Savings refers to the gain in performance upon relearning. In sensorimotor adaptation, savings is tested by having participants adapt to perturbed feedback and, following a washout block during which the system resets to baseline, presenting the same perturbation again. While savings has been observed with these tasks, we have shown that the contribution from implicit adaptation, a process that uses errors to recalibrate the sensorimotor map, is attenuated upon relearning ( [Avraham et al., 2021][1]). Here, we test the hypothesis that this attenuation is due to interference arising from the different relationship between the movement and the feedback during washout. Removing the perturbation at the start of the washout block typically results in a salient error signal in the opposite direction to that observed during learning. We first replicated the finding that implicit adaptation is attenuated following a washout period that introduces salient opposite errors. When we eliminated feedback during washout,...

α-Synuclein is a synaptic protein that accumulates primarily in synucleinopathies and secondarily in certain lysosomal storage disorders. However, its physiological roles in health and disease are not fully understood. In part, this has been hampered by the inability to visualize α-synuclein and its cellular localization, due to the lack of specific antibodies and faithful reporters. Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing to generate human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines in which the α-synuclein ( SNCA ) gene has been tagged with the short HA peptide either at the N-terminus or C-terminus or with the fluorescent protein mCherry at the C-terminus of the protein. These diverse strategies revealed the C-terminus HA-tag as the best option. C-Terminus HA-tagged α-synuclein had unchanged protein expression and did not generate degradation by-products. Importantly, we show that following differentiation to neurons, the C-terminus HA-tagged iPSC line had unaffected electrophysiological propertie...

Understanding the ability to self-evaluate decisions is an active area of research. This research has primarily focused on the neural correlates of self-evaluation during visual tasks and whether neural correlates before or after the primary decision contribute to self-reported confidence. This focus has been useful, yet the reliance on subjective confidence reports may confound our understanding of key everyday features of metacognitive self-evaluation: that decisions must be rapidly evaluated without explicit feedback and unfold in a multisensory world. These considerations led us to hypothesize that an automatic domain-general metacognitive signal may be shared between sensory modalities, which we tested in the present study with multivariate decoding of electroencephalographic (EEG) data. Participants ( N  = 21, 12 female) first performed a visual task with no request for self-evaluations of performance, prior to an auditory task that included rating decision confidence on each trial. A multivariate cl...

Glymphatic transport in rodents has primarily been studied using cisterna magna cannulation (CMC), a minimally invasive method for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tracers infusion. However, CMC is suboptimal due to the lack of bony structures to stabilize the cannula, leading to potential movement artifacts. Here, we present an alternative approach involving chronic cannulation of the lateral ventricles of mice for CSF tracer delivery. A direct comparison demonstrated that intraventricular cannulation (IVC) reproduces CMC results in vivo, including perivascular labeling of the middle cerebral artery, which was further confirmed by ex vivo analysis. IVC enables tracer infusion in awake mice, facilitating glymphatic transport studies in conjunction with behavioral assessments that were previously unattainable. Additionally, IVC supports repeated infusions in awake animals, offering the potential to reduce the number of experimental animals required. This study establishes IVC as a robust alternative for studying g...

The genetic role and specific effects of primary familial cerebral calcification (PFBC) are still unclear. We aim to analyze bibliometric features in studies related to PFBC, investigate variant detection rates in patients with brain calcifications, and examine the phenotypic characteristics of PFBC patients. A comprehensive search of studies on the genetic effects of PFBC up until December 31, 2024, was conducted across Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus. A random-effects meta-analysis combined variant detection rates for genes SLC20A2 , PDGFRB , PDGFB , XPR1 , MYORG , JAM2 , CMPK2 , and NAA60 . Data on total calcification scores (TCS), age of onset, and the prevalence of various phenotypes in PFBC patients were also aggregated. Publication bias was assessed using Egger's linear regression, and a leave-one-out sensitivity analysis was performed. Of 1,267 records, 224 were included in the bibliometric analysis. Keywords “primary familial brain calcification” and “ SLC20A2 ” were most prominent. Eig...

Regardless of discipline, quantitative literacy is a critical component of any scientist's skill set. A recent push from the NINDS has focused on enhancing and maintaining this expertise in trainees to enhance scientific fluency and to combat the reproducibility crisis. T32-funded programs often include off-campus retreats, providing opportunities to integrate a quantitative literacy component, or thematic focus. Here we will discuss the lessons and considerations learned from organizing a retreat focused on quantitative aspects of diagnostics for spinal cord injury. Survey results regarding retreat events and workshops reveal elements that were perceived to be successful by attendees. Events developed with active learning that focused on collaborative problem-solving and cross-discipline quantitative measures were well received by trainees. On the other hand, lectures and panel discussions were found to be less effective in boosting long-lasting improvements in quantitative literacy. Taken as a whole, the...

Dmrta2 (also designated Dmrt5) is a transcriptional regulator expressed in cortical progenitors in a caudomedialhigh/rostrolaterallow gradient with important roles at different steps of cortical development. Dmrta2 has been suggested to act in cortex development mainly by differential suppression of Pax6 and other homeobox transcription factors such as the ventral telencephalic regulator Gsx2 , which remains to be fully demonstrated. Here we have addressed the epistatic relation between Pax6 and Dmrta2 by comparing phenotypes in mutant embryos or embryos overexpressing both genes in various allelic combinations. We show that Dmrta2 cooperates with Pax6 in the maintenance of cortical identity in dorsal telencephalic progenitors and that it acts as a transcriptional repressor of Pax6 to control cortical patterning. Mechanistically, we show that in P19 cells, Dmrta2 acts as a DNA binding-dependent repressor on the Pax6 E60 enhancer and that a point mutation that affects its DNA binding properties identified i...

Much of science advocacy is local by nature, but it also has tremendous potential to bring neuroscientists together on a global scale. In this episode of History of SfN: 50th Anniversary, Bill Martin, the president and chief operating officer of Blackthorn Therapeutics, traces the evolution of SfN’s role in global advocacy efforts throughout his time on its Government and Public Affairs Committee and continued involvement with the Society.

History of SfN: 50th Anniversary is a limited series podcast highlighting stories from the history of the Society for Neuroscience, recounting groundbreaking moments in the growth of the Society from the perspectives of current, past, and future leaders. Shatz, known for her discovery of the “fire together, wire together” phenomenon, offers insight into her research to understand how circuits change during developmental critical periods. She discusses both the advent of neuroscience as a field and the history of SfN’s annual meeting, including its 25th anniversary meeting.

In this episode of History of SfN: 50th Anniversary, Bernice Grafstein, Vincent and Brooke Astor Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at Cornell University, Trustee and Vice-President of the Grass Foundation — and the first female president of the Society for Neuroscience — recounts how the formation of the Society for Neuroscience brought together neuroscientists of diverse backgrounds.