Most teacher preparation programs focus exclusively on education. Future elementary school teachers learn about the latest methods for teaching students reading, writing, and math. Middle and high school teacher preparation programs focus on the content area their students will be teaching.

This sounds like a great idea. Teachers should know about education research, methods, and the content they'll be teaching. But if teacher preparation programs want their students to become truly great educators, they need to teach more than just these things.

In fact, teacher preparation programs should be getting into the sciences--neuroscience, that is. Neuroscience is the study of how the brain and nervous system are developed and how they work. Neuroscientists examine how the brain is connected to behavior and cognition.

How could neuroscience help teachers? Neuroscience can help teachers understand how the brain learns new information. Even having a basic knowledge of neuroscience can inform the way teachers teach.

For example, neuroscience tells us that when children learn new information, that information goes through pathways in the brain. These pathways connect neurons together. The more connections that exist between neurons, the easier it is for the brain to access information.

What does this mean for teachers? When students learn something new, they need to be able to connect it to something they already know. This forms strong neural pathways and makes recall easier.

Teachers who have studied neuroscience know this and more. They know how to get all of a student's brain active and ensure that what students learn sticks.

In addition to helping future teachers understand how students learn best, neuroscience can help them manage student behavior. Often, the reasons students behave poorly is due to stress. Neuroscientists have studied how stress affects the brain, and their findings can help teachers better understand students' behavior.

By preparing future teachers with knowledge about how the brain works, universities can help create better teachers. Teachers who are experts on neuroscience and the brain know how to teach students in a way that will make information stick. They're also better prepared to handle problem behaviors and understand what makes students act out.

Though including neuroscience in teacher preparation programs isn't traditional, the benefits it offers are numerous. More and more teacher preparation programs are including classes on neuroscience in their curriculum.

What do you think teachers should know about neuroscience? How can studying the brain help future teachers? Let us know what you think!

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Why Neuroscience Should Be Taught in Teacher-Preparation Programs - Education Week (subscription) (blog)

Google has added a new capability to DeepMind that enables its artificial intelligence (AI) platform to take a nap at a given point of time. DeepMind explained in a blog post that the new development in its AI effort incorporates ideas from neuroscience research, a move that significantly complements the typical logic-based and theoretical mathematical approaches to AI. Neuroscience does this through the identification of biological computation that DeepMind believes could have a substantial contribution to helping the platform learn from its environment in a more human-like fashion. DeepMind, therefore, intends for the addition of neuroscience into its AI work to check whether existing AI techniques are functioning as they should and to produce new kinds of algorithms that can be used to create AI-based systems.

DeepMind mentioned a new finding in neuroscience research stating that the human brain is capable of revisiting its earlier neuronal activities during sleep. That means the biological brain can still store and process data from an earlier experience, failed or successful, even if it is resting and consequently make successes in the future. That inspired DeepMind to make its AI platform learn how to sleep. The company argued that while it might appear as though the concept of sleep is illogical in the context of AI as a tool to solve computational problems, the idea is to develop an algorithm that can store a host of experimental data and review those pieces of information while at rest in order to study where it flopped and succeeded in the past. In other words, even if an AI-based computer previously failed to solve a computational challenge, it can still handle training data while in offline mode and use that same information to accomplish the task in the future. The concept forms part of DeepMinds deep-Q network algorithm that uses raw pixels and score data to learn a wide variety of Atari 2600 games.

DeepMind said that some of the challenges that AI can solve in the future with the help of neuroscience include imagination, a concept that the company introduced into two kinds of AI that it developed recently with the goal of helping to plan for the future by learning to separate useful data from irrelevant information. An update on DeepMinds growing AI efforts will likely follow in the coming months.

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Google Combines Neuroscience Into DeepMind AI Platform - Android Headlines

An Indian American whiz kid in neuroscience, Sojas Wagle, 15, of Arkansas, won the 19th annual International Brain Bee Aug. 6, earning the title of International Brain Bee champion and being awarded a trophy and cash prize of $3,000.

Elwin Vethamuthu, a Malaysian competitor of Indian origin, finished third, while Milena Malcharek of Poland took second.

Five of the 24 finalists at the International Brain Bee were of Indian descent; besides Wagle and Vethamuthu, they included Rutvik Savaliya of India, Prerana Keerthi of Canada, and Kartik Goyal of the United Arab Emirates.

The event, hosted by the American Psychological Association Convention and held Aug. 3 through Aug. 6 at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., featured the top 13- to 19-year-old students in neuroscience.

The purpose of the Bee, founded by Dr. Norbert Myslinski of the University of Maryland Dental School Department of Neural and Pain Sciences, is to motivate young men and women to study the brain, and to inspire them to consider careers in the basic and clinical neurosciences.

We need them to treat and find cures for the 1,000 neurological and psychological disorders around the world, Myslinski said in a statement.

Wagle, a sophomore from Har-Ber High School in Arkansas, has a breath-taking history of accomplishments, the Bee said in a news release.

The winning competitor is the captain of his schools Quiz Bowl Team and was state MVP for the last two years.

He placed third in the National Geographic Bee in 2015 and in 2016 was chosen for Who Wants to be a Millionaire Whiz Kids Edition where, by the end of the game show, he had won $250,000 a portion of which he later donated to his school district and a childrens hospital.

Additionally, Wagle is a member of the Arkansas Philharmonic Youth Orchestra where he plays violin as first chair.

During the competition, 12 Washington, D.C., ambassadors invited their respective national champions to visit their embassies to be honored, including India, Kenya, Egypt, Ukraine, Korea, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Poland and Germany.

The Brain Bee competition has three tiers. Worldwide there are about 200 local chapter competitions, each one involving many schools. The winners of those then compete in their respective regional, or national, championships with the winners then moving on to the world championships, representing their respective countries.

Along the way, the competitors are tested on their knowledge of the human brain, including such topics as intelligence, emotions, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensation, Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, schizophrenia, addictions and brain research.

The competition involves oral tests, a neuroanatomy laboratory exam with real human brains, a neurohistology test and a patient diagnosis component with patient actors.

The Bee is held in various cities around the world with every third year being in Washington, D.C. The 2018 competition will be held in Berlin, Germany.

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Neuroscience Whiz Kid Sojas Wagle of Arkansas Wins 2017 International Brain Bee - India West

Emily Kaminski, right, fields questions from neuroscience PhD students Amy Feehan, left, and Christopher Jones, center, about her summer research project during the annual Tulane Undergraduate Research in Neuroscience (TURN) program poster session at the Lavin-Bernick Center on Friday (August 4). (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)

For 10 years, the Tulane Undergraduate Research in Neuroscience (TURN) programhas provided promising students with an in-depth introduction to brain research.

The summer program was founded by professor of psychology Gary Dohanich, professor of cell and molecular biology Jeff Tasker, and Beth Wee, associate dean for undergraduate programs in the School of Science and Engineering. It was created as an opportunity for undergraduates to gain hands-on lab experience with guidance from graduate students and faculty members.

Working side-by-side with neuroscientists, participants developed essential skills, including data analysis and experimental design, while receiving feedback from peers and advisers in weekly group sessions.

They are part of a cohort that shares the frustrations, concerns and joys that come from doing research.

Beth Wee, associate dean for undergraduate programs in the School of Science & Engineering

Our students gain valuable experience conducting empirical research and giving oral and poster presentations, said Wee. They are part of a cohort that shares the frustrations, concerns and joys that come from doing research.

The experience culminated in a poster session modeled after a formal academic conference, where students like Tulane senior Matthew Coleman presented their findings to an audience of peers, faculty, graduate students and program alumni.

Coleman, a neuroscience major, was mentored by assistant professor of psychology Julie Markantwhile developing his project, titled The Interaction of Positive Prediction Error and Active Learning on Memory.

Coleman says that active learning is defined by control over ones learning environment. He is studying how the concept works in tune with prediction error the primary mechanism in which the brain encodes rewards.

His project builds upon a visual memorization test developed years ago by Markants brother, Doug Markant, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The experiment requires participants to memorize images in different locations on a computer screen, said Coleman. Participants are divided into two groups to compare different forms of learning.

Coleman is hypothesizing that positive prediction error will facilitate the benefits of active learning on memory.

Like this article? Keep reading: No problem is too big for Tulane students to solve

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Neuroscience majors TURN to research - News from Tulane

It wasnt long ago that GlaxoSmithKlines Shanghai lab led the firms research efforts in neurological diseases including Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimers. Now, after years of setbacks in China, the company is ending neuroscience R&D in Shanghai.

Following a portfolio review and prioritization, we have decided to close our neuroscience R&D center in Shanghai and move key programs to our global R&D hub in Upper Providence [Pa.] in the U.S., where they will benefit from colocation with other pipeline R&D programs, GSK says.

GSK announced plans to invest in Shanghai in 2007, saying it would build Chinas largest R&D center operated by a multinational drug firm. To focus on neurological disorders, the center was to be staffed by hundreds of scientists under the guidance of Jingwu Zang, a leading multiple sclerosis researcher.

In 2013, however, GSK fired Zang after a paper he coauthored and published in Nature Medicine was found to contain mislabeled data. At the time, Zang vehemently denied research fraud and claimed that he and coauthors had made an inadvertent error. After the firing, GSK was soon embroiled in a much greater controversy.

After a long saga that included the discovery of video cameras in the bedroom of the companys China head, GSK apologized in September 2014 and paid a fine of $500 million to the Chinese government for bribing doctors to prescribe the companys drugs. The following year GSK laid off 110 of its China staffers for alleged ethical violations.

Last year, Min Li, who replaced Zang as head of neuroscience in Shanghai, publicly stated that GSK remained committed to its China neuroscience research. By setting up our R&D structure in this way, we are committed not only to patients in China but also to talent in China, the newspaper China Daily quoted him as saying.

Despite the retreat from neuroscience, drug R&D will go on in China, GSK insists. The China R&D development organization will continue to be based in Shanghai and is set to expand over the next two years to accelerate the development of new medicines, the firm says. We remain committed to China and will focus our R&D efforts in China on the needs of China, at both our Shanghai site and our Institute for Infectious Diseases & Public Health in Beijing.

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GSK to end neuroscience R&D in China - Chemical & Engineering News

James Damore got fired from Google because the highly educated engineer(with a PhD in systems biology from Harvard) said biology appears to play some role in the career pursuits of men and women, including at Google.

He has the right enemies, and the right allies.

Human sexuality science writer Debra Soh, who has a PhD in sexual neuroscience from York University, writes in The Globe and Mail that Damores internal memo was fair and factually accurate.

She points to studies that show higher levels of prenatal testosterone (typical in boys) are associated with a preference for mechanically interesting things and occupations in adulthood, including in girls with a certain genetic condition:

When they are born, these girls prefer male-typical, wheeled toys, such as trucks, even if their parents offer morepositive feedbackwhen they play with female-typical toys, such as dolls. Similarly, men who are interested in female-typical activities were likely exposed to lower levels of testosterone.

As well, newresearchfrom the field of genetics shows that testosterone alters the programming of neural stem cells, leading to sex differences in the brain even before its finished developing in utero.

One of the most cited studies that found male and female brains cant be differentiated by sex has been refuted byfour yes,fouracademicstudiessince, Soh writes.

She echoes Damores point that group traits dont dictate preferences for any given individual, but its ignorant to claim group traits simply dont exist:

In fact, research has shown that cultures with greater gender equity have larger sex differences when it comes to job preferences, because in these societies, people are free to choose their occupations based on what they enjoy.

Contrary to what detractors would have you believe, women are, on average, higher in neuroticism and agreeableness, and lower instress tolerance.

She scolds the witch hunt leaders who went after Damore for denying biological reality and being content to spend a weekend doxxing a man so that he would lose his job.

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Sexual neuroscience PhD: The engineer who wrote the 'Google memo' is right - The College Fix

There's a ton of "helpful" advice floating around the internet, but when the tips come from a neuroscientist, it might be time to actually listen up. Ladders, a job platform site, put together some insights from neuroscientist Alex Korb's book The Upward Spiral on how you can be happier based on brain research.

If you're feeling a negative emotion like sadness or anger, label that emotion. It may seem simple, but your brain responds when you put your feelings into words. One fMRI study cited in the book noted that when a participant was shown images of people expressing emotions on their faces, their amygdala activated to the emotions they were seeing. When they were told to name the emotion, "the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activated and reduced the emotional amygdala reactivity." This essentially means that when participants consciously recognized the emotions they were seeing, it reduced the impact of those emotions in their brains.

Reddit user letstablethisfornow noted the effect labeling their emotions has had on their own happiness, calling it a "a game changer" for them.

"It's so simple and yet has such a profound effect that I'm amazed this isn't taught in schools. The effect is subtle since you are not actually removing the emotion, you just take one step away from it intellectually. You find that from experiencing long drawn-out swings in emotion you tend to have short peaks and valleys with a nice equilibrium most of the time.

You also realize that for the most part our day-to-day emotions are not really connected to anything specific. It could be caused by anything. That outburst at your wife, coworker, or boss could be the end result of waking up with a headache, indigestion, or forgetting you keys on your way to work. We tend to construct stories in our minds as to what our emotions mean after the fact when in reality we have no clue. When you label, you become more aware of your emotions, don't get carried away with them, and will be less likely to fall into this trap."

In The Upwared Spiral, Korb says that the benefits of gratitude "start with the dopamine system, because feeling grateful activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine. Additionally, gratitude toward others increases activity in social dopamine circuits, which makes social interactions more enjoyable." Gratitude can also boost the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is what many antidepressants do. And as The Ladder points out, even if you don't have an answer to the question "what am I grateful for?", that's OK. "It's not finding gratitude that matters most; it's remembering to look in the first place," the book says. "Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence." The studies showed that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons in these areas become more efficient. So even if you have trouble finding something to be grateful for, merely asking yourself the question means you're on the right path to happiness.

"Address the possibility of a blind spot in your mind where you aren't able to instantly know what you take for granted. Spend time simply observing the things you don't have to overcome, all the conveniences and luxuries," says Reddit user Privatdozent. "This 'positive feedback loop' has to loop around many times to have a solid effect. The common criticism of this idea is that 'No one else's struggles diminish your own.' Well, yeah, they don't. But what if you take seriously much more of the struggles than the things deserving of your gratitude? Basically, try to give equal weight to the good things that happen as to the bad."

There's nothing more anxiety-inducing than feeling like you've got unfinished business. Simply making a decision about something can reduce anxiety rather than allowing yourself to spend more time hesitating over all of the scenarios and outcomes that the decision will result in. "Making decisions includes creating intentions and setting goals all three are part of the same neural circuitry and engage the prefrontal cortex in a positive way, reducing worry and anxiety," says Korb. Making decisions also allows people to feel more in control feeling "out of control" can also cause feelings of worry. And when you do make a decision and the outcome of that decision happens to be a positive one, then even better!

"There's a book that's really helped me, called Getting Things Done," says Reddit user Kabitu. "It explains how indecision is a major source of mental stress. When you don't want to make a decision now, and leave the decision to be made later, that builds up a big cloud of annoying mental work you don't want to do, and it can sustain a subconscious reluctance to work."

Social interactions have been proven to increase a person's feelings of acceptance and therefore happiness, but The Upward Spiral takes it a bit further. "One of the primary ways to release oxytocin is through touching," the book says. Oxytocin is a hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter to the brain. Psycholology Today says that it's known as the "love hormone" because it "regulates social interaction and sexual reproduction, playing a role in behaviors from maternal-infant bonding and milk release to empathy, generosity, and orgasm." So when people touch, hug, or kiss others, oxytocin levels actually increase. "Oxytocin is the hormone that underlies trust. It is also an antidote to depressive feelings," says the site. According to Korb, holding hands with someone during a painful experience can comfort you and your brain and help reduce the reaction to pain. So, more hugs!

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Neuroscience Studies About Happiness | POPSUGAR Smart Living - POPSUGAR

The Stanford Neurosciences Interdepartmental Program (IDP) offers interdisciplinary training leading to a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. The primary goal of the program is to train students to become leaders in neuroscience research, education and outreach. Graduates of the program will be innovators, investigators, and teachers whose programs and pursuits are founded on research. The signature feature of the Stanford Neurosciences IDP is the combination of outstanding faculty researchers and exceedingly bright, energetic students in a community that shares a firm and longstanding commitment to understanding the nervous system at all its levels of function.

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Home | Neurosciences PhD Program | Stanford Medicine

Can a wearable actually help you lose weight? British startup Neurovalens believes it's come up with one that will do just that.

It's launching its fat-fighting headset on Indiegogo today and it's looking to neuroscience to help the headgear do its magic.

Read this: Neuroscience wearables explained

So how does it work? Much like the Halo Sport and Thync neuroscience wearables we've covered before, the Modius headset is all about tapping into the part of the brain that is associated with and controls fat storage. It uses low-power electrical pulses to stimulate the vestibular nerve, which runs to the brain from behind the ear.

By stimulating the vestibular system for 45 minutes per day, the brain then interprets the stimulation as the body being more physically active, triggering the brain to reduce fat storage. This can in turn increase fat burning, decrease appetite and activate metabolic hormones. Apparently the evidence that vestibular stimulation can reduce body fat has been around for years, but this is the first time you'll be able to do it from a non-invasive wearable.

While that all sounds impressive, the question is whether it works. The startup, which was founded by neuroscientists Dr. Jason McKeown and Dr. Paul McGeoch, carried out research which showed that it does make a difference and found there was a reduction in body fat along with a change in metabolic hormones and a proportion of energy derived from fat metabolism.

"Within one hour, there was a significant change in both appetite and metabolic hormones insulin & leptin", said chief science officer McGeoch.

"There was also a significant increase in the proportion of energy derived from fat metabolism. And over a 16-week period, with an average of three hours use per week, the average reduction in central body fat was 8%, with a range of 2% to 16%. These studies were carried out without changes in either diet or exercise."

The Modius headset is available for pre-order now on Indiegogo and will be available to all in the autumn/fall. We'll be trying it out in the coming months to see if it can really deliver.

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Modius wants to zap your brain with neuroscience to fight the fat - Wareable

From their looks of cheerful expectation, you might think the eight undergraduates gathered around a U-shaped table in the BU School of Medicine anatomy lab are waiting to see a movie or a band. Except the next thing they do is don lab aprons, gloves, and safety glasses.

Then neuroanatomy instructor Joseph Goodliffe, a MED postdoctoral researcher, brings out the brains.

Try to identify some of those structures we were discussing in class earlier, says Goodliffe (MED16) as he lifts several white plastic buckets onto the table.

Inside, floating in a preservative solution, are cadaver brains that have been donated to the anatomy lab, most of them already cut in half along the median, providing a nice clear cross section for the students searching out structures such as the corpus callosum, hypothalamus, and caudate. The students speak with a mix of awe and seriousness, but no one seems intimidated. Its not their first time, after all.

That one still has the spinal cord attached, one says, nodding toward a nearby bucket. Thats pretty intense.

Welcome to the new Summer Program in Neuroscience (SPIN), which gives high-achieving undergraduates from colleges and universities around the country a head start in the subject, offering experiences that they wouldnt normally get until grad school.

Theyre a joy to work with. Theyre really, really interested in learning, says James Holsapple, a MED associate professor and chair of neurosurgery and an associate professor of pediatrics, who began the program last year.

Holsapple, who is also Boston Medical Center neurosurgery department chair and neurological surgery program director, aimed SPIN at undergrads who are studying neuroscience or who are on a premed track, and at biology and computer science students. Theres a lot of crossover between neuroscience and computer science now, he says, from computational neuroscience to artificial intelligence.

SPIN, the Summer Program in Neuroscience, is an eight-week course for undergraduates to integrate neuroscience research, hands-on teaching of human neuroanatomy, and clinical neurosurgery. It allows them experiences they otherwise wouldnt have until graduate school.

The program has three components:

The students certainly agree about the exciting part.

Boston native Joy Yang is a rising junior at Emory University, studying neuroscience and behavioral biology. She plans to attend medical school, and says she never worried about her ability to handle the operating room. I was open-mouthed the whole time. Its such a surreal experience. Youre watching someone be cut open and helped and saved. I liked the blood. It was pretty cool. I watch a lot of gruesome TV shows. I was ready.

This has been the first real clinical experience Ive had, says Rachel Feltman, from Long Island, a University of Michigan rising senior studying for a BS in biopsychology, cognition, and neuroscience. Ive worked in a doctors office, but it was just at the front desk.

Feltman says her first experience following Boston Medical Center residents as they were caring for a postsurgical patient with a serious head trauma was very overwhelming. As she prepared to attend a surgery the next morning, she called her mother, acknowledging that she didnt know if she could handle it. To her relief, the surgery was canceled. However, she says now, the experience of waiting in the operating room for an hour before the cancellation gave her a level of confidence that helped her get through the next surgery.

Your brain controls everything you do, she says. Ive learned about it in lectures and in books and weve been working with the cadaver brains, but just seeing it pulsating and knowing blood was flowing through it was just incredible.

Feltman, who dropped a study-abroad trip to Copenhagen to take the summer course, says SPIN has confirmed her commitment to a career in neurology or psychiatry. She will apply to medical school after a gap year.

Undergraduates from across the country and instructor Joseph Goodliffe (MED16) (center, in blue coat) study the anatomy of the brain in a MED lab.

Goodliffe has taught medical students and grad students, but this is his first time teaching undergraduates. That meant adjusting some of the content, which he says he doesnt mind. Theyre just so enthusiastic and so excited to be here, he says. Its a great energy level that they bring, and theyre learning neuroanatomy at the same level and pace we teach the med students.

Holsapple ran a pilot program last year with two students from Drake University, his undergraduate alma mater. This year there were more than 100 applications for 8 slots, the small number constrained by the need to find a lab mentor for each student and to fit them all into clinical and operating rooms. He hopes to find ways to modestly expand the program next year.

He says SPIN benefits MED as well as the students. As far as we know, this is the only program of its type, he says. It brings attention to BU as being innovative in the educational space, and it brings great students from all over the country to work in BU labs. Its a good recruitment tool.

Some SPIN students have already expressed interest in returning to BU for graduate studies or for medical school. And the programs informal lunch speakers have included faculty offering advice about the medical school application process.

As Holsapple sees it, the neuroscience program could be just a beginning. The SPIN framework could be adapted to other clinical specialties. You could do the summer program in nephrology, the summer program in psychiatry, the summer program in internal medicine.

At the beginning of the eight weeks, he gave each student a blank lab notebook and told them they should write down anything they see or hear that they dont understand. During the Tuesday morning didactic sessions with staff, time is always set aside for them to ask questions about those things.

That inculcates a culture of inquiry and openness about questions, Holsapple says, of not being embarrassed to admit you dont know something, which is the first step to knowing something.

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MED Neuroscience Program Gives Undergrads Experience and Insight - BU Today