A Synapse Sunrise at Skyview High

Sixteen committed NW Noggin volunteers from Washington State University Vancouver and PSU made an early morning journey to the enormous (2300 student!) Skyview High School in Salmon Creek, Washington, just down the road from WSU-V… We were there to meet students in three, 10th grade biology classrooms, along with their teacher Angela…

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A full day of brains at OMSI

And a full house of NW Noggin volunteers, including Grace Hoinowski, Brittany Wouden, Chelsey Anderson, Sarah Neveux, Angela Morrelli, Angela Johnson, and Max Neideigh from WSU Vancouver, and Sarah Loftus, Lauren Wilgus, Amanda Yancy, Julian Rodriguez, Aldair Rodriguez, Alex Voigt, Allie Clark, Austin Howard, and Sam DeLuche from PSU… We…

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I feel your pain @ Velo Cult (3/19)

Chronic pain torments more Americans than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined, yet its neurobiological basis remains a mystery, and successful treatment is rare. Researchers at OHSU and elsewhere are now exploring the powerful influence of social and environmental factors on the experience of chronic pain, and how understanding empathy…

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Your creative, lying brain – at Velo!

This week our Velo crowd explored how memories depend on changes in neuron connections (i.e., synapses), and how these changes require expression of specific genes… Christie Pizzimenti, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, enthusiastically described her research on how PTSD and substance use disorders involve powerful “excitatory” memory expression in the wrong contexts;  that…

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A Biochemical “Cascade”..!

Ten enthusiastic, multi-state, undergraduate NW Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State University spent an entire day at Cascade Middle School in Vancouver, Washington  –  home to 900 curious and adventurous 6th through 8th graders! Our undergraduates gained tremendous real world experience in these classrooms, and enjoyed the chance to practice their…

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Battle Ground Brains!

Our Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State headed up interstate 5 today for an afternoon discussing neurons, networks, and the functional contributions of different brain regions with 180 curious students at CAM Junior and Senior High School in Battle Ground, WA… Our talented undergrads took charge of the microphone, and engagingly explained the…

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Brains for 437 @ HeLa High!

Our skilled undergraduate outreach participants, a total of twelve from WSU Vancouver and Portland State University, led multiple discussions of brain structure and function for wave upon wave of high school students at HeLa High School in Vancouver this morning… We arrived early, and split into two rooms:  the library for…

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