Thanks to the hard work of Corey Cleland, my job is much easier (a simple matter of cutting and pasting you might think.........!). I have tried to keep the same format as far as possible.

Please give me feedback, especially suggestions for future content. And if you care to contribute, please step forward.

Your FUNNIES editor,
Carol Ann Paul
cpaul@wellesley.edu

The Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting will be held in San Diego, Saturday October 23 to Wednesday October 27, 2004. As usual, FUN will be there with a variety of activities including meetings, exhibits and undergraduate posters. Mark your calendar NOW for the following:

FUN Business meeting - Monday Morning at 7 am. Caffeine and food provided. All are invited. Bring your ideas and energy.

The FUN Social/Poster Sesssion is a great opportunity for undergrads to show their research and hone communication skills.

FUN POSTER / SOCIAL SFN 2003 - NEW ORLEANS Red beans and rice at the FUN Social.

Jennifer Williams (University of Rochester) receives beads and a T-shirt in addition to a FUN Student Travel Award sponsored by the University of New Orleans.

Some of you may have seen the IMPULSE poster at the SFN meeting, or learned about the emerging journal from the undergraduate editorial team that was talking about it at the meeting. But for those who have not, here is why IMPULSE may be the right place to submit for you and your students:

Do you have undergraduates doing research projects that will probably not be published in main stream neuroscience journal? Perhaps the results were negative (though the study was good), or maybe it is too small a piece of work. If the answer is “yes,” then IMPULSE may be the right place for those students to publish their work. Undergraduates have the chance to write up their work for submission and peer review, to receive comments from the international Review Board team (eight schools are represented, three countries, all undergraduates), to go through the revision process, and then to see their work published online. The journal is primarily intended for original research reports, but high quality literature reviews will also be considered.

For more information, please visit the website for further information and submission guidelines: http://impulse.schc.sc.edu or contact the Editor, Matt Wilkinson (impulse@schc.sc.edu ) or Faculty Advisor, Leslie Jones, (leslie.jones@schc.sc.edu ) if you have questions. Also, if you have students who might be interested in serving as Reviewers, please have them contact the Editor as well.

The first issue is nearly ready for posting, and should be up by semester’s end. We hope you decide to join us in making this new mechanism for including undergraduates in the excitement of neuroscience research a success. Thank you for considering making this online, international & inter-institutional journal, a truly peer reviewed journal, part of your undergraduates' research experience.

What can a Keck/PKAL Consultation do for you?

Recently I was asked by Project Kaleidoscope to be a member of a visiting team to Skidmore College to evaluate a new Neuroscience Program that they had instituted there. Eric Wiertelak (Macalaster College), Denny Smith (Oberlin College) and I visited the college, met with and interviewed many of the faculty and administrators involved in the program, and made recommendations of how they were doing and where they should put their emphasis. It was such an interesting process that I thought that there may be many other colleges may not be aware that this program exists and could benefit from such a visit. So I interviewed Marc Tetel, from the Biology Department at Skidmore College to find out more about the program and how it works.

Carol Ann Paul (CA): How did you hear about the PKAL sponsorship?
Marc Tetel (Marc): It was Julio Ramirez who told me about the program in conversation at the SFN conference. I thought it was such a good idea that I brought it up at the first Neuroscience Steering Committee, as a means for helping us get off the ground.

CA: How did you contact PKAL and get the process going?
Marc: I checked out the website: http://www.pkal.org/template2.cfm?c_id=420 and downloaded the Keck/PKAL Consultancy Handbook. I asked Mark Wold of PKAL whether it would be appropriate to have a consultation at the beginning of our new Neuroscience program and he was supportive, and helped clarify the instructions on how to write the application. And of course, Jeannie Narum was also a tremendous resource.

CA: What was involved in the preparation for the site visit?
Marc: This was clearly explained in the Consultancy Handbook. Most of the materials we were able to adapt from our proposal for the new program.

CA: Was this preparation (self study) useful?
Marc: Yes in that it helped us think of questions that we wanted the visiting team to address. It helped us focus our goals when preparing these materials.

CA: Was it difficult to get everyone involved at Skidmore "on board"
Marc: NO – the faculty and the administration were very supportive. Both felt that it would help them meet their goals (for different reasons!)

CA: What was PKAL’s role in this process
Marc: In addition to providing the guidelines, PKAL pays approximately 60% of the costs – Skidmore had to pick up the tab for meals and lodging for the visiting committee and the travel for one of the committee.

CA: Were you happy with the visit and the report? (you can be honest!)
Marc: Yes! We are currently instituting many of the recommended curricular changes (upping some of the requirements for the major) and we appreciated the recommendation for increased support from the administration. It is particularly useful when we are writing up these changes that we have more credibility and can say: “as suggested by the visiting Keck/PKAL committee………”

CA: How did the other members of the departments respond (those who were not immediately involved in the process)?
Marc: The other members of the departments responded very positively . They enjoyed meeting with the consultants and thought the process was very beneficial.

CA: Would you recommend the process to other institutions?
Marc: Yes – especially if you have a specific goal to make changes e.g. if you are starting up a program or making changes to a program.

CA: Was this a financially effective way for Skidmore to do such an assessment?
Marc: Yes – although the college did not require assessment at this time.

CA: Thank you Marc for your candid replies. I’m sure that our readers will find this very informative and helpful.

FUN Lifetime Achievement Award
Gary Dunbar , Central Michigan University

• Bamat, Kron and Schulte - Acute and Long-term Behavioral Effects of Toluene in Neonatal Rats Selectively Bred for High or Low Vocalizations.
  
• Braun: Microscope Slide Treatments to Ensure Newborn Mouse Brain Tissue Adhesion During (Na++K+)-ATPase Assay.
  
• Marks - Antidepressant Actions of Citalopram and Milnacipran in C57BL/6J and 129S6/SVEV Inbred Strains of Mice.
  
• Numis - Role of the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter in the Neurotoxic Effects of 2'-NH2-MPTP in Mice and Rats.
  
• Pan - California State University, LA
  Sleep Deprivation Impairs Retention Performance on an Olfactory Discrimination Task
  
• Picchini - Exercise and Estrogen Influence the Behavioral and Neurochemical Correlates of Depression in Female Rats.
  
• Schaefer - Adrenalectomy and Metyrapone Differentially Affect Drug-Induced Changes in Monoamine Levels in Developing Animals.
  
• Travis - Regional Dendritic Variation in Neonatal Human Cortex: A Quantitative Golgi Analysis.
  
• Williams - Training-induced Alterations in AMPA Receptor Subunit Composition After Cortical Lesions in Adult Cats.