Missing limbs at McDaniel

Years ago, when we began visiting classrooms with our undergraduates and graduates to talk neuroscience and make art, we joined forces briefly with a federal grant program known as GEAR UP, volunteering in the summer at what was then called Madison High School in Portland Public Schools.

A local news reporter asked us – on camera! – what we called ourselves, and did we have a website?

Fielding so many compelling and sometimes surprising student questions during outreach, and through extensive classroom teaching at universities, had honed our ability to think fast, share knowledge and more effectively engage. And with the help of our talented undergraduates, we even had a new nwnoggin.org website running (in rudimentary form!) in time for the evening news.

LEARN MORE: What is Northwest Noggin?

Teaching matters…to some

Portland State University, for example, just announced potential layoffs for non-tenure track faculty – the faculty who teach undergraduates. The teachers are targeted because they can be fired, unlike those with tenure whose jobs are protected, and who often complain about teaching, and rather minimally interact with students outside of their own graduate program.

“We find consistent evidence that students learn relatively more from non-tenure line professors in their introductory courses.”
-LEARN MORE: Are Tenure Track Professors Better Teachers?

LEARN MORE: PSU begins layoff process for nearly 100 faculty members, more expected

LEARN MORE: Board of Trustees faces criticism from faculty members

LEARN MORE: When it comes to teaching and tenure it is time to walk the walk

LEARN MORE: Noggin @ White House Frontiers

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We love outreach!

LEARN MORE: Your Inner Worm Bin

Questions!

What medication is used to treat ADHD, and does it work? Does it keep working?

How does better sleep help the brain?

We talked about how new research (including data from the multi-center Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study) finds several subtypes of structural and functional changes in the brain that might lead to the behaviors that fit a diagnosis of ADHD, and that these neurophysiological differences are important, suggesting potentially different therapeutic approaches.

LEARN MORE: What is ADHD?

LEARN MORE: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study®)

LEARN MORE: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Restricted Phenotypes Prevalence, Comorbidity, and Polygenic Risk Sensitivity in the ABCD Baseline Cohort

LEARN MORE: Characterizing the Neural Correlates of Response Inhibition and Error Processing in Children With Symptoms of Irritability and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the ABCD Study®

LEARN MORE: The ABCD study: understanding the development of risk for mental and physical health outcomes

LEARN MORE: Hey Vancouver: Let Kids Sleep!

LEARN MORE: Sleepmore in Seattle: Later school start times are associated with more sleep and better performance in high school students

LEARN MORE: Schools shift as evidence mounts that later start times improve teens’ learning and well-being

LEARN MORE: Non-pharmacologic management of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents: a review

LEARN MORE: Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Minor at PSU

LEARN MORE: Neuroscience Careers (Society for Neuroscience)

LEARN MORE: Careers in Neuroscience

LEARN MORE: Interdisciplinary research is the key

LEARN MORE: Links between Arts, Learning, and Neuroscience 

LEARN MORE: Molecular Neuroscience in the 21st Century: A Personal Perspective

LEARN MORE: The Potential of Interdisciplinary Research to Solve Problems in the Brain, Behavioral, and Clinical Sciences

How long does it take to become a neurosurgeon?

How do I get to study neuroscience?

How expensive is it to become a graduate student in neuroscience?

LEARN MORE: Achromatopsia: Genetics and Gene Therapy

LEARN MORE: Color on the Noggin!

How do your genes and your own life experience affect each other?

Is it harder to learn a language as an adult? And if so why?

What is consciousness  –  and do we know anything about where it happens in the brain?

Why are some things we do or experience conscious, but other things aren’t?

Does a bigger brain mean that you’re smarter?

LEARN MORE: Inspiring books on brains & art

Can a prosthetic hand make a “phantom” limb disappear? Can it replace it?

That’s because perception of our body is deeply embedded in the networks of linked neurons in the brain. The body has sensory receptors that respond to touch, pressure, injury and warmth, but it’s our brains that consciously map and feel. A touch or movement on neighboring mapped regions of the body (for example, on your face after you’ve lost an arm) can drive activity in these brain areas, maintaining your sense of the limb. Intended movements can incorporate it into our conscious experience as well.

What’s going on in those pics?: Brain Hacking is Electric!

LEARN MORE: Phantom limb syndrome: a review

Losing a limb can be a violent and painful experience – and our sense of our body is intimately bound up with the interacting networks of memory, prediction and perception that let us feel intact and whole.

LEARN MORE: Recent advances in understanding and managing phantom limb pain

LEARN MORE: Clinical updates on phantom limb pain

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