We acknowledge and support scientists who use animals in their work.

SfN members can learn the latest on glial cells during SfN’s first-ever, members-only daylong virtual conference on September 22.

Humans and nonhumans alike often make choices to gain information, even when the information cannot be used to change the outcome. Prior research has shown that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is important for evaluating options involving reward-predictive information. Here we studied the role of ACC in information choices using optical inhibition to evaluate the contribution of this region during specific epochs of decision-making. Rats could choose between an uninformative option followed by a cue that predicted reward 50% of the time versus a fully informative option that signaled outcomes with certainty but was rewarded only 20% of the time. Reward seeking during the informative S+ cue decreased following ACC inhibition, indicating a causal contribution of this region in supporting reward expectation to a cue signaling reward with certainty. Separately in a positive control experiment and in support of a known role for this region in sustaining high-effort behavior for preferred rewards, we observe...

All researchers, regardless of their research area, should be aware of the proper institutional procedures for responding to state open records requests and federal FOIA requests. Animal rights activists commonly request information related to hot button research topics; however, they have also requested information on research that is often considered less controversial, such as sleep apnea research involving mice. The most commonly requested information includes:

Neuroscientists are increasingly initiating large-scale collaborations which bring together tens to hundreds of researchers. At this scale, such projects can tackle big challenges and engage diverse participants. Inspired by projects in mathematics, we set out to test the feasibility of widening access to such projects even further, by running a massively collaborative project in computational neuroscience. The key difference, with prior neuroscientific efforts, being that our entire project (code, results, and writing) was public from the outset, and that anyone could participate. To achieve this, we launched a public Git repository, with code for training spiking neural networks to solve a sound localization task via surrogate gradient descent. We then invited anyone, anywhere to use this code as a springboard for exploring questions of interest to them, and encouraged participants to share their work both asynchronously through Git and synchronously at online workshops. Our hope was that the resulting r...

Aim: Regarding neuroreceptor PET studies a number of modelling approaches apply the cerebellum as reference area. Therefore, it is mandatory that the respective attenuation correction (AC) method for reconstructing the emission data is most appropriate ...

Read science policy and advocacy news from the week of May 5, 2017.

Read science policy and advocacy news from the week of May 5, 2017.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has named Vikram Gadagkar, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Jesse H. Goldberg’s lab at Cornell University, and Johannes Kohl, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Catherine Dulac's lab at Harvard University, as the recipients of this year’s Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award.

Central sensitization plays a critical role in bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC). Electroacupuncture (EA) nerve stimulation therapy has been broadly acknowledged as an effective means of alleviating chronic pathological pain. However, it remains to be explored whether EA is effective in mitigating pain-sensitive symptoms of BPS/IC and the mechanisms involved. This study aims to investigate the analgesic effect and mechanism of EA therapy. We employed several techniques: mechanical pain threshold tests to assess pain sensitivity, urodynamic studies to evaluate bladder function, western blotting for protein analysis, immunofluorescence for visualizing, and transcriptomics. A rat cystitis model was established through a systemic intraperitoneal injection with cyclophosphamide (CYP). EA therapy was executed by stimulating the deep part of the hypochondriac point. EA treatment was observed to effectively reduce mechanical allodynia, enhance urinary function, suppress the activation of microgl...