Virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity in recent years, integrating with conventional music stimulation, action observation (AO), and motor imagination (MI). It offers promising opportunities for developing innovative rehabilitation treatments, though the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. This study aims to compare brain activation and network mechanisms following the fusion of MS, AO, and MI with VR. 50 healthy participants were recruited and underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) synchronization with three virtual reality tasks: music stimulation (VRMS), action observation (VRAO), and motor imagery (VRMI). The results indicate that VRMS significantly enhances functional connectivity of the bilateral primary sensory cortex (S1), pre-motor cortex and supplementary motor area (PM&SMA) compared to VRAO and VRMI. Furthermore, the interaction among the bilateral PM&SMA, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and right primary motor cortex (M1) regions is notably st...

In the mammalian visual system, three functionally distinct parallel processing streams extend from retina to visual thalamus and then to visual cortex: magnocellular, parvocellular, and koniocellular. Tree shrews ( Tupaia belangeri ), a pre-primate species, provide an advantageous model to study the koniocellular pathway in isolation because, while magnocellular and parvocellular pathways remain mixed in Lamina 1(L1), L2, L4, and L5 of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), L3 and L6 receive strictly koniocellular input from the contralateral eye. Additionally, koniocellular-input laminae selectively receive glutamatergic axons from the superior colliculus (SC). To reveal how cellular and synaptic properties of koniocellular geniculate laminae may differ from magnocellular/parvocellular laminae, and how SC input may shape the koniocellular relay to cortex, we studied the morphology and connectivity of retinal and tectal terminals in pathway-specific laminae. While confirming that K-laminae relay cells cont...

Two often forgotten but important parts of project management are relationship management and communication. This article will cover how to effectively manage relationships among collaborators and communicate the progress and results of the project to other scientists and the public.

Material below summarizes the article Movement Improves the Quality of Temporal Perception and Decision-Making, published on August 8, 2019, in eNeuro and authored by Martin Wiener, Weiwei Zhou, Farah Bader, and Wilsaan M. Joiner. Highlights Physical movements during encoding of auditory stimuli improve the final determination of time duration. Time perception is an integral component of motor planning and adaptation. Timing is directly computed in the motor system.

This resource was featured in the NeuroJobs Career Center. Visit today to search the world’s largest source of neuroscience opportunities. The research we do defines who we are as scientists. We’re proud of our work, so we publish in peer-reviewed journals and present at professional conferences. Some of us may have an opportunity to promote our work to the media, or to interview for a job we’ve always wanted. We hope we’re making a difference in people’s lives. But many researchers don’t communicate in a way that resonates with their intended audience — whether that’s their professional community, scientists in other fields, the public, the media, or a potential boss. It’s not just what you say, but also how you say it, that matters.

A lab environment where individual members feel heard can help you to run a successful lab in diverse settings. An important part of creating this kind of inclusive environment is in fact what happens outside the day-to-day work of the lab — asking lab members about their research interests, for example, or encouraging reflection. At the 2019 Meet-the-Experts session “Twenty Years of Fear Research and Mentoring in Puerto Rico,” Gregory Quirk, PI of the Laboratory of Fear Learning at the University of Puerto Rico, shared that Puerto Rico has been building its presence in science, and that hard work has been bringing results for science across the island—in part due to attention to the lab environment.

Institutions have a role to play in creating the right environment for team science. As more scientists participate in interdisciplinary teamwork and global collaboration, academic recruitment and promotion processes need to account for this. In this workshop, faculty, administrators, and other institutional leaders will learn how to recognize and evaluate team science when it comes to faculty hiring and advancement, as well as how to adapt their hiring and tenure practices to reflect the growing team science approach to research.

Material below summarizes the article Removal of the Potassium Chloride Co-Transporter From the Somatodendritic Membrane of Axotomized Motoneurons Is Independent of BDNF/TrkB Signaling but Is Controlled by Neuromuscular Innervation, published on September 20, 2019, in eNeuro and authored by Erica Tracey Akhter, Ronald W. Griffith, Arthur W. English, and Francisco J. Alvarez. Highlights Potassium chloride-cotransporter 2 (KCC2) mRNA and protein are downregulated within days of peripheral axotomy of spinal motoneurons. KCC2 downregulation on axotomized motoneurons is not dependent on microgliosis or BDNF/TrkB signaling by difference to pathways reported previously in other disease and pathology associated with KCC2 dysregulation. Extensive KCC2 depletion is tied to the regenerative state and recovers after motor axons reinnervate muscle, suggesting that GABA/glycinergic synapse action in the absence of KCC2 might contribute to axon regeneration.

I am a female neuroscientist who has worked with incredible neuroscientists, male and female, over the course of my career. A director at the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy, I advise foundations looking to develop strategies for funding scientific research. As philanthropy consultants, we set up review committees and scientific advisory boards and deploy new funding sources in a given research area. Our team works on the front lines to ensure that philanthropic investments in research are made in a way that will make the greatest impact on science and health — which can be increased through gender equity. Over the past year, we’ve experimented with ways to eliminate unconscious bias in the programs we influence. The following is a case study that shows how.

Material below summarizes the article Cellular and Network Mechanisms May Generate Sparse Coding of Sequential Object Encounters in Hippocampal-Like Circuits, published on July 19, 2019, in eNeuro and authored by Anh-Tuan Trinh, Stephen E. Clarke, Erik Harvey-Girard, and Leonard Maler. Highlights We found that loss of TWIK-related spinal cord K+ (TRESK) in all trigeminal ganglia (TG) neurons preferentially increased the intrinsic excitability of small-diameter TG nociceptors that express neuropeptide CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) or TRPM8 channels. Compared with wild-type (WT) controls, TRESK knockout (KO) mice exhibited more robust trigeminal pain, especially headache-like behaviors, but displayed normal body and visceral pain responses, indicating that genetic loss of TRESK significantly increases the chance of developing headache. Our study highlighted some exquisite differences between the head pain-sensing TG neurons and body pain-sensing dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in response to ion channel defects, supporting a causal relationship between defective TRESK channel and higher migraine susceptibility.