AMHERST, Mass., Nov.13, 2006(AScribe Newswire) The number of undergraduate college students taking up neuroscience is large and growing, according to the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs (ANDP), which estimates that 5,000 people now graduate every year with a major in this academically demanding and intellectually exciting field. The first recorded use of the word neuroscience to mean comprising the sciences of brain and behavior was in Nature in 1970, the same year the Society for Neuroscience was founded. With extraordinary speed, Amherst College became the first institution in the United States to offer an undergraduate major in the new science, in 1973, at a time when miracles such as targeted medication for clinical depression or brain implants to alleviate human blindness were the stuff of science fiction.

At that time Stephen George, now the Manwell Family Professor in Life Sciences (Biology and Neuroscience), was brought to Amherst as an assistant professor of biology to work in the neuroscience program. To understand the nervous system, he said then, you have to understand its function on all levels. Thirty years later, hes still asking these questions: How does the mind work? How can we explain the behavior of animals and people? What goes wrong when someone is mentally ill or emotionally disturbed? Neuroscience is the modern attempt to answer these questions through the study of the brain-and in 2006 we enjoy a vastly greater physical understanding of the brain.

James Olds, a 1978 graduate of Amherst, and the director of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study and Krasnow University Professor of Computational Neuroscience at George Mason University, describes the changes in neuroscience. Our animal model in 1973 was the rat, he says of laboratory research into the human brain. In 2006, its the college sophomore.

Neuroscience at Amherst grew out of the biophysics major of the 50s and 60s, which produced some distinguished neuroscientists, in a field that had not yet been named. In 1970 the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation decided to support the new field of neuroscience at all levels. A proposal for an undergraduate program in neuroscience from Amherst received $400,000. The program first offered a neuroscience major in 1973. Undergraduate neuroscience programs are now quite common, as shown by the active Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience group associated with the Society for Neuroscience. Stephen George was among the founders of this organization, and Sarah M. Turgeon, an associate professor of psychology at Amherst, has served on its executive council.

The ANDP notes in its most recent annual report that the existence of undergraduate programs in neuroscience is a relatively recent phenomenon. The ANDP counts 33 undergraduate program members, but only two programs were founded before 1980, six programs between 1980 and 1989 and the rest only after 1989.

Perhaps because of its origin in biophysics, neuroscience at Amherst College is a demanding discipline. One student guide noted wryly that neuro is the major to avoid if you want to take the country-club approach to college. Yet many choose it. Almost from the beginning the neuroscience department has attracted a dozen or more majors in every class. Mirroring the national trend, the numbers are growing.

Several fields of science, including biology, chemistry, psychology, mathematics, computer science and physics, are important in studying the nervous system, and Amherst students who major in neuroscience take courses in all of these fields. The courses include laboratory work emphasizing modern techniques, such as recording electrical activity from single nerve cells, measuring behavioral effects of drugs and working with proteins and nucleic acids. The neuroscience major consists of 14 courses, more courses than required for any other major at Amherst. Neuroscience majors also take part in the Neuroscience Seminar, in which Amherst students and faculty discuss current research and through which guest neuroscientists visit to lecture on their work. This fall, the seminar heard a 1980 Amherst graduate, Neal Swerdlow of the UCSD Medical School, discuss Neuropsychiatric Disorders of Impaired Central Inhibition: Things Weve Learned in the Blink of an Eye.

Neuroscience at Amherst offers senior students opportunities for honors thesis research projects. Usually based in the research areas of the neuroscience faculty, these projects have delved into the neurophysiology of the visual system, control of neural excitability, developmental psychobiology, animal models of schizophrenia and the neural basis of feeding behavior.

Amherst students have frequently been able to present the results of their research at the national meetings of the Society for Neuroscience or the Biophysical Society. For example, Tiffany Lin, a 2006 graduate, recently received a competitive Travel Award from the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, which took her to Atlanta for the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Lins presentation, Repeated exposure to PCP alters stress-induced behavior and striatal c-Fos, described the results of her research as an undergraduate working with Turgeon in the psychology department.

Lin is now at the behavioral genetics laboratory at the Mailman Research Institute at McLean Hospital in Boston, where shes working on the mechanisms of neurogenesis. Most Amherst neuroscience majors enter graduate or professional programs, either right after graduation or after working or traveling for a time. Their careers may involve medicine, research, teaching or a combination of these. They are doing research in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health, teaching high school in Boston, practicing medicine around the country or working in the business world in a biomedical field. They all maintain their keen fascination with how the brain works, sharpened by the rigors of neuroscience at Amherst College.

CONTACTS: Stephen George, Amherst College, 413-542-2477

James Olds 78, George Mason University, 703-993-4378

Tiffany Lin 06, McLean Hospital, 617-855-2009

Sarah Turgeon, Amherst College, 413-542-2625

Paul Statt, Amherst College Media Relations, 413-542-8417

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Neuroscience, Fifth Edition, is a comprehensive textbook created primarily for medical, premedical, and undergraduate students. In a single concise and approachable volume, the text guides students through the challenges and excitement of this rapidly changing field. The book's length and accessibility of its writing are a successful combination that has proven to work equally well for medical students and in undergraduate neuroscience courses. Being both comprehensive and authoritative, the book is also appropriate for graduate and professional use.

Key features of the Fifth Edition:

*In addition to new figures, all of the art has been modified with a new color palette and digital enhancements.

*All chapters have been updated to reflect current research; new literature citations have been added, as well as new experimental content. Substantial revisions have been made to: Chapter 4, Ion Channels and Transporters, Chapter 6, Neurotransmitters and Their Receptors, and Chapter 8, Synaptic Plasticity; all chapters in Unit IV, The Changing Brain; and all chapters in Unit V, Complex Brain Functions.

*Sylvius included with every book

*An appendix presenting an illustrated narrative of human neuroanatomy plus annotated atlas plates presenting brain sections from Sylvius

RESOURCES

For Students

Companion Website The Neuroscience companion website features review and study tools to help students master the material presented in the neuroscience course. Access to the site is free of charge and requires no access code. The site includes:

*Chapter Summaries: Concise overviews of the important topics covered in each chapter.

*Animations: Detailed animations depict many of the key topics presented in the textbook. Topics such as synaptic transmission, resting membrane potential, information processing in the eye, the stretch reflex, and many others are presented in a dynamic manner that helps students visualize and better understand many of the complex processes of neuroscience.

*Online Quizzes: Available at the instructor's discretion (see For Instructors/Online Quizzing below)

*Flashcards and Key Terms: Flashcard activities help students master the extensive vocabulary of neuroscience. Each chapter's set of flashcards includes all the key terms introduced in that chapter.

Sylvius: An Interactive Atlas and Visual Glossary of Human Neuroanatomy S. Mark Williams, Leonard E. White, and Andrew C. Mace

Sylvius provides a unique computer-based learning environment for exploring and understanding the structure of the human central nervous system. Sylvius features fully annotated surface views of the human brain, as well as interactive tools for dissecting the central nervous system and viewing fully annotated cross-sections of preserved specimens and living subjects imaged by magnetic resonance. Sylvius is more than a conventional atlas; it incorporates a comprehensive, visually rich, searchable database of more than 500 neuroanatomical terms that are concisely defined and visualized in photographs, magnetic resonance images, and illustrations from Neuroscience.

Program Components

*Surface Anatomy Atlases (Photographic, Magnetic Resonance Image, Brainstem Model): Provide a visual introduction to the location and names of the major external features and subdivisions of the human brain.

*Sectional Anatomy Atlases (Photographic, Magnetic Resonance Image, Brainstem and Spinal Cord): Allow the user to explore the internal organization of the brain.

*Pathways: Allows students to follow the flow of information in several important long-tract pathways of the central nervous system.

*Visual Glossary: Searchable glossary providing visual representations, concise anatomical and functional definitions, and audio pronunciation of neuroanatomical structures.

For Instructors

Instructor's Resource Library

View samples on the samples page.

The Neuroscience Instructor's Resource Library includes a variety of resources to help in developing your course and delivering your lectures. The Library includes:

*Textbook Figures and Tables: All the figures and tables from the textbook are provided in JPEG format (both high- and low-resolution), reformatted and relabeled for optimal readability.

*PowerPoint Presentations: A PowerPoint presentation that includes all figures and tables is included for each chapter, making it easy to add figures to your own presentations.

*Atlas Images: All of the images from the book's Atlas of the Human Central Nervous System (which are from Sylvius) are included in PowerPoint format, for use in lecture.

*Animations: All of the animations from the companion website are included for use in lecture and other course-related activities.

*Quiz Questions: All of the questions from the companion website's online quizzes are provided in Microsoft Word format.

*Review Questions: A set of short-answer review questions is provided for each chapter of the textbook (Microsoft Word format), along with a list of chapter-specific key terms.

Online Quizzing Adopting instructors have access to a bank of online quizzes that they can choose to assign or let their students use for self-review purposes. Instructors can use the quizzes as is, or they can create their own quizzes using any combination of publisher-provided questions and their own questions. The online grade book stores quiz results, which can be downloaded for use in grade book programs. (Student access to the quizzes requires instructor registration.)

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Neuroscience - amazon.com

KINGSTON, R.I., July 6, 2017 Two scientists who collaborate on groundbreaking approaches to neurodegenerative disease are relocating to the University of Rhode Island from Stony Brook University in New York. Individually and as a team, William Van Nostrand and John Robinson have made significant discoveries that advance the understanding of Alzheimers disease and other conditions caused by damage to and destruction of brain cells.

Bringing these two top-notch scientists to the Ryan Institute is a coup for URI, said Paula Grammas, executive director of the Ryan Institute. Bill and John bring decades-long records of innovative and productive research that meshes well with the mission of the Institute, and we are excited to welcome them as colleagues to our faculty and mentors to our students.

Van Nostrand will join the faculty this summer as professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical science and Herrmann Professor of Neuroscience. He is a professor of neurosurgery at Stony Brook University, where he has been on the faculty since 1995.

He was the first to purify and characterize amyloid precursor protein, the progenitor of the amyloid-beta (A-beta) protein. A-beta clumps into plaques in the brain tissue of Alzheimers disease patients, and may contribute to the brain cell death that causes the memory loss, cognitive decline and dementia associated with the disease. Van Nostrands research focuses on understanding causes abnormal accumulation of the A-beta protein found in Alzheimers disease and a related condition called cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).

Understanding how the various forms of amyloid operate and interact in CAA and Alzheimers disease is a path to better understanding both diseases. Our goal is ultimately to identify mechanisms of disease that could be targets for new treatments, Van Nostrand said.

Robinson will arrive in early 2018. He has been on the Stony Brook faculty since 1994, most recently as professor of psychology. At URI he will be professor of psychology and Ryan Research Professor of Neuroscience.

He has studied the cognitive and behavioral effects of abnormal A-beta in animal models of disease developed in Van Nostrands lab. Their collaboration has revealed, for instance, that the A-beta accumulations around blood vessels seen in animal models of CAA are associated with an earlier decline in brain function compared to Alzheimers-like A-beta clumps near brain cells.

Robinson has also worked on studies related to learning, depression, dementia caused by alcoholism and the impact of exercise in reducing the onset and severity of neurologic diseases. At URI, Robinson will help set up and manage a new center for behavioral studies. I have enjoyed tremendously the interactions with numerous colleagues over the years and I look forward to meeting and working with my new colleagues at URI similarly, he said.

Why URI?

Moving an established research enterprise from one university to another is a complicated undertaking, but Robinson and Van Nostrand see clear reasons to join the Ryan Institute and URI.

Everyone I spoke to saw this as an exciting time for URIa turning point, Robinson said. The optimism about and enthusiasm for neuroscience and health-and-wellness research here builds on existing strengths and the clear path of the Ryan Institute to be a highly visible catalyst of this movement as well.

Van Nostrand said, I am excited about the mission of the Ryan Institute, the passion and support of Tom Ryan to build this institute, and the support from President Dooley and Provost DeHayes on down through the deans and faculty. It is clear that the mission here is to build a premier neuroscience institute with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases. I saw this as a unique and exciting opportunity to get in on the early stages of the Institute being formed and play a strong part in its foundation and growth.

As further evidence of the opportunities available at URI, Van Nostrands full-time lab staff is moving with him, including three researchers, a postdoctoral fellow and a graduate student. Van Nostrand and Robinsons work has been consistently funded by federal and private agencies, and they will transfer about $4.1 million in grant funding to URI.

Neuroscience Researchers Facts

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Two leading researchers join URI's George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience - URI Today (press release)

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Providence Health & Services announced today a new affiliation with Pacific Neuroscience Institute, a multispecialty group of more than 30 physicians and researchers renowned for providing cutting-edge, minimally invasive treatments, as well as conducting breakthrough research and clinical trials to advance the care of patients with neurological and cranial disorders.

The physicians of PNI will join the Saint John's Medical Foundation, which is composed of Westside physician groups with a range of specialties who practice at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. The new PNI Clinic is currently under construction at 2125 Arizona Ave., adjacent to Saint John's Health Center, and is expected to open in early 2018.

PNI physicians also will provide neurosurgery, interventional neuro-radiology and neuro-oncology inpatient care and emergency stroke center services, as well as operate an outpatient clinic at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance.

"Our partnership with PNI brings a team of extraordinary specialists, their state-of-the-art facilities and their globally recognized research to Providence Saint John's and its John Wayne Cancer Institute, and to our South Bay hospitals," said Erik Wexler, chief executive, Providence St. Joseph Health, Los Angeles Region. "More importantly, they will participate in our Neuroscience Clinical Institute, which serves across the seven-state Providence St. Joseph Health system to advance treatment and improve outcomes for patients with complex neurological disorders."

PNI is a leader in neurosciences, operating eight centers of excellence:

"Our PNI clinicians and researchers have a long and fruitful relationship with Providence Saint John's, the John Wayne Cancer Institute and the Saint John's Health Center Foundation, and we are excited to build upon this decade-long collaboration," said Daniel F. Kelly, M.D., neurosurgeon and director of PNI and its Brain Tumor and Pituitary Disorders Centers. "By affiliating with Providence, we greatly strengthen our ability to provide comprehensive, compassionate care for our patients, while developing novel treatments for the future."

Dr. Kelly's PNI co-founders include Chester F. Griffiths, M.D., FACS, a head and neck, and ear, nose and throat surgeon; neuro-oncologist Santosh Kesari, M.D., Ph.D., and neuro-ophthalmologist Howard R. Krauss, M.D.

"This new affiliation with PNI propels Providence in its continuing strategy to build expertise in the neurosciences across Southern California advancing research, technology, innovation and quality patient care," said Marcel Loh, chief executive, Providence Saint John's Health Center.

Providence has more than 500 affiliated physicians from the South Bay to Santa Clarita who are aligned with the six Los Angeles Area Providence medical centers. This new affiliation will equip PNI with a management services program to provide operating and administrative support for clinical operations.

CONTACT: Zara Jethani 818-209-4070 EMAIL: 166897@email4pr.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pacific-neuroscience-institute-affiliates-with-providence-health--services-saint-johns-medical-foundation-300484496.html

SOURCE Pacific Neuroscience Institute Foundation

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Contacts | Program of Study | Declaring the Major | General Education | The Major | Grading | Summary of Requirements for the Major in Neuroscience | Honors | Minor Options | Courses

Department Website: http://neuroscience.uchicago.edu/undergraduate

Neuroscience is the study of neurons and neural systems and their outputs: sensation, perception, homeostasis, and behavior. Neural function is investigated at the levels of molecules, cells, circuits, organisms, and species, making neuroscience inherently multidisciplinary. In addition to established neuroscience career paths in academia, medicine, and the pharmaceutical industry, new careers for students of neuroscience are emerging in economics, software development, and other fields requiring "big data" analysis or a mechanistic understanding of how humans think. The course of study in the undergraduate major in neuroscience provides students with the background and skills appropriate for these diverse careers.

The University of Chicago offers a bachelor of arts (BA) degree and a bachelor of science (BS) degree in Neuroscience. The Neuroscience major is designed to accommodate students with the range of scientific variety that one finds at the professional level of neuroscience, including physics, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, biology, psychology, and medicine. Neuroscience faculty at the University of Chicago have expertise in all of these areas and are distributed across the Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, and Physical Sciences Divisions. Majoring students have the opportunity to take a broad range of courses or to specialize in a particular area.

Students who wish to major in Neuroscience should declare the major in their second year.

(Because the Neuroscience major was introduced in the 201617 academic year, the Class of 2020 and subsequent classes can design a plan of study in Neuroscience from their first year. Students in the Classes of 2018 and 2019 may also be able to major in Neuroscience, depending on the courses they have already taken, although there is no way to guarantee this. Students in these classes should consult with their College advisers to see if majoring in Neuroscience is feasible.)

Students majoring in Neuroscience typically begin their general education requirement in the Biological Sciences with BIOS20186 Fundamentals of Cell and Molecular Biology. Attaining a proper grounding in cell biology is essential before delving into neuroscience as a discipline. To complete the requirement, students may choose to take one of the following: BIOS20150 How Can We Understand the Biosphere?, BIOS20151 Introduction to Quantitative Modeling in Biology (Basic), BIOS20152 Introduction to Quantitative Modeling in Biology (Advanced), BIOS20187 Fundamentals of Genetics, BIOS20188 Fundamentals of Physiology, or BIOS20191 Integrative Physiology. (Note: The general education requirement for the NSCI major can be fulfilled by courses in the Biology Fundamentals Sequences [20186-20190] without the Biological Sciences prerequisites [BIOS 20150-20151/20152] unless a student pursues a double major in Biological Sciences. Students who choose this path will be expected to possess the competency in mathematical modeling of biological phenomena covered in BIOS 20151 or BIOS 20152.)

Two alternative paths to fulfilling the General Education requirements exist. 1) Neuroscience majors may petition to take the Pre-Med Sequence for Non-Biology majors. In this case, BIOS20170 Microbial and Human Cell Biology and BIOS20171 Human Genetics and Developmental Biology will satisfy the core. (Note that BIOS 20171 must be taken concurrently with BIOS20172 Mathematical Modeling for Pre-Med Students .) 2) A score of 4 or 5 on the AP Biology exam allows students to enter the Advanced Biology sequence in the Autumn of their first year. This three-quarter, lab-intensive sequence is for students with a strong background in research. Upon completion of the sequence students are awarded two credits, which satisfy the general education requirement in Biological Sciences.

The basic degree in Neuroscience is the BA, for which requirements are described below. A BS is awarded to students who complete an additional three quarters of Neuroscience electives, which must include one to three quarters of faculty-supervised research (scholarly or experimental) resulting in a written thesis (see Requirements for the Bachelor of Science Degree in Neuroscience below).

The major curriculum includes nine required Neuroscience courses, which provide a comprehensive overview of the field. The BA requires another 700 units of elective courses, which must be selected from the list below. Electives can be chosen for a broad exposure or tailored for depth in a particular area, such as cellular/molecular, systems, cognitive, and computational neuroscience and machine learning.

Students must have their program of elective courses approved by the office of the director of undergraduate studies. The Student Elective Approval Form should be filled out by the end of the third year and submitted to the Neuroscience major director of undergraduate studies for approval at neuromajor@uchicago.edu.

While it is possible to complete a double major in Neuroscience and another program, this is not encouraged. Neuroscience majors are generally better suited to achieving breadth through a combination of courses that provides the desired expertise in neuroscience and carefully selected courses outside of neuroscience.

Students can earn a BS in Neuroscience by completing three quarters of Neuroscience elective courses over and above the BA requirements, which must include one to three quarters of faculty-supervised research that results in a written thesis (NSCI29100, NSCI29101, NSCI29102 Neuroscience Thesis Research). The additional courses and the thesis work require approval by the office of the director of undergraduate studies and the thesis advisor. The thesis may be either research-based or literature-based.

All courses used to satisfy prerequisites and requirements must be taken for quality grades. Students must pass all required courses with an average GPA of 2.0 or higher to continue in the program.

To obtain honors in Neuroscience, students must have a minimum cumulative GPA (3.25) at the point of entering the honors track, no later than the end of the third year. Entry into the honors track must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies. Students must do experimental research for three quarters and submit a thesis (NSCI29200, NSCI29201, NSCI29202 Neuroscience Honors Thesis Research). As part of the research course work, honors students participate in regular group meetings in which they share their research with each other and supervising faculty, and receive guidance on formulating testable hypotheses, experimental design, report writing, and oral presentations. They also receive training in the responsible conduct of research. Experimental research may not be credited toward honors in more than one major.

A minor in Neuroscience is not offered. The College offers a minor program in Computational Neuroscience, and students majoring in Biological Sciences have the option of completing a Specialization in Neuroscience.

NSCI00292. Neuroscience Honors Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Research Thesis and Seminar

Instructor(s): Elizabeth GroveTerms Offered: Summer Prerequisite(s): Acceptance into the Neuroscience Honors Program

NSCI20100. Neuroscience Laboratory. 100 Units.

This course has three components in series, representing (1) molecular neuroscience, (2) cellular electrophysiology, and (3) computation and psychophysics. The course meets one afternoon each week for four hours of laboratory time, including a didactic introduction. Students will be graded on their laboratory reports.

Instructor(s): J. Maunsell; E. Heckscher; C. Hansel; M. McNultyTerms Offered: Winter Note(s): This course will be offered in the 201718 academic year and each year thereafter.

NSCI20110. Fundamental Neuroscience. 100 Units.

This course is a rigorous introduction to the study of neurons, nervous systems and brains. The systems anatomy and physiology of the vertebrate brain will be covered in depth. Common features of neural circuits, such as those subserving the stretch reflex, will be examined. The biology of brain evolution and development will be introduced. A highlight of this course will be student dissections of sheep brains and the laboratory presentation of human brain dissections by the instructors.

Instructor(s): C. Ragsdale, P. Mason Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): At least two quarters of Biological Sciences instruction (including courses taken concurrently) or consent of instructor. Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 24110

NSCI20120. Cellular Neuroscience. 100 Units.

This course describes the cellular and subcellular properties of neurons, including passive and active electrophysiological properties, and their synaptic interactions. Readings are assigned from a general neuroscience textbook.

Instructor(s): R. A. Eatock, W. Wei, StaffTerms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): NSCI 20110, along with completion of MATH 13100, or MATH 15100, or MATH 16100 Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 24120

NSCI20130. Systems Neurobiology. 100 Units.

This course covers vertebrate and invertebrate systems neuroscience with a focus on the anatomy, physiology, and development of sensory and motor control systems. The neural bases of form and motion perception, locomotion, memory, and other forms of neural plasticity are examined in detail. We also discuss clinical aspects of neurological disorders.

Instructor(s): D. Freedman, Staff Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): NSCI 20110, and NSCI 20120 or consent of instructor Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 24130

NSCI20140. Sensation and Perception. 100 Units.

What we see and hear depends on energy that enters the eyes and ears, but what we actually experienceperceptionfollows from human neural responses. This course focuses on visual and auditory phenomena, including basic percepts (for example, acuity, brightness, color, loudness, pitch) and also more complex percepts such as movement and object recognition. Biological underpinnings of perception are an integral part of the course.

Instructor(s): K. LedouxTerms Offered: Winter Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20700

NSCI29100. Neuroscience Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Scholar or Research Thesis.

Instructor(s): StaffTerms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Summer,Winter Prerequisite(s): By consent of instructor and approval of major director.

NSCI29101. Neuroscience Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Scholar or Research Thesis.

Instructor(s): StaffTerms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Summer,Winter Prerequisite(s): NSCI 29100, and consent of instructor, and approval of major director.

NSCI29102. Neuroscience Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Scholar or Research Thesis.

Instructor(s): StaffTerms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Summer,Winter Prerequisite(s): NSCI 29100, and consent of instructor, and approval of major director.

NSCI29200. Neuroscience Honors Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Research Thesis and Seminar.

Instructor(s): StaffTerms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Summer,Winter Prerequisite(s): By consent of instructor and approval of major director. Open to Neuroscience majors who are candidates for honors in Neuroscience.

NSCI29201. Neuroscience Honors Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Research Thesis and Seminar.

Instructor(s): StaffTerms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Summer,Winter Prerequisite(s): NSCI 29200, and consent of instructor, and approval of major director. Open to Neuroscience majors who are candidates for honors in Neuroscience.

NSCI29202. Neuroscience Honors Thesis Research. 100 Units.

Research Thesis and Seminar.

Instructor(s): StaffTerms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Summer,Winter Prerequisite(s): NSCI 20201, and consent of instructor, and approval of major director. Open to Neuroscience majors who are candidates for honors in Neuroscience.

Link:
Neuroscience < University of Chicago Catalog

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Technology can be addictive. I got to a point where I felt like I needed to check my phone even though Id only checked it five minutes before.While I knew that didnt make sense, I still checked it. I was frustrated with myself. But what I didnt know was that the feeling I was having was well-designed and predictable. Tech companies pay for us to develop app addiction.

While Dopamine Labs typically designs apps to be addictive, the company also created an app called Space Because You Need a Breatherto combat app addiction. This past week, I gave it a shot and talked to Matt Mayberry, Dopamine Labs head of business development, about how Space works.

Dopamine Labs uses artificial intelligence and neuroscience to help tech companies design apps and software. Essentially, the goal is to make you want to use technology as often as possible. The API (an app-intelligence program) gives users the perfect burst of dopamine to keep them hooked, says Mayberry. Dopamine Labs co-founder Dr. Combs holds a PhD in neuroscience.

One example of how Dopamine Labs API works is Instagram likes. When you post a photo on Instagram, in reality, most of your likes come in at about the same time. But Instagram is designed to hold back likes. The app only shows them to you when youve been away from Instagram a while. This way, you keep coming back for more.

Its mischievous, says Mayberry, but its also brilliant.

One night, the team at Dopamine Labs began to discuss what it would be like if someone built an anti-dopamine. In other words, what would happen if the team built an app that stopped the addictive dopamine rush? What they came up with was Space Because You Need a Breather, an app that fights app addiction.

Space reverses the work Dopamine Labs typically does, re-wiring your instant gratification sensors to not go off every time you check an app. Anti-dopamine is simple: Instead of giving you instant gratification when you check an app, it makes you wait for a brief pause. Just this moment of waiting decreases the addictive effect of instant gratification you typically get when you see another flood of likes. In effect, instant gratification is being replaced with a moment of mindfulness.

When I got Space Because You Need a Breather, the app allowed me to choose certain apps or websites I wanted space from. I chose my email, Facebook, and Instagram. Then, every time I clicked one of those apps, a screen of deep space popped up and asked me to take 1 deep breath beforeI started.

Thats literally all the app does. It makes you wait a little longer than you typically would to use an app. Because youre forced to wait for one deep breath (sometimes more), your instant gratification sensors dont get the happy rush theyre used to. After using the app multiple times with this pause, you brain will stop expecting the instant gratification. As a result, ideally, youll begin to use the app less.

One thing I noticed is that, depending on how often I used an app, the breathing pause would become even longer. This is because artificial intelligence automatically adjusts the wait time, depending on how addicted you are to an app. The more you use an app, the longer it forces you to wait.

While the app hasnt made a drastic change in my thinking or feeling about my app use in just one week, I do feel less emotionally dependent on Instagram likes. Maybe part of this is knowing that a computer program is withholding likes from me, and that ultimately, the number doesnt matter.

According to Mayberry, Dopamine Labs is one of the few if not the only company using our technology for good. Its Dopamine Labs goal to help us modify our behavior in positive ways. Space was originally blocked from the Apple app store because Apple didnt want to sell anything that made people use their phones less. Then, as Mayberry puts it, Apple decided they wanted to be on the right side of history. Now, it offers the app Space.

Kicking app addiction can be hard and it makes sense, considering how much money goes into paying companies like Dopamine Labs to keep us hooked. On my laptop, I found myself changing tabs to go to different websites rather than breathing one breath with the app because I still needed that instant gratification. Hopefully, continuing to use Space and taking more moments of mindfulness will help me snap out of that. Ive found one new app addiction, but I think its a good one.

Space is available in Apple iOS,Android, and on Chrome as an extension.

Related on Organic AuthorityDo You Have a Smartphone Addiction?5 Ways High-Tech Gadgets Ruin Your Body5 Signs Your Exercise Addiction Might Make You Obsess Over Fitness Trackers and Nutrition Apps

Lauren Krouse is an autodidact, travel addict, amateur Buddhist philosopher, and proud black lab mama. She believes in sounding her barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world Whitman-style and is frequently found writing in the woods perched on a log or reading on the coast with her belly in the sand.

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I Tried a Mindfulness App to Fight My App Addiction - Organic Authority

Jul. 4, 2017 - This June, the results of a unique survey to determine the preference for the use of paper over digital communications were released after a yearlong process that involved the input of more than 7,000 consumers across 10 countries.

The survey, according to Two Sides, concludes that there is a clear preference for print on paper across all countries and regions analyzed. It found that 85 to 89 per cent of respondents agree, that when forests are responsibly managed, it is environmentally acceptable to use trees to produce products such as wood for construction and paper for printing. In the same vein, 88 to 91 per cent of respondents agreed that, when responsibly produced, used and recycled, print and paper can be a sustainable way to communicate.

These findings may also be partially explained by neuroscientific studies that have shown that our brains have a much more emotional and meaningful connection when we read on paper versus screens, wrote Two Sides Phil Riebel. Another neuroscience study was recently commissioned by Canada Post to illustrate the attractiveness of direct mail over online and email advertising.

A Bias For Action, produced by True Impact Marketing, used brain imaging and eye-tracking technologies to see into the brains of people interacting with physical (direct mail) and digital (email, display) advertising media. The researchers developed two integrated campaigns featuring mock brands, applying the same creative and messaging across both physical and digital media formats. The 270 participants were later given memory tests to assess their recall of branded material.

True Impact Marketing found that it takes 21 per cent less thought to process direct mail over digital messaging, and that the paper product creates a 70 per cent higher brand recall. Researchers found the motivation response created by direct mail is 20 per cent higher and even better if it appeals to senses beyond touch, such as smell and hearing. They also found direct mail gets the message across faster, explaining that our brains process paper media quicker than digital media.

Physical fills a much-needed, and very human, sensory deficit in the virtual world, where we spend most of our time these days...The most important renaissance in advertising has gone largely unnoticed, wrote Deepak Chopra, Canada Post president and CEO in a guest editorial column for The Globe and Mail. In their race to find the next big breakthrough, marketers didnt stop to realize that paper catalogues and marketing mail are emerging as an effective tool, even to engage digital natives. If there is one thing Steve Jobs taught us well, it is that customers dont always know what they really want. You have to figure it out for them.

This column was originally published in the Summer 2017 issue of Pulp & Paper Canada.

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The neuroscience of paper emotions - Pulp & Paper Canada

AdNews has partnered with Neuro-Insight to bring an analysis of some of this year's winning Cannes work to understand what it is that made them successful through a neuroscience lens.

Sex sells, but are consumers still buying the narrative? Following Coca-Colas Pool Boy ad winning at Cannes, the analysts and Neuro-Insight wanted to find out. So what can the brain tell us about brand effectiveness? And what is our subconscious response to the ad?

Coca-Cola Pool Boy

Coca-Colas Pool Boy ad by Santo, received a Bronze Lion award in the creative category this year at Cannes. Launched in Australia early may, as part of the Taste the Feeling global campaign, the ad narrates a brother and sister racing to offer a Pool boy a bottle of Coca-Cola to ultimately find that their mother beat them to it. The combination of creative style, diversity, humour and story telling aid in the overall entertainment of the ad, but what does this mean in terms of brand effectiveness? As a part of Neuro-Insights partnership with AdNews for the sixth year running; NIs Cannes on the Brain series, unlocks via neuroscience, the subconscious response to this lovable ad.

How we did it

Neuro-Insight measured brain activity to see how 50 females and 50 males responded to the ad. The specific technology used by Neuro-Insight is founded in work originally developed for academic and neuroscience research, and has been used to analyse the effectiveness of Cannes award winners for over four years. The technology allows us to simultaneously record viewers second-by-second changes in approach (like)/withdraw (dislike), emotional intensity, engagement and memory whilst watching advertisements. The measure Neuro-Insight predominantly focusses on is Long-term Memory Encoding, based on its strong and highly researched link to actual consumer behaviour. This measure reveals, second by second, what the brain is storing (or encoding) into conscious and unconscious long-term memory and is plotted in the form of a time series graph. The higher the lines on the graph, the more strongly that moment in the ad is stored in memory and the more likely it is to influence consumer behaviour.

Time Series

Below is Neuro-Insights video timeseries showing how viewers brains respond to the Pool Boy ad. Immediately, you can see multiple strong peaks in long term memory encoding (NIs key indicator for ad effectiveness). This suggests that information processed at these moments, has been effectively encoded into memory. We also see a fairly even balance in the way viewers process the information of the ad, as indicated by the red and blue trace. The red trace corresponds with memory encoding from the left hemisphere, which is primarily responsible for the encoding of the detail in experiences, such as text, dialogue or micro features. In contrast the right hemisphere, which is represented by the blue line, is responsible with the storing of global elements, such as soundtracks, scenery and broad themes, as well as the emotional underpinnings of a particular experience.

Long term memory encoding for all viewers

Early in the ad we see two powerfully encoded scenes (see highlighted sections below), at this point in the ad viewers are introduced to the admiring sister as she as looks longingly out the window to the pool boy. Cleverly integrated, in both of these scenes, lies the iconic Coca-Cola bottle. Whilst the different creative elements have ensued an effective memory encoding response, the branding has successfully linked itself to the narrative and stored into viewers memory. As well as memory encoding, NI also evaluate viewers engagement ( a measure associated with personal relevance and relatability) and emotional intensity (relating to the strength of emotion being experienced). As indicated by the peak in engagement, it appears viewers respond to the sister daydreaming out of her window with high relatability and relevance this highlights the effective way in which Coca-Cola have engaged viewers in an everyday kind of moment. This response reflects objectives mentioned by Lisa Winn, Coca-Cola South Pacific marketing director, whom has stated As a brand we are constantly looking for ways to keep our work fresh, exciting and engaging to our consumers. We do this by tapping into everyday moments and telling universal stories that connect with our consumers around the world.

Rather incredibly, the strongest elicited response occurs as the brother and sister meet at the fridge with the Coca-Cola bottles clearly presented in the foreground. The Coca-Cola iconography is yet again, effectively stored in viewers long-term memory encoding. Shortly after this powerful moment, we see a drop in viewers responses, indicative of a phenomenon called Conceptual Closure. Conceptual Closure occurs when the brain perceives an event boundary (i.e a narrative sequence has come to an end), the brain then takes a brief period to process and store the previous experience (i.e the brain takes a break). In this case, it appears that viewers process the notion that both the brother and sister seek-out the Coca-Cola bottle as the solution to gaining the attention of the pool boy. The Conceptual Closure occurrence is not viewed as bad thing, as the dynamic and humorous story telling recaptures viewers high levels of processing.

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As viewers follow the entertaining battle to the pool boy, with the brother and sister grasping their Coca-Cola bottles, wee see high levels of memory encoding, engagement and emotional intensity (see below). As the brother and sister ultimately discover their mother has beat them to it and delivered the Coca-Cola bottle, we see a drop in processing again suggesting Conceptual Closure. Viewers are met with the humorous twist and end to the story. The ad concludes with the emerging Coca-Cola branding logo, successfully retriggering viewers memory encoding for the final time. NIs analysis is able to objectively showcase the effectiveness of creativity and branding, and how an entertaining and dynamic narrative has effectively and emotively communicated the Coca-Cola brand.

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

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Applying neuroscience to Cannes-winning work: Coca-Cola Pool Boy - AdNews

The Thinker Girls meet with a dating coach to get the dating 101.

This is fine. Its actually how were programmed to interact.

GETTING frustrated with your significant other is not just excusable, its human nature.

In fact, if we went all natural and followed our instincts, the more time we spent with a person and the closer we got, the closer wed get to killing them.

This is the comforting advice of psychobiological relationship expert Stan Tatkin, who is visiting Australia from his California based PACT institute.

Getting on each others nerves is completely natural. Whats natural is that we kill each other, he says bluntly.

If were not doing that, then were thinking and planning and were predicting behaviour, but to do that, we really have to pay attention, and thats where problems can arise as you get close when two people are in a relationship.

As Dr Tatkin explains, the killer instinct and negativity bias that each of our brains are built on can rear their heads in every interaction we have, but were less likely to be able to consistently suppress them while in a close romantic relationship. This happens when we stop thinking and considering every move, and our interactions become automated.

Everything we do, we learn, is like bicycle riding, and that includes relationships. So while at the beginning every move is considered, after a while automation takes over, Dr Tatkin says.

Automation happens fairly soon in the beginning of a relationship because before that kicks in we are addicted to the person, we feel like were on drugs that override everything else.

After that we get on each others nerves because, really, all people are annoying and difficult, but theres a line that can be crossed, and when we cross that line from annoying to threatening, thats something that becomes a problem.

Dr Tatkin says while automation is good for most things we do, its not a good thing for relationships because it means we stop thinking and let the primal, animal part of our brains take over.

Our brains are whats to blame for that constant bickering and getting on each others nerves, but its up[ to us to understand it to make our relationships better. Picture: ThinkStockSource:News Limited

The invention of religion an social contracts is a way to get around that in society, so that people get along without killing each other, he explains.

Since a couple is the smallest unit of society you can have, they also have to come up with the same ideas, they have to come up with the shared principles of governance so that they dont kill each other.

So in order to outsmart our always automating animal brains, Dr Tatkin says its important, even essential, that people in a relationship develop some understanding of how their and their partners brains work.

Everyone is listening to all sorts of voices in the atmosphere and most of them are misleading and it would help if people understood what is normal and forgivable instead of pathologising and blaming, but also becoming better at being a human being, he says.

Without being sappy, these all go towards loving people rather than disliking them.

According to Dr Tatkin, the only way around wanting to be at each others throats is with presence and attention.

He says when (not if) you get into a disagreement with your partner, you should discuss it face-to-face and eye-to-eye at a relatively close distance.

One mast always remain friendly or express friendliness even in the middle of a fight, and be committed to taking care of yourself and taking care of each other at the same time.

We go eye-to-eye, face-to-face, because we are visual animals the only way to crack each other is to look in the others eyes, Dr Tatkin says.

When you see mammals rough and tumble in play, theyre always locking eyes with one another, but when theyre at war, theyre not.

And, he says, its important to remember not to be too hard on ourselves or our partners when we get on each others nerves.

Its important to remember that as a species we hate anything we cant handle, and in a relationship we start to realise, even though I picked you, there are parts of you that I hate and I still cant manage them. Thats always going to happen.

Stan Tatkin is a keynote speaker at the APS College of Clinical Psychologists in Brisbane 30 June 2 July.

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Neuroscience and relationships: How understand your partner's ... - NEWS.com.au

By Aparna M Sridhar

When astrophysicist and accomplished classical vocalist Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University listens to music as she tackles some of the most complex problems in cosmology, it is not to get into a mood. It is beyond that it is to get into a mode of thinking.

Bengaluru-based triathlete Anu Vaidyanathan, who finished sixth in the punishing Ultraman Canada Triathlon in 2013, has learnt Carnatic vocal and violin. She says music taught her to negate performance-inhibiting feelings like fear and fatigue, and create discipline in the way we frame our day and our problems.

For many who may think music therapy as something to do with how this raga is good for this and that raga is good for that, the cognitive or neuroscientific vocabulary in which the above feelings are expressed should come as a revelation.

Carnatic musician and neuroscientist Dr Deepti Navaratna, executive director (southern region) of the Indira Gandhi National Council for the Arts (IGNCA), and a former Harvard University professor, says that in the Indian tradition a considerable amount of empirical musicology has gone into studying the cognitive impact of swara (notes), sruti (pitch) and laya (rhythm), in their different forms and variations.

Its another matter that now there is hardly any neuroscientific exploration of music therapy in India, capitalising on the inherent strengths of classical music.

There is very little empirical experiment in Indian classical music these days. Starting from texts dealing with Sankhya philosophy to the Natyashastra to the more recent lakshanagranthas in music like Swaramelakalanidhi (written by Ramamatya of the Vijayanagar empire in 1550), the psychological impact of musical concepts has been clearly worked out, says Navaratna.

Healing Process That the mind is as powerful as the body in the healing process is universally accepted. To the best of my knowledge, while research data on active clinical use of Indian classical music in the past is limited, there are a lot of references to Raaga Chikitsa and the usage of certain ragas as adjuvants to ayurvedic therapy. Music as alternate/adjuvant therapy to aid clinical intervention is identifiable in our music practices, she says.

Taking rasa (emotion) as the main point, the dominant take on music therapy in India has been to use ragas to heal. There is a large body of literature dealing with Raaga Chikitsa, which looks at certain intervals and modes being able to produce certain outcomes.

Navaratna says that by the time Natyashastra was formalised circa 200 BCE (Natyashastra reflected contemporary thinking on this matter, in its era), the psychological impact of certain melodic structures/rhythmic patterns was worked out to the level of being able to prescribe one-jati (raga precursor) to one rasa.

In a recent electroencephalography (EEG) study on the impact of Indian classical music, especially of Hindustani ragas on individuals, Dr Shantala Hegde, assistant professor, neuropsychology unit, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, says that after listening to Hindustani ragas, 20 musically untrained subjects showed increased overall positive brain wave frequency power, higher even than that in highly relaxed meditative states.

Listening to certain ragas, for example Desi-Todi, for 30 minutes every day for 20 days, has been shown to produce a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, and to enhance feelings of life satisfaction, experience of hope and optimism, says Hegde.

She notes, however, that music therapy is now moving from a social-science model focusing on overall health and well-being towards a neuroscience model focusing on specific elements of music and its effect on sensorimotor, language and cognitive functions.

The handful of evidence-based music therapy studies on psychiatric conditions have shown promising results. Traditional music, such as Indian classical music, has only recently been evaluated in evidencebased research into music therapy, says Hegde.

Navaratna says the key difference between studying music cognition in a brain imaging laboratory and studying it in a social sciences lab is that in the former you are looking at music not as the process but as the final outcome and most of the orientations to music therapy follow that ontological direction. In a social sciences lab, you would look at music as a product of a culture. There is a very inextricably bound relationship in the music and the cultural values that it harbours, and those are equally important for someone studying cognition.

You have to study music as culture and not as a synthetically separated thing. Empirical studies on the brains of people learning Indian classical music are very few, since the focus is on healing and treatment efficacy. Says Navaratna: There are very few studies on brains that function very well. What is happening in the brains of the people who are using their brains extraordinarily well? If you study that, then you may actually be in a better place to come up with therapeutic practices for brains that might not be up to speed.

There are many aspects of Carnatic music from an alapana (form of melodic improvisation that introduces and develops a raga) to a neraval (when the artiste takes a line from a composition and sings this line over and over, with a new variation each time) that reveal the potential for research in the Carnatic idiom. An alapana is the result of a lot of what we call embodied knowledge.

We have to look at different processes of the mind implicit memory, executive control and so on. The questions that I would formulate would be what are the kinds of memory involved in the Carnatic performance, how much of the material that people use in their alapana is actually novel and how much of that is learnt from compositions? asks Navaratna.

Sound of Music Any cognitive study of the classical music mind has to study the source of that creativity. How does a Carnatic or Hindustani musician create novel phrases? If one were to ask a musician how they do a swarakalpana (raga improvisation within a particular tala), they will probably say that its the product of years of saadhana, and that it does not involve thinking actively on stage. There is a certain muscle memory that kicks in from having sung swarakalpanas some 40,000 times. The moment you are doing it, creativity happens in a very different way. It happens from many unconscious processes of the mind, says Navaratna.

Similarly when one is doing a neraval, one has to deal with several structures and constraints, keeping the tala and the laya, and using the prosodic structure well. You cannot break phrases in the wrong places, the emotion has to be kept alive and you have to orbit that line of the krithi to higher and higher levels of emotional charge, while you are also doing a lot of mathematical manipulations that involve daunting mental processes. If we know how the brain works in such complex situations, then you may be able to apply that in learning disabilities, adds Navaratna.

Dr Geetha R Bhat, a child mental health practitioner and veena player, engages with what she calls music intelligence in her work with both normal and special children. She says due to its multi-sensory demands, classical music contributes to helping children learn how to both process and react to sensory stimulation.

The coordination of rhythm (tala and laya) along with the melodies (raga) is a combined complex activity which engages both hemispheres of the brain. Sanak Kumar Athreya and his wife Dr Sowmya Sanak have started the Svarakshema Foundation, an initiative focused on reviving Indian music therapy. Athreya believes that Indian classical music has innumerable components of music, each standardised, structured and easily adaptable to a therapeutic module. However, the components for therapy are different from those that are useful in a stage performance. Performing something complex on stage is attractive, but in therapy one has to break the music down into components that are useful, and therefore not many musicians are drawn to it.

Athreya is an advocate of using the ancient art form of Konnakkol for therapy. Konnakkol is the art of performing percussion syllables vocally in Carnatic music. The fast movement of syllables in rhythmic cycles creates interest among children. When we are treating children with special needs, especially autism, we observe that more than any other constituent of music, fast recitation of Konnakkol instantly attracts their attention, and creates an ambience for therapy. The practice of this art form in its authentic tradition is as good as alternative speech therapy.

For instance if a child has a problem saying th reciting tha ka | tha ki da | tha ka thi mi motivates the child to learn the sound. Konnakkol helps in enhancing memory and developing cognition among children.

Konnakkol is an effective tool in behaviour management too. Many children with special needs are prone to mood-swings, anxiety and meltdowns. Irrespective of the childs interest in music or ability to perform pieces, selective compositions of Konnakkol act as an earthing point, quickly defusing the situation, says Athreya.

It is not about teaching Konnakkol to children, but about using the practices in Konnakkol to initiate learning in other spheres, stresses Athreya. The creative aspect of Indian music where one is producing new patterns all the time helps in opening up new neural pathways, and in some cases of Alzheimers and dementia, it can be more beneficial than learning a new language, he notes.

It is clearly important to move beyond the simplistic stimulus-response model, which reduces music therapy to just mood improvement or marginal cognitive impetus. Music is capable of a much more creative and transformative partnership with the brain.

The writer is the editor of Saamagaana: The First Melody, a magazine on classical music.

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How neuroscience is reinventing music therapy - Economic Times