Assignments

Resource write-up

Please write-up a review of i) one of the references you discuss in your symposium presentation or ii) another paper of your choosing in the style of a Neuron “Preview” or a Nature “Research Highlights” paper (example).

Your review should be 2,000-2,500 words (6-10 pp in length, double-spaced) and is due by noon on Wednesday, December 18, 2019.

Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing:

Bray, N. (2019). Foreseeing compulsion. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0256-8. PDF

Lewis, S. (2019). A good stretch regulates satiety. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0252-z. PDF

Gupta, P. K., & Murphy, T. H. (2019). Cortex-wide computations in complex decision making in mice. Neuron, 104(4), 631–633. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.10.043. PDF

Mazade, R., & Alonso, J. M. (2019). Synergy in cortical networks. Neuron, 104(2), 184–185. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.09.041. PDF

Planning for the student symposium

You have two class periods (~150 mins), how do you want to spend them?

Constraints:

• Everyone must be a lead author on at least one presentation.
• No person should be an author on more than two presentations.
• If every (\(n=15\)) person presents (as an individual or part of a group), there are less than 10 mins/presentation because of the need for transition times.
• Presentations should try to focus on answering these questions:
  • What do we know about \(X\), where \(X\) could be the biological basis of some behavior, the behavioral effects of some neurotransmitter, hormone, or drug, the role of some circuit or brain region, or some other topic related to the biological/neurological foundations of human behavior.
  • What don’t we know about \(X\)?
  • Why is it important to answer these questions?
• Some diversity of topics would be good.

Suggested starting point:

• Review the student interests page. Look for overlapping themes or common interests.
• Is there a group that could do a mini-symposium around some topic? Or would a co-authored single talk make sense?
• Does someone feel strongly about working with a partner/group versus working alone. Either is totally ok.

Final points:

• It’s ok to build upon or enhance work you want to do for your research. For example, if you need to review the literature on the role of oxytocin in modulating social behavior for a paper you’re writing, it’s fine to make that a part of your presentation. You’ll just need to make clear to me what new work you’re doing for this assignment.