UMass Neuroscience Publications – Dec. 2018

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What’s new for ‘”university of Massachusetts” AND amherst AND neuroscience’ in PubMed.

  • Beery AK. Inclusion of females does not increase variability in rodent research studies. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2018 Oct;23:143-149. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.06.016. Epub 2018 Aug 2. PubMed PMID: 30560152; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6294461.
  • Goodwin NL, Lopez SA, Lee NS, Beery AK. Comparative role of reward in long-term peer and mate relationships in voles. Horm Behav. 2018 Dec 7. pii: S0018-506X(18)30330-1. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.10.012. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 30528833.
  • Chen XJ, Liu LL, Wang Y, Yang TX, Huang J, Li K, Zeng YW, Cheung EFC, Shum DHK, van Amelsvoort T, Chan RCK. Neural correlates of the effect of implementation intention on prospective memory. Psych J. 2018 Dec 5. doi: 10.1002/pchj.257. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 30520271.
  • Mantua J, Grillakis A, Mahfouz SH, Taylor MR, Brager AJ, Yarnell AM, Balkin TJ, Capaldi VF, Simonelli G. A systematic review and meta-analysis of sleep architecture and chronic traumatic brain injury. Sleep Med Rev. 2018 Oct;41:61-77. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2018.01.004. Epub 2018 Feb 2. Review. PubMed PMID: 29452727.
  • Doan SN, DeYoung G, Fuller-Rowell TE, Liu C, Meyer J. Investigating relations among stress, sleep and nail cortisol and DHEA. Stress. 2018 Mar;21(2):188-193. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2018.1429398. Epub 2018 Jan 26. PubMed PMID: 29373934.
  • Mott M, Luna VM, Park JY, Downes GB, Epley K, Ono F. Expressing acetylcholine receptors after innervation suppresses spontaneous vesicle release and causes muscle fatigue. Sci Rep. 2017 May 10;7(1):1674. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-01900-3. PubMed PMID: 28490756; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5431962.

Katz receives NIH BRAIN Iniative award

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UMass Neurosciences Director, Paul Katz received a $3.5 Million grant from the NIH Brain Initiative to lead a team of researchers from four universities to study the brain of a nudibranch.  The grant is entitled “A 5-dimensional connectomics approach to the neural basis of behavior” because it examines the brain 3 dimensions of space and 2 dimensions of time: real time and developmental time.  Continue reading →

Sarah Pallas joins UMass Biology

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Dr. Sarah Pallas recently accepted a position to join the Biology Department and the Neuroscience and Behavior graduate program at UMass. Dr. Pallas was previously at Georgia State University. Her research is aimed at understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying development and plasticity of sensory pathways in the brain. Dr. Pallas is the 6th recent hire into the growing Neurosciences community at UMass.

Five new assistant professors join the Neuroscience and Behavior Graduate Program

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The Neuroscience and Behavior Graduate Program welcomes five new Assistant Professors. They epitomize the diversity of backgrounds and approaches in the Neurosciences. Two of the faculty members are in Biology, one in Psychological Brain Sciences, one in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and one in Communication Disorders. Each of them is recruiting PhD students for the coming year.

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IONs Director’s Channel – Memory is about the future, not the past.

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–Paul S. Katz
Director of Neurosciences

The UMass Week of Memory and Forgetting has provided me with fresh ideas about the nature of memory and the nature of society itself. It was fitting to begin the week with a reception at the Institute of Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies that featured an address from the Chancellor, who very movingly reflected on the recent mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, surrounded by pictures of atrocities committed by the Nazis. The Provost reflected on Psalm 137, popularly known through the reggae song, “By the Rivers of Babylon”, and the meaning of how collective memory affects us and how we, in turn, change the meaning of the memory over time. Each of the speakers brought a unique viewpoint on memory and its relevance for our lives. Continue reading →

Renovations of Neuroscience Wing of Morrill IV North Begin

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Construction has begun on the 2nd floor of Morrill IV North to accommodate several neuroscience laboratories and faculty offices. This will create a new hub of neuroscience on campus and bring researchers closer together with other researchers in Morrill and the Life Science Laboratory. The lab space is designed in an open configuration with researchers sharing a series of research benches and having dedicated side rooms. Student desks are located at the ends of the lab. Hall ways are brightly colored. There will be a shared conference room, break room and computational facility. The space is slated to be completed Fall of 2019.

UMass scientists awarded grant NCS-FO: Collaborative Research: Optoelectronic Tools for Closed-Loop Neuron Ensemble Recording and Control during Complex Behaviors

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A team of UMass scientists has been awarded a four-year, $953,300 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop miniature, implantable hardware that can record complex brain activity in animals and analyze it in real time. This new technical capability will allow the researchers to trace the origin of complex brain activity down to cellular levels, they say.

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Ofrenda Competition for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

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Ofrendas or offerings are traditional in some communities, particularly in Mexico and northern Central America as way of commemorating deceased loved ones.

Students are invited to build displays in the memory of an important person in their field of study who has passed on.

Participants will receive a free Memory Stick. A $100 gift certificate to the UMass campus store will be awarded for the most evocative ofrenda.

Deadline for on line registration is Oct 22nd.

If you are interested in participating, please register here.
(You must log in with your UMass e-mail. If you have a problem with logging in, contact ions@umass.edu)

The Ofrendas must be displayed Oct 29th – Nov 2nd for the UMass Week of Memory and Forgetting.

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Faculty position opening in Translational Neuroscience: Animal Models of Neurological Disease

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Assistant / Associate Professor

Translational Neuroscience: Animal Models of Neurological Disease

Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor.  The successful candidate will also be a part of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (see IALS), which has the goals of developing translational research programs, fostering interactions with industry, and training a translational life sciences workforce. New faculty members will be able to take full advantage of the substantial investments in campus infrastructure and core facilities made by IALS (see IALS Cores for details).

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Senior Behavioral Neuroscientist position open in Psychological & Brain Sciences

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Senior Faculty Position

Behavioral Neuroscience

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (http://www.umass.edu/pbs) invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the level of Associate or Full Professor in Behavioral Neuroscience starting Fall 2019.

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UMass Amherst Neuroscientists See Clues to Brain Maturation in Adolescent Rats

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September 26, 2018
Contact: Heather Richardson 413/545-0166

One of the outstanding questions in neurodevelopment research has been identifying how connections in the brain change to improve neural function during childhood and adolescence. Now, results from a study in rats just reported by neuroscientists Heather Richardson, Geng-Lin Li and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggest that as animals transition into adolescence, specific physical changes to axons speed up neural transmission, which may lead to higher cognitive abilities.

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