A unique pool of immature glutamatergic neurons in the primate amygdala, known as the paralaminar nucleus (PL), are maturing between infancy and adolescence. The PL is a potential substrate for the steep growth curve of amygdala volume during this developmental period. A microglial component is also embedded among the PL neurons and likely supports local neuronal maturation and emerging synaptogenesis. Microglia may alter neuronal growth following environmental perturbations such as stress. Using multiple measures in rhesus macaques, we found that microglia in the infant primate PL had relatively large somas and a small arbor size. In contrast, microglia in the adolescent PL had a smaller soma and a larger dendritic arbor. We then examined microglial morphology in the PL after a novel maternal separation protocol, to examine the effects of early life stress. After maternal separation, the microglia had increased soma size, arbor size, and complexity. Surprisingly, strong effects were seen not only in the i...

The study of the neural circuitry underlying complex mammalian decision-making, particularly cognitive flexibility, is critical for understanding psychiatric disorders. To test cognitive flexibility, as well as potentially other decision-making paradigms involving multimodal sensory perception, we developed FlexRig, an open-source, modular behavioral platform for use in head-fixed mice. FlexRig enables the administration of tasks relying upon olfactory, somatosensory, and/or auditory cues and employing left and right licking as a behavior readout and reward delivery mechanism. The platform includes hardware and software components that are customizable, scalable, and portable, supporting a variety of behavioral assays. Using FlexRig, we established a head-fixed task to model attentional set-shifting, offering a new tool for neuroscience research that enhances the capacity for investigation of cognitive processes and their neural substrates, with broad applications in translational neuroscience.

SfN welcomes 10 early-career scientists representing a variety of career levels and geographic locations to the Early Career Policy Ambassador (ECPA) program. Ambassadors gain the necessary skills to advocate for science and to encourage those in their personal networks to join the conversation. The programs starts with their participation in SfN’s annual Hill Day. Each ECPA will also have the opportunity to complete two advocacy projects at their home institutions and in their local communities. SfN looks forward to working with the 2024 class of ambassadors and helping them become great advocates for neuroscience research. View the 2024 ECPA class.

SfN advocates and the biomedical research community had success in 2020, with increases to NIH and NSF in the FY 21 appropriations bills for the sixth consecutive year. SfN members played a significant part in legislative efforts, participating in 81 legislative meetings during Hill Day and sending nearly 2,000 messages. SfN acknowledges that measures taken to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic have made in-person lab tours and other advocacy efforts difficult. Despite this challenge, SfN has worked with advocates to continue their work through new avenues, particularly the NeuroAdvocate Challenge.

In an effort to increase access to neuroscience education in underserved communities, we created an educational program that utilizes a simple task to measure place preference of the cockroach ( Gromphadorhina portentosa ) and the open-source free software, SLEAP Estimates Animal Poses (SLEAP) to quantify behavior. Cockroaches ( n  = 18) were trained to explore a linear track for 2 min while exposed to either air, vapor, or vapor with nicotine from a port on one side of the linear track over 14 d. The time the animal took to reach the port was measured, along with distance traveled, time spent in each zone, and velocity. As characterizing behavior is challenging and inaccessible for nonexperts new to behavioral research, we created an educational program using the machine learning algorithm, SLEAP, and cloud-based (i.e., Google Colab) low-cost platforms for data analysis. We found that SLEAP was within a 0.5% margin of error when compared with manually scoring the data. Cockroaches were found to have an in...

The full complement of ion channels which influence insect auditory mechanotransduction and the mechanisms by which their influence is exerted remain unclear. Shal (Kv4), a Shaker family member encoding voltage-gated potassium channels in Drosophila melanogaster , has been shown to localize to dendrites in some neuron types, suggesting the potential role of Shal in Drosophila hearing, including mechanotransduction. A GFP trap was used to visualize the localization of the Shal channel in Johnston's organ neurons responsible for hearing in the antenna. Shal protein was localized strongly to the cell body and inner dendritic segment of sensory neurons. It was also detectable in the sensory cilium, suggesting its involvement not only in general auditory function but specifically in mechanotransduction. Electrophysiological recordings to assess neural responses to auditory stimuli in mutant Shal flies revealed significant decreases in auditory responses. Laser Doppler vibrometer recordings indicated abnormal an...

The subjective visual vertical (VV), the visually estimated direction of gravity, is essential for assessing vestibular function and visuospatial cognition. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying altered VV perception in stroke participants with unilateral spatial neglect (USN), specifically by examining their eye movement patterns during VV judgment tasks. Participants with USN demonstrated limited eye movement scanning along a rotating bar, often fixating on prominent ends, such as the top or bottom. This suggests a reflexive response to visually salient areas, potentially interfering with accurate VV perception. In contrast, participants without USN showed broader scanning around the center of the bar. Notably, participants with USN without frontal lobe lesions occasionally exhibited extended scanning that included the bar’s center, which was associated with accurate VV judgments. These findings suggest that (1) a tendency to fixate on peripheral, prominent areas and (2) fronta...

Characterizing information scaling in large populations of neurons has been difficult due to technical limitations in recording large numbers (hundreds) of neurons simultaneously from awake, behaving animals. Multi-electrode recording techniques have re...

Professor reviews challenges, opportunities facing the global neuroscience community.

Relationships among membrane currents allow central pattern generator (CPG) neurons to reliably drive motor programs. We hypothesize that continually active CPG neurons utilize activity-dependent feedback to correlate expression of ion channel genes to balance essential membrane currents. However, episodically activated neurons experience absences of activity-dependent feedback and, thus, presumably employ other strategies to coregulate the balance of ionic currents necessary to generate appropriate output after periods of quiescence. To investigate this, we compared continually active pyloric dilator (PD) neurons with episodically active lateral gastric (LG) CPG neurons of the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) in male Cancer borealis crabs. After experimentally activating LG for 8 h, we measured three potassium currents and abundances of their corresponding channel mRNAs. We found that ionic current relationships were correlated in LG's silent state, but ion channel mRNA relationships were correlated in the a...