2011 SPECIAL FIRST ISSUE JANUARY 6, 2011 Georgia State University page 1 8 Departments that make up the Brains & Behavior Program 12 Brains & Behavior Seed Grants in 2010 24 Brains & Behavior Fellow Publications in Fiscal Year 2010 46 Brains & Behavior Fellows The B&B Potential The Brains & Behavior Newsletter A publication of the Neuroscience Institute Brains & Behavior Area of Focus, also known as B&B, is an interdepartmental program that promotes research collaborations and dialog through graduate courses, lectures, grants, and much more. Researchers and students involved in this program span across the departments of biology, chemistry, neuroscience, computer science, mathematics & statistics, philosophy, physics & astronomy, and psychology. The three central components of this program are the Brains & Behavior Fellowship , the Distinguished Lecture Series and the Seed Grants . The B&B Potential Just like an action potential allows for communication, so does the new B&B Potential newsletter! Albeit, one is on a micro scale and within a neuronal network and the other is on macro scale and within the Brains & Behavior community. Nevertheless, communication is at the center of both! With that in mind, please enjoy our very first issue. The B&B Potential will be published three times a year and archives can always be found on the neuroscience website: www.neuroscience.gsu.edu/brains_behavior.html By the numbers...
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2011 SPECIAL FIRST ISSUE JANUARY 6, 2011
Georgia State University page 1
8Departments that make
up the Brains & Behavior Program
12Brains & Behavior
Seed Grants in 2010
24Brains & Behavior
Fellow Publications in Fiscal Year 2010
46Brains & Behavior
Fellows
The B&B PotentialThe Brains & Behavior NewsletterA publication of the Neuroscience Institute
Brains & Behavior Area of Focus, also known as B&B, is an interdepartmental program that promotes research collaborations and dialog through graduate courses, lectures, grants, and much more. Researchers and students involved in this program span across the departments of biology,
chemistry, neuroscience, computer science, mathematics & statistics, philosophy, physics & astronomy, and psychology. The three central components of this program are the Brains & Behavior Fellowship, the Distinguished Lecture Series and the Seed Grants.
The B&B PotentialJust like an action potential allows for communication, so does the new B&B Potential newsletter! Albeit, one is on a micro scale and within a neuronal network and the other is on macro scale and within the Brains & Behavior community.
Nevertheless, communication is at the center of both! With that in mind, please enjoy our very first issue. The B&B Potential will be published three times a year and archives can always be found on the neuroscience website: www.neuroscience.gsu.edu/brains_behavior.html
Not only is collaboration seen at the student level within the
B&B Fellowship, but the annual B&B Seed Grant program fosters collaboration at the faculty level as well. Each year, faculty across 8 disciplines work together to initiate interdisciplinary research with the support of a seed grant. Many times, these small projects go on to garner federal
funding and develop into large collaborative research. The seed grant application will be available online on Feb. 1, 2011. (See: www.neuroscience.gsu.edu/seed_grant.html)
Brains & Behavior Distinguished Lecture Series
Brains & Behavior Seed Grants
The Fellowship is the major student component of the Brains & Behavior program. There are 46 graduate students in this prestigious program and they hail from the 8 different disciplines making up the Brains & Behavior area of focus. They are required to attend all the distinguished lectures. In addition, these students take the B&B Seminar Course for an entire year. Many students engage in extracurricular and community activities together. For upcoming events, see page 4
Did you know?
• Brains & Behavior Fellows are eligible
for an annual $500 award.
• All Fellows are required to take one full year
of a Brains & Behavior Seminar Class.
• Fellows have a Facebook page at http://
www.facebook.com/group.php?
gid=123126410779.
• Brains & Behavior also supports
undergraduate research through
student stipend support.
Alzheimer’s Memory Walk Fall 2010. The B&B Team raised over $1,000!
Scholars from across the world come to speak in the yearly B&B Distinguished Lecture Series (otherwise known as DLS). The series is held once a month from September through May in Georgia State University’s new Petit Science Center. The speakers usually meet with faculty and students during their stay. Most notably, each distinguished lecturer meets with B&B Fellows for lunch after their seminar engagement. This opportunity allows students to ask research oriented questions and informal ones alike in a uniquely intimate setting. For a detailed schedule of the 2011 DLS, see page 6
In addition to advising a B&B Fe#ow and hosting this month's speaker, Mukesh Dhamala also received a prestigious research award $om the National Science Foundation
B&B Professor
Awarded NSF
CAREER Grant
to Study Decision Making
Contact:Jeremy Craig, Georgia State
University Relations
A Georgia State University physics professor has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to pursue research that may lead to a better understanding of neurological disorders.
The $539,737 grant, under the NSF CAREER program, will allow Mukesh Dhamala, assistant professor of physics, to study how the brain puts information together from the senses to help make decisions.
Previous research has shown that an area called the prefrontal cortex of the brain is involved in decision making, such as
determining whether a traffic light is yellow or red.
“The brain receives thousands of sensations moment to moment, but a mechanism allows us to select what we want to, and also to shut out the others that are irrelevant for that moment,” he said. “We want to know how these signals interact with each other during a cognitive process like decision making.”
The research will help scientists understand different brain structures, and the research may have implications for understanding the dysfunction of neural communications in certain psychiatric and neurological disorders, Dhamala said.
In neurological disorders and diseases, like Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy, something is amiss because these neurons are not communicating with one another or communicating too much. Other disorders, like dyslexia, happen when sensory information cannot be put together in the brain. This research will help scientists better understand these communication links.
“If you know what the normal pathway is through different areas that should be communicating, you could possibly target your
treatments toward those areas,” Dhamala said.
Dhamala will collaborate with neuroscientists Krish Sathian and Charles Epstein from the Emory University Department of Neurology in the research. It will also complement findings from another ongoing GSU-funded project on social decision making, a collaboration between Dhamala and a fellow CAREER awardee from GSU, Sarah Brosnan.
At Georgia State University, Dhamala is also part of a group of neuroscientists who are studying dynamic systems like neurons in the brain and muscle cells in the heart by using physics and mathematics, called dynamical neuroscience.
It uses equations to predict actions of systems that are constantly in flux. The researchers in this field at GSU include Dhamala, Andrey Shilnikov, Igor Belykh, Vladimire Bondarenko, Robert Clewley, and Gennady Cymbalyuk, who advance this emerging field that bridges life sciences, mathematics and physics. Their work is supported through grants from the National Science Foundation, Georgia State University internal grants and the American Heart Association.
The IDC oversees the Brains & Behavior program. This committee rotates faculty each year in order to represent each
discipline and their unique needs.
Other SpotlightsB&B Speaker
September 2010 Speaker Dr. Jim McGaugh featured on 60 minutes:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7166313n
B&B Fellow
Winter 2011 Spotlight Stacey Chang featured on the Neuroscience website:
http://www.neuroscience.gsu.edu/4594.html
B&B Seed Grant Awardee
January 2011 Dr. Bradley Cooke featured on the GSU website:
http://www.gsu.edu/45819.html
HAVE A STORY? NEWS?Please contact Liz Weaver, Editor Phone: 404-413-5469Email: [email protected] Person: 883 Petit Science CenterLiz is the Neuroscience Education Specialist for the Neuroscience Institute and also helps manage the Brains & Behavior Program.
BRAINS BEHAVIOR FELLOWS FY: 2010-2011
LAST NAME FIRST NAME DEPARTMENT
Abruzzo Vincent PhilosophyAmoss Toby PsychologyAznita Rizi Computer ScienceBanks Margaret PsychologyBeen Laura NeuroscienceBrady William PhilosophyChang Jihye PsychologyChen Xiao Computer Science
Dissanayaka Rasanjalee Computer ScienceDoherty James Neuroscience
Edirisinghe Suranga Physics & AstronomyEstes Stephan Biology
Frederick Chad Computer ScienceFunes Cynthia PsychologyGarn Cheryl Psychology
