1st INCF Workshop on Global Portal Services for Neuroscience

The goal of this meeting was to map out existing portal services for neuroscience, identify their features and future plans, and outline opportunities for synergistic developments. The workshop discussed alternative formats of future global and integrated portal services

Civic Tolerance among Honors Students

The large literature on the impact that college has on student attitudes and values, which includes work by researchers such as Astin, Newcomb, Pascarella and Terenzini, also includes studies that have focused specifically on the effects of a college education on student tolerance (Hall & Rodeghier; Henderson-King; Lawrence & Licari; Rich; Taylor; Whitt, Edison, Pascarella, Terenzini, & Nora). This literature, however, contains virtually nothing on the impact that honors has on the social attitudes of honors college students. Thus, neither of Pascarella’s and Terenzini’s massive 1991 and 2005 reviews of the research literature on the effects of college on student values cited any studies that focused on the attitudinal or social consequences of an honors education. This absence is surprising since, for the past half-century, a substantial number of our country’s brightest students have enrolled in honors programs (Long; Shushok; Willingham)

Civic Tolerance among Honors Students

The large literature on the impact that college has on student attitudes and values, which includes work by researchers such as Astin, Newcomb, Pascarella and Terenzini, also includes studies that have focused specifically on the effects of a college education on student tolerance (Hall & Rodeghier; Henderson-King; Lawrence & Licari; Rich; Taylor; Whitt, Edison, Pascarella, Terenzini, & Nora). This literature, however, contains virtually nothing on the impact that honors has on the social attitudes of honors college students. Thus, neither of Pascarella’s and Terenzini’s massive 1991 and 2005 reviews of the research literature on the effects of college on student values cited any studies that focused on the attitudinal or social consequences of an honors education. This absence is surprising since, for the past half-century, a substantial number of our country’s brightest students have enrolled in honors programs (Long; Shushok; Willingham)

Academic Freedom and Us

Academic freedom might be broadly defined as meaning the freedom of inquiry and the expression of opinion in any scholastic endeavor which seeks the truths of science and society..

The Microcircuit Concept Applied to Cortical Evolution: from Three-Layer to Six-Layer Cortex

Understanding the principles of organization of the cerebral cortex requires insight into its evolutionary history. This has traditionally been the province of anatomists, but evidence regarding the microcircuit organization of different cortical areas is providing new approaches to this problem. Here we use the microcircuit concept to focus first on the principles of microcircuit organization of three-layer cortex in the olfactory cortex, hippocampus, and turtle general cortex, and compare it with six-layer neocortex. From this perspective it is possible to identify basic circuit elements for recurrent excitation and lateral inhibition that are common across all the cortical regions. Special properties of the apical dendrites of pyramidal cells are reviewed that reflect the specific adaptations that characterize the functional operations in the different regions. These principles of microcircuit function provide a new approach to understanding the expanded functional capabilities elaborated by the evolution of the neocortex

Intracortical Cartography in an Agranular Area

A well-defined granular layer 4 is a defining cytoarchitectonic feature associated with sensory areas of mammalian cerebral cortex, and one with hodological significance: the local axons ascending from cells in thalamorecipient layer 4 and connecting to layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons form a major feedforward excitatory interlaminar projection. Conversely, agranular cortical areas, lacking a distinct layer 4, pose a hodological conundrum: without a laminar basis for the canonical layer 4→2/3 pathway, what is the basic circuit organization? This review highlights current challenges and prospects for local-circuit electroanatomy and electrophysiology in agranular cortex, focusing on the mouse. Different lines of evidence, drawn primarily from studies of motor areas in frontal cortex in rodents, support the view that synaptic circuits in agranular cortex are organized around prominent descending excitatory layer 2/3→5 pathways targeting multiple classes of projection neurons

Pastoral care for young people in the workplace.

This research sets out to explore the range and type of support that employers have in place to support young people’s transition from education to the workplace. As well as exploring the traditional support through induction and training we have also examined additional support which we have defined as pastoral care. Emerging from the research with there was a dissatisfaction for young people with the preparation that they had received prior to leaving education. The grievances centred around two key areas: that schools often focus on academic achievement and transition to university rather than to employment; and topics such as making pension arrangements and dealing with tax and NI contributions were reported as not being adequately discussed at school/college. These activities are core parts of working life for everyone and need addressing so that young people understand and can make informed decisions about their financial futures. Young people are generally happy with the support that they receive from employers. Almost one third of the young people surveyed had a mentor or buddy appointed when they started work and all young interviewees stated that they were aware of someone they could go to for pastoral and/or other kinds of support. Although most had not needed to access such support themselves. Sometimes the person offering support was doing so in an ‘official’ capacity, as someone who had been appointed by the employer or was someone in a managerial role. Sometimes, support was provided more informally, by a ‘mate’ or older colleague, which was often reported as the most valuable type of support.SEMT

3D-printer visualization of neuron models

Neurons come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. In a quest to understand this neuronal diversity, researchers have three-dimensionally traced tens of thousands of neurons; many of these tracings are freely available through online repositories like NeuroMorpho.Org and ModelDB. Tracings can be visualized on the computer screen, used for statistical analysis of the properties of different cell types, used to simulate neuronal behavior, and more. We introduce the use of 3D printing as a technique for visualizing traced morphologies. Our method for generating printable versions of a cell or group of cells is to expand dendrite and axon diameters and then to transform the wireframe tracing into a 3D object with a neuronal surface generating algorithm like Constructive Tessellated Neuronal Geometry (CTNG). We show that 3D printed cells can be readily examined, manipulated, and compared with other neurons to gain insight into both the biology and the reconstruction process. We share our printable models in a new database, 3DModelDB, and encourage others to do the same with cells that they generate using our code or other methods. To provide additional context, 3DModelDB provides a simulatable version of each cell, links to papers that use or describe it, and links to associated entries in other databases