An actionable anti-racism plan for geoscience organizations.

Geoscience organizations shape the discipline. They influence attitudes and expectations, set standards, and provide benefits to their members. Today, racism and discrimination limit the participation of, and promote hostility towards, members of minoritized groups within these critical geoscience spaces. This is particularly harmful for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in geoscience and is further exacerbated along other axes of marginalization, including disability status and gender identity. Here we present a twenty-point anti-racism plan that organizations can implement to build an inclusive, equitable and accessible geoscience community. Enacting it will combat racism, discrimination, and the harassment of all members.

Manganese-Induced Parkinsonism Is Not Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease: Environmental and Genetic Evidence.

Movement abnormalities caused by chronic manganese (Mn) intoxication clinically resemble but are not identical to those in idiopathic Parkinson's disease. In fact, the most successful parkinsonian drug treatment, the dopamine precursor levodopa, is ineffective in alleviating Mn-induced motor symptoms, implying that parkinsonism in Mn-exposed individuals may not be linked to midbrain dopaminergic neuron cell loss. Over the last decade, supporting evidence from human and nonhuman primates has emerged that Mn-induced parkinsonism partially results from damage to basal ganglia nuclei of the striatal "direct pathway" (ie, the caudate/putamen, internal globus pallidus, and substantia nigra pars reticulata) and a marked inhibition of striatal dopamine release in the absence of nigrostriatal dopamine terminal degeneration. Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed similar findings in a particular group of young drug users intravenously injecting the Mn-containing psychostimulant ephedron and in individuals with inherited mutations of the Mn transporter gene SLC30A10. This review will provide a detailed discussion about the aforementioned studies, followed by a comparison with their rodent analogs and idiopathic parkinsonism. Together, these findings in combination with a limited knowledge about the underlying neuropathology of Mn-induced parkinsonism strongly support the need for a more complete understanding of the neurotoxic effects of Mn on basal ganglia function to uncover the appropriate cellular and molecular therapeutic targets for this disorder.

Cholinergic interneurons in the dorsal and ventral striatum: anatomical and functional considerations in normal and diseased conditions.

Striatal cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) are central for the processing and reinforcement of reward-related behaviors that are negatively affected in states of altered dopamine transmission, such as in Parkinson's disease or drug addiction. Nevertheless, the development of therapeutic interventions directed at ChIs has been hampered by our limited knowledge of the diverse anatomical and functional characteristics of these neurons in the dorsal and ventral striatum, combined with the lack of pharmacological tools to modulate specific cholinergic receptor subtypes. This review highlights some of the key morphological, synaptic, and functional differences between ChIs of different striatal regions and across species. It also provides an overview of our current knowledge of the cellular localization and function of cholinergic receptor subtypes. The future use of high-resolution anatomical and functional tools to study the synaptic microcircuitry of brain networks, along with the development of specific cholinergic receptor drugs, should help further elucidate the role of striatal ChIs and permit efficient targeting of cholinergic systems in various brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease and addiction.