Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience
Spring Newsletter
You may recall that at last year's business meeting, our dues schedule was changed from Fall to Spring. This means that it is time to remit your dues for 2000 if you haven't already done so. Remember, only current dues-paying members are eligible to sponsor nominations for Student Travel Awards-- so send your check for $15.00 made out to Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience today to:
Eric P. Wiertelak Ph.D.
Treasurer, FUN
Macalester College
1600 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
P.S. Don't forget that donations to FUN can be tax-deductible! Save a
stamp-- make out your dues check for more than $15.00 and the remainder
will be counted as your contribution to the society! --EPW.
The winners of the 1999 FUN travel awards were announced at the FUN Social in Miami. This year, there were four travel awards given to students presenting research at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. The award recipients are listed below:
If you have an undergraduate who is presenting a poster at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, he or she is encouraged to apply for a Travel Award from FUN to attend the meeting. The criteria and application for the award consists of the following:
Candidates must submit five (5) copies of all materials, including:
The Student Travel Award Committee will make its selection on the basis of
the following criteria:
Dr. Karen D. Parfitt
FUN Travel Award Committee
Department of Biology
Pomona College
609 N College Ave
Claremont, CA 91711
any questions? email: kparfitt@pomona.edu
APPLICATION DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2000
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The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) recently announced the winners of its first two CUR Fellows Awards, which included one of the founding members of FUN, Julio Ramirez, a psychologist at Davidson College. These prestigious awards were designed to recognize faculty who have made a significant contribution to the major goal of CUR, which is to promote research at undergraduate institutions.
Below is an excerpt from the CUR Press release concerning this award:
The CUR Fellows awards, presented biennially, recognize CUR members who have developed nationally respected research programs. Awardees have established outstanding records of obtaining funding for their work and for their students, and publishing research findings with undergraduate coauthors. They reach out to students of all backgrounds, incorporate research activities into the courses they teach, and lead efforts to institutionalize research. In sum, they are leaders and role models for countless faculty and students at primarily undergraduate institutions.
The nominees for our award have many common personality traits. They are compassionate, nurturing mentors gifted in helping undergraduates develop their research talents and skills. They are looked to by their students not just as advisors, but also as trusted friends. They have an enormous impact on the careers of their students as they contribute to the body of scientific knowledge.
Julio Ramirez received a B.S. degree in psychology at Fairfield University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in biopsychology from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Ramirez joined the department of psychology at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., in 1986 and, in 1998 he was named Davidson's first R. Stuart Dickson Professor. Ramirez and his students investigate recovery of function after central nervous system injury with an emphasis on recovery from Alzheimer's disease.
Ramirez' work at Davidson has resulted in 19 research publications - nine with undergraduate co authors - in the last 13 years. Over that relatively short time 85 students have worked with Ramirez. He has received more than $2 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts to support biomedical research and education at Davidson. In 1989, Ramirez was named North Carolina Professor of the Year and also was honored as a National Gold Medal Professor of the Year.
Ramirez's gifts as a scholar-teacher are remarkable and his infectious energy touches many people beginning with his research students and extending into the community. His deep compassion led to his development of the science outreach component of "Love of Learning," a program that allows gifted minority high-school students from Mecklenberg County to spend summers in his laboratory.
One former student said, "Julio has been a combination of teacher, parent and friend to me for the past 13 years, and my life has been wonderfully enriched because of it." Another former student said, "Julio has been instrumental in helping me shape my academic career and embodies all the ideals one would wish for in a mentor."
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It is no news to this readership that neuroscience has been a growing enterprise at many levels, including that of undergraduate instruction and research. Recent textbooks (e.g. Zigmond et al., 1999) provide insight into the remarkable range of disciplines and associated research methodologies that characterize our broad field. Those of us in FUN have been working diligently to introduce undergraduates to cutting-edge research in these many areas. Cellular and molecular methods or methods entailing invasive manipulations in animals have been used in undergraduate laboratories for some time though these methods have, of course, evolved rapidly in recent years. By contrast, methods appropriate to the study of human participants have been rather infrequently used in undergraduate neuroscience laboratories in spite of the fact that cognitive neuroscience has become a very prominent aspect of contemporary research. It is not uncommon to find articles involving electroencephalography or some form of brain imaging in journals primarily devoted to experimental (i.e. not biological) or even social psychology.
Thus, it would seem that there is a need for ways to introduce undergraduates to neuroscientific methods for the study of humans. Undergraduate students are also extremely curious about brain processes and are naturally somewhat skeptical of the validity of generalizing to humans from animal studies. Hence, there are advantages in working with human participants from the point of view of student motivation.
Electroencephalography seems the most feasible measurement technology for undergraduate laboratories from an economical and technical standpoint. Perhaps the most interesting variant of electroencephalographic methods is event-related potentials (ERP), in which one obtains averaged electrical potentials in response to particular categories of stimulus events. A significant barrier to ERP work with undergraduates has been the complexity and cost of the necessary hardware and software. With the assistance of an Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement grant from the NSF, we have set up a system for event-related potentials that is relatively low cost and relatively easy for undergraduates to use. It is also flexible enough to be tailored to a wide variety of experimental situations.
The system is designed with the assumption that amplifiers with many hardware controls for gain, filtering, etc. are not necessary since such functions can now be controlled in software. We use a simple 8-channel EEG amplifier (PA/8, CB Sciences, Dover, NH). Data acquisition controls and offline data analysis have been custom programmed (Premise Development Corporation, Hartford, CT) in LabVIEW® (National Instruments, Austin, TX). Data are recorded and streamed to disk for subsequent offline analysis on a Windows NT workstation. Stimulus presentation is programmed on a separate computer, a Macintosh, using PsyScope (Cohen et al., 1993). Millisecond timing of stimulus events is achieved by means of a PsyScope Button Box connected to a serial port on the Macintosh. The Button Box also sends a pulse to the data acquisition computer to indicate when stimulus presentation occurs and to identify experimental conditions. These pulses, the timing of which is verified with a cadmium sulfide photocell and an oscilloscope, are reference points for the EEG data analysis. The LabVIEW software produces composite waveforms for each condition and each channel. Trials with eye movement artifacts are identified by visual inspection and excluded from the analysis. Composite waveforms for each participant are exported as a spreadsheet file and edited for further statistical analysis and for creation of grand average waveforms.
Students generally find the LabVIEW software easy to use. Since LabVIEW is used for a variety of other purposes in our laboratories, they are familiar with the user interface and with the elements of LabVIEW programming. PsyScope is also used for a variety of experiments in our laboratories. Thus, students do not need to master an additional complex software package in order to do ERP experiments.
Several adaptations of the system are envisioned for the future. We will probably want to record more than eight channels, so additional eight-channel modules may be needed. If we wish to increase beyond 16 channels we will also need to obtain a data acquisition board that can process more channels (e.g. a 64-channel board). Software modifications would be needed to handle the increased number of channels. Another possible software modification is incorporation of an eye-movement correction algorithm. We hope to be able to make these modifications ourselves since we have some knowledge of LabVIEW and have the source code for the software. However, we believe that our system works well in an undergraduate research setting and even with custom programming was cheaper than good commercially available systems.
Anyone who might be interested in acquiring such a system may obtain further information from the author at the following address: Department of Psychology, Bethel College, 300 E. 27th Street, North Newton, KS 67117; e-mail: krehbiel@bethelks.edu.
References
Cohen J.D., MacWhinney B., Flatt M., and Provost J. (1993). PsyScope: A new graphic interactive environment for designing psychology experiments. Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 25(2), 257-271.
Zigmond, M. J., Bloom, F. E., Landis, S. C., Roberts, J. L., & Squire, L. R. (1999). Fundamental neuroscience. San Diego: Academic Press.
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Seeking Masters of Science students to study neuroethology
Our lab is interested in neuroethology: the neural basis of behavior studied in an ecological and evolutionary context. Neuroethology is a broadly interdisciplinary approach to understanding how an animal's nervous system accounts for its behavior. This approach employs molecular, cellular, physiological, morphological, biomechanical, ecological, and evolutionary methods. Our current research emphasis is on the mechanisms of water-flow sensitivity in the nudibranch sea slug Tritonia diomedea, the integration of sensory information, and motor control of crawling and turning. I am seeking motivated students interested in a masters degree in the neural basis of behavior. Training in brain cell recording, computer analysis of video, microscopy, and nderwater animal observation is available. Financial support is available during the academic year and the summer. Applications will be accepted from biology and cross-disciplinary students (physics, chemistry).
The Biology Department contains faculty including two neurobiologists, a sensory biologist, and another electrophysiologist with advanced courses in animal physiology, and neurobiology.
Please send a curriculum vitae, unofficial transcript, a 1 page statement of research interest, and the name and contact information of 2 references to:
James A. Murray, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biology 156 Lewis Science
Center University of Central Arkansas Conway, AR 72035 (501) 450-5923
Email: jmurray@mail.uca.edu
Link to my homepage at which one can read about potential student projects, and download pictures and proposals related to our research.http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/biology/faculty/jmurray.htm
Laboratory Supervisor at Macalester College
Macalester College announces (4/15/00) a revised national search is underway for a Laboratory Supervisor for the Psychology Department. This Full-time, 12 months/per year position will be filled by a person with the following qualifications:
1. Bachelor's Degree in Psychology or related field (such as neuroscience, biopsychology, for example...) master's Degree
preferred.
2. One or two years of previous laboratory supervision experience preferred.
3. Previous teaching experience preferred.
4. Experience or willingness to work with laboratory animals.
5. Familiarity with desk top computers and statistical software.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Coordinate lab sections for introductory psychology and evaluate student work. Supervise laboratory preparation for
introductory psychology.
2. Provide laboratory assistance for some intermediate and upper level psychology courses, including laboratory
preparation and evaluation of student work.
3. Supervise student preceptors.
4. Order laboratory supplies, inspect shipments, and designate appropriate budget.
5. Coordinate the human research participant pool.
6. Maintain equipment inventory. Monitor equipment condition. Arrange appropriate equipment maintenance.
7. Manage the computer laboratory, including software maintenance and upgrading.
8. Be trained for supervision of the animal care facility (effective at the end of the 2000-2001 academic year).
9. Other duties as assigned.
Position reports to the chair of the department of psychology.
Interested applicants send cover letter and resume to: Human Resources, MACALESTER COLLEGE, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105 or fax to 651-696-6612 or email hr@macalester.edu. Review of resumes will begin immediately and continue until position is filled. Relocation benefit available within the US. Must be authorized to work in the US upon
employment start date. For more information about Macalester, visit our web site at www.macalester.edu
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AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER