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Read advocacy news from the week of June 3, 2016.

Read advocacy news from the week of February 26, 2016.

With the introduction of PEDOT coatings to the field of neural interfaces new perspectives have opened up. PEDOT electrochemically grown onto electrodes results in substantially lowered impedance and elevated charge injection capacity. Furthermore, biof...

Two donors share their perspectives on supporting the next generation of neuroscientists through donations to the Friends of SfN Fund, the single largest source of charitable giving to the Society for Neuroscience.

Rett syndrome is a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 girls in early childhood. After seemingly developing normally, girls in their second year of life begin to regress, losing learned skills like talking, using their hands, and other movements, and develop autistic behaviors. The disease varies widely among patients in its course and severity, but it can progress to severe intellectual and physical disabilities, sometimes including loss of controlled movement and epileptic seizures. After this initial decline, girls with Rett syndrome usually stabilize and live into adulthood. Although there is no cure for Rett syndrome, researchers have recently made major progress in understanding the genetic and molecular basis of this disease largely through work in animal models.

Graduate research in neuroscience at Lehigh includes study at subcellular, synaptic, and systems neurobiology and endocrinology to behavioral levels. The mission of the program is to create scientists who are broadly trained across the disciplines of neuroscience, from genes to cells to circuits to systems and behavior. Students admitted to the program should have a basic knowledge of biology, anatomy, physiology and/or systems neuroscience. Students begin by taking core courses that provide a broad foundation at the graduate level and will work toward a Ph.D. with a concentration in neuroscience. Students will develop an appreciation that all aspects of neurobiology, whether cellular, physiological, anatomical, behavior, environmental, or social, are inextricably linked and cannot be fully understood as separate, parallel systems of knowledge.

The mechanisms by which the human brain controls eye movements are reasonably well understood, but those for the head less so. Here, we show that the mechanisms for keeping the head aimed at a stationary target follow strategies similar to those for holding the eyes steady on stationary targets. Specifically, we applied the neural integrator hypothesis that originally was developed for holding the eyes still in eccentric gaze positions to describe how the head is held still when turned toward an eccentric target. We found that normal humans make head movements consistent with the neural integrator hypothesis, except that additional sensory feedback is needed, from proprioceptors in the neck, to keep the head on target. We also show that the complicated patterns of head movements in patients with cervical dystonia can be predicted by deficits in a neural integrator for head motor control. These results support ideas originally developed from animal studies that suggest fundamental similarities between oculo...

Matthew Bailey shares new polling on public opinion of animal research

taste of science is a national festival that takes place simultaneously in cities across the US. Since 2014, this annual festival has provided San Diegans a unique opportunity to get a flavor for the latest research by attending accessible science event...