{"id":2021,"date":"2016-02-08T16:11:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T20:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/ebuckhor\/?page_id=2021"},"modified":"2016-02-08T16:11:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T20:11:36","slug":"25-years-of-neuroscience","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/features\/25-years-of-neuroscience\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Years of Neuroscience"},"content":{"rendered":"

From upstart major to launchpad for success<\/strong>
\nBy Maura King Scully<\/em><\/p>\n

The year was 1990. President George H. W. Bush had just declared 1990-1999 \u201cThe Decade of the Brain\u201d to build public awareness of the growing benefits of brain research.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden people started talking about different regions of the brain \u2014 the hypothalamus, the hippocampus \u2014 the brain was no longer this black box,\u201d explains Priscilla Kehoe, then a faculty member in Trinity\u2019s Psychology Department.<\/p>\n

Kehoe had already noticed a burgeoning interest in the brain at the College. A researcher with a Ph.D. in what was then known as physiological psychology, she says, \u201cI taught courses on drugs and behavior, and clinical neuroscience. Students loved them.\u201d An increasing number sought her out each year, asking her to serve as their adviser for a student-designed interdisciplinary major that she called psychobiology.<\/p>\n

Though it wasn\u2019t planned, the dawn of \u201cThe Decade of the Brain\u201d coincided with the College\u2019s formalization of psychobiology into a full-fledged major called neuroscience. Trinity\u2019s program became \u201cone of the first neuroscience programs at a liberal arts college in the country,\u201d says Kehoe, who is now director of research at the UCLA School of Nursing. The new major wasn\u2019t without controversy, however. \u201cThere were naysayers who thought neuroscience was just the popular thing at the time. \u2018Trinity is a liberal arts college,\u2019 they said. \u2018What are we doing with a neuroscience program?\u2019 It was a fair question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JBSN\"<\/a>

Joanne Berger-Sweeney, President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience, kicks off the neuroscience program\u2019s 25th anniversary with a Common Hour talk on September 17, 2015, about her research into autism. To hear a podcast from this event, visit our Soundcloud library<\/a>. Photo: John Marinelli<\/p><\/div>\n

Trinity as a Trendsetter<\/strong>
\nToday, anyone wondering about neuroscience\u2019s place at Trinity need look no further than the President\u2019s Office: Joanne Berger-Sweeney is a neuroscientist. In fact, she kicked off the program\u2019s yearlong 25th anniversary celebration in September with a talk, \u201cOf Mice and Men and Girls and Autism: Insights from 15 Years of Studying the Neurobiology of Mouse Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the program has been around 25 years shows its strength,\u201d says Sarah Raskin, Charles A. Dana Research Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and current director of the neuroscience program. \u201cI think Trinity\u2019s program was so successful so early because lots of different people were interested in it.\u201d In addition to Kehoe, Trinity neuroscience pioneers included Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, William Mace; Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Karl Haberlandt; Vernon D. Roosa Professor of Applied Science, Emeritus, Joseph Bronzino; and Professor of Biology, Emeritus, John Simmons, as well as current faculty members Brownell Professor of Philosophy Dan Lloyd, Thomas S. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Biology Dan Blackburn, and Associate Professor of Chemistry and Neuroscience Bill Church.<\/p>\n

With an early start and broad-based support, Trinity became a trendsetter. In 1996, Kehoe co-founded NEURON (Northeast Undergraduate Research Organization for Neuroscience), along with colleagues from Bates College and Connecticut College. NEURON held a regional conference, giving undergraduates a forum where they could present their research, which Trinity hosted for the first three years. (Today, more than 30 schools from all over the region attend the annual NEURON conference.) The early success of NEURON drew the attention of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), a national organization dedicated to advancing the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. PKAL invited Trinity to host a national conference to advise other small liberal arts colleges on starting neuroscience programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeuroscience at Trinity was a rich, full program right from the start,\u201d says Raskin. \u201cIt speaks to Trinity\u2019s support for interdisciplinary work.\u201d She points out that neuroscience was (and still is) among the most interdisciplinary of all majors, blending biology, psychology, chemistry, engineering, and philosophy. Today, Raskin notes, \u201cTrinity continues to be a leader, demonstrated by innovations like the fast-track master\u2019s program.\u201d Launched in 2013, the five-year B.A.\/M.A. program provides Trinity students with an opportunity uncommon at a liberal arts college to conduct additional research and to strengthen their applications to medical school or Ph.D. programs.<\/p>\n

Celebrating Success<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe yearlong 25th anniversary observance is a chance to celebrate the success of this program. It also gives us an opportunity to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our graduates,\u201d Raskin says.<\/p>\n

\"Emory<\/a>

Emory Payne \u201918 and master\u2019s candidate Jake Rubin \u201915 work with Professor Bill Church. Photo: John Marinelli<\/p><\/div>\n

Those graduates include Arko Ghosh \u201904, a group leader at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, whose groundbreaking research on smartphones was published in the January 2015 issue of Current Biology. \u201cWe found that extensive use of smartphone touchscreens is changing the relationship between our brains and our thumbs,\u201d Ghosh says. He and his fellow investigators believe this is evidence that the \u201ccontemporary brain is continuously shaped by the use of personal digital technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another graduate is Elizabeth Chua \u201901, assistant professor of psychology at both Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Another rising research star, she is using brain imaging, eye tracking, and brain stimulation to investigate how memories work, including memory distortions. \u201cPeople think of memory as a recording of the past,\u201d Chua says. \u201cIt\u2019s not like that at all. Your brain reconstructs a memory, literally pulling it together from all these different pieces. You may mistake things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deniz Vatansever \u201910 is a Ph.D. candidate in clinical neurosciences at Queens\u2019 College, University of Cambridge. He is currently involved in research on the default mode network, an area of the brain active during resting-state conditions. \u201cWe know that this area changes shape in people who are in a coma. We\u2019re trying to decipher what it does and its contribution to working memory,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

All three graduates credit Trinity\u2019s neuroscience program with launching them on research careers. \u201cTrinity was where I learned I love research \u2014 the thrill of testing a hypothesis in different ways,\u201d says Vatansever. \u201cTrinity also taught me how to write, which has been incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tess<\/a>

Tess Bloomquist \u201916 is the study subject for Meaghan Race \u201918, Professor Sarah Raskin, Zachary Bitan \u201917, and Erin Aisenberg \u201916 in the Loberg Lab. Photo: John Marinelli<\/p><\/div>\n

Chua notes that Professor Lloyd connected her with a collaborator of his who was doing early brain imaging work with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). \u201cI had the advantage of working with fMRI data when it wasn\u2019t common. That led to my getting a job at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital\/Massachusetts General Hospital and then doing my Ph.D. at Harvard.\u201d Of the program\u2019s 25th anniversary, Chua says, \u201cIt shows how far neuroscience has come as a field. It\u2019s impressive that Trinity, as a small liberal arts college, has been a leader in promoting undergraduate research in neuroscience in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Ghosh, \u201cIt shows some amount of courage to offer a dynamic new major in a field that\u2019s changing so rapidly. Neuroscience as a discipline and Trinity\u2019s neuroscience program have matured together.\u201d<\/p>\n

From her perspective in California, Kehoe considers the 25th anniversary of neuroscience at Trinity quite an achievement. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to what a great school Trinity is,\u201d she concludes. \u201cI look at all of these graduates, the inroads they\u2019re making into neuroscience, the knowledge they are advancing and will pass on, and I\u2019m so glad we launched the program when we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"boxleft\"<\/a>Visit neuro25.trincoll.edu<\/a> for a complete listing of events and to register for The Brain Event<\/a>, a full-day event celebrating 25 years of neuroscience at Trinity College on Saturday, April 2, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From upstart major to launchpad for success By Maura King Scully The year was 1990. President George H. W. Bush had just declared 1990-1999 \u201cThe Decade of the Brain\u201d to build public awareness of the growing benefits of brain research. \u201cAll of a sudden people started talking about different regions of the brain \u2014 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":1464,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2021\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}