Maintaining concentration on demanding cognitive tasks, such as vigilance (VG) and working memory (WM) tasks, is crucial for successful task completion. Previous research suggests that internal concentration maintenance fluctuates, potentially declining to suboptimal states, which can influence trial-by-trial performance in these tasks. However, the timescale of such alertness maintenance, as indicated by slow changes in pupil diameter, has not been thoroughly investigated. This study explored whether “pupil trends”—which selectively signal suboptimal tonic alertness maintenance at various timescales—negatively correlate with trial-by-trial performance in VG and WM tasks. Using the psychomotor vigilance task (VG) and the visual–spatial two-back task (WM), we found that human pupil trends lasting over 10 s were significantly higher in trials with longer reaction times, indicating poorer performance, compared with shorter reaction time trials, which indicated better performance. The attention network test fu...

Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) has revealed new levels of cellular organization and diversity within the human brain. However, full-length mRNA isoforms are not resolved in typical snRNA-seq analyses using short-read sequencing that cannot capture full-length transcripts. Here we combine standard 10x Genomics short-read snRNA-seq with targeted PacBio long-read snRNA-seq to examine isoforms of genes associated with neurological diseases at the single-cell level from prefrontal cortex samples of diseased and nondiseased human brain, assessing over 165,000 cells. Samples from 25 postmortem donors with Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), or Parkinson's disease (PD), along with age-matched controls, were compared. Analysis of the short-read libraries identified shared and distinct gene expression changes across the diseases. The same libraries were then assayed using enrichment probes to target 50 disease-related genes followed by long-read PacBio sequencing, enabling linkage b...

In an effort to increase access to neuroscience education in underserved communities, we created an educational program that utilizes a simple task to measure place preference of the cockroach ( Gromphadorhina portentosa ) and the open-source free software, SLEAP Estimates Animal Poses (SLEAP) to quantify behavior. Cockroaches ( n  = 18) were trained to explore a linear track for 2 min while exposed to either air, vapor, or vapor with nicotine from a port on one side of the linear track over 14 d. The time the animal took to reach the port was measured, along with distance traveled, time spent in each zone, and velocity. As characterizing behavior is challenging and inaccessible for nonexperts new to behavioral research, we created an educational program using the machine learning algorithm, SLEAP, and cloud-based (i.e., Google Colab) low-cost platforms for data analysis. We found that SLEAP was within a 0.5% margin of error when compared with manually scoring the data. Cockroaches were found to have an in...

The Ottawa Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience is an ever-growing group of young researchers in Eastern Ontario in Canada.

Leah Potter is a medical writer for Synchrogenix. Potter talks about her path from Vanderbilt, and how her PhD experience prepared her for a career in medical writing.

Explore these resources and personal stories highlighting different career path opportunities in the field.

Working like the insulation coating electrical wires, myelin — the fatty substance sheathing the thin fiber projecting from the neuronal cell body — protects those axons and supports efficient nerve transmission.

Our lab focuses on the development and function of a relatively obscure brain region called the habenula.

Common sources of bias in animal behavior and electrophysiology experiments can be minimized or outright avoided by following best practices of unbiased experimental design and data. In this webinar — the fifth in SfN’s Promoting Awareness and Knowledge to Enhance Scientific Rigor in Neuroscience series — presenters will discuss experimental design and hypothesis testing for mouse behavioral assays, as well as sampling, interpretational bias, and referencing in in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology recording studies.

In addition to running a laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI), Mike Fox devotes his time to a wide range of outreach activities.