News
Dr. Nigel Atkinson uses Wiki Education to teach science communication skills
A recent blog from the Genetics Society of America highlighted the use of Wikipedia writing assignments to create new articles for underrepresented topics previously as a mechanism to teach science communication skills in university classes. The article featured Dr. Nigel Atkinson use of this teaching technique in his Epegentics classes in which his students...Drew Lab publishes in Nature Neuroscience
The Drew lab published a paper in Nature Neuroscience entitled "Distinct hippocampal engrams control extinction and relapse of fear memory". This work demonstrates that the hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory, generates memory traces of both fear and extinction, and competition between these hippocampal traces determines whether fear is expressed...Jason Samonds and Sarah Lieberman in Priebe Lab publish in eNeuro
Priebe Lab members Jason Samonds, a postdoctoral fellow, and Sarah Lieberman, an undergraduate summer intern that was supported by the Department of Neuroscience summer intern program, publishes a research article in eNeuro entitled "Motion Discrimination and the Motion Aftereffect in Mouse Vision." This research on the motion aftereffect, a well-known illusion...Dr. Micky Marinelli receives RO1 and RO3 grants from NIDA
Dr. Micky Marinelli received 2 grants from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse. She received an RO1 for her research project entitled “The lateral preoptic area: A novel regulator of VTA activity and cocaine seeking”. The research will investigate the potential role of the lateral preoptic area in drug seeking and...Dr. Alex Huk and colleague are recipients of a The National Science Foundation Neural and Cognitive Systems (NCS) award
The National Science Foundation (NSF) made 19 awards to cross-disciplinary teams across the country to conduct innovative research focused on neuronal and cognitive systems. These awards are supported through the NSF Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NCS) program that supports innovating, boundary crossing efforts to push the frontiers of brain...Ellen Zippi in Preston lab recognized as Dean's Honored Graduate and receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Ellen Zippi, an undergraduate researcher in the Preston lab graduated with Dean's Honored Graduate recognition. Dean’s Honored Graduate is the highest honor awarded to graduating seniors in the College of Natural Sciences. It is restricted to fewer than one percent of the graduating class of the college during an academic year. Ellen...Dr. Laura Colgin publishes in Hippocampus
The Colgin Lab recently published a research article in the journal Hippocampus entitled "Impairments in spatial representations and rhythmic coordination of place cells in the 3xTg mouse model of Alzheimer's Disease". Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible and highly progressive neurodegenerative disease, and is the leading form of dementia. Clinically,...How a World-class Center for Learning and Memory Got Its Start
Nearly a decade ago, when the U.S. was going through one of the worst recessions in decades, the Center for Learning and Memory (CLM) at the University of Texas at Austin was one of the few places hiring new neuroscience faculty. Most other universities canceled their recruitment efforts. "It was...Dr. Michael Drew receives NIH BRAIN Initiative R03 Award
Dr. Michael Drew received a R03 award through the NIH BRIAN Initiative for his research project entitled “Imaging adult-born neurons in action using head-mounted minimicroscopes”. There is a vast amount of correlational and experimental data identifying adult neurogenesis—the generation of nerve cells in the adult hippocampus— as a clinically important form...Drs. Seidemann and Zemelman publish in eLife and featured on Human Frontiers website
Dr. Eyal Seidemann and Dr. Boris Zemelman recently published a paper in eLife entitled “Calcium imaging with genetically encoded indicators in behaving primates.” This project describes a new technique for long-term (over a period of months) imaging of neural activity in the visual cortex of the behaving primate by measuring activity-dependent...Dr. Nigel Atkinson receives NIH grant to investigate genes involved in alcoholism
Dr. Nigel Atkinson receives NIH grant for his research project entitled “Epigenetic dissection of functional ethanol tolerance and dependence”. This project seeks to identify a simple and effective way to pan for genomic changes that occur in the alcoholism phenotype. This will be accomplished by investigating genes that show common changes...Graduate Students Receive Next Generation Award for Podcast
Neuroscience graduate students Anthony Lacagnina (Drew Lab), Lauren Kreeger (Golding Lab) and Matthew Davis (Zemelman Lab) won the 2016 Next Generation Award from the Society for Neuroscience for creating, producing and hosting "Brain Matters," a podcast about neuroscience and the scientists behind the bench. Listen to all the Brain Matters...Drs. Adron Harris and Dayne Mayfield renew NIAAA grant
Drs. Adron Harris and Dayne Mayfield received a competitive renewal from NIAAA for their long-standing project (since 1999) titled "Gene Expression in the human alcoholic brain." This research project investigates the theory that alcohol-induced changes in brain function are due to alterations in gene expression. Alcohol-induced changes in gene expression will be...Dr. Alex Huk publishes in Nature
The Huk lab published an article in Nature entitled “Dissociated functional significance of decision-related activity in the primate dorsal stream”. During decision making, neurons in multiple brain regions exhibit responses that are correlated with decisions, However, it remains uncertain whether or not various forms of decision-related activity are causally related to...Dr. Nace Golding publishes in Nature Neuroscience
Dr. Nace Golding published an article in Nature Neuroscience entitled "Serotonin modulates spike probability in the axon initial segment through HCN". In most neurons the Axon Initial Segment (AIS) represents the final stage of synaptic integration, where the complex interplay between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic signals and voltage-gated ion channels...Dr. Max Snodderly publishes in Vision Research
Dr. Max Snodderly and colleagues recently published an article in Vision Research entitled 'Eye movements between saccades: Measuring ocular drift and tremor". The paper describes guidelines to assess the precision and resolution of eyetracking systems and analyses and compares the intersaccadic eye movements of humans to those of a non-human primate. Ko...Laura Ferguson receives NRSA
Laura Ferguson, a graduate student in Dr. Adron Harris’s lab, received a NRSA award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for her graduate project entitled “Molecular mechanisms underlying reduction of alcohol consumption by PPAR agonists”. This project investigates the mechanism of action of Peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs),...Letter from the Chair
Dear alumni, parents and friends of UT neuroscience. It was my honor to take over as chair of the Department of Neuroscience this January. Thanks to my predecessors Rick Aldrich, and more recently Dan Johnston, the department has grown to be one of the more respected neuroscience programs in the country....Dr. Alex Huk publishes in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Huk lab recently published a research article in PNAS entitled 'Decision-related perturbations of decision-irrelevant eye movements". This research investigated the correlation of neural activity in oculomotor brain circuits with the formation of decisions about where to move the eyes, specifically asking if decision-related activity in oculomotor circuits interacts with eye movements...
