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 wheelHuman 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?