Journal Club

Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members

Category Archives: Neuroscience

For choices involving uncertainty, the brain simplifies the math that drives our decisions

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Lynne Peeples

Every day, people make countless decisions, big and small: Should I buy that new house? Do I want chocolate or vanilla ice cream? A recent study suggests that when faced with uncertainty regarding a choice, how a person evaluates their … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Neurons fire in sync, helping elucidate the biological basis of learning

Posted on May 17, 2019 by Amber Dance

Our brains change as we learn. But how exactly does a cluster of neurons change their activity or connections? It seems the phenomenon is due, at least in part, to neurons starting to fire in sync, according to a recent … Continue reading →

Categories: Cell Biology | Journal Club | Neuroscience | Tagged learning, maze, memory, neurons, plasticity, prefrontal cortex, rat | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Newly discovered ion channel gene promises disease insights

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Amy McDermott

The molecular identity and precise function of a commonly expressed cell-membrane chloride channel has long been a mystery. A recent study in Science uncovers the gene responsible for the channel, potentially shedding light on its role in the body. Researchers … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Brain scans and behavior suggest oxytocin can change perceptions of fairness

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Amy McDermott

Some people are more generous in social situations—offering to cover the dinner bill for example. Others are more individualistic, preferring to keep resources for themselves. A recent study in Nature Neuroscience finds that perceptions of fairness vary from person-to-person based … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Tagged amygdala, fairness, orbitofrontal cortex, oxytocin, prosocial | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Low-intensity focused ultrasound shows promise as tool to probe deep brain function

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Amy McDermott

To study the brain’s networks of neurons, neuroscientists typically alter the activity in one area, and observe the cascade of effects on others—something like unscrewing one bulb in a string of Christmas lights and observing as others go dim. But … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Tagged amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, frontal cortex, ultrasound | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Pinpointing theory of mind deficiencies in autism

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Amy McDermott

Around age four, preschoolers learn that other people have unique thoughts and feelings, an inner life. These children start to be able to predict a person’s behavior based on that understanding. They start developing theory of mind (ToM). That developmental … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences | Tagged ASD, autism, theory of mind | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Newly solved structure of a GABA receptor could offer drug design insights

Posted on January 14, 2019 by Jessica P. Johnson

Neurons message each other with the help of excitatory or inhibitory neurotransmitters. But to actually deliver those messages, the neurotransmitters must dock with protein receptors embedded in the cell membranes of adjacent neurons. Of particular interest in the human brain … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Pharmacology | Tagged cryo-EM, depression, epilepsy, GABA receptor, ligand, neurotransmitter, X-ray crystallography | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Key protein family helps govern sense of touch in both plants and animals

Posted on November 16, 2018 by Amber Dance

Compared to their knowledge of other senses, scientists know relatively little about how cells sense touch. A newly confirmed family of mechanosensors, comprising more than a dozen members and present in both plants and animals, is an important step toward … Continue reading →

Categories: Cell Biology | Journal Club | Neuroscience | Tagged cell membrane, cell wall, ion channel, mechanosensor, OSCA protein, sense of touch, TMEM63 protein | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Researchers catch the mouse brain in the act of learning something new

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Amber Dance

Neurobiologists have captured, for the first time, the moment in a mouse’s brain when it first learns something new: in this case, that a beep signals a delicious droplet of sugar water. The results, recently reported in Nature Neuroscience, support a famous … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Simple model reproduces patterns of toxic protein buildup across multiple neurodegenerative diseases

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Jessica P. Johnson

Fatal neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) begin as tiny pockets of misfolded proteins that evade the body’s normal detritus-removal systems. They spread throughout the brain and clog neural pathways. But exactly how these proteins propagate … Continue reading →