Did you grow up in a world void of social media platforms? Then, you’re probably the last ‘lucky’ generation. A part of Generation Y and most of Generation Z have been raised alongside the internet and social media. Individuals belonging to the latter have practically been raised by such platforms, as they interact with strangers […]

The post Sacrificing the Human Psyche at the Altar of Social Media? 4 Concerning Ill-Effects to Know first appeared on What is Psychology?.

Suboxone is a medicine prescribed to treat opioid use disorder. But in recent times, it has gained a poor reputation for contributing to severe side effects, such as dental damage and decay. Many patients have had to undergo costly dental repair surgery to treat the gum and tooth issues they faced. But the side effects […]

The post How To Cope With the Psychological Symptoms of Suboxone Withdrawal first appeared on What is Psychology?.

1. Do something “perspective expanding” either in terms of time or space. Examples: Time: look into the eyes of someone alive in the 1400s by visiting an art gallery. Space: A walk/coffee somewhere with an expansive view, a drive. Both time & space: A trip into the mountains (they’re giant & they’ve been there a […]

The post 5 Practical, Creative Tips for Soothing a Low Mood appeared first on Dr Alice Boyes.

This is for my kiwi readers – it’s freezing here at the moment! I got the idea to write this from an interview I did for the NZ Herald about weight gain during winter. 1. Eat at regular times, that are not too far apart. It will help you learn to recognize that if you […]

The post 10 Practical Tips for Avoiding Winter Weight Gain appeared first on Dr Alice Boyes.

Try these 5 quick tips when you’re feeling grumpy and irritable. 1. Do some kind of mindfulness practice. Try this or any of these. Learn enough about the philosophy of mindfulness meditation that you know what you’re doing. Since most people won’t want to do formal practice everyday on a permanent basis, do it everyday […]

The post 5 Tips for Irritability appeared first on Dr Alice Boyes.

If you want more tips for not overly personalizing events, comments and actions, and decreasing rumination, you’ll find heaps of simple, practical solutions in , especially in chapter 5 (rumination) and chapter 7 (fear of feedback and criticism). 1. Don’t catastrophize knock backs – If you get a rejection, it doesn’t mean you’re never going […]

The post 7 Tips for Not Personalizing appeared first on Dr Alice Boyes.

The justices ruled 5-4 that a Montana state constitutional provision barring aid to religion discriminated against religious schools and families seeking to benefit from a tax credit for donations for scholarships.

The new U.S. Department of Education guidance creates a federal process for individuals and organizations to file complaints under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The 5-4 decision involving a dispute in Montana appears to cast doubt on as many as 30 state constitutions that bar aid to religious schools.

Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo announced a new effort to bring computer science classes to every public school in the state by the end of 2017.

Small groups of Portland youngsters gathered in gardens, played with plant-based dyes, and cooked up vegan meals as part of Camp ELSO's mission to foster STEM learning for students of color.

The state decided that the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium offers it a chance to share assessment goals with neighboring states.

The governors of Oklahoma and South Carolina have directed significant portions of their states' federal education relief aid to fund private school scholarships.

Teachers felt that iPads "provide no educational function in the classroom" and are often used to play games in class.

Middle and high schools in Maine are returning their iPads and switching back to laptops after a survey found that 88.5 percent of teachers and 74 percent of students in one district preferred laptops for schoolwork and instruction, reports the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal.

Math teachers share advice for making remote instruction work.

Teachers are using a variety of games, videos, and apps to supplement online math instruction—but not all of them are created equal.

The state's last superintendent resigned under pressure after he attempted to take over Montgomery's school system and figure out a way to grade the state's schools.

Hopson became the interim superintendent in Shelby County, Tenn., in 2013 after the Memphis City School system merged with Shelby County schools. That merger then led six suburban communities to break away from the merged school system to form their own school districts.

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

Instead of creating change through compliance and extrinsic motivators, the new era of education and education policy will require ecosystems of policy, regulation, investment, and operating structure that enable, rather than dictate. Under New Hampshire's PACE accountability system districts and sc

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.

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.

New Hampshire's education commissioner nominee Frank Edelblut, a businessman, Republican and school choice proponent, has been criticized throughout the state for his lack of education experience.

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.

Best known in education circles for its performance assessment, New Hampshire is a hotbed of innovation around personalized learning, writes Adriana Martinez of the Innovation Lab Network.

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

The Granite State has legalized Keno gambling and plans to tax the machines to partially fund full-day kindergarten for the state's 5-year-olds.

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

A veteran teacher shares how he puts the latest research on growth mindset into action for his students in this guest blog by Jamie M. Carroll and David Yeager.

Mississippi, Arkansas, and New Mexico have the highest percentages of students who lack adequate home technology for remote learning.

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.

Buffalo’s leading scorer did not return for the third period of the 7-5 loss to Montreal

St. Louis led 2-0 after two periods, was outscored 3-0, allowed game-winner to Pastrnak with 1:47 remaining

The Bulldogs are the first team out of the 12-team playoff after Week 11.

Nov. 12—PULLMAN — After two rounds of rankings, Washington State is still on the outside looking in on the College Football Playoff. That's the word from the second round of CFP rankings, which placed WSU at No. 18 in Tuesday's reveal show on ESPN, up three spots from last week. The Cougars (8-1) are six spots out of the 12-team field, which is expanding for the first time this season. New ...

The GHSA football playoffs kick off Friday night with several area teams competing, while the GIAA playoffs move to the state semifinal round, where two local schools look to secure a spot in the championship game. Friday night’s matchups: Luella (5-5) at No. 6 Westover (9-1) Luella travels to Albany after finishing 4-2 in Region 5, capping their regular season with a 35-25 win over ...

The Big Ten captured four of the top five spots led by Oregon and Ohio State.

A school leader outlines how research findings on reducing achievement gaps are reflected in practice at her New Mexico school.

The state's budget bill, which Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law this week, caps annual raises for end-of-career-teachers, lowering the pension they can receive.

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.

Steven F. Grieco
Nov 9, 2022; 42:8439-8449
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

Lindsay P. Cameron
Nov 8, 2023; 43:7472-7482
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

Danilo De Gregorio
Feb 3, 2021; 41:891-900
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

α-Neurexins are essential and highly expressed presynaptic cell-adhesion molecules that are frequently linked to neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite their importance, how the elaborate extracellular sequences of α-neurexins contribute to synapse function is poorly understood. We recently characterized the presynaptic gain-of-function phenotype caused by a missense mutation in an evolutionarily conserved extracellular sequence of neurexin-3α (A687T) that we identified in a patient diagnosed with profound intellectual disability and epilepsy. The striking A687T gain-of-function mutation on neurexin-3α prompted us to systematically test using mutants whether the presynaptic gain-of-function phenotype is a consequence of the addition of side-chain bulk (i.e., A687V) or polar/hydrophilic properties (i.e., A687S). We used multidisciplinary approaches in mixed-sex primary hippocampal cultures to assess the impact of the neurexin-3α^A687 residue on synapse morphology, function and ligand binding. Unexpectedly, neither A687V nor A687S recapitulated the neurexin-3α A687T phenotype. Instead, distinct from A687T, molecular replacement with A687S significantly enhanced postsynaptic properties exclusively at excitatory synapses and selectively increased binding to neuroligin-1 and neuroligin-3 without changing binding to neuroligin-2 or LRRTM2. Importantly, we provide the first experimental evidence supporting the notion that the position A687 of neurexin-3α and the N-terminal sequences of neuroligins may contribute to the stability of α-neurexin–neuroligin-1 trans-synaptic interactions and that these interactions may specifically regulate the postsynaptic strength of excitatory synapses.

Rodent jaws evolved structurally to support dual functionality, for either biting or chewing food. Rodent hands also function dually during food handling, for actively manipulating or statically holding food. How are these oral and manual functions coordinated? We combined electrophysiological recording of muscle activity and kilohertz kinematic tracking to analyze masseter and hand actions as mice of both sexes handled food. Masseter activity was organized into two modes synchronized to hand movement modes. In holding/chewing mode, mastication occurred as rhythmic (~5 Hz) masseter activity while the hands held food below the mouth. In oromanual/ingestion mode, bites occurred as lower-amplitude aperiodic masseter events that were precisely timed to follow regrips (by ~200 ms). Thus, jaw and hand movements are flexibly coordinated during food handling: uncoupled in holding/chewing mode and tightly coordinated in oromanual/ingestion mode as regrip–bite sequences. Key features of this coordination were captured in a simple model of hierarchically orchestrated mode-switching and intramode action sequencing. We serendipitously detected an additional masseter-related action, tooth sharpening, identified as bouts of higher-frequency (~13 Hz) rhythmic masseter activity, which was accompanied by eye displacement, including rhythmic proptosis, attributable to masseter contractions. Collectively, the findings demonstrate how a natural, complex, and goal-oriented activity is organized as an assemblage of distinct modes and complex actions, adapted for the divisions of function arising from anatomical structure. These results reveal intricate, high-speed coordination of disparate effectors and show how natural forms of dexterity can serve as a model for understanding the behavioral neurobiology of multi-body-part coordination.

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.

Experience- and activity-dependent transcription is a candidate mechanism to mediate development and refinement of specific cortical circuits. Here, we demonstrate that the activity-dependent transcription factor myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) is required in both presynaptic layer (L) 4 and postsynaptic L2/3 mouse (male and female) somatosensory (S1) cortical neurons for development of this specific synaptic connection. While postsynaptic deletion of Mef2c weakens L4 synaptic inputs, it has no effect on inputs from local L2/3, contralateral S1, or the ipsilateral frontal/motor cortex. Similarly, homozygous or heterozygous deletion of Mef2c in presynaptic L4 neurons weakens L4 to L2/3 excitatory synaptic inputs by decreasing presynaptic release probability. Postsynaptic MEF2C is specifically required during an early postnatal, experience-dependent, period for L4 to L2/3 synapse function, and expression of transcriptionally active MEF2C (MEF2C-VP16) rescues weak L4 to L2/3 synaptic strength in sensory-deprived mice. Together, these results suggest that experience- and/or activity-dependent transcriptional activation of MEF2C promotes development of L4 to L2/3 synapses. Additionally, MEF2C regulates the expression of many pre- and postsynaptic genes in postnatal cortical neurons. Interestingly, MEF2C was necessary for activity-dependent expression of many presynaptic genes, including those that function in transsynaptic adhesion and neurotransmitter release. This work provides mechanistic insight into the experience-dependent development of specific cortical circuits.

Bagdad/Rome - FAO is scaling-up critical food and agriculture assistance to highly vulnerable rural households in Iraq thanks to a generous $14.7 million grant from Saudi Arabia. The donation is [...]

The [...]