David Pesci“Let’s pass around the brains, but please be careful,” Jennifer Cheng '11 says. “They break easily.” Maryann Platt ’11 and Mandela Kazi ’12 hand out the brains, detailed plastic models with interlocking, removable pieces that allow anyone picking them up to study the organ’s specific areas. “I don’t think you need to use the stands,” says Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior. “I think you can just give them the brains.” The students nod and make a note and return to their presentation, titled “The Human Connectome Project,” which focuses on the brain, connectomes and the new…
Olivia DrakeFaculty, alumni and students from the Biology Department and Neuroscience and Behavior Department have an article titled “STEP regulation of seizure thresholds in the hippocampus,” published in Epilepsia, Volume 52, Issue 3, March 2011. Epilepsia is the journal of the International League Against Epilepsy. The paper’s co-authors include Gloster Aaron assistant professor of biology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior; Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior; Stephen Briggs BA ’07, MA ’08, Jeffrey Walker BA ’08, MA ’09, and biology Ph.D. candidate Kemal Asik. Paul Lombroso, a professor at Yale University, contributed to the report. This…
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Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neurosceince and behavior, and a group of Wesleyan students attended the Connecticut Forum on “The Glorius, Mysterious Brain” Feb. 25 at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, Conn. The Connecticut Forum is a nationally recognized, nonprofit organization that offers live, unscripted panel discussions among renowned experts and celebrities, and community outreach programs. Nagele’s group listened to Autism advocate Temple Grandin, author and Harvard professor Steven Pinker and cognitive scientist Paul Bloom. In addition, Michael Greenberg '76, chair of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, spoke to Naegele's students about “experience-dependent changes in gene expression."
Matthew Kurtz, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the author of “Treatment approaches with a special focus on neurocognition: overview and empirical results,” published in Understanding and Treating Neuro- and Social-Cognition in Schizophrenia Patients, in 2010 and “Compensatory Strategies; Insight: Effects on Rehabilitation; Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test,” published in Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology, New York: Springer, 2010.
John Seamon, professor of psychology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the author of “Memorizing Milton’s Paradise Lost: A study of a septuagenarian exceptional memorizer,” published in Memory, 2010.
Jan Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received a $100,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for her research on “Molecular and Cellular Analysis of Brand-Enriched PTPs.” The grant will be awarded through March 2010. This is a renewal of a previous grant, which is subcontracted with Yale University.
Quality-of-life for patients with Schizophrenia has been recognized as a crucial domain of outcome in schizophrenia treatment, and yet its determinants are not well understood. Arielle Tolman ’10, who studied "Neurocognitive Predictors of Objective and Subjective Quality-of-Life in Individuals with Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analytic Investigation” as her senior honors thesis, will have the opportunity to share her research with other scientists interested in schizophrenia. This month, the editors of Schizophrenia Bulletin accepted Tolman’s paper for publication in an upcoming edition. “This is a real achievement, particularly at the undergraduate level,” says the paper’s co-author and Tolman’s advisor Matthew Kurtz, assistant professor…
Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology, and Jan Naegele, professor of neuroscience and behavior, professor of biology, are the co-authors of “Migration of transplanted neural stem cells in experimental models of neurodegenerative diseases,” published in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine by Springer/Humana Press, 2010.
David Bodznick, dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, professor of biology and professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the co-author of “Functional origins of the vertebrate cerebellum from a sensory processing antecedent,” published in Current Zoology 56 (3): 277-284, 2010 and “The Importance of N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in subtraction of electrosensory reafference in the dorsal nucleus of skates,” published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, 2010.
Stephen Devoto, associate professor of biology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the co-author of “BMP Regulation of myogenesis in zebrafish,” published in Developmental Dynamics 239: 806-817, 2010.