Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease accompanied by potentially debilitating complications creating major health problems for a significant population. Almost 20 million people worldwide develop diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) annually that begin with p...

Virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity in recent years, integrating with conventional music stimulation, action observation (AO), and motor imagination (MI). It offers promising opportunities for developing innovative rehabilitation treatments, though the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. This study aims to compare brain activation and network mechanisms following the fusion of MS, AO, and MI with VR. 50 healthy participants were recruited and underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) synchronization with three virtual reality tasks: music stimulation (VRMS), action observation (VRAO), and motor imagery (VRMI). The results indicate that VRMS significantly enhances functional connectivity of the bilateral primary sensory cortex (S1), pre-motor cortex and supplementary motor area (PM&SMA) compared to VRAO and VRMI. Furthermore, the interaction among the bilateral PM&SMA, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and right primary motor cortex (M1) regions is notably st...

IBRO's Secretary-General discusses efforts to advance neuroscience.

The annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting is a bonanza of scientific achievement: famous keynote speakers, beautiful scientific results, and award ceremonies. This focus is exciting and invigorating but glosses over the many failures, mistakes, and rejections that typically lead to scientific success. Our goal has been to create a space within the annual SfN meeting for open conversation about scientific failure and, by doing so, increase transparency, resilience, and mental well-being within our community. In this article, we share the materials that we have used at SfN during the past 4 years (2021–2024) to promote discussions of scientific failure, including formal storytelling, individual and interactive games, and confessionals. For each activity, we provide the rationale and practical guidance regarding logistics and usage. We hope this will aid scientists interested in adapting the activities for their own communities or local events. We end with a call for scientific institutions to commit ...

The unique challenges and opportunities inherent within large-scale, collaborative projects were discussed during two workshops at Neuroscience 2019.

Alexander disease (AxD) is a rare neurological disorder caused by dominant gain-of-function mutations in the gene for glial fibrillary acidic protein. 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 have 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 c...

Lactate plays an important role in brain energy metabolism. It contributes to normal brain development and to neuroprotection in diabetic hypoglycemia, but its role in neonatal hypoglycemia is unclear. Moreover, lactate can work as a signaling substance via the lactate receptor HCAR1 (Hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 1). Recent studies indicate that HCAR1 is protective in mouse models of neonatal hypoxic ischemia and has a role in metabolic regulation in glial cells during hypoglycemia. Here we have studied potential impacts of HCAR1 on axonal and myelin development in the cerebral cortex and corpus callosum of young (p21) wild type (WT) mice and HCAR1 KO mice and in cortical organotypic brain slice cultures. The HCAR1 KO mice showed lower axonal area relative to WT in both cortex and corpus callosum. However, the myelin area was unaffected by HCAR1 KO. Using particle- and colocalization analysis we show that HCAR1 KO predominantly reduces axonal size in unmyelinated axons. Using an organotypic brain slice ...

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will present the Award for Education in Neuroscience to Ronald L. Calabrese, PhD, senior associate dean for research at the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and Randy J. Nelson, PhD, chair of the Department of Neuroscience and co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at The Ohio State University. The award honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to neuroscience education and training and will be jointly presented at Neuroscience 2017, SfN’s annual meeting and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

The endocannabinoid (eCB) signaling system is robustly expressed in the cerebellum from embryonic developmental stages to adulthood. It plays a key role in regulating cerebellar synaptic plasticity and excitability, suggesting that impaired eCB signaling could lead to deficits in cerebellar adjustments of ongoing behaviors and cerebellar learning. Indeed, human mutations in DAGLα are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. In this study, we show that selective deletion of the eCB synthesizing enzyme diacylglycerol lipase alpha (Daglα) from mouse cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) alters motor and social behaviors, disrupts short-term synaptic plasticity in both excitatory and inhibitory synapses, and reduces PC activity during social exploration. Our results provide the first evidence for cerebellar-specific eCB regulation of social behaviors and implicate eCB regulation of synaptic plasticity and PC activity as the neural substrates contributing to these deficits.

SfN successfully competed for a five-year grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to continue its longstanding Neuroscience Scholars Program.