“Vaccines are a choice and people have the choice and will have the choice in this state as to whether or not they should take that vaccine,” the governor said.

Teacher-evaluation reforms in places like New Mexico, Tennessee, Denver, and the District of Columbia have paid off, says the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Tennessee improved its teacher evaluation and training systems by integrating data and teacher voice, according to a new report. But value-added measures that evaluate teachers based on student test scores remain controversial.

“Vaccines are a choice and people have the choice and will have the choice in this state as to whether or not they should take that vaccine,” the governor said.

The blessings of season to you all! We will be back in the New Year. Christmas thoughts follow.

Building science lessons around phenomena that students know equally and can see in their own lives is making the subject more relevant and interesting.

Georgia wants to allow districts to use a series of "formative assessments" instead of one big test at the end of the year.

States are developing new forms of assessment, including assessments of learning and assessments for learning.

The state will be allowed to use competency-based tests developed by local and state officials, trying them out with a handful of districts in lieu of statewide tests.

The pilot, which was initially one of the most buzzed about pieces of ESSA, allows states to try out new forms of testing in a handful of districts, with the goal of eventually taking them statewide.

The search for Missouri's next top education official has begun nearly 10 months after the last one was fired. The state board of education began accepting applications last week.

The Vancouver Canucks take on the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

The Winnipeg Jets claimed Kaapo Kahkonen off waivers from the Avalanche on Tuesday afternoon

The Calgary Flames' fifth game in eight nights and three time zones was a tough one they need to learn from

The principal of an elementary school in Washington, DC, describes how she and her staff broadened the focus of the school towards broader, more holistic goals for students.

Unless students are randomly assigned to teachers, it's unfair to label teachers.

Tennessee won easily over Mississippi State. Indiana and BYU won nail-biters. So why did they jump over the Vols? We asked the CFP committee chair.

But some Democrats say that could make the selection process more political.

Nearly 45 percent of children in rural McDowell County, West Virginia do not live with their parents and many are being raised by grandparents.

The legislature sent a proposal last week to Gov. Jim Justice's desk to shutter the state's advisory education and the arts department, leaving the Gayle Manchin and her staff in the lurch.

Marie Pino, who taught generations of children in her Navajo community, died at 67. She had lost one of her sons, a school basketball coach, to coronavirus-related illness just weeks before; her husband, an emergency medical coordinator and pastor, died of the illness shortly after she did.

The state's decision indicates that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' push on COVID-19 and private school students is having an affect.

FSU women's basketball improves to 2-1 after a dominating victory over FAMU on Monday.

It was Louisville women's basketball vs UT Martin at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center. See score updates and highlights from the road clash.

Nov. 12—The Gonzaga women's basketball team has much to learn after a challenging loss at Stanford on Sunday. Losses have a way of exposing a team's shortcomings. And there is much to learn from the worst loss (89-58) in coach Lisa Fortier's 11 seasons. Stanford, unranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 1999-2000, is unranked no more. The Cardinal (3-0) entered at No. 24 in the ...

Donna M. Wilcock
May 1, 2003; 23:3745-3751
Development Plasticity Repair

Mahsa Altafi
Oct 23, 2024; 44:e0518242024-e0518242024
Systems/Circuits

Michele Deodato
Oct 2, 2024; 44:e2308232024-e2308232024
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Hannah Grotzinger
May 29, 2024; 44:e1856232024-e1856232024
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Mitchell G. Spring
Oct 9, 2024; 44:e0602242024-e0602242024
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

John M. Beggs
Dec 3, 2003; 23:11167-11177
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

During adolescence, cannabis experimentation is common, and its association with interindividual variations in brain maturation well studied. Cellular and molecular underpinnings of these system-level relationships are, however, unclear. We thus conducted a three-step study. First, we exposed adolescent male mice to -9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or a synthetic cannabinoid WIN 55,212-2 (WIN) and assessed differentially expressed genes (DEGs), spine numbers, and dendritic complexity in their frontal cortex. Second, in human (male) adolescents, we examined group differences in cortical thickness in 34 brain regions, using magnetic resonance imaging, between those who experimented with cannabis before age 16 (n = 140) and those who did not (n = 327). Finally, we correlated spatially these group differences with gene expression of human homologs of mouse-identified DEGs. The spatial expression of 13 THC-related human homologs of DEGs correlated with cannabis-related variations in cortical thickness, and virtual histology revealed coexpression patterns of these 13 genes with cell-specific markers of astrocytes, microglia, and a type of pyramidal cells enriched in dendrite-regulating genes. Similarly, the spatial expression of 18 WIN-related human homologs of DEGs correlated with group differences in cortical thickness and showed coexpression patterns with the same three cell types. Gene ontology analysis indicated that 37 THC-related human homologs are enriched in neuron projection development, while 33 WIN-related homologs are enriched in processes associated with learning and memory. In mice, we observed spine loss and lower dendritic complexity in pyramidal cells of THC-exposed animals (vs controls). Experimentation with cannabis during adolescence may influence cortical thickness by impacting glutamatergic synapses and dendritic arborization.

Serotonin modulates diverse phenotypes and functions including depressive, aggressive, impulsive, and feeding behaviors, all of which have reward-related components. To date, research has focused on understanding these effects by measuring and manipulating dorsal raphe serotonin neurons and using single-receptor approaches. These studies have led to a better understanding of the heterogeneity of serotonin actions on behavior; however, they leave open many questions about the timing and location of serotonin's actions modulating the neural circuits that drive these behaviors. Recent advances in genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors, including the GPCR activation-based sensor for serotonin (GRAB-5-HT), enable the measurement of serotonin release in mice on a timescale compatible with a single rewarding event without corelease confounds. Given substantial evidence from slice electrophysiology experiments showing that serotonin influences neural activity of the striatal circuitry, and the known role of the dorsal medial striatal (DMS) in reward-directed behavior, we focused on understanding the parameters and timing that govern serotonin release in the DMS in the context of reward consumption, external reward value, internal state, and cued reward. Overall, we found that serotonin release is associated with each of these and encodes reward anticipation, value, approach, and consumption in the DMS.

Sleep is known to drive the consolidation of motor memories. During nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, the close temporal proximity between slow oscillations (SOs) and spindles ("nesting" of SO-spindles) is known to be essential for consolidation, likely because it is closely associated with the reactivation of awake task activity. Interestingly, recent work has found that spindles can occur in temporal clusters or "trains." However, it remains unclear how spindle trains are related to the nesting phenomenon. Here, we hypothesized that spindle trains are more likely when SOs co-occur in the prefrontal and motor cortex. We conducted simultaneous neural recordings in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and primary motor cortex (M1) of male rats training on the reach-to-grasp motor task. We found that intracortically recorded M1 spindles are organized into distinct temporal clusters. Notably, the occurrence of temporally precise SOs between mPFC and M1 was a strong predictor of spindle trains. Moreover, reactivation of awake task patterns is much more persistent during spindle trains in comparison with that during isolated spindles. Together, our work suggests that the precise coupling of SOs across mPFC and M1 may be a potential driver of spindle trains and persistent reactivation of motor memory during NREM sleep.

Neural circuits supporting innate behaviors, such as feeding, exploration, and social interaction, intermingle in the lateral hypothalamus (LH). Although previous studies have shown that individual LH neurons change their firing relative to the baseline during one or more behaviors, the firing rate dynamics of LH populations within behavioral episodes and the coordination of behavior-related LH populations remain largely unknown. Here, using unsupervised graph-based clustering of LH neurons firing rate dynamics in freely behaving male mice, we identified distinct populations of cells whose activity corresponds to feeding, specific times during feeding bouts, or other innate behaviors—social interaction and novel object exploration. Feeding-related cells fired together with a higher probability during slow and fast gamma oscillations (30–60 and 60–90 Hz) than during nonrhythmic epochs. In contrast, the cofiring of neurons signaling other behaviors than feeding was overall similar between slow gamma and nonrhythmic epochs but increased during fast gamma oscillations. These results reveal a neural organization of ethological hierarchies in the LH and point to behavior-specific motivational systems, the dysfunction of which may contribute to mental disorders.

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have associated intronic variants in PDE4B, encoding cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B), with increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as schizophrenia and substance use disorders that are often comorbid with it. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms of genetic risk involving PDE4B are poorly understood. To examine the effects of PDE4B variation on phenotypes with translational relevance to psychiatric disorders, we focused on PDE4B missense variant M220T, which is present in the human genome as rare coding variant rs775201287. When expressed in HEK-293 cells, PDE4B1-M220T exhibited an attenuated response to a forskolin-elicited increase in the intracellular cAMP concentration. In behavioral tests, homozygous Pde4b^M220T male mice with a C57BL/6JJcl background exhibited increased reactivity to novel environments, startle hyperreactivity, prepulse inhibition deficits, altered cued fear conditioning, and enhanced spatial memory, accompanied by an increase in cAMP signaling pathway-regulated expression of BDNF in the hippocampus. In response to a traumatic event (10 tone–shock pairings), neuronal activity was decreased in the cortex but enhanced in the amygdala and hippocampus of Pde4b^M220T mice. At 24 h post-trauma, Pde4b^M220T mice exhibited increased startle hyperreactivity and decreased plasma corticosterone levels, similar to phenotypes exhibited by PTSD patients. Trauma-exposed Pde4b^M220T mice also exhibited a slower decay in freezing at 15 and 30 d post-trauma, demonstrating enhanced persistence of traumatic memories, similar to that exhibited by PTSD patients. These findings provide substantive mouse model evidence linking PDE4B variation to PTSD-relevant phenotypes and thus highlight how genetic variation of PDE4B may contribute to PTSD risk.

In demanding listening situations, a listener's motivational state may affect their cognitive investment. Here, we aim to delineate how domain-specific sensory processing, domain-general neural alpha power, and pupil size as a proxy for cognitive investment encode influences of motivational state under demanding listening. Participants (male and female) performed an auditory gap-detection task while the pupil size and the magnetoencephalogram were simultaneously recorded. Task demand and a listener's motivational state were orthogonally manipulated through changes in gap duration and monetary-reward prospect, respectively. Whereas task difficulty impaired performance, reward prospect enhanced it. The pupil size reliably indicated the modulatory impact of an individual's motivational state. At the neural level, the motivational state did not affect auditory sensory processing directly but impacted attentional postprocessing of an auditory event as reflected in the late evoked-response field and alpha-power change. Both pregap pupil dilation and higher parietal alpha power predicted better performance at the single-trial level. The current data support a framework wherein the motivational state acts as an attentional top–down neural means of postprocessing the auditory input in challenging listening situations.

Systemic study of pathogenic pathways and interrelationships underlying genes associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) facilitates the identification of new targets for effective treatments. Recently available large-scale multiomics datasets provide opportunities to use computational approaches for such studies. Here, we devised a novel disease gene identification (digID) computational framework that consists of a semi-supervised deep learning classifier to predict AD-associated genes and a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network-based analysis to prioritize the importance of these predicted genes in AD. digID predicted 1,529 AD-associated genes and revealed potentially new AD molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets including GNAI1 and GNB1, two G-protein subunits that regulate cell signaling, and KNG1, an upstream modulator of CDC42 small G-protein signaling and mediator of inflammation and candidate coregulator of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Analysis of mRNA expression validated their dysregulation in AD brains but further revealed the significant spatial patterns in different brain regions as well as among different subregions of the frontal cortex and hippocampi. Super-resolution STochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) further demonstrated their subcellular colocalization and molecular interactions with APP in a transgenic mouse model of both sexes with AD-like mutations. These studies support the predictions made by digID while highlighting the importance of concurrent biological validation of computationally identified gene clusters as potential new AD therapeutic targets.

Impaired inhibitory synapse development is suggested to drive neuronal hyperactivity in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and epilepsy. We propose a novel mechanism by which astrocytes control the development of parvalbumin (PV)-specific inhibitory synapses in the hippocampus, implicating ephrin-B/EphB signaling. Here, we utilize genetic approaches to assess functional and structural connectivity between PV and pyramidal cells (PCs) through whole-cell patch–clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics, immunohistochemical analysis, and behaviors in male and female mice. While inhibitory synapse development is adversely affected by PV-specific expression of EphB2, a strong candidate ASD risk gene, astrocytic ephrin-B1 facilitates PV->PC connectivity through a mechanism involving EphB signaling in PV boutons. In contrast, the loss of astrocytic ephrin-B1 reduces PV->PC connectivity and inhibition, resulting in increased seizure susceptibility and an ASD-like phenotype. Our findings underscore the crucial role of astrocytes in regulating inhibitory circuit development and discover a new role of EphB2 receptors in PV-specific inhibitory synapse development.

A paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London chronicles the age of the famous and fascinating massive reptiles

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today expressed confidence that “significant progress against hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition,” will be achieved in the next four years. He made the [...]

FAO is making publically available for the first time, a series of internal documents relating to programme and project management, among others. These documents range from the guidelines on the [...]