Zebrafish have gained prominence as a model organism in neuroscience over the past several decades, generating key insight into the development and functioning of the vertebrate brain. However, techniques for whole brain mapping in adult stage zebrafish are lacking. Here, we describe a pipeline built using open-source tools for whole-brain activity mapping in adult zebrafish. Our pipeline combines advances in histology, microscopy, and machine learning to capture cfos activity across the entirety of the brain. Following tissue clearing, whole brain images are captured using light-sheet microscopy and registered to the recently created adult zebrafish brain atlas (AZBA) for automated segmentation. By way of example, we used our pipeline to measure brain activity after zebrafish were subject to the novel tank test, one of the most widely used behaviors in adult zebrafish. Cfos levels peaked 15 minutes following behavior and several regions, including those containing serotoninergic and dopaminergic neurons, ...

Anterior-posterior interactions in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) have been implicated in a variety of functions including perception, attention, and working memory. The underlying neural communication can be flexibly controlled by adjusting phase relations when activities across anterior-posterior regions oscillate at a matched frequency. We thus investigated how alpha oscillation frequencies spontaneously converged along anterior-posterior regions by tracking oscillatory EEG activity while participants rested. As more anterior-posterior regions (scalp sites) frequency-converged, the probability of additional regions joining the frequency convergence increased, and so did oscillatory synchronization at participating regions (measured as oscillatory power), suggesting that anterior-posterior frequency convergences are driven by inter-regional entrainment. Notably, frequency convergences were accompanied by two types of approximately linear phase gradients, one progressively phase-lagged in the anterior direction...

Material below summarizes the article, Neural Entrainment to the Beat: the “Missing Pulse” Phenomenon, published on May 30, 2017, in JNeurosci and authored by Idan Tal, Edward W. Large, Eshed Rabinovitch, Yi Wei, Charles E. Schroeder, David Poeppel, and Elana Zion Golumbic.

Alexander disease (AxD) is a rare neurological disorder caused by dominant gain-of-function mutations in the gene for glial acidic fibrillary protein ( GFAP ). Expression of mutant protein results in astrocyte dysfunction that ultimately leads to developmental delay, failure to thrive, and intellectual and motor impairment. The disease is typically fatal, and at present there are no preventative or effective treatments. To gain a better understanding of the link between astrocyte dysfunction and behavioral deficits in AxD we recently developed a rat model that recapitulates many of the clinical features of the disease, including failure to thrive, motor impairment, and white matter deficits. In the present study, we show that both male and female AxD model rats exhibit a neurodegenerative profile with a progressive neuroinflammatory response combined with reduced expression of synaptic and mitochondrial proteins. Consistent with these results AxD rats show reduced hippocampal long-term potentiation and are...

Central sensitization plays a critical role in bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC). Electroacupuncture (EA) nerve stimulation therapy has been broadly acknowledged as an effective means of alleviating chronic pathological pain. However, it remains to be explored whether EA is effective in mitigating pain-sensitive symptoms of BPS/IC and the mechanisms involved. This study aims to investigate the analgesic effect and mechanism of EA therapy. To achieve this goal, we employed several techniques: mechanical pain threshold tests to assess pain sensitivity, urodynamic studies to evaluate bladder function, Western blotting (WB) for protein analysis, immunofluorescence for visualizing, and transcriptomics. A rat cystitis model was established through a systemic intraperitoneal injection with cyclophosphamide (CYP). EA therapy was executed by stimulating the deep part of the hypochondriac point, where the 2nd-4th sacral nerves traverse. EA treatment was observed to effectively reduce mechanical al...

Before becoming an SfN Early Career Policy Ambassador (ECPA), I had no experience with science policy advocacy. This is probably why I was surprised when in 2016, while attending SfN’s Capitol Hill Day, I discovered how difficult it would be to persuade my Utah representatives to support pro-science policies.

Material below is adapted from the SfN Short Course, The Glymphatic System by Nadia Aalling, MSc, Anne Sofie Finmann Munk, BSc, Iben Lundgaard, PhD, and Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc. Short Courses are day-long scientific trainings on emerging neuroscience topics and research techniques held just prior to SfN’s annual meeting. The glymphatic system is a network of vessels that clear waste from the central nervous system (CNS), mostly during sleep. Recent evidence suggests that the glymphatic system may be disrupted in and contribute to some diseases of the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows alongside the arteries and is forced into the spaces next to the smaller blood vessels that enter the brain. There, it interchanges with interstitial fluid — the fluid surrounding the brain’s cells — often through a channel expressed by astrocytes, glial cells whose feet surround the space around the brain’s capillaries, forming the glymphatic vasculature. Glymphatic transport uses energy from arteries pulsing and from the pressure created as CSF is made, as well as from as yet unknown forces. This interchange results in the collection of waste products, such as metabolites and proteins, and their transfer to CSF, which carries them out of the brain to sites where CSF drains.

Advances in gene therapy have propelled the field into the clinical realm, and new medical treatment options are beginning to offer help in neurological diseases long thought to be incurable.

This Neurobiology of Disease Workshop, held at Neuroscience 2017, embraces the breadth of "gene therapy," including viral vectors, oligonucleotides, and cell therapies used in promising preclinical studies and clinical trials for a variety of neurological disorders long thought to be incurable. These new methods involve DNA engineering, gene replacement using virus vectors and the patient's own genetically modified cells, oligonucleotides that can "revive" beneficial gene functions or suppress toxic ones, and viruses and cells armed to tackle brain tumors.

Understanding current NIH policy and priorities is advantageous to grant applicants. Much has changed at NIH, including an emphasis on rigor and transparency influencing scores in review, new policies on clinical trial, evolving scientific priorities at NIH institutes; and new funding opportunities. Hear from senior representatives at the Center for Scientific Review, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute on Aging, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and National Institute of Mental Health about the implications of these changes for neuroscience grant applications.