Individuals with normal hearing exhibit considerable variability in their capacity to understand speech in noisy environments. Previous research suggests the cause of this variance may be due to individual differences in cognition and auditory perception. To investigate the impact of cognitive and perceptual differences on speech comprehension, 25 adult human participants with normal hearing completed numerous cognitive and psychoacoustic tasks including the Flanker, Stroop, Trail Making, reading span, and temporal fine structure tests. They also completed a continuous multitalker spatial attention task while neural activity was recorded using electroencephalography. The auditory cortical N1 response was extracted as a measure of neural speech encoding during continuous speech listening using an engineered “chirped-speech” (Cheech) stimulus. We compared N1 component morphologies of target and masker speech stimuli to assess neural correlates of attentional gains while listening to concurrently played short...

One pending question in social neuroscience is whether interpersonal interactions are processed differently by the brain depending on the bodily characteristics of the interactor, i.e., their physical appearance. To address this issue, we engaged participants in a minimally interactive task with an avatar either showing bodily features or not while recording their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) in order to investigate indices of action observation and action monitoring processing. Multivariate results showed that bodily compared with nonbodily appearance modulated parieto-occipital neural patterns throughout the entire duration of the observed movement and that, importantly, such patterns differ from the ones related to initial shape processing. Furthermore, among the electrocortical indices of action monitoring, only the early observational positivity (oPe) was responsive to the bodily appearance of the observed agent under the specific task requirement to predict the partner movement. ...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and nonmotor symptoms. Its pathological hallmarks include the accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) in Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites. Phosphorylation of α-Syn is a prominent feature of these inclusions, but its role in disease pathogenesis remains unclear. To identify the role of α-Syn phosphorylation in synucleinopathy, we generated two Snca knock-in (KI) mouse models carrying phosphomimetic mutations at SncaY39 or SncaS129 ( SncaY39E or SncaS129D ) which manipulated epitopes phosphorylated in the PD brain. Both SncaY39E and SncaS129D KI mice displayed increased α-Syn phosphorylation, enhanced oligomer formation, and a shift of α-Syn localization from membrane-bound to cytoplasm. However, neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra was not observed up to 24 months of age. These findings demonstrate that mimicking the phosphorylation of Y39 or S129 can induce endogenous α-Syn phosphorylation. Still, a sing...

Music is a universal language and a powerful force in the world. It can have incredible impact on our brain and easily make us cry or make us joyful. Just a few notes of a song can cause us to remember memories long past. In this 2018 Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society lecture, Pat Metheny discusses, with a panel of SfN members, the impact of music on the brain and on our emotions and memory; the process of creativity in music, art, and science; and the role of music in healing.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. Its pathological hallmarks include the accumulation of misfolded alpha-Synuclein (α-Syn) in Lewy bodies (LBs) and Lewy neurites. Phosphorylation of α-Syn is a prominent feature of these inclusions, but its role in disease pathogenesis remains unclear. To identify the role of α-Syn phosphorylation in Synucleinopathy, we generated two Snca knock-in (KI) mouse models carrying phosphomimetic mutations at SncaY39 or SncaS129 ( SncaY39E or SncaS129D ) which manipulated epitopes phosphorylated in PD brain. Both SncaY39E and SncaS129D KI mice displayed increased α-Syn phosphorylation, enhanced oligomer formation, and a shift of α-Syn localization from membrane-bound to cytoplasm. However, neurodegeneration in substantia nigra was not observed up to 24 months of age. These findings demonstrate that mimicking the phosphorylation of Y39 or S129 can induce endogenous α-Syn phosphorylation. Still, a singl...

The SfN annual meeting has excellent opportunities to make meaningful connections and seek real-time information. Here are a few ways you can personalize your experience.

Organized by the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence (FKNE) under the umbrella of the FENS Committee of Higher Education and Training (CHET), this session focuses on topics relevant for senior postdocs and newly appointed PIs who want to start their own lab, including: - How to get your first PI position. - Selection of team members. - Application and management of funds. - Early career mobility. - Balancing family with career.

The crisis of reproducibility in biology, from which neuroscience is not immune, has many causes. This workshop covers the wide-ranging issues that contribute to irreproducibility. It focuses on the bias in dissemination of experimental data from the point of view of journals, funding agencies, and the general media.

Colin Franz, assistant professor at Northwestern University, shares his tips to end each day of SfN’s annual meeting with a feeling of accomplishment and make important career connections. What’s your key to a successful meeting? My advice for a first-time attendee would be, decide the one thing you want to accomplish for each half-day before you walk into the convention center.

“The best thing to do when you’re communicating your animal research is to be completely straightforward about it,” explains Chris Barncard, science writer at the University of Wisconsin. “People recognize genuine sentiment when they see it. So we tell our researchers, even if they’re apprehensive about talking about their animal research, to try to be as straight and complete as they can with people about how animal research is conducted. Those interactions often turn out very positive.” Watch this video to hear the: - Benefits of speaking openly about animal research. - Approaches that can help researchers talk about animal research. - Key tips and strategies that you can incorporate into your conversations.