Marc Tucker reviews David Driscoll's new book, 'Commitment and Common Sense', and describes how the Massachusetts reforms are comparable to those in top performing education systems around the world.

Massachusetts' new performance assessment for teacher candidates helps boost readiness.

Relying on newly available data under ESSA, a local advocacy group found several districts that spend more money on wealthy students than poor students, despite the state's intentions.

The state, which earned a B-plus, led the nation in K-12 achievement rankings and outperformed other states in several key academic indicators, but fell short on funding equity.

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

The state's "Influence 100" project includes a leadership development program that will give aspiring district leaders a hands-on opportunity to work through an equity issue in their home districts.

Massachusetts is the fifth state to join the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority created through the Every Student Succeeds Act, which allows states to experiment with new forms of testing.

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

Private schools in New York soon will be required to report suspected sexual abuse of students in their schools to law enforcement, bringing the independent schools under the same rules as public schools.

Previous studies can provide a window into why math learning is taking a big hit during the pandemic, and what educators can do about it.

Data on the usage of educational technology tools can provide districts with a helpful road map for improving student engagement under remote, in-person, or hybrid learning conditions. See how school districts are using such data to make smart, strategic decisions.

A push to get dyslexia defined in state law and persuade educators to use the term has translated to new laws in 40 states.

A program that lets retired teachers keep working while collecting retirement benefits is set to expire at the end of the month.

Nephron Pharmaceuticals, a drug manufacturing company in West Columbia, S.C., recently hired 650 current and retired teachers through a new program designed to provide educators with additional income.

The study found that youth in rural New Hampshire have poor perceptions of job opportunities in the area, and are more likely to be depressed or abuse substances than other rural youth.

"I'm running because I'm not happy with the state of education," said veteran educator Kevin Leineweber, who is one of several teachers running for the state's legislature this year.

A suburban Indianapolis district is signing up teachers to drive school buses before and after their usual time in the classroom.

Data on the usage of educational technology tools can provide districts with a helpful road map for improving student engagement under remote, in-person, or hybrid learning conditions. See how school districts are using such data to make smart, strategic decisions.

With their state’s caucuses the first official marker in the 2020 presidential contest, Iowa teenagers are in a unique position to observe and participate.

Primary season is now upon us. Here are three ideas for teaching in the wake of the Iowa caucus fallout.

The West Virginia House of Delegates passed its version of a sweeping education omnibus bill, which would allow the state's first charter schools.

Data on the usage of educational technology tools can provide districts with a helpful road map for improving student engagement under remote, in-person, or hybrid learning conditions. See how school districts are using such data to make smart, strategic decisions.

A federal investigation of Chicago's failures to respond to sexual violence in schools raises troubling questions for school districts nationwide.

Onward State published a story this week that contained on-the-record comments from former Marquette players about Carolyn Kieger's coaching style.

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.

Xinying Guo
Oct 23, 2024; 44:e0727242024-e0727242024
Cellular

Prithviraj Rajebhosale
Oct 23, 2024; 44:e0063242024-e0063242024
Cellular

Tessa E.S. Charlesworth
Sep 11, 2019; 39:7228-7243
Viewpoints

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

Thalamocortical pathways from the rodent ventral posterior (VP) thalamic complex to the somatosensory cerebral cortex areas are a key model in modern neuroscience. However, beyond the intensively studied projection from medial VP (VPM) to the primary somatosensory area (S1), the wiring of these pathways remains poorly characterized. We combined micropopulation tract-tracing and single-cell transfection experiments to map the pathways arising from different portions of the VP complex in male mice. We found that pathways originating from different VP regions show differences in area/lamina arborization pattern and axonal varicosity size. Neurons from the rostral VPM subnucleus innervate trigeminal S1 in point-to-point fashion. In contrast, a caudal VPM subnucleus innervates heavily and topographically second somatosensory area (S2), but not S1. Neurons in a third, intermediate VPM subnucleus innervate through branched axons both S1 and S2, with markedly different laminar patterns in each area. A small anterodorsal subnucleus selectively innervates dysgranular S1. The parvicellular VPM subnucleus selectively targets the insular cortex and adjacent portions of S1 and S2. Neurons in the rostral part of the lateral VP nucleus (VPL) innervate spinal S1, while caudal VPL neurons simultaneously target S1 and S2. Rostral and caudal VP nuclei show complementary patterns of calcium-binding protein expression. In addition to the cortex, neurons in caudal VP subnuclei target the sensorimotor striatum. Our finding of a massive projection from VP to S2 separate from the VP projections to S1 adds critical anatomical evidence to the notion that different somatosensory submodalities are processed in parallel in S1 and S2.

Perivascular mural cells including vascular smooth cells (VSMCs) and pericytes are integral components of the vascular system. In the central nervous system (CNS), pericytes are also indispensable for the blood–brain barrier (BBB), blood–spinal cord barrier, and blood–retinal barrier and play key roles in maintaining cerebrovascular and neuronal functions. However, the functional specifications of pericytes between CNS and peripheral organs have not been resolved at the genetic and molecular levels. Hence, the generation of reliable CNS pericyte-specific models and genetic tools remains very challenging. Here, we report a new CNS pericyte marker in mice. This putative cation-transporting ATPase 13A5 (Atp13a5) marker was identified through single-cell transcriptomics, based on its specificity to brain pericytes. We further generated a knock-in model with both tdTomato reporter and Cre recombinase. Using this model to trace the distribution of Atp13a5-positive pericytes in mice, we found that the tdTomato reporter reliably labels the CNS pericytes, including the ones in spinal cord and retina but not peripheral organs. Interestingly, brain pericytes are likely shaped by the developing neural environment, as Atp13a5-positive pericytes start to appear around murine embryonic day 15 (E15) and expand along the cerebrovasculature. Thus, Atp13a5 is a specific marker of CNS pericyte lineage, and this Atp13a5-based model is a reliable tool to explore the heterogeneity of pericytes and BBB functions in health and diseases.

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.

Neuregulin1 (Nrg1) signaling is critical for neuronal development and function from fate specification to synaptic plasticity. Type III Nrg1 is a synaptic protein which engages in bidirectional signaling with its receptor ErbB4. Forward signaling engages ErbB4 phosphorylation, whereas back signaling engages two known mechanisms: (1) local axonal PI3K-AKT signaling and (2) cleavage by -secretase resulting in cytosolic release of the intracellular domain (ICD), which can traffic to the nucleus (Bao et al., 2003; Hancock et al., 2008). To dissect the contribution of these alternate signaling strategies to neuronal development, we generated a transgenic mouse with a missense mutation (V₃₂₁L) in the Nrg1 transmembrane domain that disrupts nuclear back signaling with minimal effects on forward signaling or local back signaling and was previously found to be associated with psychosis (Walss-Bass et al., 2006). We combined RNA sequencing, retroviral fate mapping of neural stem cells, behavioral analyses, and various network analyses of transcriptomic data to investigate the effect of disrupting Nrg1 nuclear back signaling in the dentate gyrus (DG) of male and female mice. The V₃₂₁L mutation impairs nuclear translocation of the Nrg1 ICD and alters gene expression in the DG. V₃₂₁L mice show reduced stem cell proliferation, altered cell cycle dynamics, fate specification defects, and dendritic dysmorphogenesis. Orthologs of known schizophrenia (SCZ)-susceptibility genes were dysregulated in the V₃₂₁L DG. These genes coordinated a larger network with other dysregulated genes. Weighted gene correlation network analysis and protein interaction network analyses revealed striking similarity between DG transcriptomes of V₃₂₁L mouse and humans with SCZ.

Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a novel technique for noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS). TUS delivered in a theta (5 Hz) burst pattern (tbTUS) induces plasticity in the human primary motor cortex (M1) for 30–60 min, showing promise for therapeutic development. Metaplasticity refers to activity-dependent changes in neural functions governing synaptic plasticity; depotentiation is the reversal of long-term potentiation (LTP) by a subsequent protocol with no effect alone. Metaplasticity can enhance plasticity induction and clinical efficacy of NIBS protocols. In our study, we compared four NIBS protocol combinations to investigate metaplasticity on tbTUS in humans of either sex. We delivered four interventions: (1) sham continuous theta burst stimulation with 150 pulses (cTBS150) followed by real tbTUS (tbTUS only), (2) real cTBS150 followed by sham tbTUS (cTBS only), (3) real cTBS150 followed by real tbTUS (metaplasticity), and (4) real tbTUS followed by real cTBS150 (depotentiation). We measured motor-evoked potential amplitude, short-interval intracortical inhibition, long-interval intracortical inhibition, intracortical facilitation (ICF), and short-interval intracortical facilitation before and up to 90 min after plasticity intervention. Plasticity effects lasted at least 60 min longer when tbTUS was primed with cTBS150 compared with tbTUS alone. Plasticity was abolished when cTBS150 was delivered after tbTUS. cTBS150 alone had no significant effect. No changes in M1 intracortical circuits were observed. Plasticity induction by tbTUS can be modified in manners consistent with homeostatic metaplasticity and depotentiation. This substantiates evidence that tbTUS induces LTP-like processes and suggests that metaplasticity can be harnessed in the therapeutic development of TUS.

Harmonics are an integral part of music, speech, and vocalizations of animals. Since the rest of the auditory environment is primarily made up of nonharmonic sounds, the auditory system needs to perceptually separate the above two kinds of sounds. In mice, harmonics, generally with two-tone components (two-tone harmonic complexes, TTHCs), form an important component of vocal communication. Communication by pups during isolation from the mother and by adult males during courtship elicits typical behaviors in female mice—dams and adult courting females, respectively. Our study shows that the processing of TTHC is specialized in mice providing neural basis for perceptual differences between tones and TTHCs and also nonharmonic sounds. Investigation of responses in the primary auditory cortex (Au1) from in vivo extracellular recordings and two-photon Ca²⁺ imaging of excitatory and inhibitory neurons to TTHCs exhibit enhancement, suppression, or no-effect with respect to tones. Irrespective of neuron type, harmonic enhancement is maximized, and suppression is minimized when the fundamental frequencies (F₀) match the neuron's best fundamental frequency (BF₀). Sex-specific processing of TTHC is evident from differences in the distributions of neurons’ best frequency (BF) and best fundamental frequency (BF₀) in single units, differences in harmonic suppressed cases re-BF₀, independent of neuron types, and from pairwise noise correlations among excitatory and parvalbumin inhibitory interneurons. Furthermore, TTHCs elicit a higher response compared with two-tone nonharmonics in females, but not in males. Thus, our study shows specialized neural processing of TTHCs over tones and nonharmonics, highlighting local network specialization among different neuronal types.

The work of Diné artist DY Begay, now on view at the National Museum of the American Indian, blends tradition and modernity

The Smithsonian Design Triennial presents 25 commissions that explore the physical and conceptual ideas of shelter and refuge

New York- FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the President of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, have concurred upon the importance of using FAO’s regular [...]

The FMM is a funding mechanism for partners willing to contribute unearmarked funds or slightly earmarked funds. Created in 2010, the FMM is currently supported by the Kingdoms of Belgium, [...]

Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on behalf of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) has joined forces with the Comité de [...]

Yet another reason to fight light pollution