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PubMed2006

Center for Behavioral Neuroscience: a prototype multi-institutional collaborative research center.

The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience was launched in the fall of 1999 with support from the National Science Foundation, the Georgia Research Alliance, and our eight participating institutions (Georgia State University, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse School of Medicine, Clark-Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College). The CBN provides the resources to foster innovative research in behavioral neuroscience, with a specific focus on the neurobiology of social behavior. Center faculty working in collaboratories use diverse model systems from invertebrates to humans to investigate fear, aggression, affiliation, and reproductive behaviors. The addition of new research foci in reward and reinforcement, memory and cognition, and sex differences has expanded the potential for collaborations among Center investigators. Technology core laboratories develop the molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, and imaging tools essential for investigating how the brain influences complex social behavior and, in turn, how social experience influences brain function. In addition to scientific discovery, a major goal of the CBN is to train the next generation of behavioral neuroscientists and to increase the number of women and under-represented minorities in neuroscience. Educational programs are offered for K-12 students to spark an interest in science. Undergraduate and graduate initiatives encourage students to participate in interdisciplinary and inter-institutional programs, while postdoctoral programs provide a bridge between laboratories and allow the interdisciplinary research and educational ventures to flourish. Finally, the CBN is committed to knowledge transfer, partnering with community organizations to bring neuroscience to the public. This multifaceted approach through research, education, and knowledge transfer will have a major impact on how we study interactions between the brain and behavior, as well as how the public views brain function and neuroscience.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1987

The use of general systems theory as metatheory for developing and evaluating theories in the neurosciences.

The general designations of neural systems and their levels of organization as presently applied in the neurosciences are described as being at variance with rigorous systems thinking. It is proposed that the rule-driven use of systems terminology and hierarchies would facilitate investigations of neural functioning in the natural case. General systems theory with its major propositions for hierarchical organization, open systems, and equifinality, is presented as providing the guidelines for developing systems-type theories for neuroscience investigations. General systems theory as metatheory is also used to evaluate hierarchies and systems designations in the neurosciences as these concepts are now applied in theories, models, and research. The metatheory is comprised of three sets of rules: the criteria for hierarchies; the properties of the open biological system; the criteria for the final conditions of open biological systems. The notion of the discovery of neural systems is contrasted with the apparent design of systems as frequently practiced by neuroscientists. The metatheory is summarized as directions for developing theories and as questions directed toward any neuroscience theory proposing levels of organization and systems.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Antipredator responses and defensive behavior: ecological and ethological approaches for the neurosciences.

In nature, animals are exposed to a wide range of threats and dangers with predators being amongst the more prominent and intensely studied of these. The responses of prey to predators and various predator avoidance and antipredator behaviors have been extensively evaluated from ecological and ethological perspectives and more recent ethopharmacological and neuroscience approaches. Unfortunately, there has been relatively little interchange between the ecological-ethological and neuroscience areas with the latter often using responses to predators just simply as another 'model' system. There is, however, now a growing realization that integrative approaches incorporating ecological, evolutionary and neurobiological explanations are required for the understanding of behavior and its functions. This necessitates an incorporation of ecological and ethological concepts and validity with neuroscience approaches to the analysis of antipredator responses and defensive behavior. A number of selected ecological approaches that are used for the investigation of predator avoidance mechanisms and antipredator defensive behavior patterns are briefly reviewed here. These include examinations of how predation risk and its variation affect decision making in animals and how learning affects these responses. The trade-offs that are involved, how the risk of predation affects decisions concerning foraging behavior, mating and reproduction, as well as how varying levels of risk affect decisions relative to the type of defensive mechanisms utilized are briefly outlined. The utility of these approaches and their relevance to the design and interpretation of various neuroscience studies is addressed here.

Aggression↗
PubMed1997

Towards a European forum for the neurosciences.

In 1994, TINS published a brief analysis of the problems faced by the European neuroscience community in its attempt to meet the challenges associated with the proclamation of the European 'Decade of the Brain'. Since then numerous initiatives have been taken by national and European neuroscience societies with the common goals of improving communication among European neuroscientists, increasing the visibility of the neurosciences as an autonomous and increasingly important domain of research in the appreciation of national and European granting bodies, and facilitating integration of colleagues from Eastern Europe into the international scientific community. These initiatives have led to major changes in the organization and self-apprehension of national and European neuroscience societies.

Europe↗
PubMed2003

Seven sins in the study of emotion: correctives from affective neuroscience.

This brief commentary highlights seven sins in the study of emotion that are explicitly treated in contemporary affective neuroscience. These sins are (1) Affect and cognition are subserved by separate and independent neural circuits; (2) Affect is subcortical; (3) Emotions are in the head; (4) Emotions can be studied from a purely psychological perspective; (5) Emotions are similar in structure across age and species; (6) Specific emotions are instantiated in discrete locations in the brain; and (7) Emotions are conscious feeling states. Each of these is briefly discussed and evidence from affective neuroscience that bears on these sins is noted. The articles in this Special Issue underscore the vitality of research in affective neuroscience and illustrate how some of these sins can be addressed and rectified using concepts and methods from affective neuroscience.

Affect↗
PubMed1999

A neuron doctrine in the philosophy of neuroscience.

Many neuroscientists and philosophers endorse a view about the explanatory reach of neuroscience (which we will call the neuron doctrine) to the effect that the framework for understanding the mind will be developed by neuroscience; or, as we will put it, that a successful theory of the mind will be solely neuroscientific. It is a consequence of this view that the sciences of the mind that cannot be expressed by means of neuroscientific concepts alone count as indirect sciences that will be discarded as neuroscience matures. This consequence is what makes the doctrine substantive, indeed, radical. We ask, first, what the neuron doctrine means and, second, whether it is true. In answer to the first question, we distinguish two versions of the doctrine. One version, the trivial neuron doctrine, turns out to be uncontroversial but unsubstantive because it fails to have the consequence that the nonneuroscientific sciences of the mind will eventually be discarded. A second version, the radical neuron doctrine, does have this consequence, but, unlike the first doctrine, is highly controversial. We argue that the neuron doctrine appears to be both substantive and uncontroversial only as a result of a conflation of these two versions. We then consider whether the radical doctrine is true. We present and evaluate three arguments for it, based either on general scientific and philosophical considerations or on the details of neuroscience itself, arguing that all three fail. We conclude that the evidence fails to support the radical neuron doctrine.

Cognition↗
PubMed2003

Introduction to the special section on social neuroscience: promise and caveats.

This special issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition is devoted to theory and research at the interface of social psychology and neuroscience. The 5 empirical articles represent the theoretical and methodological breadth of issues considered by social neuroscientists. The methods span brain lesion work to neuroendocrinology to psychophysiological indicators of brain activity to functional magnetic resonance imaging indicators of brain activity. The remaining 2 articles consider explicitly some of the promises and pitfalls of social neuroscience; these authors, although noting the power of neuroscience methods, remind readers of the serious challenges posed in trying to examine the biological processes underlying or associated with social psychological phenomena. These articles help to reveal the richness of social neuroscience and the power of neuroscientific methods to address processes and mechanisms that would not be possible with traditional social psychology methods.

Brain↗
PubMed1994

Behaviorism and neuroscience.

The influence of the methods and theories of behaviorism on theory and research in the neurosciences is examined, partly in light of Watson's (1913) original call-to-arms. Behaviorist approaches to animal behavior, particularly in the study of processes of learning and memory, have had a profound and continual influence in the area of neuroscience concerned with animal studies of brain substrates of behavior. Similarly, contemporary behaviorists have not been opposed to the study of neurobiological substrates of behavior. On the other hand, classical behaviorist views of thinking, that is, as reflex chains, have been largely discounted by developments in neuroscience. Classical behaviorism is viewed by many as being most at odds with the modern fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, particularly regarding "mind" and "consciousness." A modest attempt at reconciliation is offered.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Problems and challenges in the historical study of the neurosciences.

The paper focuses on historiographical questions relevant to the historical study of the neurosciences. I attempt to illuminate these questions by looking at them from the perspective of general historiography of science. In the first section, I consider the disciplinary structure of the modern neurosciences and discuss some of the historiographical problems that are involved in the historical description of a highly multidisciplinary field. For example, how far back in time can one trace brain research as part of the construction that we call the neurosciences? The main part of the paper deals with recent trends in contextualist historiography in relation to the neurosciences. I suggest that one important source for the trend, as it emerged in the 1970s, was a renewed interest in the history of phrenology and its reception in Britain. By looking at the historiography of phrenology, some of the rival positions in modern historiography of science can be illuminated. In the last part of the paper, I comment on the advantages and disadvantages of contextualist historiography of science, including its relation to the producers of science, the scientists.

Historiography↗
PubMed1999

Historiography and historians of neuroscience: towards diversity in the ISHN.

This article introduces and critiques the historiographical tradition of the history of the neurosciences as it has been established in the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN). The founding members of the ISHN were practitioner-historians, practitioners of the neurosciences with an interest in the great moments, ideas and controversies in the history of their field. The historiographical precedent set by these clinician-historians emphasized those aspects of history most interesting to them. Academic historians bring a different approach to the history of neurosciences, particularly an interest in studying the intellectual and cultural contexts of both the inherited and the forgotten ideas about the nervous system. Their approach to history has not been well presented in the ISHN, in part because the current historiographical tradition does not address their interests. This article highlights the methodological and epistemological differences between academic and practitioner-historians and discusses the difficulties that other historical societies have faced in trying to bring them together. The article then suggests ideas for symposia that might facilitate an interdisciplinary dialogue and a revised historiographical tradition that speaks to the needs of both academic and historians and practitioner historians.

Historiography↗
PubMed2006

Neuroscience in the Nobel perspective.

The Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine have included a relatively large number of awards for work in the neurosciences, or for work construed to have made a contribution to neuroscience. These are recognized in this article by brief explanations of the particular contribution that warranted this magnificent (and munificent) award. The first prizes in neuroscience were awarded five years after the initiation of the Nobel Foundation's program. Up to 2005, 28 prizes have been awarded for achievements in neuroscience to 52 individuals.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed2004

An evaluation of neuroscience nursing research published during the Decade of the Brain.

The purpose of this study was to extend a previous evaluation of neuroscience nursing research to an assessment of the research published during the 1990s--the Decade of the Brain. The evaluation was conducted to assess the focus of neuroscience nursing research and to identify research strategies and scientific methods. The Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, Nursing Research, Research in Nursing & Health, and Western Journal of Nursing Research were canvassed. An assessment form developed by the authors was used to evaluate selected articles published between January 1989 and December 2000. The number of neuroscience research studies published in nursing journals increased substantially during the 1990s. The studies focused more on individuals with neurological disorders and less on neurological trauma. The findings demonstrated major changes in subspecialty area, care orientation, and nature of study variables from that observed in the previous evaluation in which acute care and physiological variables were most representative of the pre-1989 studies. As noted in the previous evaluation, the trend toward theory-then-research studies continued and the scientific methods grew more complex.

Humans↗
PubMed2005

Undoing dissociation. Affective neuroscience: a contemporary Jungian clinical perspective.

In the last ten years both analysts and neuroscientists have begun to challenge the analytic world to explore the analytic view of the mind in relation to knowledge emerging from the field of neuroscience. I find that 'in many ways it is Jung's understanding of the mind, the human condition, and the self, that is most compatible with the insights that are emerging from neuroscience today' (Wilkinson 2004, p. 84). In this paper I consider the insights that neuroscience has to offer us as we seek to work with those patients whose early experience has diminished their capacity to be 'in mind' and with it their capacity for reflective self-function, whose defences are dissociative, whose need has been to keep unbearable experience at bay, out of mind. I look first at dissociationist theory and its development, then focus on the insights to be gained from neuroscience with regard to early trauma and its effect on the encoding and recall of memory. Finally, I turn to the nature of cure and argue that hemispheric integration is the key to undoing dissociation and the prelude to individuation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Curriculum development and technology incorporation in teaching neuroscience to graduate students in a medical school environment.

Today's neuroscience faculty member wears multiple hats and requires diverse skills to succeed in the competitive environment in which they find themselves. A common refrain from graduates is that there is a need for better training in the diverse, multiple skills that they will need to succeed in obtaining a faculty position and excelling in that position once it is obtained. Our university recently developed a new neuroscience graduate program that allowed us to create a curriculum and core courses de novo and that could be tailored to provide training in diverse skills used by everyday neuroscience faculty members. The current article details our rationale, design, and implementation of this new curriculum and its two major core courses. The genesis of the new curriculum also provided an opportune time to introduce and test new teaching technology in the two neuroscience core courses. The technology incorporated included on-line WebCT course sites, computer performance system, and the Tegrity system. Herein, we elaborate on our experiences with the use of this technology in the small class graduate course setting and provide insight on student feedback on the perceived effectiveness of the technology. The mechanisms and considerations that are needed for incorporation of such technology are also discussed. While no single curriculum or technology incorporation scheme will be applicable to all programs, it is hoped that our experiences in curriculum design and technology incorporation will be beneficial to other universities as they consider refining existing programs or beginning new ones.

Curriculum↗
PubMed2001

Neuroscience curricula for undergraduates: a survey.

Directors of graduate and undergraduate programs in neuroscience were asked to describe the optimal preparatory background of undergraduates entering graduate programs in neuroscience. Both undergraduate and graduate directors ranked research experience as the most important credential. Graduate directors considered grades/grade point averages and graduate record examination scores as the second and third most important variables. Undergraduate directors ranked courses and grades/grade point averages as their second and third choices. The most essential course for both types of directors was introduction to biology. The next most essential courses for the undergraduate directors were organic/inorganic chemistry and introduction to neuroscience (tied percentages), whereas the graduate directors chose calculus. This latter choice was interpreted as a symbolic representation of the need for quantification in science, generally. Both types of directors chose a course in biochemistry as the most important or desirable course but not necessarily an essential course. These findings have important implications for the training of future undergraduate neuroscience majors.

Curriculum↗
PubMed2006

Integrated problem-based learning in the neuroscience curriculum--the SUNY Downstate experience.

BACKGROUND: This paper reports the author's initial experience as Block Director in converting a Conventional Curriculum into a problem-based learning model (PBL) for teaching Psychopathology. As part of a wide initiative in curriculum reform, Psychopathology, which was a six-week course in the second-year medical school curriculum, became integrated into a combined Neuroscience block. The study compares curriculum conversion at State University of New York (SUNY), Downstate, with the experiences at other medical centres that have instituted similar curricula reform. METHODS: Student satisfaction with the Conventional and PBL components of the Neuroscience curriculum was compared using questionnaires and formal discussions between faculty and a body of elected students. The PBL experience in Psychopathology was also compared with that of the rest of the Neuroscience Block, which used large student groups and expert facilitators, while the Psychopathology track was limited to small groups using mentors differing widely in levels of expertise. RESULTS: Students appeared to indicate a preference toward conventional lectures and large PBL groups using expert facilitators in contrast to small group mentors who were not experts. Small PBL groups with expert mentors in the Psychopathology track were also rated favorably. CONCLUSION: The study reviews the advantages and pitfalls of the PBL system when applied to a Neuroscience curriculum on early career development. At SUNY, conversion from a Conventional model to a PBL model diverged from that proposed by Howard S. Barrows where student groups define the learning objectives and problem-solving strategies. In our model, the learning objectives were faculty-driven. The critical issue for the students appeared to be the level of faculty expertise rather than group size. Expert mentors were rated more favorably by students in fulfilling the philosophical objectives of PBL. The author, by citing the experience at other major Medical Faculties, makes a cautious attempt to address the challenges involved in the conversion of a Psychopathology curriculum into a PBL dominated format.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Establishing a generic training programme for future junior doctors: a role for neurosurgery within the framework of clinical neurosciences.

INTRODUCTION: To describe the opinion of junior doctors in neurosurgery in the UK and Eire about future reforms to training, and to relate this to the establishment of a generic neurosciences training programme. METHODS: A postal questionnaire survey of neurosurgery units in UK and Eire (36 units). All senior house officers (SHOs) taking part in a neurosurgery on-call rota during the 6 months between February and August 2003 (n=236); 190 respondents (response rate 81% overall, 90% neurosurgery SHOs and 55% neurology SHOs. The questionnaire covered most aspects of provision of training, working pattern and job satisfaction gained from the post. Also included were questions on future reforms for training. RESULTS: There is an overwhelming acceptance amongst SHOs for training to be centred on generic programmes. The audit also identified that there are many aspects of neurosurgical training which will be very suitable for trainees from other fields, thus supporting the establishment of a generic neurosciences training programme. CONCLUSIONS: The establishment of a generic training programme would encourage an improvement in training standards for the whole SHO grade. To ensure the success of this proposed generic training programme, support from junior doctors and all those involved in postgraduate education is required. Neurosciences teaching has the excellent potential to move towards the planning and formation of a generic neurosciences training programme in-line with the proposed reforms.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1994

The relations between neuroscience and human behavioral science.

Neuroscience seeks to understand how the human brain, perhaps the most complex electrochemical machine in the universe, works, in terms of molecules, membranes, cells and cell assemblies, development, plasticity, learning, memory, cognition, and behavior. The human behavioral sciences, in particular psychiatry and clinical psychology, deal with disorders of human behavior and mentation. The gap between neuroscience and the human behavioral sciences is still large. However, some major advances in neuroscience over the last two decades have diminished the span. This article reviews the major advances of neuroscience in six areas with relevance to the behavioral sciences: (a) evolution of the nervous system; (b) visualizing activity in the human brain; (c) plasticity of the cerebral cortex; (d) receptors, ion channels, and second/third messengers; (e) molecular genetic approaches; and (f) understanding integrative systems with networks and circadian clocks as examples.

Animals↗