In this part of the How to Thrive as Women in Neuroscience panel at Neuroscience 2019, speakers focus on how having a mentor can help women to pursue successful neuroscience careers. In this video, learn how mentors can help you achieve your career goals, from conquering impostor syndrome to creating a positive work-life balance.

The closure of the majority of neuroscience research laboratories at universities across the world has had a major impact on all aspects of the academic research mission. Many of you likely (and understandably) are anxious about the career development of trainees and junior faculty at your institution and progress on projects, to name only a few concerns.

Despite a common involvement in memory, gene signatures of cortical and subcortical memory are largely distinct. Cortical memory genes are linked to immune and epigenetic regulation, while subcortical memory genes are associated with neurogenesis and the differentiation of glial cells. Overlapping genes between cortical and subcortical memory are involved in transcription regulation, synaptic plasticity, and glutamate receptor signaling.

SfN continues advancing the importance of basic and biomedical research during this unusual time. As Congress returns its attention to FY2021 and beyond, we invite you to continue to engage in your advocacy efforts at home.

Nowadays, undergraduate institutions — and students — expect a lot from faculty: a joy in fostering student success, an ability to explain complex research projects at an undergraduate level, a capacity to train the next generation of scientists on a modest budget and with shared equipment, and most of all, passion for both teaching and research.

Hippocampal synaptic activity is tightly regulated to ensure appropriate synaptic function and plasticity, which are important for critical cognitive processes such as learning and memory. Altered hippocampal synaptic function can lead to cognitive and behavioral deficits observed in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), necessitating a deeper fundamental understanding of hippocampal synaptic control mechanisms. Glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase 2 (GDE2 or GDPD5) is a surface transmembrane enzyme that cleaves the glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor that tethers some proteins to the membrane. Mice lacking GDE2 ( Gde2 KO) display behavioral deficits in learning and memory that are hippocampal-dependent. However, roles for GDE2 in mouse hippocampal function are not known. Here, we show that GDE2 is expressed in pre- and post-synaptic compartments along apical dendrites in hippocampal CA1 cells. Gde2 KO CA1 cells showed increased dendritic length and complexity and increased ...

Microglia, discovered in 1919 by Pío del Río-Hortega, turned 100 years old in 2019. For a long time, microglial research has been hindered by the misconception that these cells solely functioned as macrophages involved in the neuroinflammatory response. However, over the last few decades, there have been a flourish of unexpected discoveries of microglial functions, from synaptic remodeling and establishment of brain connectivity, to modulation of neurogenic niches, myelination, and blood-brain barrier maintenance.

It has long been hypothesized that the nervous system uses the direction of gravity to align the various sensory systems when interacting with the external world. In line with this hypothesis, systematic drift in hand-path orientation was recently observed during targeted arm motions performed with eyes closed in weightlessness or, on Earth, for longitudinal movements in a supine posture. No such drift was observed in upright posture on Earth. But the precise conditions under which participants exhibit, and the factors that influence the magnitude of the drift, are not yet known. The objective of our study was to investigate if the upright posture, by virtue of being at a biomechanical singularity induced by the force of gravity, represents a unique condition in which drift in hand-path orientation is prevented. Human participants (male and female) performed sequences of repeated point-to-point arm movements between two visual targets aligned with the longitudinal body axis, first with eyes open, then with...

We all have learned stereotypes that unconsciously influence how we see ourselves and others. Like perceptual illusions, some biases persist even once we are aware of them. Implicit bias impacts diverse scientific communities, ultimately limiting the potential of neuroscientists and inhibiting discovery.

OBI was created to change how brain research was done, and the challenge was palpable: getting world-class clinicians and researchers who are used to competing with each other to work together. More than just working together, though, we had to figure out how to get researchers to truly collaborate, by standardizing assessments and sharing data.