Revisit SfN annual meeting programming you enjoyed or missed year-round.

Material below summarizes the article Synaptic Connections of Aromatase Circuits in the Medial Amygdala are Sex Specific, published on May 29, 2020, in eNeuro and authored by Addison Billing, Marcelo Henrique Correia, Diane A. Kelly, Geng-Lin Li, and Joseph Bergan. Highlights Aromatase-producing cells in the mouse medial amygdala receive input originating from sensory cells in the vomeronasal organ that express a single class of receptors known to detect chemicals that convey information about the age, sex, and breeding condition of other mice. We did not observe sex differences in the intrinsic electrophysiological properties of aromatase-producing cells in the medial amygdala; however, we found a robust anatomical sex difference in the number of synapses that connect the accessory olfactory bulb – and thus the vomeronasal organ - to these cells. Males have nearly an order of magnitude more of these synaptic connections than do females, an anatomical difference that could play a role in shaping sex differences in social behaviors mediated by the medial amygdala.

In 1971, at the very first plenary session of the newly formed Society for Neuroscience (SfN), Vernon Mountcastle delivered his keynote address as the first SfN president. He took stock of the great achievements of the 1960s, which led to the formation of SfN, and looked forward to how this new group would shape neuroscience and society in the years to come. Now, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the society's founding, SfN's Trainee Advisory Committee (TAC) took on the same task — below and in their Journal of Neuroscience article, The Next 50 Years of Neuroscience — reflecting on a foundation of astounding work and predicting what the next 50 years will hold. Separated by time and space, Mountcastle's words echo in the hearts and minds of the newest generation of scientists.

This resource was featured in the NeuroJobs Career Center. Visit today to search the world’s largest source of neuroscience opportunities. For over 40 years, Nick Ingoglia researched the presence and function of RNA in growing axons. Now retired from a career in neuroscience, Ingoglia has been working toward writing a novel, Madame Lasagna and the Dead Frog, that combines neuroscience research with the fictional lives of a diverse group of characters. In this interview, Ingoglia shares how he incorporates his research experience into his writing, what he hopes audiences take away from his novels, and tips for scientists looking to explore a writing career.

Using molecular, anatomical, and electrophysiological approaches, Sebnem Tuncdemir found that two types of interneurons form transient connections while integrating into their proper positions within the developing brain and that these ephemeral circuits are necessary for the correct assembly of the cerebral cortex. For her outstanding PhD thesis, Tuncdemir won the Nemko Prize in Cellular or Molecular Neuroscience in 2016. Here, she shares more about her research and offers advice for grad students.

In this panel discussion, neuroscientists from the United States, South Africa, Korea, Argentina, France, and Croatia share what it will take to counteract bias in their region. The goals of the discussion are to: Determine region-specific challenges in increasing diversity and fighting bias. Identify solutions to these challenges that have been implemented or are being implemented. Share best practices between regions to create a community and move forward as a global initiative. Speakers Keynote speaker: Tracy L. Bale, University of Maryland, USA - IBRO President & Member of the ALBA Board of Directors Africa region: Fleur Howells, University of Cape Town, South Africa Asia/Pacific region: Jinju Han, KAIST, Korea Latin America region: Amaicha Depino, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires, Argentina - Young IBRO Committee member Europe region: Anne Beyeler, University of Bordeaux - INSERM, France - ALBA Ambassador The event was chaired by Zeljka Krsnik, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Croatia – Young IBRO Committee Chair & Member of the ALBA Board of Directors

Neurodevelopmental disorders disproportionately affect males compared with females. The biological mechanisms of this male susceptibility or female protection have not been identified. There is evidence that fetal/neonatal gonadal hormones, which play a pivotal role in many aspects of development, may contribute. Here, we investigate the effects of excess testosterone (T) during a critical period of sex-specific brain organization on social approach and fear learning behaviors in C57BL/6J wild-type mice. Male, but not female, mice treated with T on the day of birth (Postnatal Day 0; PN0) exhibited decreased social approach as juveniles and decreased contextual fear memory as adults, compared with vehicle (veh)-treated controls. These deficits were not driven by anxiety-like behavior or changes in locomotion or body weight. Mice treated with the same dose of T on PN18, which is outside of the critical period of brain masculinization, did not demonstrate impairments compared with the veh group. These finding...

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a pivotal role in processing pain and emotion, communicating with both cortical and subcortical regions involved in these functions. The claustrum (CLA), a subcortical region with extensive connectivity to the ACC, also plays a critical role in pain perception and consciousness. Both ACC and CLA express Kappa (KOR), Mu (MOR), and Delta (DOR) opioid receptors, yet whether and how opioid receptors modulate this circuit are poorly understood. This study investigates the effects of opioid receptor activation on glutamatergic signaling in CLA→ACC circuitry using spatial transcriptomics, brain slice electrophysiology, optogenetics, and pharmacological approaches in mice of both sexes. Our results demonstrated that excitatory synaptic transmission generated by the CLA onto Layer 5 pyramidal (L5 PYR) cells in the ACC are reduced by KOR, MOR, and DOR agonists. However, only KOR agonists reduce monosynaptic transmission from the CLA onto L5 ACC PYR cells, highlighting the un...

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a bacterial endotoxin that induces innate immune responses. The present study aimed to elucidate alterations in cerebral cortical surface morphology induced by neonatal exposure to LPS using gyrencephalic ferrets. Male ferret pups received a subcutaneous injection of LPS (500 µg/g of body weight) on Postnatal Day (P)6 and P7. Furthermore, EdU and BrdU were administered on P5 and P7, respectively, to label postproliferative and proliferating cells that were exposed to LPS in the late stage of cortical neurogenesis. On P20 when the primary sulci and gyri had formed, MRI-based morphometry revealed an anterior shift in sulcal infolding in the medial and dorsolateral cortices of LPS-exposed ferrets. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that LPS increased the density of BrdU-labeled cells and reduced their apoptosis, as indicated by cleaved caspase-3 (cCasp3) immunostaining, in the outer stratum of the lateral sulcus located on the parietal association cortex. Furthermore, cCasp3 immuno...

Cortical tracking of the speech envelope is an emerging, noninvasive measure of neurophysiological processing of speech that is being widely adopted. It demonstrates good ecological validity, as it allows researchers to study human processing of continuous, naturalistic speech containing dynamic spectrotemporal variations and rich linguistic content. While measures of cortical tracking have strong clinical and research applications, there is a lack of research documenting the reliability of these measures, including how they are affected by the stimulus and how the stimulus is represented, as well as electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition and analysis parameters. In this study, we measured the test–retest reliability of cortical tracking of the speech envelope across different stimuli (an audiobook vs a podcast), stimulus features (broadband envelope and its derivative, multiband envelope and its derivative), reference electrodes (average mastoid vs common average reference), and EEG frequency bands (del...