The Trump administration argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that federal law protects transgender employees does not apply to transgender athletes in school.

The state's supreme court ruled that it is not its role to tell the legislature how to spend its money, ending a 24-year school-funding battle.

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Monday that schools will be required to remain open despite the rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, arguing lockdowns and closures have not worked.

Teachers across the state are outraged over a new rule that requires 15 hours of workforce-related professional development.

In the aftermath of last month’s killing of an unarmed Minneapolis man in police custody, school systems are re-examining their own contracts with local police agencies.

Wyoming once again takes the top spot in Quality Counts' annual ranking of the states on school finance, while 22 states receive grades between C-minus and D-minus.

The 30-year-old had only played 13 games this season.

Zack Ostapchuk returns to Belleville after posting one assist in six games with the big club.

Kyle Connor could be the NHL's most underrated player, even after the Winnipeg Jets got off to a historic start. He could also become a bona fide star at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

In Kodiak, Alaska, a school district with deep ties to the U.S. Coast Guard has been walloped by the government shutdown with hundreds of families going without paychecks. And news of a deal to temporarily reopen the government was doing little to allay the community's anxieties.

Where did Georgia land in the latest CFP bracket and rankings? Here’s the College Football Playoff picture for the Bulldogs and path to championship.

How did the Miami and Georgia losses impact the CFP rankings in their second release?

The second College Football Playoff rankings dropped on Tuesday night with Oregon retaining its status as the No. 1 team in the country ahead of No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Texas. College Football Playoff:

The second College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings were revealed on Tuesday and the now-7-2

Georgia football tumbled nine spots in the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday and fell out of the 12-team bracket. What committee chair said

The CFP's annual love affair with the SEC appears finished. The latest rankings dropped a hammer on the mighty league where "it just means more."

The Big Ten dominated the latest edition of the College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings, with the conference claiming four of the top five slots in the new standings revealed Tuesday night.

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

Academic and health offerings have increased in McDowell County, W.Va., due to a private-public partnership.

In the aftermath of last month’s killing of an unarmed Minneapolis man in police custody, school systems are re-examining their own contracts with local police agencies.

Purdue women's basketball suffered its first defeat of the season on Sunday night as No. 6 Notre Dame came into Mackey Arena and handed the Boilermakers a 102-58 loss. The Boilermakers have now lost nine straight games to the Fighting Irish, since taking a 14-5 lead in the series back in 2005. The in-state rivalry was halted, playing just once between 2012 and 2023, but the Fighting Irish resumed their success over the Boilermakers in each of the last two seasons.

Dazzling first with a relentless hawking defense that helped force 22 turnovers, then adding an almost frantic-paced offensive assault, the 2-0 No. 6-ranked Irish overwhelmed Purdue (1-1), 102-58, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. Dynamo guard Hannah Hidalgo was slapping, diving and picking pockets all night, making life miserable for any Boilermaker stuck bringing the ball up the floor. ► Snap Counts: Here's who played for Notre Dame football against Florida St.

ATHENS, Ga. — With five players scoring in double-figures, the Georgia Lady Bulldogs defeated Furman, 74-46, on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Stegeman Coliseum. Fast Facts * Sunday’s matchup marked the 14th-straight year that Georgia and Furman have met during the regular season. The Lady Dogs lead the series 21-0, which includes a 17-0 record at home. * The Lady Dogs went on a 14-0 run at the ...

Players and coaches said they had a good time playing in the Queen City.

Jacy Sheldon and Katie Smith are both returning to their alma mater to join the staff ran by Kevin McGuff.

The No. 4 Texas Longhorns kicked off their season with a 119-47 win over Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) on Sunday at Moody Center. This victory marked Texas' 13th consecutive home opener win, establishing a strong start to the 2024-2

Nov. 12—THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' women's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, and total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking. Rk., Team ReC. Pts Prv 1. South Carolina (31) 2-0 775 1 2. Connecticut 2-0 733 2 3. Southern Cal 2-0 703 3 4. Texas 1-0 665 4 ...

LSU women's basketball bucked a bit of a slow start to blowout Charleston Southern Tuesday morning.

The Lady Vols beat Middle Tennessee 89-75 on Tuesday at Food City Center. Talaysia Cooper led Tennessee with 18 points

Iowa isn't just replacing a generational scoring talent this season. The Hawkeyes also lost their coach and several other pieces from a team that made back-to-back national championship games.

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 ...

Laura Medlock
Apr 13, 2022; 42:3133-3149
Systems/Circuits

Nora D. Volkow
Dec 1, 2001; 21:9414-9418
Behavioral

Evdokia Menelaou
Aug 8, 2012; 32:10925-10939
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Uri Hasson
Mar 5, 2008; 28:2539-2550
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Yulia Lerner
Feb 23, 2011; 31:2906-2915
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.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (ADRDs) are broad-impact multifactorial neurodegenerative diseases. Their complexity presents unique challenges for developing effective therapies. This review highlights research presented at the 2024 Society for Neuroscience meeting which emphasized the gut microbiome's role in AD pathogenesis by influencing brain function and neurodegeneration through the microbiota–gut–brain axis. This emerging evidence underscores the potential for targeting the gut microbiota to treat AD/ADRD.

Reelin, a secreted glycoprotein, plays a crucial role in guiding neocortical neuronal migration, dendritic outgrowth and arborization, and synaptic plasticity in the adult brain. Reelin primarily operates through the canonical lipoprotein receptors apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (Apoer2) and very low-density lipoprotein receptor (Vldlr). Reelin also engages with noncanonical receptors and unidentified coreceptors; however, the effects of which are less understood. Using high-throughput tandem mass tag (TMT) liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we identified both shared and unique intracellular pathways activated by Reelin through its canonical and noncanonical signaling in primary murine neurons of either sex during dendritic growth and arborization. We observed pathway cross talk related to regulation of cytoskeleton, neuron projection development, protein transport, and actin filament-based process. We also found enriched gene sets exclusively by the noncanonical Reelin pathway including protein translation, mRNA metabolic process, and ribonucleoprotein complex biogenesis suggesting Reelin fine-tunes neuronal structure through distinct signaling pathways. A key discovery is the identification of aldolase A, a glycolytic enzyme and actin-binding protein, as a novel effector of Reelin signaling. Reelin induced de novo translation and mobilization of aldolase A from the actin cytoskeleton. We demonstrated that aldolase A is necessary for Reelin-mediated dendrite growth and arborization in primary murine neurons and mouse brain cortical neurons. Interestingly, the function of aldolase A in dendrite development is independent of its known role in glycolysis. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the Reelin-dependent signaling pathways and effector proteins that are crucial for dendritic development.

We used virus-mediated anterograde and retrograde tracing, optogenetic modulation, immunostaining, in situ hybridization, and patch-clamp recordings in acute brain slices to study the release mechanism and μ-opioid modulation of the dual glutamatergic/GABAergic inputs from the ventral tegmental area and supramammillary nucleus to the granule cells of the dorsal hippocampus of male and female mice. In keeping with previous reports showing that the two transmitters are released by separate active zones within the same terminals, we found that the short-term plasticity and pharmacological modulation of the glutamatergic and GABAergic currents are indistinguishable. We further found that glutamate and GABA release at these synapses are both virtually completely mediated by N- and P/Q-type calcium channels. We then investigated μ-opioid modulation of these synapses and found that activation of μ-opioid receptors (MORs) strongly inhibits the glutamate and GABA release, mostly through inhibition of presynaptic N-type channels. However, the modulation by MORs of these dual synapses is complex, as it likely includes also a disinhibition due to downmodulation of local GABAergic interneurons which make direct axo-axonic contacts with the dual glutamatergic/GABAergic terminals. We discuss how this opioid modulation may enhance LTP at the perforant path inputs, potentially contributing to reinforce memories of drug-associated contexts.

Dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) have been repeatedly implicated in neuropsychiatric vulnerability, in part via their roles in mediating the decision-making processes. Although two neuromodulators share a synthesis pathway and are coactivated under states of arousal, they engage in distinct circuits and modulatory roles. However, the specific role of each neuromodulator in decision-making, in particular the exploration–exploitation tradeoff, remains unclear. Revealing how each neuromodulator contributes to exploration–exploitation tradeoff is important in guiding mechanistic hypotheses emerging from computational psychiatric approaches. To understand the differences and overlaps of the roles of these two catecholamine systems in regulating exploration, a direct comparison using the same dynamic decision-making task is needed. Here, we ran male and female mice in a restless two-armed bandit task, which encourages both exploration and exploitation. We systemically administered a nonselective DA antagonist (flupenthixol), a nonselective DA agonist (apomorphine), a NE beta-receptor antagonist (propranolol), and a NE beta-receptor agonist (isoproterenol) and examined changes in exploration within subjects across sessions. We found a bidirectional modulatory effect of dopamine on exploration. Increasing dopamine activity decreased exploration and decreasing dopamine activity increased exploration. The modulatory effect of beta-noradrenergic receptor activity on exploration was mediated by sex. Reinforcement learning model parameters suggested that dopamine modulation affected exploration via decision noise and norepinephrine modulation affected exploration via sensitivity to outcome. Together, these findings suggested that the mechanisms that govern the exploration–exploitation transition are sensitive to changes in both catecholamine functions and revealed differential roles for NE and DA in mediating exploration.

Odor information arrives first in the main olfactory bulb and is then broadcasted to the olfactory cortices and striatum. Downstream regions have unique cellular and connectivity architectures that may generate different coding patterns to the same odors. To reveal region-specific response features, tuning and decoding of single-unit populations, we recorded responses to the same odors under the same conditions across regions, namely, the main olfactory bulb (MOB), the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON), the anterior piriform cortex (aPC), and the olfactory tubercle of the ventral striatum (OT), of awake male mice. We focused on chemically closely related aldehydes that still create distinct percepts. The MOB had the highest decoding accuracy for aldehydes and was the only region encoding chemical similarity. The MOB had the highest fraction of inhibited responses and narrowly tuned odor-excited responses in terms of timing and odor selectivity. Downstream, the interconnected AON and aPC differed in their response patterns to the same stimuli. While odor-excited responses dominated the AON, the aPC had a comparably high fraction of odor-inhibited responses. Both cortices share a main output target that is the MOB. This prompted us to test if the two regions convey also different net outputs. Aldehydes activated AON terminals in the MOB as a bulk signal but inhibited those from the aPC. The differential cortical projection responses generalized to complex odors. In summary, olfactory regions reveal specialized features in their encoding with AON and aPC differing in their local computations, thereby generating inverse net centrifugal and intercortical outputs.

Representatives of all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have gathered here this week to agree on the actions needed to definitively eradicate hunger in the region before 2025. [...]

Prince Laurent of Belgium was today appointed FAO Special Ambassador for Forests and the Environment.

The announcement was made by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva at the Organization’s Committee on [...]

Just announced by the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean Countries (GRULAC)

The Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) of FAO in Rome is pleased to endorse the [...]