Choices in neuroscience careers

How do I choose a mentor? How do I decide what field of neuroscience to work in? Should I consider doing research in industry? Most students and postdoctoral researchers aiming for a successful career in neuroscience ask themselves these questions. In this article, Nature Reviews Neuroscience asks four successful neuroscientists for their thoughts on the factors one should consider when making these decisions. We hope that this Viewpoint will serve as a useful resource for junior neuroscientists who have to make important and sometimes difficult decisions that might have long-lasting consequences for their careers.     

Neuroscience goes on a chip

Advances in microelectronics, microfluidics, polymers and microfabrication have enabled the creation of disposable lab-on-a-chips (LOCs) as the new tools for neuroscience research. The LOCs have been applied for a wide range of neurobiology studies, including cellular and molecular biochemical experimentations, morphological observations and electrophysiological investigations. The integration of miniaturised components leads to analytical instrumentations with unprecedented automation, speed of analysis, and flexibility. These features make LOCs capable enough to replace their bulky and expensive bench-top counterparts. LOCs can be useful for genomic, proteomic, epigenomic, peptidomic, connectomic and electrophysiological studies and also as effective tools for reductionist neuroscientists. Moreover, they can be applied at higher level studies such as developmental neurobiology and behavioural investigations. This work provides an in-depth review of LOC platforms for neuroscience research. First, we review the essential bench-top neuroscience instrumentation as per their functions and features. Next, we present LOC counterparts for those bench-top instrumentations. Finally, we offer perspectives on persistent challenges and our perception of opportunities based on LOC instrumentations in neuroscience research.     

Neuroscience in recession?

As the global financial downturn continues, its impact on neuroscientists - both on an individual level and at the level of their research institute - becomes increasingly apparent. How is the economic crisis affecting neuroscience funding, career prospects, international collaborations and scientists' morale in different parts of the world? Nature Reviews Neuroscience gauged the opinions of a number of leading neuroscientists: the President of the Society for Neuroscience, the President Elect of the British Neuroscience Association, the former President of the Japan Neuroscience Society, the President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and the Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health. Their responses provide interesting and important insights into the regional impact of the global financial downturn, with some causes for optimism for the future of neuroscience research.     

Critical mass: The rise of a touchscreen technology community for rodent cognitive testing

The rise in the number of users and institutions utilizing the rodent touchscreen technology for cognitive testing over the past decade has prompted the need for knowledge mobilization and community building. To address the needs of the growing touchscreen community, the first international touchscreen symposium was hosted at Western University. Attendees from around the world attended talks from expert neuroscientists using touchscreens to examine a vast array of questions regarding cognition and the nervous system. In addition to the symposium, a subset of attendees was invited to partake in a hands-on training course where they received touchscreen training covering both hardware and software components. Beyond the two touchscreen events, virtual platforms have been developed to further support touchscreen users: (a) Mousebytes.ca , which includes a data repository of rodent touchscreen tasks, and (b) Touchscreencognition.org , an online community with numerous training and community resources, perhaps most notably a forum where members can ask and answer questions. The advantages of the rodent touchscreen technology for cognitive neuroscience research has allowed neuroscientists from diverse backgrounds to test specific cognitive processes using well-validated and standardized apparatus, contributing to its rise in popularity and its relevance to modern neuroscience research. The commitment of the touchscreen community to data, task development and information sharing not only ensures an expansive future of the use of rodent touchscreen technology but additionally, quality research that will increase translation from preclinical studies to clinical successes.     

Linking neuroscience and psychoanalysis from a developmental perspective: Why and how?

This paper aims to develop the rational to support why and how we should link neuroscience and psychoanalysis. Many of these points are derived from child development and child psychiatry. Neuroscience investigates developmental questions in a different way than psychoanalysis, while psychoanalysis itself has shifted towards new developmental paradigms. The rapprochement between neuroscience and psychoanalysis allows a new understanding of some concepts, including embodiment of mind, consciousness and attachment. The “double reading” paradigm allows a better understanding of symptomatic configurations. Linking neuroscience and psychoanalysis may improve treatments and result in new experimental neuroscientific paradigms involving changing the research object, changing the state of the research object, and investigating the structural changes in the brain following psychotherapy. The last aim is to create an epistemology of the articulation between the theoretical frameworks through phenomenology, “complementarism” and neuropsychoanalysis. We argue that it is necessary for clinicians to be aware of the advancements in each field. This is not only an epistemological question; we assume that new findings in neuroscience will change the way psychoanalysts think and approach treatment of their patients. We hope the present research will contribute to change the way that neuroscientists think and will provide new options to their set of experimental paradigms.     

Neuroscience in the public sphere

The media are increasingly fascinated by neuroscience. Here, we consider how neuroscientific discoveries are thematically represented in the popular press and the implications this has for society. In communicating research, neuroscientists should be sensitive to the social consequences neuroscientific information may have once it enters the public sphere.     

Some recent advances in basic neuroscience research in China

Neuroscience as a distinct discipline or research programme has been a rather recent event in most Chinese universities and in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. However, the last few years have witnessed increased funding and an improved research environment for neuroscience, both of which facilitated an influx of Chinese neuroscientists trained abroad. In this review, we have highlighted some recent research advances made by neuroscientists in China. Based on our own expertise, this review is focused mainly on findings that have contributed to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying brain development, neural plasticity and cognitive processes, and neural degeneration.     

Neuroscience and education: from research to practice?

Cognitive neuroscience is making rapid strides in areas highly relevant to education. However, there is a gulf between current science and direct classroom applications. Most scientists would argue that filling the gulf is premature. Nevertheless, at present, teachers are at the receiving end of numerous 'brain-based learning' packages. Some of these contain alarming amounts of misinformation, yet such packages are being used in many schools. What, if anything, can neuroscientists do to help good neuroscience into education?     

Trans-NIH neuroscience initiatives on mouse phenotyping and mutagenesis

In the post-genomic era, the laboratory mouse will excel as a premier mammalian system to study normal and disordered biological processes, in part because of low cost, but largely because of the rich opportunities that exist for exploiting genetic tools and technologies in the mouse to systematically determine mammalian gene function. Many robust models of human disease may therefore be developed, and these in turn will provide critical clues to understanding gene function. The full potential of the mouse for understanding many of the neural and behavioral phenotypes of relevance to neuroscientists has yet to be realized. With the full anatomy of the mouse genome at hand, researchers for the first time will be able to move beyond traditional gene-by-gene approaches and take a global view of gene expression patterns crucial for neurobiological processes. In response to an action plan for mouse genomics developed on the basis of recommendations from the scientific community, seven institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiated in 1999 a mouse genetics research program that specifically focused on neurobiology and complex behavior. The specific goals of these neuroscience initiatives are to develop high-throughput phenotyping assays and to initiate genome-wide mutagenesis projects to identify hundreds of mutant strains with heritable abnormalities of high relevance to neuroscientists. Assays and mutants generated in these efforts will be made widely available to the scientific community, and such resources will provide neuroscientists unprecedented opportunities to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of neural function and complex behavior. Such research tools ultimately will permit the manipulation and analysis of the mouse genome, as a means of gaining insight into the genetic bases of the mammalian nervous system and its complex disorders. Received: 10 April 2001 / Accepted: 23 April 2001     

Virtual reality in neuroscience research and therapy

Virtual reality (VR) environments are increasingly being used by neuroscientists to simulate natural events and social interactions. VR creates interactive, multimodal sensory stimuli that offer unique advantages over other approaches to neuroscientific research and applications. VR's compatibility with imaging technologies such as functional MRI allows researchers to present multimodal stimuli with a high degree of ecological validity and control while recording changes in brain activity. Therapists, too, stand to gain from progress in VR technology, which provides a high degree of control over the therapeutic experience. Here we review the latest advances in VR technology and its applications in neuroscience research.     

Advanced Transgenic and Gene-Targeting Approaches

Over the past two decades the techniques associated with the manipulation of the mouse genome have provided a powerful approach toward the better understanding of gene function. Conventional transgenie and gene targeting approaches have been used extensively, and these techniques have been particularly rewarding for neuroscientists. Nevertheless, the traditional approaches toward genome manipulation have certain limitations that diminish their usefulness for studying more sophisticated biological processes. Therefore, variations to these techniques have recently been developed. The improvements are focused on two areas: one provides regulated control of transgene expression using an inducible expression system; and the other provides the opportunity to inactivate genes in specific cells and at predetermined developmental stages with a conditional gene targeting system. This review summarizes the advantages as well as some of the technical difficulties of these new approaches. The application of these advanced approaches in biomedical research, particularly neuroscience, are also discussed.     

Proteomics for Protein Expression Profiling in Neuroscience

As the technology of proteomics moves from a theoretical approach to a practical reality, neuroscientists will have to determine the most appropriate applications for this technology. Neuroscientists will have to surmount difficulties particular to their research, such as limited sample amounts, heterogeneous cellular compositions in samples, and the fact that many proteins of interest are rare, hydrophobic proteins. This review examines protein isolation and protein fractionation and separation using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry proteomic methods. Methods for quantifying relative protein expression between samples (e.g., 2-DIGE, and ICAT) are also described. The coverage of the proteome, ability to detect membrane proteins, resource requirements, and quantitative reliability of different approaches is also discussed. Although there are many challenges in proteomic neuroscience, this field promises many rewards in the future.     

The second joint Kemali-IBRO Mediterranean school of neuroscience is the first for invertebrate neuroscience

This meeting was held at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy, from 6th–13th July 2011. It was sponsored through a collaboration between IBRO (the International Brain Research Organisation) and the Kemali Foundation. Notably, it is the first IBRO sponsored School specifically in invertebrate neuroscience. The meeting was attended by early career researchers from countries around the Mediterranean basin and highlighted the research opportunities that this field can offer to neuroscientists at the start of their careers. Students participating in the School were introduced to a range of important invertebrate model systems. The utility of these models in addressing fundamental neurobiological problems, especially those relating to human neurological disorders, was extensively discussed. In this review, two of the participating students provide a summary of this meeting with a view to encouraging support for further activity in this arena in the future. One of the aims of the Kemali foundation is to foster enduring collaborations between scientists in the Mediterranean region. Given the enthusiastic networking both during and after the meeting, there is much promise that this goal will be realised.     

Contributions of Yale neuroscience to Donald O. Hebb's organization of behavior

The neuropsychological concepts found in Donald Hebb’s The Organization of Behavior have greatly influenced many aspects of neuroscience research over the last half century. Hebb’s ideas arose from a rich tradition of research. An underappreciated contribution came from pioneering studies at Yale University. Here, we wish to reconsider these developments, placing particular emphasis on the roles of the neurophysiologists John Fulton, J.J. Dusser de Barenne, and Warren McCulloch and the psychologists Donald Marquis and Ernest Hilgard. These neuroscientists all contributed significantly to the intellectual climate that gave rise to Hebb’s remarkable synthesis.     

The impact of molecular biology on neuroscience

How our brains work is one of the major unsolved problems of biology. This paper describes some of the techniques of molecular biology that are already being used to study the brains of animals. Mainly as a result of the human genome project many new techniques will soon become available which could decisively influence the progress of neuroscience. I suggest that neuroscientists should tell molecular biologists what their difficulties are, in the hope that this will stimulate the production of useful new biological tools.     

The law and neuroscience

Some of the implications for law of recent discoveries in neuroscience are considered in a new program established by the MacArthur Foundation. A group of neuroscientists, lawyers, philosophers, and jurists are examining issues in criminal law and, in particular, problems in responsibility and prediction and problems in legal decision making.     

Moving beyond dichotomies: Liao,S. Matthew (ed.), Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality,Oxford University Press, 2016

Matthew Liao’s edited collection Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality covers a wide range of issues in moral psychology. The collection should be of interest to philosophers, psychologist, and neuroscientists alike, particularly those interested in the relation between these disciplines. I give an overview of the content and major themes of the volume and draw some important lessons about the connection between moral neuroscience and normative ethics. In particular, I argue that moving beyond some of the dichotomies implicit in some of the debates advanced in the book makes the neuroscience of moral judgment much more useful in advancing normative ethics.     

Neuroscience and architecture: seeking common ground

As these paired Commentaries discuss, neuroscientists and architects are just beginning to collaborate, each bringing what they know about their respective fields to the task of improving the environment of research buildings and laboratories.     

Development and enhancement of agricultural biotechnology in some countries in Latin America

A number of research institutions and both local and international agencles in Latin America are using biotechnology as part of an effort to enhance agricultural productivity. However, it is very much an open question as to whether all of these various organizations can provide the best means of realizing this goal. Latin American countries vary dramatically in their knowledge base and current use of modern biotechnology. Thus, while some countries lack the ability to develop, or possibly even implement, many aspects of modern biotechnology, others are quite advanced in this regard. This review provides a somewhat selective overview of current research in the area of agricultural biotechnology in Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador, with emphasis on how the existing agencies and institutions have responded to the challenge of biotechnology. In addition, general strategies for the development of agricultural biotechnology in these countries are presented and discussed.     

Toward the explainability,transparency, and universality of machine learning for behavioral classification in neuroscience

The use of rigorous ethological observation via machine learning techniques to understand brain function (computational neuroethology) is a rapidly growing approach that is poised to significantly change how behavioral neuroscience is commonly performed. With the development of open-source platforms for automated tracking and behavioral recognition, these approaches are now accessible to a wide array of neuroscientists despite variations in budget and computational experience. Importantly, this adoption has moved the field toward a common understanding of behavior and brain function through the removal of manual bias and the identification of previously unknown behavioral repertoires. Although less apparent, another consequence of this movement is the introduction of analytical tools that increase the explainabilty, transparency, and universality of the machine-based behavioral classifications both within and between research groups. Here, we focus on three main applications of such machine model explainabilty tools and metrics in the drive toward behavioral (i) standardization, (ii) specialization, and (iii) explainability. We provide a perspective on the use of explainability tools in computational neuroethology, and detail why this is a necessary next step in the expansion of the field. Specifically, as a possible solution in behavioral neuroscience, we propose the use of Shapley values via Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) as a diagnostic resource toward explainability of human annotation, as well as supervised and unsupervised behavioral machine learning analysis.