, pharmacological and environmental manipulations to elucidate the molecular and cellular basis of movement and behaviour. We report software enabling automated analysis of zebrafish movement from video recordings captured with cameras ranging from a basic camcorder to more specialized equipment. The software, which is provided as open-source MATLAB functions, can be freely modified and distributed, and is compatible with multiwell plates under a wide range of experimental conditions. Automated measurement of zebrafish movement using this technique will be useful for multiple applications in neuroscience, pharmacology and neuropsychiatry. PMID:21646414

Automated measurement of zebrafish larval movement.

PubMed

Cario, Clinton L; Farrell, Thomas C; Milanese, Chiara; Burton, Edward A

2011-08-01

The zebrafish is a powerful vertebrate model that is readily amenable to genetic, pharmacological and environmental manipulations to elucidate the molecular and cellular basis of movement and behaviour. We report software enabling automated analysis of zebrafish movement from video recordings captured with cameras ranging from a basic camcorder to more specialized equipment. The software, which is provided as open-source MATLAB functions, can be freely modified and distributed, and is compatible with multiwell plates under a wide range of experimental conditions. Automated measurement of zebrafish movement using this technique will be useful for multiple applications in neuroscience, pharmacology and neuropsychiatry.

[Investments of research and treatment of brain diseases will pay of time].

PubMed

Lindsberg, Perttu J; Castrén, Eero; Korkeila, Jyrki; Alho, Hannu; Erkinjuntti, Timo; Isometsä, Erkki; Kalso, Eija; Marttunen, Mauri; Pihko, Helena; Tienari, Pentti; Wartiovaara, Anu; Jäkälä, Pekka; Kälviäinen, Reetta; Soininen, Hilkka; Tiihonen, Jari; Karlsson, Hasse; Rinne, Juha; Roine, Risto O; Elovaara, Irina; Tamminen, Tuula; Ohman, Juha; Majamaa, Kari; Hari, Riitta

2014-01-01

In 2010, a quarter of direct healthcare cost in Europe were spent on brain diseases. The importance of preventing and treating brain diseases and maintaining of functional capacity of the brain will increase in our society with ageing population and with increasing cognitive requirements of modern working life. Public funding of basic and clinical neuroscience has, however, frozen to levels achieved years ago, clinical research of brain diseases being at a particular risk. Research projects directed to prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of brain diseases will pay off, also when assessed by economic measures.

Exposure therapy in eating disorders revisited.

PubMed

Koskina, Antonia; Campbell, Iain C; Schmidt, Ulrike

2013-02-01

Exposure therapy is a widely used and effective form of treatment in anxiety disorders and addictions but evidence for its usefulness in eating disorders (ED) is inconsistent. This paper systematically reviews the literature on the use of exposure therapy in ED, the theory underpinning its use, and the deficits in current knowledge. Databases were searched to 2012. In addition, potential improvements in the use of exposure techniques in ED are considered by drawing upon theory and research involving neuropharmacology, basic and clinical neuroscience, contemporary behavioural and neurobiological research, and technologies such as virtual reality (VR). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conceptual planning for Space Station life sciences human research project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Primeaux, Gary R.; Miller, Ladonna J.; Michaud, Roger B.

1986-01-01

The Life Sciences Research Facility dedicated laboratory is currently undergoing system definition within the NASA Space Station program. Attention is presently given to the Humam Research Project portion of the Facility, in view of representative experimentation requirement scenarios and with the intention of accommodating the Facility within the Initial Operational Capability configuration of the Space Station. Such basic engineering questions as orbital and ground logistics operations and hardware maintenance/servicing requirements are addressed. Biospherics, calcium homeostasis, endocrinology, exercise physiology, hematology, immunology, muscle physiology, neurosciences, radiation effects, and reproduction and development, are among the fields of inquiry encompassed by the Facility.

Wilder Penfield, Sir Arthur Currie, and the Montreal Neurological Institute.

PubMed

Sadler, R Mark

2018-03-01

Wilder Penfield and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) are inextricably linked. It was Penfield's unique idea to create a building with an academic atmosphere wherein basic neuroscience and clinical care of neurological patients would benefit from interaction and mutual support. It is clear that without Penfield that there would be no MNI; however, the role of another Canadian icon, Sir Arthur Currie, in the development of the MNI has heretofore been barely mentioned. The thesis of this paper is that Currie had a critical role in the gestation of the MNI that has generally been ignored.

Translating Birdsong: Songbirds as a model for basic and applied medical research

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Songbirds, long of interest to basic neuroscientists, have great potential as a model system for translational neuroscience. Songbirds learn their complex vocal behavior in a manner that exemplifies general processes of perceptual and motor skill learning, and more specifically resembles human speech learning. Song is subserved by circuitry that is specialized for vocal learning and production, but that has strong similarities to mammalian brain pathways. The combination of a highly quantifiable behavior and discrete neural substrates facilitates understanding links between brain and behavior, both normally and in disease. Here we highlight 1) behavioral and mechanistic parallels between birdsong and aspects of speech and social communication, including insights into mirror neurons, the function of auditory feedback, and genes underlying social communication disorders, and 2) contributions of songbirds to understanding cortical-basal ganglia circuit function and dysfunction, including the possibility of harnessing adult neurogenesis for brain repair. PMID:23750515

The psychological science of addiction.

PubMed

Gifford, Elizabeth; Humphreys, Keith

2007-03-01

To discuss the contributions and future course of the psychological science of addiction. The psychology of addiction includes a tremendous range of scientific activity, from the basic experimental laboratory through increasingly broad relational contexts, including patient-practitioner interactions, families, social networks, institutional settings, economics and culture. Some of the contributions discussed here include applications of behavioral principles, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience and the development and evaluation of addiction treatment. Psychology has at times been guilty of proliferating theories with relatively little pruning, and of overemphasizing intrapersonal explanations for human behavior. However, at its best, defined as the science of the individual in context, psychology is an integrated discipline using diverse methods well-suited to capture the multi-dimensional nature of addictive behavior. Psychology has a unique ability to integrate basic experimental and applied clinical science and to apply the knowledge gained from multiple levels of analysis to the pragmatic goal of reducing the prevalence of addiction.

Synthesis of cell-penetrating peptides and their application in neurobiology.

PubMed

Dietz, Gunnar P H; Bähr, Mathias

2007-01-01

Short basic amino acid sequences, often called cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), allow the delivery of proteins and other molecules into cells and across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Although the ability of basic proteins to facilitate such trafficking is known for a long time, only the application of genetic methods and overexpression of fusion proteins in Escherichia coli has lead to a wide application of CPP in many research areas, including signal transduction, cancer, angiogenesis, apoptosis, bone development, cardioprotection, cell cycle, neurobiology, and many others. For the neuroscientist, CPPs are particularly attractive, as a number of articles in the last 5 years have reported their use for neuronal rescue in a number of models for neurodegenerative diseases in vitro and in vivo in rats, mice, or gerbils. Here, we give a detailed description of the protein purification methodology and applications in neuroscience.

Modular Digital Course in Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (MDCUNE): A Website Offering Free Digital Tools for Neuroscience Educators.

PubMed

Grisham, William

2009-01-01

We are providing free digital resources for teaching neuroscience labs at http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/. These resources will ultimately include materials for teaching laboratories in electrophysiology of neuronal circuits (SWIMMY), a Neuroinformatics/Bioinformatics module, and two modules for investigating the effects of hormones on early CNS development-one focusing on the development of the song system and one focusing on sex differences in spinal cord motor neurons. All of these modules are inquiry based-students gain from genuine experiences in doing actual studies rather than just simulations. These materials should provide instructors the ability to provide good quality laboratory experiences regardless of resource limitations. Currently, modules on sex differences in the spinal cord and virtual neural circuits (SWIMMY) are available on our website. More will be available in summer 2009 and 2010. SWIMMY was demonstrated at the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) Workshop-The Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: Interactions, interdisciplines, and curricular best practices at Macalester College in July 2008.

Can Neuroscience Contribute to Practical Ethics? A Critical Review and Discussion of the Methodological and Translational Challenges of the Neuroscience of Ethics.

PubMed

Racine, Eric; Dubljević, Veljko; Jox, Ralf J; Baertschi, Bernard; Christensen, Julia F; Farisco, Michele; Jotterand, Fabrice; Kahane, Guy; Müller, Sabine

2017-06-01

Neuroethics is an interdisciplinary field that arose in response to novel ethical challenges posed by advances in neuroscience. Historically, neuroethics has provided an opportunity to synergize different disciplines, notably proposing a two-way dialogue between an 'ethics of neuroscience' and a 'neuroscience of ethics'. However, questions surface as to whether a 'neuroscience of ethics' is a useful and unified branch of research and whether it can actually inform or lead to theoretical insights and transferable practical knowledge to help resolve ethical questions. In this article, we examine why the neuroscience of ethics is a promising area of research and summarize what we have learned so far regarding its most promising goals and contributions. We then review some of the key methodological challenges which may have hindered the use of results generated thus far by the neuroscience of ethics. Strategies are suggested to address these challenges and improve the quality of research and increase neuroscience's usefulness for applied ethics and society at large. Finally, we reflect on potential outcomes of a neuroscience of ethics and discuss the different strategies that could be used to support knowledge transfer to help different stakeholders integrate knowledge from the neuroscience of ethics. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

From Neurons to Brainpower: Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Janet M.

2005-01-01

We have learned more about the brain in the past five years than the previous 100. Neuroimaging, lesion studies, and animal studies have revealed the intricate inner workings of the brain and learning. Synaptogenesis, pruning, sensitive periods, and plasticity have all become accepted concepts of cognitive neuroscience that are now being applied…

How Does Neuroscience Inform the Study of Cognitive Development?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Charles A.; Moulson, Margaret C.; Richmond, Jenny

2006-01-01

The fields of developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience have existed independently of one another for many years. This is unfortunate, as knowledge of how the brain develops can inform the study of behavioral development. In this paper, we provide two examples of how knowledge about brain development has improved our understanding of…

76 FR 54778 - Center For Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-02

..., Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Study Section. Date: September 29-30, 2011. Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Agenda: [email protected] . Name of Committee: Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Clinical Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration Study Section. Date: October 5-6, 2011. Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m...

Recent advances in exploring the neural underpinnings of auditory scene perception

PubMed Central

Snyder, Joel S.; Elhilali, Mounya

2017-01-01

Studies of auditory scene analysis have traditionally relied on paradigms using artificial sounds—and conventional behavioral techniques—to elucidate how we perceptually segregate auditory objects or streams from each other. In the past few decades, however, there has been growing interest in uncovering the neural underpinnings of auditory segregation using human and animal neuroscience techniques, as well as computational modeling. This largely reflects the growth in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and computational neuroscience and has led to new theories of how the auditory system segregates sounds in complex arrays. The current review focuses on neural and computational studies of auditory scene perception published in the past few years. Following the progress that has been made in these studies, we describe (1) theoretical advances in our understanding of the most well-studied aspects of auditory scene perception, namely segregation of sequential patterns of sounds and concurrently presented sounds; (2) the diversification of topics and paradigms that have been investigated; and (3) how new neuroscience techniques (including invasive neurophysiology in awake humans, genotyping, and brain stimulation) have been used in this field. PMID:28199022

Institutional profile: integrated center for research and treatment of vertigo, balance and ocular motor disorders.

PubMed

Brandt, Thomas; Zwergal, Andreas; Jahn, Klaus; Strupp, Michael

2010-01-01

In 2009 the German BMBF (German Ministry of Education and Research) established an Integrated Center for Research and Treatment (IFB(LMU)) of Vertigo, Balance and Ocular Motor Disorders in Munich. After the 10-year period of funding by the BMBF, it is envisioned that the (IFB(LMU)) will continue over the long term with the joint support of the University Hospital, the Medical Faculty, and the Bavarian State. Vertigo is one of the most common complaints in medicine. Despite its high prevalence, patients with vertigo generally receive either inappropriate or inadequate treatment. This deplorable situation is internationally well known and its causes are multiple: insufficient interdisciplinary cooperation, no standardized diagnostics and therapy, the failure to translate findings of basic science into clinical applications, and the scarcity of clinical multicenter studies. The (IFB(LMU)) will constitute a suitable tool with which these structural, clinical, and scientific deficits can be overcome. It will also make possible the establishment of an international interdisciplinary referral center. Munich has become the site of a unique concentration of leading experts on vertigo, balance and ocular motor disorders, both in the clinical and basic sciences. Academic structures have paved the way for the creation of an interdisciplinary horizontal network that also allows structured, vertical academic career paths via the Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in Neuroscience, a Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, and the Munich Center for Neurosciences - Brain and Mind. The (IFB(LMU)) has the following objectives as regards structure and content: to create an independent patient-oriented clinical research center under the auspices of the Medical Faculty but with autonomous administration and budget; to overcome existing clinical and academic barriers separating the traditional specializations; to establish a standardized interdisciplinary longitudinal and transversal network at one site for the management of patients. This should professionalize both the management and the international recruitment of patients (integrated care, telemedicine); to organize the study infrastructure for prospective multicenter clinical studies as well as to free clinical scientists from administrative tasks; to promote translational research with a focus on the innovative topics of molecular, functional and structural imaging, experimental and clinical pharmacotherapy, clinical research of vertigo and balance disorders, mathematical modelling, interaction between biological and technical systems (robotics), and research on functionality and the quality of life; to offer new attractive educational paths and career images for medical doctors, students of the natural sciences, and engineers in clinical research in order to overcome traditional hierarchical structures. This should promote the principles of efficiency and self-reliance; to supplement the existing excellence with up to eight groups of young scientists and up to eight professorships (tenure track). This should also be seen as an incentive that will attract the best young scientists; to incorporate (IFB(LMU)) competence into the existing medical and biological graduate schools. The (IFB(LMU)) is a unique center - worldwide.

76 FR 55402 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-07

... Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Neurobiology [email protected] . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group, Mechanisms of Sensory, Perceptual, and Cognitive Processes Study Section. Date: October 11-12...

Neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience: contributions to neurology

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background ‘Neuromarketing’ is a term that has often been used in the media in recent years. These public discussions have generally centered around potential ethical aspects and the public fear of negative consequences for society in general, and consumers in particular. However, positive contributions to the scientific discourse from developing a biological model that tries to explain context-situated human behavior such as consumption have often been neglected. We argue for a differentiated terminology, naming commercial applications of neuroscientific methods ‘neuromarketing’ and scientific ones ‘consumer neuroscience’. While marketing scholars have eagerly integrated neuroscientific evidence into their theoretical framework, neurology has only recently started to draw its attention to the results of consumer neuroscience. Discussion In this paper we address key research topics of consumer neuroscience that we think are of interest for neurologists; namely the reward system, trust and ethical issues. We argue that there are overlapping research topics in neurology and consumer neuroscience where both sides can profit from collaboration. Further, neurologists joining the public discussion of ethical issues surrounding neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience could contribute standards and experience gained in clinical research. Summary We identify the following areas where consumer neuroscience could contribute to the field of neurology: First, studies using game paradigms could help to gain further insights into the underlying pathophysiology of pathological gambling in Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, epilepsy, and Huntington’s disease. Second, we identify compulsive buying as a common interest in neurology and consumer neuroscience. Paradigms commonly used in consumer neuroscience could be applied to patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and frontotemporal dementia to advance knowledge of this important behavioral symptom. Third, trust research in the medical context lacks empirical behavioral and neuroscientific evidence. Neurologists entering this field of research could profit from the extensive knowledge of the biological foundation of trust that scientists in economically-orientated neurosciences have gained. Fourth, neurologists could contribute significantly to the ethical debate about invasive methods in neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience. Further, neurologists should investigate biological and behavioral reactions of neurological patients to marketing and advertising measures, as they could show special consumer vulnerability and be subject to target marketing. PMID:23383650

Using Optogenetics to Study Habits

PubMed Central

Smith, Kyle S.; Graybiel, Ann M.

2013-01-01

It is now well documented that optogenetics brings to neuroscience a long sought-after foothold to study the causal role of millisecond-scale activity of genetically or anatomically defined populations of neurons. Progress is rapid, and, as evidenced by the work collected in this Special Issue, the possibilities of what can now be done are almost dizzying. Even for those concerned with complex phenomena, such as behavioral habits and flexibility, signs are that we could be on the threshold of a leap in scientific understanding. In this article, we note this special time in neuroscience by the example of our use of optogenetics to study habitual behavior. We present a basic sketch of the neural circuitry of habitual behavior built mainly on findings from experiments in which lesion and drug microinjection techniques were employed in combination with sophisticated behavioral analysis. We then outline the types of questions that now can be approached through the use of optogenetic approaches, and, as an example, we summarize the results of a recent study of ours in which we took this approach to probe the neural basis of habit formation. With optogenetic methods, we were able to demonstrate that a small site in the medial prefrontal cortex can control habits on-line during their execution, and we were able to control new habits when they competed with prior ones. The nearly immediate effect of disabling this site optogenetically suggests the existence of a mechanism for moment-to-moment monitoring of behaviors that long have been thought to be almost automatic and reflexive. This example highlights the kind of new knowledge that can be gained by the carefully timed use of optogenetic tools. PMID:23313580

Three requirements for justifying an educational neuroscience.

PubMed

Hruby, George G

2012-03-01

Over the past quarter century, efforts to bridge between research in the neurosciences and research, theory, and practice in education have grown from a mere hope to noteworthy scholarly sophistication. Many dedicated educational researchers have developed the secondary expertise in the necessary neurosciences and related fields to generate both empirical research and theoretical syntheses of noteworthy promise. Nonetheless, thoughtful and critical scholars in education have expressed concern about both the intellectual coherence and ethical dangers of this new area. It is still an open question whether educational neuroscience is for some time yet to remain only a formative study area for adventurous scholars or is already a fully fledged field of educational scholarship. In this paper, I suggest that to be a worthy field of educational research, educational neuroscience will need to address three issues: intellectual coherence, mutually informing and respected scholarly expertise, and an ethical commitment to the moral implications and obligations shared within educational research generally. I shall set forth some examples of lapses in this regard, focusing primarily on work on reading development, as that is my area of expertise, and make recommendations for due diligence. Arguments. First, intellectual coherence requires both precision in definition of technical terms (so that diverse scholars and professionals may communicate findings and insights consistently across fields), and precision in the logical warrants by which educational implications are drawn from empirical data from the neurosciences. Both needs are facilitated by careful attention to categorical boundary and avoidance of category error. Second, educational neuroscientists require focused and broad expertise in both the neurosciences and educational scholarship on teaching and learning in classrooms (and/or ancillary fields). If history is our guide, neuroscience implications for practice will prove unlikely in practice without expertise on practice. Additionally, respect for the expertise of others in this hybrid and necessarily collaborative enterprise is required. Third, educational neuroscience must take seriously the heightened moral and ethical concerns and commitments of educational professionals generally and educational researchers particularly. This means keeping a vigilant eye towards preserving the integrity of empirical and theoretical findings against rhetorical misuse by educational marketers, policy makers, and polemicists targeting the general public. I conclude that educational neuroscience is more than a hybrid patchwork of individual interests constituting a study area, and is perhaps ready to stand as a legitimate field of educational inquiry. It will not be accepted as such, however, nor should it be, unless the need to demonstrate a capacity for consistent intellectual coherence, scholarly expertise, and ethical commitment is met. ©2012 The British Psychological Society.

77 FR 3277 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-23

... Training Neurosciences Integrated Review Group; Molecular Neurogenetics Study Section. Date: February 16-17..., [email protected] . Name of Committee: Vascular and Hematology Integrated Review Group; Molecular and...- 1213, [email protected] . Name of Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience...

75 FR 994 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-07

..., Genomes, and Genetics Integrated Review Group; Molecular Genetics C Study Section. Date: February 4-5...: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neural Oxidative Metabolism [email protected] . Name of Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review...

Misconceptions Regarding the Brain: The Neuromyths of Preservice Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dündar, Sefa; Gündüz, Nazan

2016-01-01

Understanding preservice teachers' misconceptions regarding the brain and neuroscience (neuromyths) can provide information that helps teachers to apply neuroscience knowledge in an educational context. The objective of this study was to investigate these misconceptions. Following preliminary research, a questionnaire comprising 59 challenging…

Experiences with Bilateral Art: A Retrospective Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNamee, Carole M.

2006-01-01

Recent advances in neuroscience describe the effect of experience on neural architecture. Paralleling these advances in neuroscience, recent explorations in the field of art therapy speculate on the relationship between specific therapeutic interventions and neuroplasticity, which underlies the changes in neural architecture. One such…

The Neuroscience Information Framework: A Data and Knowledge Environment for Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Akil, Huda; Ascoli, Giorgio A.; Bowden, Douglas M.; Bug, William; Donohue, Duncan E.; Goldberg, David H.; Grafstein, Bernice; Grethe, Jeffrey S.; Gupta, Amarnath; Halavi, Maryam; Kennedy, David N.; Marenco, Luis; Martone, Maryann E.; Miller, Perry L.; Müller, Hans-Michael; Robert, Adrian; Shepherd, Gordon M.; Sternberg, Paul W.; Van Essen, David C.; Williams, Robert W.

2009-01-01

With support from the Institutes and Centers forming the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, we have designed and implemented a new initiative for integrating access to and use of Web-based neuroscience resources: the Neuroscience Information Framework. The Framework arises from the expressed need of the neuroscience community for neuroinformatic tools and resources to aid scientific inquiry, builds upon prior development of neuroinformatics by the Human Brain Project and others, and directly derives from the Society for Neuroscience’s Neuroscience Database Gateway. Partnered with the Society, its Neuroinformatics Committee, and volunteer consultant-collaborators, our multi-site consortium has developed: (1) a comprehensive, dynamic, inventory of Web-accessible neuroscience resources, (2) an extended and integrated terminology describing resources and contents, and (3) a framework accepting and aiding concept-based queries. Evolving instantiations of the Framework may be viewed at http://nif.nih.gov, http://neurogateway.org, and other sites as they come on line. PMID:18946742

Iranians' contribution to world literature on neuroscience.

PubMed

Ashrafi, Farzad; Mohammadhassanzadeh, Hafez; Shokraneh, Farhad; Valinejadi, Ali; Johari, Karim; Saemi, Nazanin; Zali, Alireza; Mohaghegh, Niloofar; Ashayeri, Hassan

2012-12-01

The purpose of this study is to analyse Iranian scientific publications in the neuroscience subfields by librarians and neuroscientists, using Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) via Web of Science data over the period, 2002-2008. Data were retrieved from the SCIE. Data were collected from the 'subject area' of the database and classified by neuroscience experts into 14 subfields. To identify the citation patterns, we applied the 'impact factor' and the 'number of publication'. Data were also analysed using HISTCITE, Excel 2007 and SPSS. Seven hundred and thirty-four papers have been published by Iranian between 2002 and 2008. Findings showed a growing trend of neuroscience papers in the last 3 years with most papers (264) classified in the neuropharmacology subfield. There were fewer papers in neurohistory, psychopharmacology and artificial intelligence. International contributions of authors were mostly in the neurology subfield, and 'Collaboration Coefficient' for the neuroscience subfields in Iran was 0.686 which is acceptable. Most international collaboration between Iranians and developed countries was from USA. Eighty-seven percent of the published papers were in journals with the impact factor between 0 and 4; 25% of papers were published by the researchers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Progress of neuroscience in Iran is mostly seen in the neuropharmacology and the neurology subfields. Other subfields should also be considered as a research priority by health policymakers. As this study was carried out by the collaboration of librarians and neuroscientists, it has been proved valuable for both librarians and policymakers. This study may be encouraging for librarians from other developing countries. © 2012 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2012 Health Libraries Group.

On the centenary of the birth of Francis H. C. Crick - from physics to genetics and neuroscience.

PubMed

Teive, Hélio A G

2016-04-01

The year 2016 marks the centenary of the birth of Francis Crick (1916-2004), who made outstanding contributions to genetics and neuroscience. In 1953, in a collaborative study, Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the DNA double helix, and in 1962 they and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Crick subsequently became very interested in neuroscience, particularly consciousness and its relationship to the claustrum, a small gray matter structure between the insula and putamen.

Coherence, causation, and the future of cognitive neuroscience research.

PubMed

Ramey, Christopher H; Chrysikou, Evangelia G

2014-01-01

Nachev and Hacker's conceptual analysis of the neural antecedents of voluntary action underscores the real danger of ignoring the meta-theoretical apparatus of cognitive neuroscience research. In this response, we temper certain claims (e.g., whether or not certain research questions are incoherent), consider a more extreme consequence of their argument against cognitive neuroscience (i.e., whether or not one can speak about causation with neural antecedents at all), and, finally, highlight recent methodological developments that exemplify cognitive neuroscientists' focus on studying the brain as a parallel, dynamic, and highly complex biological system.

The influence of Dr. Hsiang-Tung Chang on neuroscience in Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

PubMed

Jiang, Chun

2012-10-25

As one of the founders of Chinese neuroscience, Dr. Hsiang-Tung Chang's return to China has a profound impact on neuroscience in China. As many people expected, this action also may have influenced the development of neuroscience in other Eastern countries. Therefore, Dr. Chang's move may have changed the history of neuroscience in a greater area than China.

Using developmental cognitive neuroscience to study behavioral and attentional control.

PubMed

Astle, Duncan E; Scerif, Gaia

2009-03-01

Adult cognitive neuroscience employs a wide variety of techniques to investigate a broad range of behavioral and cognitive functions. One prominent area of study is that of executive control, complemented by a smaller but growing literature exploring the developmental cognitive neuroscience of executive control. To date this approach has often compared children with specific developmental disorders, such as ADHD and ASD, with typically developing controls. Whilst these comparisons have done much to advance our understanding of the neural markers that underpin behavioral difficulties at specific time-points in development, we contend that they should leave developmental cognitive neuroscientists wanting. Studying the neural correlates of typical changes in executive control in their own right can reveal how different neural mechanisms characteristic of the adult end-state emerge, and it can therefore inform the adult cognitive neuroscience of executive control itself. The current review addresses the extent to which developmentalists and adult cognitive neuroscientists have tapped this common ground. Some very elegant investigations illustrate how seemingly common processes in adulthood present as separable in childhood, on the basis of their distinctive developmental trajectories. These demonstrations have implications not only for an understanding of changing behavior from infancy through childhood and adolescence into adulthood, but, moreover, for our grasp of the adult end-state per se. We contend that, if used appropriately, developmental cognitive neuroscience could enable us to construct a more mechanistic account of executive control.

[Neurobiología y psicoanálisis].

PubMed

Rosler, J Roberto

2002-01-01

There would be a conceptual bridge between Psychoanalysis and the Neurosciences that would allow the translation of psychoanalytic concepts into neural mechanisms and vice-versa. Different Freudian postulates, such as that different types of anxiety would emerge from various cerebral interactions, the motivational regulatory functions of the impulse, the conscious emotion as the perception of something basically unconscious, the mechanism of repression in the traumatic memory, the existence of a system associated with the unconscious affective processes and regulated by the principle of pleasure - displeasure, the emotional representation as a basis of the more primitive cerebral structures, and the Oedipo complex, among others, are finding their biological ratification in different laboratory studies. This conceptual bridge would not only be a "Psychoanalysis-Neurobiological mechanisms" translator, but would also, through the integrated conceptualization of the psychoanalytical neurobiological aspects of emotion, generate relevant therapeutic models.

Eye surface temperature detects stress response in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus).

PubMed

Ikkatai, Yuko; Watanabe, Shigeru

2015-08-05

Previous studies have suggested that stressors not only increase body core temperature but also body surface temperature in many animals. However, it remains unclear whether surface temperature could be used as an alternative to directly measure body core temperature, particularly in birds. We investigated whether surface temperature is perceived as a stress response in budgerigars. Budgerigars have been used as popular animal models to investigate various neural mechanisms such as visual perception, vocal learning, and imitation. Developing a new technique to understand the basic physiological mechanism would help neuroscience researchers. First, we found that cloacal temperature correlated with eye surface temperature. Second, eye surface temperature increased after handling stress. Our findings suggest that eye surface temperature is closely related to cloacal temperature and that the stress response can be measured by eye surface temperature in budgerigars.

Effect of gravity on vestibular neural development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, M. D.; Tomko, D. L.

1998-01-01

The timing, molecular basis, and morphophysiological and behavioral consequences of the interaction between external environment and the internal genetic pool that shapes the nervous system over a lifetime remain important questions in basic neuroscientific research. Space station offers the opportunity to study this interaction over several life cycles in a variety of organisms. This short review considers past work in altered gravity, particularly on the vestibular system, as the basis for proposing future research on space station, and discusses the equipment necessary to achieve goals. It is stressed that, in keeping with the international investment being made in this research endeavor, both the questions asked and the technologies to be developed should be bold. Advantage must be taken of this unique research environment to expand the frontiers of neuroscience. Copyright 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

INFORMATION: THEORY, BRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR

PubMed Central

Jensen, Greg; Ward, Ryan D.; Balsam, Peter D.

2016-01-01

In the 65 years since its formal specification, information theory has become an established statistical paradigm, providing powerful tools for quantifying probabilistic relationships. Behavior analysis has begun to adopt these tools as a novel means of measuring the interrelations between behavior, stimuli, and contingent outcomes. This approach holds great promise for making more precise determinations about the causes of behavior and the forms in which conditioning may be encoded by organisms. In addition to providing an introduction to the basics of information theory, we review some of the ways that information theory has informed the studies of Pavlovian conditioning, operant conditioning, and behavioral neuroscience. In addition to enriching each of these empirical domains, information theory has the potential to act as a common statistical framework by which results from different domains may be integrated, compared, and ultimately unified. PMID:24122456

Biochemistry and neuroscience: the twain need to meet.

PubMed

Kennedy, Mary B

2017-04-01

Neuroscience has come to mean the study of electrophysiology of neurons and synapses, micro and macro-scale neuroanatomy, and the functional organization of brain areas. The molecular axis of the field, as reflected in textbooks, often includes only descriptions of the structure and function of individual channels and receptor proteins, and the extracellular signals that guide development and repair. Studies of cytosolic 'molecular machines', large assemblies of proteins that orchestrate regulation of neuronal functions, have been neglected. However, a complete understanding of brain function that will enable new strategies for treatment of the most intractable neural disorders will require that in vitro biochemical studies of molecular machines be reintegrated into the field of neuroscience. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Physical activity as a model for health neuroscience.

PubMed

Stillman, Chelsea M; Erickson, Kirk I

2018-05-06

Health neuroscience is a new interdisciplinary field that combines theories and techniques from health psychology and cognitive and social-affective neuroscience in order to understand how the brain affects and is affected by health behaviors. Physical activity (PA) research can serve as a useful model for various ways in which the brain can be incorporated into health neuroscience studies to better understand variability in the adoption and maintenance of, as well as benefits gained from, health behaviors. Here, we summarize evidence linking PA to brain and cognitive performance from studies conceptualizing the brain as either an outcome or mediator of cognitive change. We then discuss an emerging body of studies using a brain as a predictor approach. We discuss how studies using this approach complement existing PA studies and provide insight into a major source of variability in the outcomes of PA interventions, above and beyond the variability accounted for by known biological and demographic moderators. A more complete understanding of the bidirectional relationships between brain and behaviors, such as PA, could provide valuable insight into how to tailor interventions to optimally affect individuals, identify key barriers, and inform the development of novel policies to promote public health. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

LORETA Neurofeedback in the Precuneus: Operant Conditioning in Basic Mechanisms of Self-Regulation.

PubMed

Cannon, Rex L; Baldwin, Debora R; Diloreto, Dominic J; Phillips, Sherman T; Shaw, Tiffany L; Levy, Jacob J

2014-10-01

Low-resolution brain electomagnetic tomography (LORETA) neurofeedback provides a mechanism to influence the electrical activity of the brain in intracranial space. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of LORETA neurofeedback (LNFB) in the precuneus as a mechanism for improving self-regulation in controls and a heterogeneous diagnostic group (DX). Thirteen participants completed between 10 and 20 sessions of LNFB training in a 3-voxel cluster in the left precuneus. The participants included 5 nonclinical university students, and 8 adults with heterogeneous psychiatric diagnoses. We assessed the effects of LNFB with neurophysiological measures as well as pre- and post-Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) subscales and selected subtests from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS). There was a significant total relative power increase at the precuneus for baseline contrasts for the control group. The DX group did not reach significant levels. All participants showed improvements in executive functions and tended to report significantly less psychopathology. The basic neural mechanisms of self-regulation are poorly understood. The data obtained in this study demonstrate that LNFB in a heterogeneous population enhances executive functions while concordantly decreasing endorsement of psychological symptoms. The alpha frequency in the brain may represent integrative functioning relative to operant efficiency and self-regulatory mechanisms. © EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS) 2014.

Perceptual Anomalies in Schizophrenia: Integrating Phenomenology and Cognitive Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Uhlhaas, Peter J.; Mishara, Aaron L.

2007-01-01

From phenomenological and experimental perspectives, research in schizophrenia has emphasized deficits in “higher” cognitive functions, including attention, executive function, as well as memory. In contrast, general consensus has viewed dysfunctions in basic perceptual processes to be relatively unimportant in the explanation of more complex aspects of the disorder, including changes in self-experience and the development of symptoms such as delusions. We present evidence from phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience that changes in the perceptual field in schizophrenia may represent a core impairment. After introducing the phenomenological approach to perception (Husserl, the Gestalt School), we discuss the views of Paul Matussek, Klaus Conrad, Ludwig Binswanger, and Wolfgang Blankenburg on perception in schizophrenia. These 4 psychiatrists describe changes in perception and automatic processes that are related to the altered experience of self. The altered self-experience, in turn, may be responsible for the emergence of delusions. The phenomenological data are compatible with current research that conceptualizes dysfunctions in perceptual processing as a deficit in the ability to combine stimulus elements into coherent object representations. Relationships of deficits in perceptual organization to cognitive and social dysfunction as well as the possible neurobiological mechanisms are discussed. PMID:17118973

Development of a Neuroscience-oriented “Methods” Course for Graduate Students of Pharmacology and Toxicology

PubMed Central

Witt-Enderby, Paula A.; Johnson, David A.; Anderson, Carl A.; Bricker, J. Douglas; Davis, Vicki L.; Firestine, Steven M.; Meng, Wilson S.

2006-01-01

To provide graduate students in pharmacology/toxicology exposure to, and cross-training in, a variety of relevant laboratory skills, the Duquesne University School of Pharmacy developed a “methods” course as part of the core curriculum. Because some of the participating departmental faculty are neuroscientists, this course often applied cutting-edge techniques to neuroscience-based systems, including experiments with brain G protein–coupled receptors. Techniques covered by the course include animal handling and behavioral testing, bacterial and mammalian cell culture, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blotting, receptor binding of radioligands, plasmid DNA amplification and purification, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, gel electrophoresis, and UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. The course also encompasses research aspects such as experimental design and record keeping, statistical analysis, and scientific writing. Students were evaluated via laboratory reports and examinations, and students in turn evaluated the course using a detailed exit survey. This course introduces the graduate student to many more techniques and approaches than can be provided by the traditional graduate “rotation” format alone and should serve as a template for graduate programs in many basic research disciplines. PMID:17012209

The Bobath concept in contemporary clinical practice.

PubMed

Graham, Julie Vaughan; Eustace, Catherine; Brock, Kim; Swain, Elizabeth; Irwin-Carruthers, Sheena

2009-01-01

Future development in neurorehabilitation depends upon bringing together the endeavors of basic science and clinical practice. The Bobath concept is widely utilized in rehabilitation following stroke and other neurological conditions. This concept was first developed in the 1950s, based on the neuroscience knowledge of those times. The theoretical basis of the Bobath concept is redefined based on contemporary neuroscience and rehabilitation science. The framework utilized in the Bobath concept for the analysis of movement and movement dysfunction is described. This framework focuses on postural control for task performance, the ability to move selectively, the ability to produce coordinated sequences of movement and vary movement patterns to fit a task, and the role of sensory input in motor behaviour and learning. The article describes aspects of clinical practice that differentiate this approach from other models of practice. Contemporary practice in the Bobath concept utilizes a problem-solving approach to the individual's clinical presentation and personal goals. Treatment is focused toward remediation, where possible, and guiding the individual towards efficient movement strategies for task performance. The aim of this article is to provide a theoretical framework on which future research into the Bobath concept can be based.

Experimental psychiatric illness and drug abuse models: from human to animal, an overview.

PubMed

Edwards, Scott; Koob, George F

2012-01-01

Preclinical animal models have supported much of the recent rapid expansion of neuroscience research and have facilitated critical discoveries that undoubtedly benefit patients suffering from psychiatric disorders. This overview serves as an introduction for the following chapters describing both in vivo and in vitro preclinical models of psychiatric disease components and briefly describes models related to drug dependence and affective disorders. Although there are no perfect animal models of any psychiatric disorder, models do exist for many elements of each disease state or stage. In many cases, the development of certain models is essentially restricted to the human clinical laboratory domain for the purpose of maximizing validity, whereas the use of in vitro models may best represent an adjunctive, well-controlled means to model specific signaling mechanisms associated with psychiatric disease states. The data generated by preclinical models are only as valid as the model itself, and the development and refinement of animal models for human psychiatric disorders continues to be an important challenge. Collaborative relationships between basic neuroscience and clinical modeling could greatly benefit the development of new and better models, in addition to facilitating medications development.

The use of repetition suppression paradigms in developmental cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Nordt, Marisa; Hoehl, Stefanie; Weigelt, Sarah

2016-07-01

Repetition suppression paradigms allow a more detailed look at brain functioning than classical paradigms and have been applied vigorously in adult cognitive neuroscience. These paradigms are well suited for studies in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience as they can be applied without collecting a behavioral response and across all age groups. Furthermore, repetition suppression paradigms can be employed in various neuroscience techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). In the present article we review studies using repetition suppression paradigms in developmental cognitive neuroscience covering the age range from infancy to adolescence. Our first goal is to point out characteristics of developmental repetition suppression effects. In doing so, we discuss the relationship of the direction of repetition effects (suppression vs enhancement) with developmental factors, and address the question how the direction of repetition effects might be related to looking-time effects in behavioral infant paradigms, the most prominently used behavioral measure in infant research. To highlight the potential of repetition suppression paradigms, our second goal is to provide an overview on the insights recently obtained by applying repetition paradigms in neurodevelopmental studies, including research on children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We conclude that repetition suppression paradigms are valuable tools for investigating neurodevelopmental processes, while at the same time we highlight the necessity for further studies that disentangle methodological and developmental factors. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

78 FR 26376 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

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2013-05-06

...; Bioengineering of Neuroscience, Vision and Low Vision Technologies Study Section. Date: May 30-31, 2013. Time: 8... of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group..., [email protected] . Name of Committee: Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel; Vision...

75 FR 54638 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

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2010-09-08

....gov . Name of Committee: Emerging Technologies and Training Neurosciences Integrated Review Group... . Name of Committee: Emerging Technologies and Training Neurosciences Integrated Review Group, Molecular... Integrated Review Group, Genetic Variation and Evolution Study Section. Date: October 14-15, 2010. Time: 8:30...

Photographer: Digital Telepresence: Dr Murial Ross's Virtual Reality Application for Neuroscience

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

Photographer: Digital Telepresence: Dr Murial Ross's Virtual Reality Application for Neuroscience Research Biocomputation. To study human disorders of balance and space motion sickness. Shown here is a 3D reconstruction of a nerve ending in inner ear, nature's wiring of balance organs.

Brain-Compatible Learning: Principles and Applications in Athletic Training

PubMed Central

2003-01-01

Objective: To discuss the principles of brain-compatible learning research and provide insights into how this research may be applied in athletic training education to benefit the profession. Background: In the past decade, new brain-imaging techniques have allowed us to observe the brain while it is learning. The field of neuroscience has produced a body of empirical data that provides a new understanding of how we learn. This body of data has implications in education, although the direct study of these implications is in its infancy. Description: An overview of how the brain learns at a cellular level is provided, followed by a discussion of the principles of brain-compatible learning. Applications of these principles and implications for the field of athletic training education are also offered. Application: Many educational-reform fads have garnered attention in the past. Brain-compatible learning will not likely be one of those, as its origin is in neuroscience, not education. Brain-compatible learning is not an educational-reform movement. It does not prescribe how to run your classroom or offer specific techniques to use. Rather, it provides empirical data about how the brain learns and suggests guidelines to be considered while preparing lessons for your students. These guidelines may be incorporated into every educational setting, with every type of curriculum and every age group. The field of athletic training lends itself well to many of the basic principles of brain-compatible learning. PMID:16558681

Multifactorial determinants of cognition — Thyroid function is not the only one

PubMed Central

Moncayo, Roy; Ortner, Karina

2015-01-01

Background Since the 1960s hypothyroidism together with iodine deficiency have been considered to be a principal determinant of cognition development. Following iodine supplementation programs and improved treatment options for hypothyroidism this relation might not be valid in 2015. On the other hand neurosciences have added different inputs also related to cognition. Scope of review We will examine the characteristics of the original and current publications on thyroid function and cognition and also add some general determinants of intelligence and cognition. One central issue for us is the relation of stress to cognition knowing that both physical and psychological stress, are frequent elements in subjects with thyroid dysfunction. We have considered a special type of stress called pre-natal stress which can influence cognitive functions. Fear and anxiety can be intermingled requiring mechanisms of fear extinction. Major conclusions Recent studies have failed to show an influence of thyroid medication during pregnancy on intellectual development. Neuroscience offers a better explanation of cognition than hypothyroidism and iodine deficiency. Additional factors relevant to cognition are nutrition, infection, prenatal stress, and early life stress. In turn stress is related to low magnesium levels. Magnesium supplementation can correct both latent hypothyroidism and acquired mild cognitive deficits. General significance Cognition is a complex process that depends on many determinants and not only on thyroid function. Magnesium deficiency appears to be a basic mechanism for changes in thyroid function as well as of cognition. PMID:26672993

From Cognitive to Educational Neuroscience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dündar, Sefa; Ayvaz, Ülkü

2016-01-01

In recent years, several theoretical discussions as to the relationship between neuroscience and education have been held. Researchers have started to have cooperation over neuroscience and the interdisciplinary researches in which education is included. It was found that there were interactions between cognitive neuroscience and educational…

To label or not to label: applications of quantitative proteomics in neuroscience research.

PubMed

Filiou, Michaela D; Martins-de-Souza, Daniel; Guest, Paul C; Bahn, Sabine; Turck, Christoph W

2012-02-01

Proteomics has provided researchers with a sophisticated toolbox of labeling-based and label-free quantitative methods. These are now being applied in neuroscience research where they have already contributed to the elucidation of fundamental mechanisms and the discovery of candidate biomarkers. In this review, we evaluate and compare labeling-based and label-free quantitative proteomic techniques for applications in neuroscience research. We discuss the considerations required for the analysis of brain and central nervous system specimens, the experimental design of quantitative proteomic workflows as well as the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of the available techniques for neuroscience-oriented questions. Furthermore, we assess the use of labeled standards as internal controls for comparative studies in humans and review applications of labeling-based and label-free mass spectrometry approaches in relevant model organisms and human subjects. Providing a comprehensive guide of feasible and meaningful quantitative proteomic methodologies for neuroscience research is crucial not only for overcoming current limitations but also for gaining useful insights into brain function and translating proteomics from bench to bedside. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A developmental social neuroscience model for understanding loneliness in adolescence.

PubMed

Wong, Nichol M L; Yeung, Patcy P S; Lee, Tatia M C

2018-02-01

Loneliness is prevalent in adolescents. Although it can be a normative experience, children and adolescents who experience loneliness are often at risk for anxiety, depression, and suicide. Research efforts have been made to identify the neurobiological basis of such distressful feelings in our social brain. In adolescents, the social brain is still undergoing significant development, which may contribute to their increased and differential sensitivity to the social environment. Many behavioral studies have shown the significance of attachment security and social skills in adolescents' interactions with the social world. In this review, we propose a developmental social neuroscience model that extends from the social neuroscience model of loneliness. In particular, we argue that the social brain and social skills are both important for the development of adolescents' perceived loneliness and that adolescents' familial attachment sets the baseline for neurobiological development. By reviewing the related behavioral and neuroimaging literature, we propose a developmental social neuroscience model to explain the heightened perception of loneliness in adolescents using social skills and attachment style as neurobiological moderators. We encourage future researchers to investigate adolescents' perceived social connectedness from the developmental neuroscience perspective.

The Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience of Functional Connectivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevens, Michael C.

2009-01-01

Developmental cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly growing field that examines the relationships between biological development and cognitive ability. In the past decade, there has been ongoing refinement of concepts and methodology related to the study of "functional connectivity" among distributed brain regions believed to underlie cognition and…

77 FR 2073 - Center for Scientific Review Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-13

...-1744, [email protected] . Name of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience... of Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group... Regulation, Learning and Ethology Study Section. Date: February 9-10, 2012. Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Agenda: To...

Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Current Status and Working Hypotheses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaidya, Chandan J.; Stollstorff, Melanie

2008-01-01

Cognitive neuroscience studies of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) suggest multiple loci of pathology with respect to both cognitive domains and neural circuitry. Cognitive deficits extend beyond executive functioning to include spatial, temporal, and lower-level "nonexecutive" functions. Atypical functional anatomy extends beyond…

75 FR 77887 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-14

... Genetic Disease Therapy. Date: January 19, 2011. Time: 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Agenda: To review and evaluate... Committee: Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group. Neuroendocrinology... Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group. Neurotoxicology and Alcohol Study Section. Date: January 31...

78 FR 55086 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-09

...: Emerging Technologies and Training Neurosciences Integrated Review Group; Bioengineering of Neuroscience, Vision and Low Vision Technologies Study Section. Date: October 3-4, 2013. Time: 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m... . Name of Committee: Bioengineering Sciences & Technologies Integrated Review Group; Biomaterials and...

The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation.

PubMed

Ng, Betsy

2018-01-26

Our actions can be triggered by intentions, incentives or intrinsic values. Recent neuroscientific research has yielded some results about the growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. With the advances in neuroscience and motivational studies, there is a global need to utilize this information to inform educational practice and research. Yet, little is known about the neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. This paper attempts to draw on the theories of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, together with contemporary ideas in neuroscience, outline the potential for neuroscientific research in education. It aims to shed light on the relationship between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in terms of supporting a growth mindset to facilitate intrinsic motivation through neural responses. Recent empirical research from the educational neuroscience perspective that provides insights into the interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation will also be discussed.

Neuroscience and the soul: competing explanations for the human experience.

PubMed

Preston, Jesse Lee; Ritter, Ryan S; Hepler, Justin

2013-04-01

The development of fMRI techniques has generated a boom of neuroscience research across the psychological sciences, and revealed neural correlates for many psychological phenomena seen as central to the human experience (e.g., morality, agency). Meanwhile, the rise of neuroscience has reignited old debates over mind-body dualism and the soul. While some scientists use neuroscience to bolster a material account of consciousness, others point to unexplained neural phenomena to defend dualism and a spiritual perspective on the mind. In two experiments we examine how exposure to neuroscience research impacts belief in the soul. We find that belief in soul decreases when neuroscience provides strong mechanistic explanations for mind. But when explanatory gaps in neuroscience research are emphasized, belief in soul is enhanced, suggesting that physical and metaphysical explanations may be used reflexively as alternative theories for mind. Implications for the future of belief in soul and neuroscience research are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[The present and future of brain bank in Japan].

PubMed

Murayama, Shigeo; Saito, Yuko

2010-10-01

Brain Bank was established in 1960's in the United States and Europe as a basic infrastructure for human neuroscience research. In Japan,institutional collections are a substitute to brain banks and these function as the main repository of postmortem brains; Niigata University has one such center. The brain bank movement officially started in 2001 with the establishment of the Brain Bank for Aging Research (BBAR) in Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology. The Research Resource Network as well as the Brain Donation System of patients with Parkinson disease started in the National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry. A brain bank specially for psychiatric disorders was also established in Fukushima University. The Japanese Society of Neuropathology recognized the establishment of brain bank system as one of its major goals and the Brain Bank Committee worked as a task force. In 2010,the Japanese Brain Bank Network for Neuroscience Research (JBBNNR) was funded by Comprehensive Brain Science Network from the Ministry of Education,Culture,Sports,Science and Technology of Japan. BBAR was also appointed as the pathology core of Japanese Alzheimer Disease Neuroimage Initiative (JADNI) this year. The key features of JBBNNR are as follows. (1) The brain bank was approved by the institutional review board with the consensus of clinical and pathological branches of the neuroscience departments in the institute. (2) The brain bank accepts brain donation and maintains a clinical longitudinal follow-up record of the donor. (3) The brain bank resource is quality controlled and its information is shared by researchers. (4) The brain bank provides useful resources to researchers. Currently,JBBNNR includes Mihara Memorial Hospital Brain Bank and Fukushimura Brain Bank in addition to BBAR and it aims to expand the network for the creation of a future Japan Brain Net.

Pleasure and Pain: Teaching Neuroscientific Principles of Hedonism in a Large General Education Undergraduate Course

PubMed Central

Bodnar, Richard J.; Stellar, James R.; Kraft, Tamar T.; Loiacono, Ilyssa; Bajnath, Adesh; Rotella, Francis M.; Barrientos, Alicia; Aghanori, Golshan; Olsson, Kerstin; Coke, Tricia; Huang, Donald; Luger, Zeke; Mousavi, Seyed Ali Reza; Dindyal, Trisha; Naqvi, Naveen; Kim, Jung-Yo

2013-01-01

In a large (250 registrants) general education lecture course, neuroscience principles were taught by two professors as co-instructors, starting with simple brain anatomy, chemistry, and function, proceeding to basic brain circuits of pleasure and pain, and progressing with fellow expert professors covering relevant philosophical, artistic, marketing, and anthropological issues. With this as a base, the course wove between fields of high relevance to psychology and neuroscience, such as food addiction and preferences, drug seeking and craving, analgesic pain-inhibitory systems activated by opiates and stress, neuroeconomics, unconscious decision-making, empathy, and modern neuroscientific techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials) presented by the co-instructors and other Psychology professors. With no formal assigned textbook, all lectures were PowerPoint-based, containing links to supplemental public-domain material. PowerPoints were available on Blackboard several days before the lecture. All lectures were also video-recorded and posted that evening. The course had a Facebook page for after-class conversation and one of the co-instructors communicated directly with students on Twitter in real time during lecture to provide momentary clarification and comment. In addition to graduate student Teaching Assistants (TAs), to allow for small group discussion, ten undergraduate students who performed well in a previous class were selected to serve as discussion leaders. The Discussion Leaders met four times at strategic points over the semester with groups of 20–25 current students, and received one credit of Independent Study, thus creating a course within a course. The course grade was based on weighted scores from two multiple-choice exams and a five-page writing assignment in which each student reviewed three unique, but brief original peer-review research articles (one page each) combined with expository writing on the first and last pages. A draft of the first page, collected early in the term, was returned to each student by graduate TAs to provide individual feedback on scientific writing. Overall the course has run three times at ful or near enrollment capacity despite being held at an 8:00 AM time slot. Student-generated teaching evaluations place it well within the normal range, while this format importantly contributes to budget efficiency permitting the teaching of more required small-format courses (e.g., freshman writing). The demographics of the course have changed to one in which the vast majority of the students are now outside the disciplines of neuroscience or psychology and are taking the course to fulfill a General Education requirement. This pattern allows the wide dissemination of basic neuroscientific knowledge to a general college audience. PMID:24319388

Pleasure and pain: teaching neuroscientific principles of hedonism in a large general education undergraduate course.

PubMed

Bodnar, Richard J; Stellar, James R; Kraft, Tamar T; Loiacono, Ilyssa; Bajnath, Adesh; Rotella, Francis M; Barrientos, Alicia; Aghanori, Golshan; Olsson, Kerstin; Coke, Tricia; Huang, Donald; Luger, Zeke; Mousavi, Seyed Ali Reza; Dindyal, Trisha; Naqvi, Naveen; Kim, Jung-Yo

2013-01-01

In a large (250 registrants) general education lecture course, neuroscience principles were taught by two professors as co-instructors, starting with simple brain anatomy, chemistry, and function, proceeding to basic brain circuits of pleasure and pain, and progressing with fellow expert professors covering relevant philosophical, artistic, marketing, and anthropological issues. With this as a base, the course wove between fields of high relevance to psychology and neuroscience, such as food addiction and preferences, drug seeking and craving, analgesic pain-inhibitory systems activated by opiates and stress, neuroeconomics, unconscious decision-making, empathy, and modern neuroscientific techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials) presented by the co-instructors and other Psychology professors. With no formal assigned textbook, all lectures were PowerPoint-based, containing links to supplemental public-domain material. PowerPoints were available on Blackboard several days before the lecture. All lectures were also video-recorded and posted that evening. The course had a Facebook page for after-class conversation and one of the co-instructors communicated directly with students on Twitter in real time during lecture to provide momentary clarification and comment. In addition to graduate student Teaching Assistants (TAs), to allow for small group discussion, ten undergraduate students who performed well in a previous class were selected to serve as discussion leaders. The Discussion Leaders met four times at strategic points over the semester with groups of 20-25 current students, and received one credit of Independent Study, thus creating a course within a course. The course grade was based on weighted scores from two multiple-choice exams and a five-page writing assignment in which each student reviewed three unique, but brief original peer-review research articles (one page each) combined with expository writing on the first and last pages. A draft of the first page, collected early in the term, was returned to each student by graduate TAs to provide individual feedback on scientific writing. Overall the course has run three times at ful or near enrollment capacity despite being held at an 8:00 AM time slot. Student-generated teaching evaluations place it well within the normal range, while this format importantly contributes to budget efficiency permitting the teaching of more required small-format courses (e.g., freshman writing). The demographics of the course have changed to one in which the vast majority of the students are now outside the disciplines of neuroscience or psychology and are taking the course to fulfill a General Education requirement. This pattern allows the wide dissemination of basic neuroscientific knowledge to a general college audience.

Can Neuroscience Construct a Literate Gendered Culture?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitehead, David

2011-01-01

The construction of boys as a gendered culture is not usually associated with neuroscience. Exceptions are publications and presentations by consultants on boys' education who adopt a "brain-based" perspective. From a neuroscience perspective, my analysis indicates the selective use of primary neuroscience research to construct and perpetuate…

Scientific and Pragmatic Challenges for Bridging Education and Neuroscience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Varma, Sashank; McCandliss, Bruce D.; Schwartz, Daniel L.

2008-01-01

Educational neuroscience is an emerging effort to integrate neuroscience methods, particularly functional neuroimaging, with behavioral methods to address issues of learning and instruction. This article consolidates common concerns about connecting education and neuroscience. One set of concerns is scientific: in-principle differences in methods,…

Neuroscience and morality.

PubMed

Allison, T

2001-10-01

Humans are social animals who use specialized brain mechanisms to assess the actions of others. This system for social cognition can be studied by imaging techniques, and its damage can lead to inappropriate social and moral behavior. Neuroscience can thus enrich our understanding of behaviors traditionally thought to be outside the province of science.

78 FR 57169 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-17

..., Molecular and Integrative Reproduction Study Section. Date: October 9, 2013. Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m...: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review Group; Neurogenesis and Cell Fate [email protected] . Name of Committee: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience Integrated Review...

Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Neuroscience, Medicine, and Students with ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zambo, Debby; Zambo, Ron; Sidlik, Lawrence

2013-01-01

Neuroscience is revealing how the brains of individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) function, and advances in medicine are leading to treatments. This study investigated preservice teachers' knowledge and beliefs about students with ADHD. The majority of preservice teachers knew someone with ADHD, which, along with courses…

Developmental Brain Research with Participants from Underprivileged Communities: Strategies for Recruitment, Participation, and Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Habibi, Assal; Sarkissian, Alissa Der; Gomez, Martha; Ilari, Beatriz

2015-01-01

Challenges associated with recruitment and retention of participants from underprivileged social communities, in addition to neuroscience researchers' unfamiliarity with these communities, possibly explain the limited number of individuals from these communities who participate in neuroscience research studies. The consequence is a scarcity of…

Integrated Cognitive-neuroscience Architectures for Understanding Sensemaking (ICArUS): Transition to the Intelligence Community

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

Case Study P U Pc Pt Ft Pa 1 Clinical vs. Actuarial Geospatial Profiling Strategies X X 2 Route Security in Baghdad X X X X 3 International...Information Sciences , 176, 1570-1589. Burns, K., & Bonaceto, C. (2014). Integrated Cognitive-neuroscience Architectures for Understanding Sensemaking

Theory, Method and Practice of Neuroscientific Findings in Science Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chia-Ju; Chiang, Wen-Wei

2014-01-01

This report provides an overview of neuroscience research that is applicable for science educators. It first offers a brief analysis of empirical studies in educational neuroscience literature, followed by six science concept learning constructs based on the whole brain theory: gaining an understanding of brain function; pattern recognition and…

What Cognitive Neuroscience Tells Us about Creativity Education: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Zai

2018-01-01

Recently, an interest in creativity education has increased globally. Cognitive neuroscience research of creativity has provided possible implications for education, yet few literary reviews that bridge the brain and education studies have been published. This article first introduces the definitions and behavioral measures of creativity from…

The practical and principled problems with educational neuroscience.

PubMed

Bowers, Jeffrey S

2016-10-01

The core claim of educational neuroscience is that neuroscience can improve teaching in the classroom. Many strong claims are made about the successes and the promise of this new discipline. By contrast, I show that there are no current examples of neuroscience motivating new and effective teaching methods, and argue that neuroscience is unlikely to improve teaching in the future. The reasons are twofold. First, in practice, it is easier to characterize the cognitive capacities of children on the basis of behavioral measures than on the basis of brain measures. As a consequence, neuroscience rarely offers insights into instruction above and beyond psychology. Second, in principle, the theoretical motivations underpinning educational neuroscience are misguided, and this makes it difficult to design or assess new teaching methods on the basis of neuroscience. Regarding the design of instruction, it is widely assumed that remedial instruction should target the underlying deficits associated with learning disorders, and neuroscience is used to characterize the deficit. However, the most effective forms of instruction may often rely on developing compensatory (nonimpaired) skills. Neuroscience cannot determine whether instruction should target impaired or nonimpaired skills. More importantly, regarding the assessment of instruction, the only relevant issue is whether the child learns, as reflected in behavior. Evidence that the brain changed in response to instruction is irrelevant. At the same time, an important goal for neuroscience is to characterize how the brain changes in response to learning, and this includes learning in the classroom. Neuroscientists cannot help educators, but educators can help neuroscientists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

3D Shape Perception in Posterior Cortical Atrophy: A Visual Neuroscience Perspective.

PubMed

Gillebert, Céline R; Schaeverbeke, Jolien; Bastin, Christine; Neyens, Veerle; Bruffaerts, Rose; De Weer, An-Sofie; Seghers, Alexandra; Sunaert, Stefan; Van Laere, Koen; Versijpt, Jan; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu; Salmon, Eric; Todd, James T; Orban, Guy A; Vandenberghe, Rik

2015-09-16

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a rare focal neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive visuoperceptual and visuospatial deficits, most often due to atypical Alzheimer's disease (AD). We applied insights from basic visual neuroscience to analyze 3D shape perception in humans affected by PCA. Thirteen PCA patients and 30 matched healthy controls participated, together with two patient control groups with diffuse Lewy body dementia (DLBD) and an amnestic-dominant phenotype of AD, respectively. The hierarchical study design consisted of 3D shape processing for 4 cues (shading, motion, texture, and binocular disparity) with corresponding 2D and elementary feature extraction control conditions. PCA and DLBD exhibited severe 3D shape-processing deficits and AD to a lesser degree. In PCA, deficient 3D shape-from-shading was associated with volume loss in the right posterior inferior temporal cortex. This region coincided with a region of functional activation during 3D shape-from-shading in healthy controls. In PCA patients who performed the same fMRI paradigm, response amplitude during 3D shape-from-shading was reduced in this region. Gray matter volume in this region also correlated with 3D shape-from-shading in AD. 3D shape-from-disparity in PCA was associated with volume loss slightly more anteriorly in posterior inferior temporal cortex as well as in ventral premotor cortex. The findings in right posterior inferior temporal cortex and right premotor cortex are consistent with neurophysiologically based models of the functional anatomy of 3D shape processing. However, in DLBD, 3D shape deficits rely on mechanisms distinct from inferior temporal structural integrity. Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive visuoperceptual dysfunction and most often an atypical presentation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) affecting the ventral and dorsal visual streams rather than the medial temporal system. We applied insights from fundamental visual neuroscience to analyze 3D shape perception in PCA. 3D shape-processing deficits were affected beyond what could be accounted for by lower-order processing deficits. For shading and disparity, this was related to volume loss in regions previously implicated in 3D shape processing in the intact human and nonhuman primate brain. Typical amnestic-dominant AD patients also exhibited 3D shape deficits. Advanced visual neuroscience provides insight into the pathogenesis of PCA that also bears relevance for vision in typical AD. Copyright © 2015 Gillebert, Schaeverbeke et al.

Application of neuroscience to technology in stroke rehabilitation.

PubMed

Burns, Martha S

2008-01-01

The past decade has seen remarkable advances in our understanding of mechanisms that drive functional neuroplastic change after brain injury and the mirror neuron system that appears essential for language learning and communicative interaction. This article describes five neuroscience-based interventions available for clinical practice, with a discussion of the potential value of mirror neurons in stroke rehabilitation. Case-study data on three adults with aphasia who received various combinations of neuroscience-derived technological interventions are provided to inform the clinician of the potential advantages of technology as an adjunct to, not a substitution for, conventional therapeutic intervention.

The cognitive neuroscience of ageing.

PubMed

Grady, Cheryl

2012-06-20

The availability of neuroimaging technology has spurred a marked increase in the human cognitive neuroscience literature, including the study of cognitive ageing. Although there is a growing consensus that the ageing brain retains considerable plasticity of function, currently measured primarily by means of functional MRI, it is less clear how age differences in brain activity relate to cognitive performance. The field is also hampered by the complexity of the ageing process itself and the large number of factors that are influenced by age. In this Review, current trends and unresolved issues in the cognitive neuroscience of ageing are discussed.

Contemplative Neuroscience as an Approach to Volitional Consciousness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Evan

This chapter presents a methodological approach to volitional consciousness for cognitive neuroscience based on studying the voluntary self-generation and self-regulation of mental states in meditation. Called contemplative neuroscience, this approach views attention, awareness, and emotion regulation as flexible and trainable skills, and works with experimental participants who have undergone training in contemplative practices designed to hone these skills. Drawing from research on the dynamical neural correlates of contemplative mental states and theories of large-scale neural coordination dynamics, I argue for the importance of global system causation in brain activity and present an "interventionist" approach to intentional causation.

Neuroscience-Inspired Artificial Intelligence.

PubMed

Hassabis, Demis; Kumaran, Dharshan; Summerfield, Christopher; Botvinick, Matthew

2017-07-19

The fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) have a long and intertwined history. In more recent times, however, communication and collaboration between the two fields has become less commonplace. In this article, we argue that better understanding biological brains could play a vital role in building intelligent machines. We survey historical interactions between the AI and neuroscience fields and emphasize current advances in AI that have been inspired by the study of neural computation in humans and other animals. We conclude by highlighting shared themes that may be key for advancing future research in both fields. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

I.M. Sechenov (1829 - 1905) and the scientific self-understanding for medical sciences.

PubMed

Kofler, Walter

2007-01-01

There is no discussion about the historic relevance of I. Sechenov for physiology and neurosciences as the "father of Russian modern physiology". But he is relevant for modern natural science too because of his basic epistemological and ontological work. He did not accept the up to now basic paradigm of "Ignorabimus" which can be seen as the reason to exclude even the generalizable aspects of individuality, creativity and spontaneity from natural science. He developed techniques for empirical based science to deal with materialistic and idealistic aspects of the comprehensive person the "ignoramus" according to the actual stay of knowledge and the acceptable ontologies. He demonstrated that ontologies ("paradigms") can be used as tools according to the given problem which should be solved. So Sechenov can be seen as a precursor of the so efficient philosophical positions of Einstein and Th. Kuhn. The stay of the art in physiology and neurosciences changed since the time of Sechenov dramatically. Therefore the philosophical positions of the 19th century should be discussed. Maybe this is indispensable for the needed linkage between materialistic and idealistic aspects of a person. For this the proposals of Sechenov are helpful up to now but nearly unknown. There is no discussion about the historic relevance of I. Sechenov as the "father of Russian physiology." But he is relevant for modern natural science too because of his epistemological and ontological work. He did not accept the up to now basic paradigm of "Ignorabimus" that can be seen as the reason to exclude even the generalizable aspects of individuality, creativity, and spontaneity from natural science. He demonstrated that ontologies ("paradigms") and epistemology can be used as tools according to the given problem. So Sechenov can be seen as a precursor of the so efficient philosophical positions of Einstein and Th. Kuhn. The state of the art changed dramatically. Therefore, the philosophical positions of the nineteenth century should be questioned. Maybe this is indispensable for the needed link between materialistic and idealistic aspects of a person as a whole. In this respect the proposals of Sechenov are helpful for medical science in the twenty-first century too but nearly unknown.

Media reporting on research presented at scientific meetings: more caution needed.

PubMed

Woloshin, Steven; Schwartz, Lisa M

2006-06-05

To examine media stories on research presented at scientific meetings to see if they reported basic study facts and cautions, and whether they were clear about the preliminary stage of the research. Three physicians with clinical epidemiology training analysed front-page newspaper stories (n = 32), other newspaper stories (n = 142), and television/radio stories (n = 13) identified in LexisNexis and ProQuest searches for research reports from five scientific meetings in 2002-2003 (American Heart Association, 14th Annual International AIDS Conference, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Society for Neuroscience, and the Radiological Society of North America). Media reporting of basic study facts (size, design, quantification of results); cautions about study designs with intrinsic limitations (animal/laboratory studies, studies with < 30 people, uncontrolled studies, controlled but not randomised studies) or downsides (adverse effects in intervention studies); warnings about the preliminary stage of the research presented at scientific meetings. 34% of the 187 stories did not mention study size, 18% did not mention study design (another 35% were so ambiguous that expert readers had to guess the design), and 40% did not quantify the main result. Only 6% of news stories about animal studies mentioned their limited relevance to human health; 21% of stories about small studies noted problems with the precision of the finding; 10% of stories about uncontrolled studies noted it was not possible to know if the outcome really related to the exposure; and 19% of stories about controlled but not randomised studies raised the possibility of confounding. Only 29% of the 142 news stories on intervention studies noted the possibility of any potential downside. Twelve stories mentioned a corresponding "in press" medical journal article; two of the remaining 175 noted that findings were unpublished, might not have undergone peer review, or might change. News stories about scientific meeting research presentations often omit basic study facts and cautions. Consequently, the public may be misled about the validity and relevance of the science presented.