Learning to solve a new problem involves identifying the operating rules, which can be accelerated if known rules generalize in the new context. We ask how prior experience affects learning a new rule that is distinct from known rules. We examined how rats learned a new spatial navigation task after having previously learned tasks with different navigation rules. The new task differed from the previous tasks in spatial layout and navigation rule. We found that experience history did not impact overall performance. However, by examining navigation choice sequences in the new task, we found experience-dependent differences in exploration patterns during early stages of learning, as well as differences in the types of errors made during stable performance. The differences were consistent with the animals adopting experience-dependent memory strategies to discover and implement the new rule. Our results indicate prior experience shapes the strategies for solving novel problems, and the impact of prior experien...

Set yourself up for success in securing a senior academic position by knowing how to promote your work, seek out opportunities, interview, and negotiate. These tips will get you started.

Established scientists talk about their experiences with diversity in neuroscience and give you advice for pursuing a successful career.

Peter Uhlhaas from the University of Glasgow, UK, talks about neural synchrony in schizophrenia at the FENS-SfN Summer School on Neurodevelopmental Psychiatric Disorders, which took place June 22-28, 2014, in Bertinoro, Italy.

Oftentimes when imaging the brain, a wider view is sacrificed for finer detail, or vice versa. Although the ideal imaging technique could resolve both signals propagating within single neurons and signals sent across a whole network of hundreds of neurons, the two views present different challenges.

After you have established a mentoring team, it is important to maintain your mentoring relationships in a professional manner. Through your attitude and actions, you can show that you are responsible, and through your work as a graduate student, you can develop and demonstrate your abilities as an independent scholar and researcher.

High-quality science and high standards of animal care go hand in hand. In order to achieve good science, it’s essential that we have healthy animals. If our animals are sick, hungry, malnourished, housed poorly, or depressed, we’ll see the impact on our work.

So, you want to study neuroscience in graduate school. Acknowledging that you are ready to further your education is the first big step. Now you must choose the few programs you want to apply to out of hundreds available.

As graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working in the lab, we are acutely aware that federal funding for basic science has decreased over the years. Is there anything we can do about it? As I found out as an SfN Early Career Policy Fellow participating in SfN’s Capitol Hill Day, there is.

As the knowledge base in neuroscience continues to expand, educators need timely resources to engage their students.