Working with a partner from the class, students will choose a topic of interest relevant to the field of neuroscience, explore the relevant literature, write a 5-7 page paper on the topic, and present the results of their research to the class in the form of a 5-10 minute oral presentation.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A critical cellular process that occurs in the wake of a stroke in mice could hint at how to salvage otherwise compromised brain tissue. Strokes happen when the flow of blood to the brain is blocked, most often by a blood clot in a vessel. This creates two zones of injury: a central core and a radiating penumbra. Deprived of oxygen and glucose, brain cells in the core can die within minutes. Those in the penumbra are not as severely damaged. But if blood flow isn’t re-established within hours, those cells will succumb too. That’s why fast responses to strokes are so important—especially among the elderly, who are less resilient than younger sufferers of stroke. New research shows that that disparity between aged and young brains could be due to differences in calcium ion activity brought on by stroke. After inducing stroke in old and young mice, researchers found that spontaneous calcium activity was reduced in the brains of young mice, whereas it was increased in the brains of old mice..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The ketogenic diet may be one of the hottest trends in weight management, but doctors have long known of its potential to reduce seizures in those with epilepsy. In a new article in Physiological Reports, scientists suggest that strict adherence to the diet may not be needed to achieve this neuroprotective effect. Through a series of experiments in rats, they show that supplementing a normal, carbohydrate-rich diet with specific ketogenic agents may significantly delay seizures. The team specifically focused on tonic-clonic seizures caused by exposure to high levels of oxygen. This central nervous system oxygen toxicity is a complication that can arise following hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which involves inhaling pure oxygen in a pressurized or hyperbaric chamber. This kind of treatment is used to manage various medical conditions, including air/gas embolism, decompression sickness, carbon monoxide poisoning and diabetic wounds..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This patient education program discusses diagnostic and treatment options for a damaged knee, including the benefits and risks of knee arthroscopy. It also reviews the anatomy of the knee. This is a MedlinePlus Interactive Health Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine, designed and developed by the Patient Education Institute.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A new clinical trial suggests levosimendan could improve respiratory function in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease that results in progressive weakness. Those affected by the disease typically die within three to four years of diagnosis due to respiratory failure commonly resulting from weakening of the diaphragm. Prior studies indicate that levosimendan – a calcium sensitizer on the market since 2000 for the treatment of acute worsening of severe heart failure – can also boost the force and efficiency with which the diaphragm contracts. This prompted researchers to investigate whether levosimendan is clinically beneficial to those with ALS. The phase 2 trial used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral levosimendan in 66 patients with ALS..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Most of the time, we perceive the world as a unified bundle of sensations from multiple sensory modalities. In other words, our perception is multimodal. This module provides an overview of multimodal perception, including information about its neurobiology and its psychological effects.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Scientists have uncovered new information on how sensory processing can change in multiple sclerosis, or MS. Their findings could open novel avenues for understanding and treating the disease. People with MS typically experience deficits in their ability to smell and taste, abnormal temperature processing, and heightened sensations of pain or fatigue. But there’s no clear neurocognitive mechanism to explain such diverse symptoms. A new report in the journal Human Brain Mapping suggests these changes may stem from a problem with interoception. Interoception is a lesser-known skill that helps people feel signals originating from inside of the body – such as the heart beating or the digestive system signaling hunger. Many of the sensory processing issues that characterize MS are associated with brain pathways related to interoception. This link prompted researchers to examine how these pathways are affected in the context of the disease..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Preface

Neural Pathways of Communication was designed for the first neurology course (known as "Neuro-1") in the master's level graduate study of Speech-Language Pathology. Our first open educational resource (OER) textbook was developed in 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 Pandemic began. Reducing the costs of study materials helps rising Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) progress toward their licensure and certification without interruptions due to financial setbacks. Developing the Open Education Resource (OER) resources is our ongoing effort to support rising SLPs.

A large part of this book is from various OpenStax textbook series. OpenStax is a nonprofit organization based out of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Its open resource textbooks cover a vast amount of information for two-semester core curriculum courses in various disciplines. OpenStax generously permits educators to use their books' content in part or in whole to develop textbooks customized for each instructor's course structure. The present textbook's OpenStax content is color-coded in black ink. Supplementary information concerning speech-language pathology appears in blue ink. The original OpenStax texts are accessible free of charge at https://openstax.org/subjects. This textbook incorporates applicable content from the OpenStax books, Anatomy and Physiology, Psychology, and Biology for AP® Course.

This textbook additionally contains various images produced by the renowned Dr. Willard R. Zemlin (1929-1998) with permission. Dr. Zemlin was one of the leading scholars in anatomy and physiology concerning communication sciences and disorders. Dr. Zemlin's son, Mr. Karl Zemlin, kindly sharpened numerous images to provide high-resolution pictures. Mr. Zemlin expressed gratitude for the generosity of those who donated their bodies to science throughout his father's studies. A comprehensive collection of Dr. Zemlin's work is accessible at his memorial website http://zemlin.shs.uiuc.edu/zemlinBio.htm, which Mr. Zemlin manages.

This textbook also includes additional information from Wikimedia Commons, and various information from the agencies of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Wiki Common offers various information under Creative Common (CC) licenses, allowing the use and remix of the materials. The images and information from the U.S. federal government are in the public domain. This textbook would not have been possible without the contributions of OpenStax, Mr. Karl Zemlin, and the generous providers of Wiki Common resources. We sincerely appreciate their support. We have made this textbook available for our future colleagues to gain entry-level scientific knowledge applicable for serving individuals with communication disorders.

June S. Levitt, Ph.D., LDT, CCC-SLP
Sarah L. Guigneaux, M.S., CCC-SLP

August 2021
Contact: OpenResource2020@gmail.com

Lectures and discussions in this course cover the clinical, behavioral, and molecular aspects of the brain aging processes in humans. Topics include the loss of memory and other cognitive abilities in normal aging, as well as neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Discussions based on readings taken from primary literature explore the current research in this field.

The neuropharmacology course will discuss the drug-induced changes in functioning of the nervous system. The specific focus of this course will be to provide a description of the cellular and molecular actions of drugs on synaptic transmission. This course will also refer to specific diseases of the nervous system and their treatment in addition to giving an overview of the techniques used for the study of neuropharmacology.
This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system and is an interdisciplinary biological science that extends across multiple fields including chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, physics, and psychology. Neuroscience involves various approaches to the study of the molecular, cellular, computational, systems, and cognitive aspects of the nervous system, using techniques from molecular and cellular studies of individual nerve cells to neuroimaging of complex human behaviors.

TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Mapping and Manipulating the Brain, explore the human brain's 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections among them, and learn how neuroscientists are using an array of techniques to chart — and in some cases, change — this amazing organ.

This patient education program discusses both acute and chronic pancreatitis, including causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options. It also reviews the anatomy of the digestive system. This resource is a MedlinePlus Interactive Health Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine, designed and developed by the Patient Education Institute.

This patient education program discusses the symptoms, and treatment options for Parkinson's Disease, including their benefits and side effects. It also reviews the anatomy of the central nervous system. This resource is a MedlinePlus Interactive Health Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine, designed and developed by the Patient Education Institute.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Understanding how human decision-making and preferences manifest before conscious thought has long challenged researchers focused on cognitive and information science. Now, the field of neuromarketing – a discipline that looks at the neurocognitive underpinnings of consumer behavior – is starting to uncover, in amazing detail, exactly how the brain goes about recognizing a brand. An international research team based in Auckland University of Technology and Nottingham Trent University has devised a new machine learning method that tracks brain responses to logos on the millisecond timescale…even before conscious thoughts are formed. Their results shed light on the early spikes in brain activity that are tied to brand awareness. The method utilizes one of the most promising recent trends in artificial intelligence research: spiking neural networks. These networks use algorithms loosely modeled on the behavior of the human brain to recognize patterns in sets of streaming data..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Neurons communicate with each other and relay information to the brain through synapse. Influx of calcium through ion channels acts as a trigger for starting the neurotransmission cascade, which upon reaching action potential, leads to the release of neurotransmitters, propagating the signal from the pre-synaptic membrane to the post-synaptic membrane.

Neurons communicate with each other and relay information to the brain through synapse. Influx of calcium through ion channels acts as a trigger for starting the neurotransmission cascade, which upon reaching action potential, leads to the release of neurotransmitters, propagating the signal from the pre-synaptic membrane to the post-synaptic membrane.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"These microscopic roundworms have a lot to teach us about how general anesthesia works. In case you didn’t already know, the effects of anesthesia on the brain are largely a mystery. That’s right. For nearly two centuries, putting people under and bringing them back safely has remained more an art than exact science. And it isn’t for lack of trying. Brain research in this area has followed two main tracks. Some researchers have used techniques like EEGs or fMRI to monitor neuron activity across entire regions of the brain. Others have analyzed individual chemical receptors to spot molecular-level interactions with anesthetic gases. The problem is that little has been done in between, at the level of individual neurons. Now, researchers have found a way to do that. Their method: attaching tiny light bulbs to single brain cells in roundworms and watching how they light up under anesthesia..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this lesson, students create explaining videos focusing on different aspects of communication among wales. 

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Normally bound to the microtubules that give neurons their structure, the protein tau becomes detached in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. That leads to the fibrillary tangles that have become the hallmark of the disease. Most textbooks explain that post-translational modifications, or PTMs, in the form of excessive phosphorylation trigger the formation and growth of these bundles. But new findings propose a subtle though crucial refinement. Researchers from the Brain Mind Institute at the EPFL in Switzerland have discovered that while phosphorylation does trigger tau detachment, it doesn’t appear to promote tangle growth. It actually protects against it. Their findings offer a new perspective on the role of phosphorylation in tau pathologies, while encouraging the design of therapeutics that target tau detachment. Numerous studies have homed in on hyperphosphorylation as a trigger for tau pathologies. Unfortunately, they’ve done so with relatively poor resolution..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.