A Response to: "A Commentary on "Stabilizing Constructs through Collaboration across Different Research Fields as a Way to Foster the Integrative Approach of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Project"

This paper is a response to a commentary by Walter Glannon (2016, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience) on my paper "Stabilizing Constructs Across Research Fields as a Way to Foster the Integrative Approach of the Research Domain Criteria Project"

Optogenetics, Pluralism and Progress

Optogenetic techniques are described as “revolutionary” for the unprecedented causal control they allow neuroscientists to exert over neural activity in awake behaving animals. In this paper, I demonstrate by means of a case study that optogenetic techniques will only illuminate causal links between the brain and behavior to the extent that their error characteristics are known and, further, that determining these error characteristics requires (1) comparison of optogenetic techniques with techniques having well known error characteristics (methodological pluralism) and (2) consideration of the broader neural and behavioral context in which the targets of optogenetic interventions are situated (perspectival pluralism)

Optogenetics, Pluralism and Progress

Optogenetic techniques are described as “revolutionary” for the unprecedented causal control they allow neuroscientists to exert over neural activity in awake behaving animals. In this paper, I demonstrate by means of a case study that optogenetic techniques will only illuminate causal links between the brain and behavior to the extent that their error characteristics are known and, further, that determining these error characteristics requires (1) comparison of optogenetic techniques with techniques having well known error characteristics (methodological pluralism) and (2) consideration of the broader neural and behavioral context in which the targets of optogenetic interventions are situated (perspectival pluralism)

Regulation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase During Long-term Potentiation in Area CA1 of the Rat Hippocampus IN VIVO

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) cascade can transduce cell-surface signals to the nucleus in post-synaptic neurons during hippocampus-dependent learning and hippocampus-dependent synaptic plasticity, yet, whether the cascade can convey information about stimulus frequency or synaptic modification direction to the nucleus during plasticity events has not been addressed. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether ERK regulation differs as a function of stimulus frequency and in accordance with synaptic modification direction by comparing ERK regulation during LTP in area CA1 of the hippocampus in vivo to previous findings for ERK regulation during LTD in area CA1 in vivo (Thiels et al., 2002). The ultimate goal was to determine whether ERK functions as a general or as a specific plasticity kinase during synaptic plasticity events in the hippocampus. Using a combination of in vivo electrophysiology, pharmacology and Western blot analysis, I demonstrate that: (1) LTP induced by high-frequency stimulation applied to commissural fiber inputs to area CA1 pyramidal cells in the adult hippocampus in vivo is accompanied by a rapid yet transient increase in ERK2 activation; (2) blockade of NMDA receptors by MK-801 blocks both LTP induction and the associated increase in ERK2 activation; (3) HFS delivered in the presence of the ERK kinase inhibitor SL327 fails to produce a persistent potentiation; (5) phosphorylation of the transcriptional regulator cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) is increased after HFS; and (6) inhibition of ERK2 activation by SL327 blocks this observed increase in pCREB. The similarity of the current findings with previous findings for ERK2 activation and regulation during LTD in area CA1 in vivo, suggests that the ERK cascade conveys a general as opposed to a specific plasticity signal during these two forms of synaptic plasticity in area CA1 in vivo. Differences in the coupling of ERK2 activation to CREB phosphorylation between LTP and LTD (Thiels et al., 2002), suggest that other signaling cascades are most likely operative in determining the direction of synaptic modification during bidirectional synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus

Using Multi-Disciplinary Design Challenges to Enhance Self-Efficacy within a Summer STEM Outreach Program

Research regarding STEM programs has shown that participating in these programs leads to increased knowledge and retention of technological concepts [1]. Additionally, participating in STEM programs leads to increased self-confidence, satisfaction, and interest in engineering [2]. Current research focuses on whether participating in STEM programs increases self-efficacy [3]. However, several factors can influence the effectiveness of these programs. For example, motivation influences the degree to which participants are engaged with activities as does their background knowledge [4]. Additionally, program effectiveness is impacted by the limitations of the learning context itself such that participants will be unable to complete designs if expectations for the design exceed the constraints of their environment [4]. The program is designed to introduce and educate the participants in the various engineering disciplines offered at the collegiate level and culminates in a multi-disciplinary design challenge designed as a “collaborative-benefit” competition [5]. The program is meant to drive students toward collaboration and achievement of a shared goal. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of an intensive, two-week project-based engineering program for high school students on self-efficacy and engineering identity in the participants. Results from this year’s survey suggest that participating in the program increased high school students’ perceived and actual knowledge of the engineering discipline. Completing the program also led to improvements in self-efficacy and increased interest in the field of engineering. This paper will discuss the process for developing design challenges for assessment of self-efficacy, assessment tools, and outcomes from the program delivery.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Coordinated pluralism as a means to facilitate integrative taxonomies of cognition

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The past decade has witnessed a growing awareness of conceptual and methodological hurdles within psychology and neuroscience that must be addressed for taxonomic and explanatory progress in understanding psychological functions to be possible. In this paper, I evaluate several recent knowledge-building initiatives aimed at overcoming these obstacles. I argue that while each initiative offers important insights about how to facilitate taxonomic and explanatory progress in psychology and neuroscience, only a “coordinated pluralism” that incorporates positive aspects of each initiative will have the potential for success

New Frontiers in Translational Research: Touchscreens, Open Science, and the Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform (MouseTRAP)

Many neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases and other brain disorders are accompanied by impairments in high-level cognitive functions including memory, attention, motivation, and decision-making. Despite several decades of extensive research, neuroscience is little closer to discovering new treatments. Key impediments include the absence of validated and robust cognitive assessment tools for facilitating translation from animal models to humans. In this review, we describe a state-of-the-art platform poised to overcome these impediments and improve the success of translational research, the Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform (MouseTRAP), which is centered on the touchscreen cognitive testing system for rodents. It integrates touchscreen-based tests of high-level cognitive assessment with state-of-the art neurotechnology to record and manipulate molecular and circuit level activity in vivo in animal models during human-relevant cognitive performance. The platform also is integrated with two Open Science platforms designed to facilitate knowledge and data-sharing practices within the rodent touchscreen community, touchscreencognition and mousebytes. Touchscreencognition includes the Wall, showcasing touchscreen news and publications, the Forum, for community discussion, and Training, which includes courses, videos, SOPs, and symposia. To get started, interested researchers simply create user accounts. We describe the origins of the touchscreen testing system, the novel lines of research it has facilitated, and its increasingly widespread use in translational research, which is attributable in part to knowledge-sharing efforts over the past decade. We then identify the unique features of MouseTRAP that stand to potentially revolutionize translational research, and describe new initiatives to partner with similar platforms such as McGill’s M3 platform

Reliability and Validity of Experiment in the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

The concept of reliability has been definedtraditionally by philosophers of science as a feature that an experiment has when it can be used to arrive at true descriptive or explanatory claims about phenomena. In contrast, philosophers of science typically take the concept of validity to correspond roughly to that of generalizability, which is defined as a featurethat a descriptive or explanatory claim has when it is based on laboratory data but is applicable to phenomena beyond those effectsunder study in the laboratory. Philosophical accounts of experiment typically treat of the reliability of scientific experiment and the validity of descriptive or explanatory claims independently. On my account of experiment, however, these two issues are intimately linked. I show by appeal to case studies from the contemporary neurobiology of learning and memory that measures taken to guarantee the reliability of experiment often result in a decrease in the validity of those scientific claims that are made on thebasis of such experiments and, furthermore, that strategies employed to increase validity often decrease reliability. Yet, since reliability and validity are both desirable goals of scientificexperiments, and, on my account, competing aims, a tension ensues. I focus on two types of neurobiological experiments as case studies toillustrate this tension: (1) organism-level learning experiments and (2) synaptic-level plasticity experiments. I argue that the expresscommitment to the reliability of experimental processes in neurobiology has resulted in the invalidity of mechanistic claims about learning and plasticity made on the basis of data obtainedfrom such experiments. The positive component of the dissertation consists in specific proposals that I offer as guidelines for resolving this tension in the context of experimental design

Neuroscientific Kinds Through the Lens of Scientific Practice

In this chapter, I argue that scientific practice in the neurosciences of cognition is not conducive to the discovery of natural kinds of cognitive capacities. The “neurosciences of cognition” include cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neurobiology, two research areas that aim to understand how the brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. Some philosophers of neuroscience have claimed that explanatory progress in these research areas ultimately will result in the discovery of the underlying mechanisms of cognitive capacities. Once such mechanistic understanding is achieved, cognitive capacities purportedly will be relegated into natural kind categories that correspond to real divisions in the causal structure of the world. I provide reasons here, however, in support of the claim that the neurosciences of cognition currently are not on a trajectory for discovering natural kinds. As I explain, this has to do with how mechanistic explanations of cognitive capacities are developed. Mechanistic explanations and the kinds they explain are abstract representational byproducts of the conceptual, experimental and integrative practices of neuroscientists. If these practices are not coordinated towards developing mechanistic explanations that mirror the causal structure of the world, then natural kinds of cognitive capacities will not be discovered. I provide reasons to think that such coordination is currently lacking in the neurosciences of cognition and indicate where changes in these practices appropriate to the natural kinds ideal would be required if achieving this ideal is indeed the goal. However, I suggest that an evaluation of current practices in these research areas is suggestive that discovering natural kinds of cognitive capacities is not the goal

Achieving Cumulative Progress In Understanding Crime: Some Insights from the Philosophy of Science

Crime is a serious social problem, but its causes are not exclusively social. There is growing consensus that explaining and preventing it requires interdisciplinary research efforts. Indeed, the landscape of contemporary criminology includes a variety of theoretical models that incorporate psychological, biological and sociological factors. These multi-disciplinary approaches, however, have yet to radically advance scientific understandings of crime and shed light on how to manage it. In this paper, using conceptual tools on offer in the philosophy of science in combination with theoretical work represented in this special volume of Psychology, Crime and Law, I provide some perspective on why explanatory progress in criminology has remained elusive and evaluate some positive proposals for attaining it