This month’s featured researcher in Michael Barresi, who is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith College. His lab studies neural and glial development in zebrafish. Michael received his PhD as Wesleyan University and did postdoctoral research in Rolf Karlstrom’s lab at UMass, before joining the faculty at Smith College. He has a recent publication in the journal, Developmental Neurobiology that provides a comprehensive account of the cells that correlate with the timing and position of commissural axon pathfinding in the early forebrain that may be necessary for proper commissure development.

Here’s what else is new for ‘ ”University of Massachusetts” AND Amherst AND neuroscience’ in PubMed. These publications appeared online in May. They are just a fraction of the neuroscience research that occurs on campus. You can click on the PubMed ID to find the publication.

1: Bittman EL. Anatomical Methods to Study the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2482:191-210. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2249-0_13. PMID: 35610428.

2: Chen XJ, Kwak Y. Contribution of the sensorimotor beta oscillations and the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry during value-based decision making: A simultaneous EEG-fMRI investigation. Neuroimage. 2022 May 12;257:119300. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119300. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35568351.

3: Rodberg EM, Vazey EM. Individual differences in behavioral flexibility predict future volitional ethanol consumption in mice. Alcohol. 2022 Jun;101:37-43. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2022.03.003. Epub 2022 Apr 6. PMID: 35395359; PMCID: PMC9118340.

4: Jones BJ, Chen ME, Simoncini L, Spencer RMC. Sleep enhances reconsolidation-based strengthening of visuospatial memories. Sci Rep. 2022 May 4;12(1):7307. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-11135-6. PMID: 35508568; PMCID: PMC9068753.

5: Schnabl J, Litz MPH, Schneider C, PenkoffLidbeck N, Bashiruddin S, Schwartz MS, Alligood K, Devoto SH, Barresi MJF. Characterizing the diverse cells that associate with the developing commissures of the zebrafish forebrain. Dev Neurobiol. 2021 Jul;81(5):671-695. doi: 10.1002/dneu.22801. Epub 2021 Apr 3. PMID: 33314626.