Taking Neuroscience into the classroom Community Connection

Many neuroscience topics directly impact students and communities –Drugs of abuse and their effects on the brain –Neurodegenerative diseases –Behavioral disorders –Neural prosthetics –Language –Sleep In what ways can educators bring current research and concepts into the classroom?

Your assignment Prepare a 5 minute presentation that you could give to your students Be sure to include –Background neuroscience concepts –Relevance or “hook” –Current state of research

Circadian Rhythms Community Connection Alexis B. Webb

Biological clocks are everywhere

Daily sleep-activity cycles Mouse on running wheel Human infant Entrained Free running Arrhythmic

A simple circadian system Circadian = ~ 1 day Input – Light from the eye Intrinsic Oscillator Output – Daily rhythms in physiology and behavior

A clock in the brain Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) Bi-lateral nuclei located in the ventral hypothalamus above the optic chiasm Contains about 20,000 neurons

SCN transplant restores rhythmic behavior Rhythmicity returns with period of donor SCN

Rhythms have a molecular basis Herzog, 2007

Ways to watch time-keeping Herzog, 2007

Open Questions Are all cells circadian clocks? How do clocks communicate with each other? How do clocks coordinate their timing with environmental signals? How does disruption of networked clocks lead to neurological diseases, such as bipolar disorder?