Using Blogs as Practice Writing About Original Neuroscience Papers Enhances Students' Confidence in Their Critical Analysis of Research.

Increasing emphasis is being put on providing students with opportunities to read and write about primary scientific literature in undergraduate neuroscience education. Extensive research has indicated that students' attitudes and self-efficacy as well as writing quality improve when they are provided with opportunities for practice and feedback. Here we tested the value of using a blog format to practice writing about scientific research articles. Students were assigned small groups and did work on their own individual schedules to build toward time allotted in class to discuss the articles with their groups. Our goal was to build confidence in the students' ability to read and analyze original research articles. We found that the students in the junior-level Systems Neuroscience course had high confidence in their ability to read and analyze papers at the end of the blogging experience. Surprisingly, however, this did not manifest in a change in quality of final, higher stakes, written reports on original research articles when compared to a control sample from a previous year that did not include the blog assignments. We conclude that blogs provide a useful format for students to discuss research articles collaboratively while building confidence in their ability to analyze and discuss original neuroscience articles. Although the final reports' quality did not change compared to the earlier offering of the course, we believe that the blog experience is a valuable tool for building confidence and creating a positive experience for students in learning to read and analyze original neuroscience research articles.

Three Scientific Controversies to Engage Students in Reading Primary Literature.

In this review, three sets of papers are presented. Each of the sets presents a historical or active controversy in neuroscience ranging from cell biology and cell signaling, to developmental neuroscience, to cognitive neuroscience. The first set captures a historical controversy about whether the beta/gamma subunit of G-proteins can be active in opening ion channels. The second set represents a modern instantiation of the oldest debate in neuroscience: are our minds and brains the product of innate factors or environmental influences. This debate plays out in a series of papers on the development of the visual system. The third set contrasts the view that the hippocampus and surrounding structures primarily function to represent our location in space (a position for which the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three investigators) with the perspective that the hippocampus is a general-purpose structure for declarative memories, spatial or non-spatial. The first and third controversies feature publications of virtually identical experiments that show opposing results. All three controversies are discussed in regards to the individual scientists who did the experiments and debated directly with each other. The first (beta/gamma subunits) emphasizes the value of reproducibility in scientific research, the second (visual cortex development) emphasizes the value of new techniques and updating scientific models, and the third (hippocampus) exposes students to an ongoing, albeit under discussed, debate.

An Instructor's Guide to (Some of) the Most Amazing Papers in Neuroscience.

Although textbooks are still assigned in many undergraduate science courses, it is now not uncommon, even in some of the earliest courses in the curriculum, to supplement texts with primary source readings from the scientific literature. Not only does reading these articles help students develop an understanding of specific course content, it also helps foster an ability to engage with the discipline the way its practitioners do. One challenge with this approach, however, is that it can be difficult for instructors to select appropriate readings on topics outside of their areas of expertise as would be required in a survey course, for example. Here we present a subset of the papers that were offered in response to a request for the "most amazing papers in neuroscience" that appeared on the listserv of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN). Each contributor was subsequently asked to describe briefly the content of their recommended papers, their pedagogical value, and the audiences for which these papers are best suited. Our goal is to provide readers with sufficient information to decide whether such articles might be useful in their own classes. It is not our intention that any article within this collection will provide the final word on an area of investigation, nor that this collection will provide the final word for the discipline as a whole. Rather, this article is a collection of papers that have proven themselves valuable in the hands of these particular educators. Indeed, it is our hope that this collection represents the inaugural offering of what will become a regular feature in this journal, so that we can continue to benefit from the diverse expertise of the FUN community.

Controversies in Neuroscience: A Literature-Based Course for First Year Undergraduates that Improves Scientific Confidence While Teaching Concepts.

Controversies in Neuroscience is a half-semester elective for first year science students at Carnegie Mellon University with an emphasis on discussing primary literature to highlight current research topics and to introduce students to neuroscience. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching first-year students using a literature-only approach, we took advantage of an opportunity to teach the same topics to a traditional textbook-based upper division course as to the first year seminar. Students in both courses took surveys at the beginning and end of the course, and self-reported confidence levels as well as exam scores were compared. At the conclusion of both courses, students reported increased level of comfort with scientific terminology and methodology. In addition, students enrolled in the first-year seminar performed at least as well or better than students involved in the upper division course on exam material. These results suggest that first year students are capable of making great strides in learning and understanding scientific principles strictly through exposure to primary literature, even with little or no access to a standard textbook. Furthermore, introducing students to primary literature-based courses early on in their undergraduate career can increase enthusiasm for learning science and improve confidence with neuroscience concepts and methodology. We therefore conclude that it is valuable to provide students opportunities to critically evaluate scientific literature early in their undergraduate careers.

Protein kinase C phosphorylation sensitizes but does not activate the capsaicin receptor transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1).

Protein kinase C (PKC) modulates the function of the capsaicin receptor transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1). This modulation manifests as increased current when the channel is activated by capsaicin. In addition, studies have suggested that phosphorylation by PKC might directly gate the channel, because PKC-activating phorbol esters induce TRPV1 currents in the absence of applied ligands. To test whether PKC both modulates and gates the TRPV1 function by direct phosphorylation, we used direct sequencing to determine the major sites of PKC phosphorylation on TRPV1 intracellular domains. We then tested the ability of the PKC-activating phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) to potentiate capsaicin-induced currents and to directly gate TRPV1. We found that mutation of S800 to alanine significantly reduced the PMA-induced enhancement of capsaicin-evoked currents and the direct activation of TRPV1 by PMA. Mutation of S502 to alanine reduced PMA enhancement of capsaicin-evoked currents, but had no effect on direct activation of TRPV1 by PMA. Conversely, mutation of T704 to alanine had no effect on PMA enhancement of capsaicin-evoked currents but dramatically reduced direct activation of TRPV1 by PMA. These results, combined with pharmacological studies showing that inactive phorbol esters also weakly activate TRPV1, suggest that PKC-mediated phosphorylation modulates TRPV1 but does not directly gate the channel. Rather, currents induced by phorbol esters result from the combination of a weak direct ligand-like activation of TRPV1 and the phosphorylation-induced enhancement of the TRPV1 function. Furthermore, modulation of the TRPV1 function by PKC appears to involve distinct phosphorylation sites depending on the mechanism of channel activation.

Membrane topology of a metabotropic glutamate receptor.

The metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) have been predicted to have a classical seven transmembrane domain structure similar to that seen for members of the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily. However, the mGluRs (and other members of the family C GPCRs) show no sequence homology to the rhodopsin-like GPCRs, for which this seven transmembrane domain structure has been experimentally confirmed. Furthermore, several transmembrane domain prediction algorithms suggest that the mGluRs have a topology that is distinct from these receptors. In the present study, we set out to test whether mGluR5 has seven true transmembrane domains. Using a variety of approaches in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems, our data provide strong support for the proposed seven transmembrane domain model of mGluR5. We propose that this membrane topology can be extended to all members of the family C GPCRs.

cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulates desensitization of the capsaicin receptor (VR1) by direct phosphorylation.

The capsaicin receptor, VR1 (also known as TRPV1), is a ligand-gated ion channel expressed on nociceptive sensory neurons that responds to noxious thermal and chemical stimuli. Capsaicin responses in sensory neurons exhibit robust potentiation by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). In this study, we demonstrate that PKA reduces VR1 desensitization and directly phosphorylates VR1. In vitro phosphorylation, phosphopeptide mapping, and protein sequencing of VR1 cytoplasmic domains delineate several candidate PKA phosphorylation sites. Electrophysiological analysis of phosphorylation site mutants clearly pinpoints Ser116 as the residue responsible for PKA-dependent modulation of VR1. Given the significant roles of VR1 and PKA in inflammatory pain hypersensitivity, VR1 phosphorylation at Ser116 by PKA may represent an important molecular mechanism involved in the regulation of VR1 function after tissue injury.