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Graduate student's difficult personal experiences influences his field of research.

New research published in JNeurosci reports features of the brain in musicians with absolute, or perfect, pitch that likely enable individuals with this rare ability — shared by Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven — to precisely identify musical notes.

Social animals compete for rewards to survive, yet the neural circuits underlying reward-based social competition remain unclear. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a key role in reward processing and social dominance, but whether its subregions contribute differently to competitions for reward remains unknown. Using c-Fos mapping in male CD1 mice, we examined reward-induced neural activation in mPFC subregions and key interconnected subcortical areas across social and non-social reward contexts. Non-competitive social contexts produced global c-Fos activation relative to competitive contexts. Cross-regional correlation analyses revealed that receiving rewards in isolation involved widespread network coordination, while social contexts exhibited distinct, sparse correlation patterns. Surprisingly, social rank effects on neural activity were most pronounced during isolated reward experiences rather than during competition, with dominant mice showing increased anterior cingulate, basolateral amygdala,...

Week of Feb. 11, 2019: Read the Latest Advocacy and Science News

Adolescent nicotine use is particularly concerning due to increased susceptibility to long-term effects and dependence during this critical developmental period. This study investigates the therapeutic effects of thiamine on nicotine withdrawal-induced anxiety, anhedonia, and depression in rats. Adolescent rats received nicotine (2 mg/kg, s.c.) for 21 d, followed by 21 d of withdrawal. Thiamine (25 or 50 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered during exposure and withdrawal. Behavioral assessments were used to evaluate anxiety- and depressive-like symptoms, and biochemical analyses measured oxidative stress markers, serotonin levels, MAO activity, BDNF, and GFAP as indicators of neuroinflammation in the prefrontal cortex. Nicotine withdrawal significantly elevated anxiety-, depression-, and anhedonia-like behaviors, increased oxidative stress, and upregulated MAO-A activity and GFAP expression, indicating neuroinflammatory effects. Notably, thiamine administration during both nicotine exposure and withdrawal effecti...

Week of June 10, 2019: Read the Latest Advocacy and Science News

Attaining tenure and earning promotions are key milestones in an academic career. The process takes between five and seven years, and decisions are made based on a combination of research, teaching, and service to the academic community. For many female neuroscientists, however, achieving this goal can be a challenge. Although tenure and promotion committees strive to be objective, implicit bias — subtle discrimination based on cultural stereotypes — inadvertently enters into the decision-making process.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by worrisome thoughts accompanied by overwhelming urges to perform repetitive behaviors. Modern pharmacological treatments for OCD are only effective in 40-60% of patients, have an 8-10 week delayed o...

Poor functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury is attributable, at least in part, to chronic motoneuron axotomy (Fu & Gordon, JNS 15:3876,1995) and chronic Schwann cell (SC) denervation (Sulaiman & Gordon, JNS: submitted). FK506 accelerates the rate of nerve regeneration following sciatic nerve crush or immediate nerve repair via an action involving FKBP-52, a chaperone component of mature steroid receptor complexes (Gold et al., JPET 289:1202, 1999). However, for clinical application, it is important to determine whether FK506 is effective after chronic nerve injuries. Following 2 months chronic injury of adult rat proximal tibial (old TIB; chronic axotomy) or distal common peroneal (old CP; chronic SC denervation), old TIB-freshly cut distal CP or freshly cut TIB-old CP cross-sutures were performed and rats were given subcutaneous injections of FK506 (5mg/kg/day) for 3 weeks. In the chronic axotomy model, FK506 doubled the number of regenerated motoneurons identified by retrograde labeling and in...