You're Getting on My Nerves! A board Game to Teach Action Potential Propagation and Cable Properties.

Electrophysiology is one of the most intimidating topics within the foundational neuroscience curriculum to most undergraduate students. Keeping student attention and engagement during these lectures is equally challenging for educators. Game-based learning is used in many disciplines and levels of education and allows students to apply what they have learned and build community within the classroom. You're Getting on my Nerves was created to help students apply their knowledge of cable properties and practice vocabulary terms with their peers. This board game was originally created using inexpensive products but is also now available for purchase, allowing educators the flexibility to use the game within their budget and available timeframe. Additionally, it can be scaled from introductory to advanced levels and act as a relaxed and entertaining study tool. Students learn what changes in the cell can increase or decrease the action potential's ability to propagate down the axon and begin to describe different cable properties. Each player receives a card to keep track of the amplitude of their action potential. The goal is to move their game piece from the axon hillock to the axon terminal without decaying their action potential to 0. Players draw game cards that instruct them on where to move along the gameboard. The gameboard has color-coded spaces with changes in the axon. Students begin to quickly learn which changes in the cell allow their game piece to propagate forward as they compete with their peers to reach the axon terminal.

Quantification of microglial contact and engulfment of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in the rodent brain.

Microglia have emerged as essential regulators of neurodevelopment by phagocytosing synapses. Recently, we showed that microglia engulf viable oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) during development to facilitate myelination. Here, we describe a protocol to quantify microglial engulfment of whole cells using 3D confocal microscopy to differentiate microglial contact. This protocol can be applied to assess whole-cell engulfment in a variety of contexts and cell types. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Nemes-Baran et al. (2020).

Fractalkine-Dependent Microglial Pruning of Viable Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells Regulates Myelination.

Oligodendrogenesis occurs during early postnatal development, coincident with neurogenesis and synaptogenesis, raising the possibility that microglia-dependent pruning mechanisms that modulate neurons regulate myelin sheath formation. Here we show a population of ameboid microglia migrating from the ventricular zone into the corpus callosum during early postnatal development, termed "the fountain of microglia," phagocytosing viable oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) before onset of myelination. Fractalkine receptor-deficient mice exhibit a reduction in microglial engulfment of viable OPCs, increased numbers of oligodendrocytes, and reduced myelin thickness but no change in axon number. These data provide evidence that microglia phagocytose OPCs as a homeostatic mechanism for proper myelination. A hallmark of hypomyelinating developmental disorders such as periventricular leukomalacia and of adult demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis is increased numbers of oligodendrocytes but failure to myelinate, suggesting that microglial pruning of OPCs may be impaired in pathological states and hinder myelination.