Experimental design is a core competency of scientific training with profound implications for research rigor and reproducibility. Yet, trainees often receive minimal guidance to structure their thinking around experimental design. Metacognition—reflecting on one's own thinking—offers a powerful tool to strengthen reasoning in this process. Here, we present the AiMS framework, which adapts the classic plan–monitor–evaluate cycle of metacognition to the context of experimental design. This framework emphasizes three iterative stages—Awareness, Analysis, and Adaptation—that scaffold reflection on an experimental system defined by its Models, Methods, and Measurements and evaluated through Specificity, Sensitivity, and Stability. We illustrate application of the AiMS framework through an interactive neuroanatomy case study and provide a structured worksheet to guide readers in applying it to their own experiments. We also highlight how the framework can assist researchers in organizing their ideas for researc...

Puerto Rico's cultural identity, shaped by Taíno heritage, Spanish colonization, and US governance, emphasizes family, music, food, and collective participation. Drawing on these traditions, we developed NeuroBoricuas, a grassroots neuroscience education movement that reimagines outreach through cultural metaphors of parrandas and peer teaching. What began as a reflection on conventional Brain Awareness Week evolved into student-led demonstrations, the creation of the first neuroscience laboratory in a Puerto Rican high school, and a network of university chapters and high school clubs across the Island. These groups lead workshops, classroom visits, and community events, positioning students as both learners and teachers of neuroscience. A partnership with Backyard Brains provided affordable, hands-on tools that made neuroscience tangible for K-12 and university students, while events such as Explora tu Cerebro en la SanSe integrated science into Puerto Rico's most iconic cultural festival. To extend beyo...

Social interactions are fundamental to human cognition, with the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) playing a key role in integrating motor coordination and social inference. While transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) is a promising technique for modulating cortical excitability in real time, its effect on dynamic social processes remains largely unexplored. This study applied high-definition tRNS (HD-tRNS) over the rTPJ during an interactive task to modulate motor coordination and social inference. Eighty neurotypical adults (49 female) were equally distributed across two experiments: Experiment 1, a block design with randomized active and sham stimulation blocks; or Experiment 2, a trial-by-trial design with intermixed stimulation protocols. Participants performed a coordination task with a covert virtual partner programmed to behave cooperatively or competitively. Kinematic data and self-reported attributions of humanness and cooperativeness were analyzed. The results showed that HD-tRNS over...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) has traditionally been associated with amyloid-β plaques, but growing evidence underscores the role of neuroinflammation in disease progression. The autoinflammatory hypothesis of AD suggests chronic immune dysfunction contributes to neuronal damage, making immune modulation a promising therapeutic strategy. Cannabidiol (CBD), a phytocannabinoid with anti-inflammatory properties, may offer therapeutic potential. This study investigates how CBD independently influences two key neuroinflammatory regulators in AD: the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) pathway and the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) pathway. Though mechanistically distinct, both shape CNS immune responses. Targeting these immune-metabolic axes provides a mechanistic alternative to amyloid- or tau-based approaches by addressing upstream drivers of neuroinflammation and immune dysregulation. Using the male 5XFAD transgenic AD mouse model, we administered CBD via inhalation and assessed IDO and cGAS expression using flow c...

Aberrant dopamine transmission is a hallmark of several psychiatric disorders. Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) display distinct activity states that are regulated by discrete afferent inputs. For example, burst firing requires excitatory input from the mesopontine tegmentum, while dopamine neuron population activity, defined as the number of spontaneously active dopamine neurons, is thought to be dependent on inhibitory drive from the ventral pallidum (VP). Rodent models used to study psychiatric disorders, such as psychosis, consistently exhibit elevated dopamine neuron population activity, due to decreased tonic inhibition from the VP. However, it remains unclear whether the VP can modulate all dopamine neurons or if only a specific subset of VTA dopamine neurons receive innervation from the VP to be recruited as required. This knowledge is critical for understanding dopamine regulation in normal and pathological conditions. Here, we used in vivo electrophysiology in male and female ...

Despite various histological, electrophysiological, and imaging studies, the topographic organization of saccade-related activity in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has been notoriously difficult to characterize. In part, this is because areas of interest in PPC are often embedded deep in sulci in macaques and humans. Understanding the extent of topographic organization in PPC can provide insights into the computation contributions of PPC. The lissencephalic cortex of the common marmoset offers a unique opportunity to investigate fine-scale topographic organization in PPC. Recordings were obtained from the PPC of two male marmosets performing a visually guided center-out saccade task with 8 or 36 peripheral targets using multichannel electrode arrays with 100 μm spacing. By plotting the pattern of saccade direction tuning preferences across all penetrations and cortical depths, we uncovered topographic organizational features within the PPC. Like other primates, multiunits in marmoset PPC tend to prefe...

Recent investigations have revealed that selective attention to lateralized speech increases ipsilateral tonic electromyographic activity in the vestigial human auriculomotor system. However, it has yet to be determined whether this modulation depends upon predictive cues that are inherent in continuous speech or whether it is a general concomitant of selective attention to sounds in the auditory periphery. The present study addressed this question by replacing speech with randomized, unpredictable sequences of brief tonal stimuli in a dichotic listening task that necessitated a sustained anticipatory focus of attention. Participants (8 female, 23 male) were presented with sequences of brief tone bursts in one ear and frequency-modulated “chirps” in the other ear and were instructed to focus on sounds in one ear and report attenuated deviant stimuli in that ear. Posterior auricular muscle (PAM) activity was recorded behind both ears, and non-rectified stimulus-locked responses were assessed to ensure the r...

This webinar is exclusive for SfN members. Please log in for access. Join this interactive session as Khalid Elsaafien and Eric Krause discuss their paper, “Identification of Novel Cross-Talk between the Neuroendocrine and Autonomic Stress Axes Controlling Blood Pressure” with JNeurosci Editor-in-Chief Marina Picciotto. Attendees can submit questions at registration and live during the webinar. Below is the significance statement of Identification of Novel Cross-Talk between the Neuroendocrine and Autonomic Stress Axes Controlling Blood Pressure, published on May 26, 2021, in JNeurosci and authored by Khalid Elsaafien, Matthew K. Kirchner, Mazher Mohammed, Sophia A. Eikenberry, Chloe West, Karen A. Scott, Annette D. de Kloet, Javier E. Stern, and Eric G. Krause. The survival of an organism is dependent on meeting the energetic demands imposed by stressors. This critical function is accomplished by the CNS's ability to orchestrate simultaneous activities of neurosecretory and autonomic axes. Here, we unveil a novel signaling mechanism within the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus that links excitation of neurons producing corticotropin-releasing-hormone with excitation of neurons controlling sympathetic nervous system activity and blood pressure. The implication is that chronic stress exposure may promote cardiometabolic disease by dysregulating the interneuronal cross-talk revealed by our experiments.

Careers in translational drug discovery offer exciting opportunities to apply your biomedical research training to the development of much-needed treatments for disease. While pursuing a career in drug discovery in the past has meant exiting the academic setting to join the pharmaceutical industry, this is no longer the case. Translational drug discovery efforts are occurring in a variety of settings including those in academia and the government. This Neuroscience 2017 event provides an overview of career opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, academic drug discovery centers, and NIH Intramural Research Programs and showcases examples of how basic and innovative biology can be turned into a drug discovery program in a variety of research settings that will lead to new medicines for patients who need them.

Previous studies emphasize the importance of prestimulus neural oscillations in shaping endogenous brain states that substantially impact perceptual outcomes. However, what features in such oscillations drive perception remains unknown. Furthermore, research has shown that non-oscillatory activity is also important for cognitive processing. However, their interaction prior to perceiving a multisensory stimulus remains unexplored. In this human EEG study (n=18, 10 males and 8 females), we investigated the role of prestimulus periodic power and aperiodic activity in modulating perception of the widely studied McGurk illusion on a trial-by-trial basis. Using logistic mixed-effect models, we reveal that the illusion perception is associated with reduced prestimulus alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (15–30 Hz) power over frontal and occipital regions, increased theta (4–7 Hz) power in parietal, central, and occipital regions, and increased gamma (31–45 Hz) power across the scalp. Furthermore, lower aperiodic offset and ...