Neuro Transmitter - Issue 1

Issue I

WELCOME TO NEURO TRANSMITTER Welcome to Rice Neuro Transmitter (RNT), Rice’s first undergraduate neuroscience journal!

Founded in August 2021, RNT aims to promote interest and engagement in neuroscience within the Rice community. Specifically, our journal showcases student-written articles on various interdisciplinary neuroscience topics and neuroscience research within the Rice/Houston community.

Moreover, it serves as a local hub for information about the neuroscience major, as well as all neuroscience-related extracurricular activities and their contacts.

If you want to submit an article or get involved, please reach out! Thank you so much for engaging with us, and we hope you enjoy reading our journal issue as much as we enjoyed creating it!

With Love,

Mayuri Vaish President

STAFF President Mayuri Vaish

Designers Bryant Polanco Ariel Ma

Vice-President Nick Gonzalez Sahi

Editors Nikhil Mummaneni Sai Govindu Ryan Wang Stephen Peng Kirim Kim

Design Head Celeste Wang

Writers Anuska Santra Autumn Hildebrand Dheerj Jasuja Makayla Brown Hayley Jue

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3-4

Faculty Address Meet some of our amazing faculty, their current research at Rice, and their involvement in neuroscience!

5-6

Clubs Find out about various neuroscience clubs at Rice and get involved!

7-10

Classes See what the different neuroscience courses here at Rice have to offer,their prerequisites, and more!

11-12

Music & The Mind: The Neuroscience Behind Why Music Just Hits Different This article discusses the science of why we enjoy music and delves into how music can benefit us biologically.

13-14

Discussing the Wrongful Conviction of Ronald Cotton This article analyzes the Ronald Cotton “mistaken identity” case from a fresh perspective: using neuroscience concepts to explain the flawed testimony of Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and the consequential wrongful conviction of Ronald Cotton.

15-18

The Future of Brain Implants This article focuses research being conducted by Dr. Robinson and his colleagues on creating the smallest brain implant in the world.

19-20

The Overlap of Neuropsychology As It Applies to Neurosurgery Neuropsychology and the study of psychology through the lens of neurotrauma can be applied to a variety of fields such as neurosurgery.

21-24

The Neuroscience of Gender in a Gendered Society The field of neuroscience that attempts to explain gender, a fluid social construct, is decidedly complex and equally interesitng.

FACULTY ADDRESS A PERSONAL HISTORY OF Dr. Jonathan Flynn Neuroscience Faculty Advisor

Hello everyone, Almost exactly four years ago, the neuroscience major was officially launched at Rice University. I say "officially" because the major had been in the works for a long time; backroom talks and associated rumors had already started when I joined the pre-cursor to BrainSTEM at Rice in 2011, and continued throughout my whole graduate career across the street at UTHealth. About a year before the final paperwork was filed, the Biosciences department decided unofficially they were going to commit bringing neuroscience to Rice.

This decision led to a job advertisement for a "lecturer in neuroscience" that was a pivotal point in my life. When I saw it, I had just graduated with my PhD and had little interest in the traditional post-doctoral route to professorship. To avoid that but maintain some contact with the neuroscience community, I tried to spin BrainSTEM into a non-profit organization and had mixed results. My backup plan, which looked more and more likely at the time, was to find remote work as a project manager and live on a sailboat in the Caribbean (a pre-1995 Catalina 30’, to be precise). I treated Rice’s job posting as a final attempt to work in academia - had it not panned out, I would have left Houston and made my way across the gulf. I spent two whole weeks writing and rewriting the application, and still consider parts of it to be the best writing I have ever done. As a recent graduate, I was surprised when I was asked to interview in person, and further still when I was offered the position. I immediately accepted and decided that Houston, which had been a place that I simply lived, would become my (hopefully) permanent home.

THE NEUROSCIENCE MAJOR After 4 years, my life has changed substantially. Working together with excellent faculty and students, I have been proud to help the major get to the point where it has approximately 140 active students and a thriving community. The latter part is something I am particularly thrilled about; while I was a graduate student at UTHealth, I felt that the major problem with doing neuroscience in Houston was the lack of real connections between the large number of labs in the area. By pushing new organizations like BrainSTEM and Speculative Neuroscience Society, and helping existing ones like Rice Neuroscience Society and Pancakes for Parkinson’s, I had hoped that they would provide a kernel that other neuroscience organizations could spin off of. It seems to have worked well, and Neurotransmitter represents, at least in my eyes, the next step in the evolution of Houston’s neuroscience community. To function well, every group needs some way to both communicate and record what happened. Every day I see an amazing number of both events and ideas created by students, and I look forward to having somewhere to read all about them.

Beyond work, the other part of my life changed by staying in Houston is due to a long term collaborative project that I’ve been working on. My partner and I experimented with using genetic algorithms to bootstrap a highly recurrent neural network with hopefully excellent predictive processing capabilities.

The project was a success, and her name is Lillian Masi-Flynn. She was born on October 24th, 2021, weighing 3.66 kg; mother and daughter are in excellent health.

This other project means that I will be stepping back for parental care leave during the Spring 2022 semester. I will still be running NEUR 310 and helping with advising on a remote basis, but my work on other courses will be minimal. However, I do not intend to fully disappear from Rice for no other reason than I like the community and want Lily to grow up in it. When it’s possible, I’m looking forward to bringing her on campus and showing her off to all of you.

If the pandemic doesn’t allow it, then at the very least you’ll see me at some Zoom events with an adorable baby in my lap.

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CLUBS Neuro Transmitter Rice Neuro Transmitter (RNT) is Rice’s first undergraduate neuroscience journal. Started in Fall 2021, RNT aims to share interesting student-written articles on neuroscience to the Rice community.

Rice Neuro Transmitter’s articles include a range of topics, such as neuroscience’s connection to law or art, and progressions in research made by Rice’s neuroscience faculty. We also have exciting future plans such as a potential research article competition, and much more! If you want to be published, you may submit an article through our website and we will review them. If you want to join, please apply during the Fall semester!

President: Mayuri Gupta (Martel 2023) Vice Presidents: Nick Gonzalez (McMurtry 2023), Sahi Puvvala (Lovett 2023)

Best Buddies Best Buddies is the Rice chapter of an international nonprofit organization that promotes the inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships. We are dedicated to our part in the movement to end the social, economic, and physical isolation of people with IDDs. Our chapter on campus works in partnership with the HEART Program located in Houston. In addition to monthly group parties (bowling, scavenger hunts, picnics), each Buddy pair is encouraged to meet on their own time and keep close contact through letters, phone calls, and emails. You can contact Best Buddies at Rice at mv26@rice.edu. Also, like the Facebook page to keep up with events: https://www.facebook. com/RiceBestBuddies/.

President: Madhu Venkatesalu (Hanszen 2023) Vice-President: Natalie Festa (McMurtry 2022)

Speculative Neuroscience Speculative Neuroscience is a really chill neuroscience discussion group that talks about a variety of topics relating to neuroscience such as free will, advances in artificial intelligence, ethics of neural stem cell research and treatment, the cognitive aspect of emotion/memory/perception, theories of consciousness, and so much more!! You can also request specific topics you’d like to hold a discussion on. We meet every other Friday for lunch at the Martel PDR from 12-12:45PM :) please reach out if you want to join!

Presidents: Mayuri Gupta (Martel 2023) & Stephen Peng (Duncan 2023)

BrainSTEM

BrainSTEM is a group at Rice that teach neuroscience to local high school studen in Houston, via hands-on activities and in teractive small-group lessons. It also coun as a 1-credit hour Satisfactory/Non-Sati factory class at Rice! Further, if you take th class for three semesters (not necessari in a row), BrainSTEM can count as one your four required electives for the neurosc ence major. We meet every Friday 1-2PM ABL 130, where we run through our lesson BrainSTEM has numerous other projec to get involved in, such as creating neur science demonstrations at Rice, creating BrainSTEM textbook for middle-schooler creating video lessons on neuroscience to ics, and developing a BrainSTEM manual.

TAs: Pranav Mehta, Brian Cui, Samantha Cheng, Mayuri Gupta

hes nts nnts ishis ily of ciat ns. cts rog a rs, op-

Pancakes for Parkinson’s Pancakes for Parkinson's (P4P) is a student-led organization that fundraises for Parkinson's disease research and supports Houston's PD community. We host an annual breakfast fundraiser, educational panels, and volunteer events, whose proceeds benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Houston Area Parkinson Society. One of our upcoming events is Pancakes Around the World, where students can sample pancakes from several Rice cultural clubs - think Indian dosas and Japanese okonomiyaki - while donating to support our organization! This past year, we hosted a number of virtual, hybrid, and in-person events, including a socially-distanced breakfast fundraiser in April. Being part of P4P has taught me a lot about being an advocate for people with PD, and I have enjoyed learning about Parkinson's through their perspectives. If you want to be involved in P4P, we will be sending out board member applications early this fall. In the meantime, please join our Owlnest group so we can reach out to you!

Presidents: Samantha Cheng (McMurtry 2022) & Anshuman Agrawal (Jones 2022) Vice-Presidents: Sumin Choi (Brown 2023) & Arnav Sankaranthi (Brown 2023)

Rice Neuroscience Society Rice Neuroscience Society (RNS) is dedicated to increasing interest in neuroscience at Rice University and beyond by putting together events that are educational and engaging. Some major events we host include the annual Brain Bee competition for high school students, summer NeuroCamp, Brain Awareness week, and the Neuroscience mentorship program. We also organize a variety of monthly events such as Halloween eyeball dissection, neuroscience career panel, and the Brain Trivia Night! Last year, we managed to transform many in-person events into an online format and keep students engaged.

In this upcoming semester, we will try to incorporate more hybrid events to make sure everyone can participate. A general body meeting will take place in September, as well as a Neuroscience Major/Minor Advising Session with Dr. Flynn and Dr. Lefeldt.

We will also be sending out committee applications soon, so definitely be on the lookout for that if you are interested in getting involved!

Alzheimer’s Buddies Alzheimer’s Buddies is a response to the profound isolation and social disengagement experienced by people in the intermediate-to-late-stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia-related illness.

Student volunteers will be able to form meaningful relationships over the course of a semester or longer with the residents of the nursing homes (“Buddies”).

Our initiative encourages students to take the mindset of a friend rather than of a care provider, to learn about their patients’ past and passions, to establish real friendships. This interaction not only provides patients with social support, but also provides students with a formative clinical experience and formal training on this devastating disease.

Presidents: Jess Duan, Sumin Choi

Presidents: Korina Lu (2023), Candi Zhao (Jones 2023)

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CLASSES

Utilize this section to consider some neuroscience courses to take during your time at Rice

CORE CLASSES

Cognitive Neuroscience: Exploring the Living Brain (NEUR362) Survey of theory and research on how mental processes are carried out by the human brain, with an emphasis on relating measures of brain activity to cognitive functioning, methods surveyed included electro physiological recording techniques, functional imaging techniques and methods that involve lessoning or disrupting neural activity Major Requirement Minor Requirement ­— social sciences and humanities concentration Fundamental Neurosystems (NEUR380) This course will provide a broad overview of the brain’s neural systems that subserve perception, learning, and behavior. The course will be highly integrative with thematic content including functional organization of the nervous system, neural encoding and decoding, sensory systems, motor systems, and high-level concept processing.

Major Requirement Minor Requirement

LAB ORIENTED Experimental Neuroscience (BIOS212) Introduction to the scientific method, principles of experimental design, selected research strategies, record keeping, and technical communication as related to neuroscience. This course is restricted to Neuroscience majors.

Major Requirement Experimental Physiology (BIOS415) Laboratory studies in membrane, nerve, and muscle physiology, with emphasis on experimental design, data analysis, and data interpretation.

ADDITIONAL COURSES History of Sensation (HIST353) This class offers a deep history of sensation. It opens a window into how scientists, philosophers, medical practitioners, and neurophysiologists developed theories of touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing. Students will learn about the history of using animal models to inform human sensation, as well as the medical consequences of sensations that failed to fit neat categories of sensing.

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective BrainSTEM (BIOS128) BrainSTEM is a service organization that teaches STEM subjects through the lens of neuroscience.

We perform hands-on, small-group activities with ~45 students per week. This course will prepare you to communicate science in a both effective and entertaining manner, as well as build your skills in managing small groups. More information can be found at ‘www.brainstem.club.’

Minor Requirement ­— social sciences and humanities concentration Elective

Animal Behavior (BIOS321) Evolutionary theory is used to evaluate behavioral adaptations of organisms to their environment Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective Learning from Sensor Data (ELEC475) The first half of this course develops the basic machine learning tools for signals images, and other data acquired from sensors. Tools covered include principal components analysis, regression, support vector machines, neural networks, and deep learning. The second half of this course overviews a number of applications of sensor data science in neuroscience, image and video processing, and machine vision.

Minor Requirement ­­— natural sciences and engineering concentration Elective The Sciences of the Mind (PHIL130) An introduction to the scientific investigation of the mind, with special attention to topics of particular philosophical interest. Topics are likely to include: representation and computation, perception, cognition, action, and the neural implementation of mental states and processes. Previously offered as PHIL 103. Mutually exclusive with PHIL 103, credit cannot be earned for both classes.

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective Animal Minds (PHIL231) This course will examine various philosophical questions raised by the science of animal cognition: What is it to have a mind? How can we learn about animal minds? Are animals conscious? Do they have beliefs or concepts? What does this tell us about the nature and value of animal minds?

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective Advanced Topics in the Sciences of the Mind (PHIL431) Philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific sources are integrated in an interdisciplinary study of a major topic. Topics can include consciousness, language comprehension, concepts, and will.

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective The Sciences of the Mind (PHIL130) This course focuses on the psychology of aging through a biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional framework. Topics to be covered include how mental capacities change over time, especially memory processing, differences between normal and pathological aging, neurobiological changes with age, dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease, and individual differences in aging. There will be an emphasis on discussion of recent literature and developing research ideas in the field of psychology of aging.

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective Memory (PSYC308) Critical review of traditional and contemporary approaches to the study of remembering and forgetting.

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective

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RESEARCH ORIENTED Independent Research for Neuroscience (NEUR310) Information on how to find a lab, apply to the course and what to expect can be found at www. neur310.rice.edu. This course gives credit for independent research in Rice Neuroscience faculty laboratories (or other Texas Medical Center laboratories.) Students spend at least 3 hours per week in the laboratory for each semester hour of credit. If taken for 3 or more hours, counts as one required 300+ level lab course within the neuroscience major. Can be repeated once for 3 hours or more to count towards an elective credit within the neuroscience major. Requires a proposal abstract, weekly reports, and a final project that summarizes your activities in the lab. Students wishing to perform their research in an off-campus lab must submit a completed application to the NEUR 310 instructor at least 2 weeks prior to the start of classes. Students are strongly advised to secure research advisors and register for the class well in advance of the start of classes. Repeatable for Credit.

Elective Undergraduate Honors Research in Neuroscience (NEUR402) The Neuroscience Honors Research Program is a suite of courses offering our seniors and advanced juniors the opportunity to perform a two-semester, individual research project in a research laboratory in Neuroscience. Students having performed NEUR 310 research in an off-campus laboratory in the Texas Medical Center will also be eligible to apply to perform honors research in that laboratory.

The Honors Research Program courses function as a set and must all be taken in the same academic year. Registration for any of the courses requires a commitment to register for all three. Requires at least 15 hours of laboratory research per week, a proposal (revised from application), monthly reports, and a formal progress report (abstract, aims, progress toward aims, discussion of results, plans for the spring semester).

Elective Neural Computation (NEUR416) How does the brain work? Understanding the brain requires sophisticated theories to make sense of the collective actions of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses. Word theories are not enough; we need mathematical theories. The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the mathematical theories of learning and computation by neural systems. These theories use concepts from dynamical systems (attractors, oscillations, chaos) and concepts from statistics (information, uncertainty, inference) to relate the dynamics and functions of neural networks. We will apply these theories to sensory computation, learning and memory, and motor control. Students will learn to formalize and mathematically answer questions about neural computations, including “what does a network compute?”, “how does it compute?”, and “why does it compute that way?” Prerequisites: knowledge of calculus, linear algebra, and probability and statistics.

Minor Requirement — natural sciences/engineering concentration Electives

Methods in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (PSYC366) This course will give students hands-on training in the research methods of social cognitive and affective neuroscience. Students will learn about the theoretical underpinnings of these allied fields; acquire, preprocess, and analyze human functional neuroimaging data (i.e. using fMRI); and interpret and write-up results.

Minor Requirement — social sciences and humanities concentration Elective Developmental Neurobiology (BIOS443) An advanced undergraduate and graduate level course, dedicated to analysis and evaluation of scientific inquiry into animal development and neurodevelopment. Textbook based lectures and discussions based on primary scientific literature are used to exemplify and evaluate concepts and methodology. Writing assignments, quizzes, midterm and final exam will be used to evaluate performance. Cross-list: BIOS 543.

Minor Requirement — natural sciences and engineering concentration Elective

DID YOU KNOW? The human brain can generate enough power to light up a lightbulb

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Music & The Mind:

The Neuroscience Behind Why Music Just Hits D Written by Makayla Brown

Background: The Hidden Powers of Music Music is a psychedelic experience. Almost every human can agree that certain combinations of sounds and rhythms affect them differently than any other sensation. Since ancient times, music has been there for people’s experiences through grief, excitement, love, heartbreak, and sadness.

For some people, music can even lead them into a meditative state. Sufism, a spiritual branch of Islam, puts music at the center of their ceremonies, called sama, where they allow their music to take them to a transcendental state (An introduction to Sufi Music, n.d.). Sufi music has indeed been suggested to reduce symptoms of anxiety in various medical patients (Dogan et. al, 2021). Sufi music, as well as other genres of calming music, has been shown to decrease cortisol levels, putting people into meditative states, called khalfa. Cortisol is the main hormone that causes stress in the body so it is no wonder that calm music can put people into meditative states.

Music is also known to change mood. In one study, when participants listened to songs that gave them “chills”, they had an increase in dopamine release (McGilchrist, 2011). This can explain why even listening to sad songs makes us feel a bit better about life.

Motor Cortex Involved in music-related movements including dancing and playing music

Sensory Cortex Processes tactitle feedback when dancing or playing instruments

Auditory Cortex Analyzes sound and tone

Prefrontal Cortex Music influences our cognitive processes

Visual Cortex Stimulated when reading and watching music videos or others dancing

Differently

Design by Bryant Polanco Copy Editing by Sai Govindu

Music and Neurodegenerative Disorders Music’s ability to increase dopamine release helps patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by a loss of cells in the brain’s substance nigra, an area of the brain that specializes in dopamine production. The simple act of singing in a choir for several hours a week can decrease a Parkinson’s patient’s tremors and increase their coordination, all due to the extra dopamine production that comes as a result of singing music (Mastos, 2021).

In Alzheimer’s disease, neurons also lose their function. Unlike Parkinson’s, these neuron deaths first occur in the memory centers of the brain, the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus. While Alzheimer’s patients will have difficulty remembering most facts in their life, they seldom forget music. This is because musical memory is actually associated with different parts of the brain that are not often affected by Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s patients will often be able to sing along to their favorite childhood songs and recall memories linked to them, even in later stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Why is it important?

How much does musical memory and ability defy explicit memory? Clive Wearing was a pianist who had a brain infection that caused him complete retrograde and anterograde amnesia, meaning he could not recall past memories or create future memories, unless the memories involved physical skills and reactions. Wearing was still able to remember two things: his wife and how to play the piano. He could read music, recognize, and play certain songs without any impairment. The remainder of his life was spent playing music, as that was the only hobby he could remember despite his brain damage.

Then, what all goes behind being able to process music in the brain? Studies have shown that the temporal lobe processes the pitch and volume of the music, the cerebellum processes rhythm, and the amygdala and the hippocampus work together to connect emotional memories that come along with music (Music and the Brain, n.d.). Because we have interaction between all of these different areas of the brain to process music, music is a powerful cognitive function. Even if we lose the ability of one of these parts, such as the hippocampus (memory-processor), related parts of the brain step in to help maintain the processing of the music. In the case of losing many cells from the hippocampus, the amygdala (emotion-processing center) can still help to create emotional memories with music, which is why even patients that have lost most of their memory can still understand and remember music.

References

Barbican. (n.d.). An introduction to Sufi Music. https://sites.barbican.org.uk/sufimusic/.

Dogan, R. N. G.-, Ali, A., Candy, B., & King, M. (2021, January 16). The effectiveness of Sufi music for mental health outcomes. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 randomised trials. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229921000054.

Matsos, S. (2021, May 10). Music as Medicine. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/center-for-music-and-medicine/music-as-medicine.html.

McGilchrist, S. (2011, January 9). Music 'releases mood-enhancing chemical in the brain'. BBC News. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-12135590.

Music and the Brain. Neurobiology. (n.d.). https://neuro.hms.harvard.edu/centers-and-initiatives/harvard-mahoney-neuroscience-institute/ about-hmni/archive-brain-1.

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DiScussing

the wrongful conviction of Ronald Cotton

by H a y l e y J u e

This article analyzes the Ronald Cotton “mistaken identity” case from a fresh perspective: using neuroscience concepts to explain the flawed testimony of Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and the consequential wrongful conviction of Ronald Cotton.

On July 28, 1984, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was sexually assaulted by a man who broke into

her North Carolina apartment (Transcript: Gates PSL Speaker Series “Picking Cotton” 2009). Four days later, Ronald Cotton was arrested and brought into custody for the crime. During photo identifications and police line-ups, Thompson-Cannino consistently selected Cotton as the identity of her attacker, and the prosecution built a winning case almost entirely based on her convincing eyewitness testimony (Cotton’s Wrongful Conviction). It was only after Cotton served 11 years behind bars that investigators uncovered the truth. He was not her attacker; instead, a completely unrelated man—Bobby Poole— was the culprit who slipped through investigators’ fingers. Why did this happen? Who is responsible?

In this article, we analyze the basic neuroscience principles involved in Thompson-Cannino’s eyewitness testimony, grappling with these difficult questions almost four decades after the false accusation.

When the test administrators presented Thompson-Cannino with photos and line-ups of the potential suspects, she had already viewed the forensic sketches of her attacker (Cotton’s Wrongful Conviction).

Because police sketches inherently carry some degree of inaccuracy, misleading external information was incorporated into Thompson-Cannino’s mental image of her attacker, creating a potential source memory error (Are Police Sketches Accurate? 2019). In effect, Thompson-Cannino was no longer exclusively recalling details from her episodic memory, a store of personal experiences set in time and place; rather, the sketches influenced her perception of her attacker’s appearance. From the moment she viewed the sketches, Thompson-Cannino’s original memory became tainted by intrusion errors— knowledge outside her memory of the event—leading her to make judgments based on a mixture of fact and fiction.

However, incorporating inaccurate sketches into memory was only a part of the problem. Forty years ago, North Carolina had no laws standardizing eyewitness identification procedures; the identification tests were not blindly administered, victims were not informed that the suspect may be excluded from the line-up, some people in the line-up did not match the suspect’s description, and confidence statements were not obtained (Eyewitness Identification Reform 2020). In Thompson-Cannino’s case, all four of these confounding variables played a role in the wrongful conviction of Cotton. The concept of schemata can explain why the absence of clear directives in identification procedures and discrepancies between suspects and line-ups are detrimental to eyewitness testimonies. Schemata refer to the general patterns of occurrence in particular situations. Using the concept of schemata, Thompson-Cannino could immediately eliminate people in the line-up who did not share physical characteristics, like skin color, with her attacker. As a result, she quickly narrowed her identification down to a select few individuals. Since the test administrators never informed Thompson-Cannino that none of the suspects could be the perpetrator, she believed that one of the people in the line-up must be her attacker. Additionally, since the tests were not blindly administered and her confidence in answers was not reported, the body language and reactions of the administrator potentially influenced Thompson-Cannino’s perception of the correct suspect.

For example, a simple “that’s right” could have increased Thompson-Cannino’s confidence in her answer, strengthening the synaptic connections that link mental images of Cotton to her traumatic memory. When the strength of synaptic connections increases, the corresponding memory becomes vivid, appearing to reflect the truth; this makes the person more likely to believe that the memory actually occurred. Thompson-Cannino’s dogmatic confidence proved to be her worst enemy in the courtroom; even when Cotton was placed next to his doppelganger, Bobby Poole, a year after the initial conviction, Thompson-Cannino still firmly believed that Cotton was the man, having incorporated the images of Cotton from the identification tests into her memory (O’Neill). In a sense, Thompson-Cannino’s mind overwrote her original memory, leading her to identify the wrong person as her attacker.

Ronald Cotton (left) and Bobby Poole (right).

(From Eyewitness Testimony Is Unreliable... Or Is It?)

A person’s confidence can be impressed upon and reflected by the actions of others, effec-

tively creating a positive feedback loop. When Thompson-Cannino strode into the courtroom with total confidence that she had picked the right man, she convinced the jury that her story must be accurate (O’Neill). Coupled with the emotional distress of her testimony, her case against Cotton easily won the jury and America over. Ultimately, Cotton took the fall for the flawed eyewitness identification system, which fueled the intrusion errors, unfair generalizations, and strong synaptic connections corrupting Thompson-Cannino’s memory. We should use our contemporary understanding of neuroscientific principles to learn from this case and take the initiative to improve eyewitness and hard evidence collection in criminal cases.

References Are Police Sketches Accurate? (2019, April 24). Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://www.gnsmithlaw.com/blog/are-police-sketches-accurate/.

Cotton’s Wrongful Conviction. PBS. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dna/cotton/summary.html.

Eyewitness Identification Reform. Innocence Project. (2020, December 17). Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://innocenceproject.org/eyewitness-identification-reform/.

O’Neill, H. (n.d.). The Perfect Witness. Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/the-perfect-witness.

Ryan, Benjamin. Eyewitness Testimony Is Unreliable... Or Is It? The Marshall Project, 30 Oct. 2015, https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/10/30/eyewitness-testimony-is-unreliable-or-is-it.

Transcript: Gates PSL Speaker Series “Picking Cotton”. UW School of Law. (2009, April 20). Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.law.washington.edu/multimedia/2009/cotton/transcript.aspx.

Design by Ariel Ma, Copy Edited by Stephen Peng

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COPY EDITING BY RYAN WANG DESIGN BY CELESTE WANG

BRAIN IMPLANTS WRITTEN BY DHEERJ JASUJA

A small tremor begins in your finger, but since it’s such a minor inconvenience, you attribute it to being a stress tremor, a weird tic, or some temporary issue. Over time, however, that tremor ends up spreading to your entire left hand and foot. Only after two years of seeking treatment for this issue do you get diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. This is the story of Joel Diaz, one of over ten million people worldwide with Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s Foundation, n.d.).

To fight the ailment, among other treatments, he underwent bilateral Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery in 2018. This surgery is composed of two main parts. First, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology generates images of the brain that highlight groups of neurons (brain cells) that

are inappropriately activated. Then, electrodes, which conduct electricity, are inserted into the areas of the brain that house the problematic neurons. Once the electrodes are implanted, an impulse generator battery (IPG) is embedded under the patient’s collarbone and is connected to the electrodes. The IPG acts like a pacemaker, regularly sending electrical pulses to the electrodes when the patient turns it on. The electrodes use those pulses to disrupt the electricity-based signals that cause tremors and inhibit mobility (Jakobs et al., 2019; Parkinson’s Foundation, n.d.).

Over the past few decades, DBS has emerged as one of the leading treatments for Parkinson’s, dystonia, and other diseases that affect motor control. It significantly reduces tremors among patients and is much less invasive than treatments Figure 1. A diagram of DBS that involve surgically (Jakob’s et al., 2019). removing the affected portions of the brain (Jakobs et al., 2019). In fact, a study on the first 400 DBS surgery recipients revealed that the procedure allowed the patients to engage in everyday activities as long as the device is operational (Hitti et al., 2019). However, after the electrodes are implanted into the brain, scar tissue gradually forms in nearby brain tissue and interferes with the operation of the device.

That’s where Dr. Jacob T. Robinson’s efforts to miniaturize brain implants come into the picture.

Dr. Robinson is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering as well as bioengineering at Rice. He runs the Robinson Lab at the BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) and tackles problems within the field of

nano-neurotechnology.

One of his areas of research includes investigating nanotechnologies that can accurately sense electrical signals in the brain. By immediately recognizing when neurons are operating harmfully, the sensors will seamlessly automate the activation of implanted devices (like DBS). In 2017, Dr. Robinson worked with a team to develop small electrodes that record electrical information from more neurons than existing electrodes. As with any medical implant, these electrode shanks (devices with multiple eletric current sensors) can only be so small, so dense, or so sensitive.

Thus, the research team worked on identifying materials that optimize the rigidity, heat absorption capacity, and neural tissue compatibility of the shank (Kleinfield et al., 2017).

Figure 2. Testing the force and rigidity required to insert electrodes into brain matter with a brainlike gel (Robinson et al., 2019).

They also sought to balance the size of the electrode shank with the density of sensors on a shank. To meet all of these parameters, the researchers used mathematical models to evaluate the ability of different biocompatible polymers and minerals to act as insulators or shanks.

After considering both rigid and flexible shanks, the authors proposed a novel 16

rigid-electrode system with numerous shanks made of five layers (see Figure 3). Such a system would record electrical signals from nearly every neuron in a large portion of the brain, improving not only implanted treatments but also our ability to map important neural pathways (Kleinfield et al., 2017).

Figure 4. A graphical representation of magnetoelectric technology as implemented in mice (Singer et al., 2020).

Figure 3. A model of the rigid electrode. Created with a diamond shaft. Then, there are wires with mineral-based insulation between them, additional mineral insulation, a conduction shield, another mineral insulation layer, and finally the electrode pads. (Kleinfeld et al., 2017).

Additionally, the large IPG embedded in the human body makes the DBS surgery quite invasive, which increases the risk for post-surgical complications. To reduce the surgery’s invasiveness, Dr. Robinson’s lab is working to incorporate magnetoelectric technology into neural implants. This technology would eliminate the need for a large battery apparatus because magnetoelectric antennas can efficiently convert magnetic fields into electric currents (Singer et al., 2020).

Since the magnetic force required to activate the antennas is so small, these tiny, wireless devices can safely sense and modulate activity in neurons within brain tissue deeper than existing DBS technology. These implants can also treat depression and pain by safely stimulating specific clusters of neurons involved in those afflictions. Better yet, magnetoelectric devices avoid the addictive side effects of depression and pain medications (Robinson Lab, n.d.).

Beyond enhancing current treatments for neurological disorders, both of these areas of Dr. Robinson’s research will expand the horizons of neurotechnology. In fact, companies like Neuralink and Synchron are pursuing endeavors similar to those of Dr. Robinson for non-medical purposes (Corbyn, 2019). For example, Elon Musk’s Neuralink is manufacturing dime-sized electrode plates with 1000 electrodes made of flexible, biocompatible polymers. Neuralink aims to use these electrode plates as the interface for controlling technology with our brains, such as commanding smart speakers, typing essays with our thoughts (especially for individuals who lost mobility in their fingers), and playing mobile games (Corbyn, 2019).

With the work of labs like Dr. Robinson’s, increasingly small bioelectronic devices can be developed and utilized to shrink brain implants. These neural interfaces can be used by soldiers who lost a limb to control robotic prosthetics, by the general public to direct vehicles with just our minds, or even by companies like Spotify to stream music directly into your brain.

Evidently, we are in a revolutionary period of neuroengineering, and the future of neural implants is being pioneered at our doorstep.

Works Cited Corbyn, Z. (2019). Are brain implants the future of thinking? The Guardian. from

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/22/brain-computer-interface implants-neuralink-braingate-elon-musk.

Hitti, F. L., Ramayya, A. G., McShane, B. J., Yang, A. I., Vaughan, K. A., & Baltuch,

G. H. (2019). Long-term outcomes following deep brain stimulation for

Parkinson’s disease. Journal of neurosurgery, 1–6. Advance online

publication. https://doi.org/10.3171/2018.8.JNS182081 Jakobs, M., Fomenko, A., Lozano, A. M., & Kiening, K. L. (2019). Cellular, molecular,

and clinical mechanisms of action of deep brain stimulation—a systematic

review on established indications and outlook on future developments. EMBO

Molecular Medicine, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.201809575 Kleinfeld, D., Luan, L., Mitra, P. P., Robinson, J. T., Sarpeshkar, R., Shepard, K., Xie,

C., & Harris, T. D. (2019). Can One concurrently record electrical spikes

from every neuron in a mammalian brain? Neuron, 103(6), 1005–1015.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.08.011 Parkinson’s Foundation. (n.d.). Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). Retrieved November

2, 2021, https://www.parkinson.org/Understanding-Parkinsons/Treatment/

Surgical-Treatment-Options/Deep-Brain-Stimulation.

Parkinson’s Foundation. (n.d.). Joel Diaz. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from

https://www.parkinson.org/get-involved/my-pd-story/Joel-Diaz.

Robinson Lab. Research. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2021, from

https://www.robinsonlab.com/research.

Robinson, J. T., Xie, C., Pohlmeyer, E., Gather, M. C., Kemere, C., Kitching, J. E.,

Malliaras, G. G., Marblestone, A., Shepard, K. L., & Stieglitz, T. (2019).

Developing next-generation Brain Sensing Technologies—a review. IEEE

Sensors Journal, 19(22), 10163–10175. https://doi.org/10.1109/

jsen.2019.2931159 Singer, A., Dutta, S., Lewis, E., Chen, Z., Chen, J. C., Verma, N., Avants, B.,

Feldman, A. K., O’Malley, J., Beierlein, M., Kemere, C., & Robinson, J. T.

(2020). Magnetoelectric materials for miniature, wireless neural

stimulation at therapeutic frequencies. Neuron, 107(4).

https://doiorg/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.05.019

18

The Overlap of Auditory Neuropsychology as it Applies to Neurosurgery Autumn Hildebrand

Neuropsychology and the study of psychology through the lens of neurotrauma can be applied to a variety of fields such as neurosurgery.

In Dr. Knut Wester’s research paper called, “Auditory Based Neuropsychology in Neurosurgery” published in 2008, Wester takes a unique approach to neuropsychology and applies its principles to topics in neurosurgery, one of the most complex fields within technology, science, and medicine. Throughout Wester’s exploration of neuropsychology, the author begins by prefacing that trained brain surgeons are often less exposed to the “softer” side of the human mind such as mental cognition or introspective emotions, and are instead pushed to focus on the more “concrete” science of the brain. However, Dr. Wester argues in his paper that applying neuropsychology to neurosurgery could reap several benefits; one being a more complex understanding of the underlying changes of the mind upon cranial imperfections, and another, to demonstrate with empirical evidence that surgery does, in fact, catalyze a positive impact on cognition post-treatment.

It is important to preface that gathering data for this paper was extremely complicated for Wester’s research team, as this was a clinical application of neuropsychology to neurosurgery in opposition to a more formal laboratory experiment. Keeping this in mind, the general hypothesis of the article was to prove that neurosurgery and neuropsychology could be applied as beneficial tools for both fields of study. This idea was pursued through testing auditory cognition before and after operation using neuropsychology’s DL technique, a methodology utilized with patients who suffer from conditions such as thalamic lesions, Parkinson’s disease, and intracranial arachnoid cysts, all of which contribute to a deterioration of cognition. To begin the process, verbal stimuli consisting of specific consonant and vowel (CV-syllable) combinations (such as ba, da, ga, pa, ta, ka) were presented through headphones at a sound pressure level of 75 dB played for 400 ms. Participants were then scored by the number of correctly registered sounds that were being fed through the headphones.

REA (right ear advantage) was associated with participants who had one more correctly reported item in the right ear, LEA (left ear advantage) was labeled if they had one more correctly reported item in the left ear, or NEA (no ear advantage) was recorded if they scored an equal number of recognition in both ears.

As for results, regarding patients with brain lesions, it was shown over several individuals that there was a clear disparity in recall pre-operation in either the right or left ear. However, post-surgery, recall rates rose drastically, and the observations supported that dyscognition can be reversible with surgery. In the section about DL for patients with Parkinson’s disease, electrical stimulation tests were performed during a lesion, and “the general finding was a clear increase in REA during stimulation and a drastic reduction in REA after left-sided lesion” (p. 135). Towards the end, Wester explains in detail the results of DL from patients who suffered an arachnoid cyst (AC). After observation before and after AC surgery, it was shown that AC can severely impair and suppress auditory cognition, but these conditions can be reversed after surgical decompression of the cyst.

Offering personal thoughts on this research article, this paper is indisputably very well thought out, and there is a unique approach taken to combine neuropsychology and neurosurgery. However, the author does not explain in nearly enough detail about the Parkinson’s disease patients and their role in this study, arguably to the extent in which it was confusing why the results were even presented. The results from the Parkinson’s patients could have been described more in-depth within this research, especially since Parkinson’s has such a prevalence in the medical world. Building on what could have been improved or explored in the future, researchers should further consider investigating other neurological impairments such as tumors in regard to dyscognition. It would be interesting to know how tumors (benign or malignant) could impact the mind’s ability for cognition, depending on the location of the tumor. Another avenue of exploration could be to extend on how other foreign masses found within the brain, in turn, impact a person’s mental “software”. Taking and applying the results from this paper, it’s very reasonable to hypothesize that the same principles explored in this paper could address those inquiries through the utilization of more neuropsychology techniques for the advancement of neurosurgery.

Fig. 1. Upper: axial (left) and sagittal (right) MRI scans showing an acute, discrete haemorrhage in the right posterior thalamus (appearing white). Lower left: the patient’s corresponding DL performance. NF: non-forced attention, FR: forced right attention, FL: forced left attention. The patient is unable to shift attention to the contralateral ear, but has a normal hearing when each ear is tested separately.

Lower right: DL performance in five healthy subjects. Reprinted from (Wester et al., 2001), with kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media.

Fig. 2. DL performance in Parkinsonian patients undergoing stereotactic thalamotomy. LL: patients operated with a lesion in the left thalamus. RL: patients operated with a lesion in the right thalamus. Brain-stim: DL performance during stimulation of the thalamic target (left or right, respectively). Reprinted from (Hugdahl et References Wester, Knut (2008). Auditory based neuropsychology in neurosurgery, Hearing Research, Volume 238, Issues 1–2, 2008, Pages 133-138,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2007.09.012. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0378595507002195)

Design by Ariel Ma, Copy Edited by Kirim Kim

20

GENDERED SOCIETY

DESIGN BY CELESTE WANG

IN A

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF GENDER

COPY EDITING BY NIKHIL MUMMANENI

WRITTEN BY ANUSKA SANTRA Many people’s sex and gender are congruent. These people are cisgender, meaning they’re comfortable having been born in a socially gendered body. Not plagued by the shackles of a binary, gendered society, they’ve never grappled with gender labels and stereotypes. But not everyone is born with this privilege. For those that identify under the vast “genderqueer”

umbrella, gender is fluid, social, performative, or simply meaningless. Because genderqueer people are disproportionately excluded and marginalized by the healthcare system, it’s pertinent to highlight the neuroscience of gender in order to provide appropriate and informed healthcare to the community.

Before exploring the neuroscience behind gender nonconformity, it’s necessary to define some terms used within the genderqueer community. To identify as transgender is to identify with a gender incongruent with the sex that person was assigned at birth. Sex and gender are different terms - the former refers to an assignment at birth, while the latter describes a social construction. Sex is typically includes male, female, and intersex. Gender, however, falls on a much wider and more subjective spectrum ranging from man, woman, nonbinary, genderfluid, and more. In the scope of transgender identities, there are two that are most commonly studied: MTF, in which someone transitions from male to female, and FTM, in which someone transitions from female to male. Transitions are often associated with an individual’s desire to morphologically fit the body to reflect the individual’s gender due to systemic societal pressures.

In the most recent decades, accompanying the growth of the genderqueer commnity has been a scientific defense for increasing healthcare access and decreasing public scrutiny. An example is the medicalization of “gender dysphoria,” which, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 written by the American Psychiatric Association, provides a stigmatizing definition that both oversimplifies and excludes the full spectrum of gender queerness, especially because gender dysphoria isn’t required to identify as transgender.

Though often the psychological standard, the DSM also pathologized homosexuality until 1973 (Drescher 2015), and shouldn’t be viewed as absolute. The most useful definition describes “experiences of distress within gender diverse populations (Davie 2018).”

To understand genderqueer neurology, it’s first important to understand cisgender neurology. For centuries, neuroscience was conducted assuming male and female brains were fundamentally different (Fine 2010). A 2017 article from Stanford Medicine explains that “there are inherent differences in how men’s and women’s brains are wired (Goldman 2017).” It states that males have larger brains, females have larger hippocampus, and while females are more oriented to “faces,” men are more oriented to “things (Goldman 2017).” However, the notion of inherently gendered neurology has proven to be incredibly nuanced.

Recently, neuroscientists have been debunking “neurosexist” ideals that have pervaded within the field. An article recently published by Dr. Lise Elliot in Nature explains that many anatomical differences are “in degree, not kind,” and that a society with gendered roles will create gendered brains. The majority of differences that are often reported can be attributed to a phenomenon known as “neuroplasticity,” in which the brain morphologically adapts to life experiences (de Oliveira 2020). Because men and women are socialized so differently from birth, scientists are 22

bound to find anatomical and cognitive differences. Neuroplasticity is not only evidence of the power of nurture over nature, but also scientifically defends the notion that gender is a social construct. The slow debunking of neurosexist myths has begun in the past five years, but has yet to be widely accepted by the neuroscience community. That being said, it has significant implications for genderqueer neurology.

In terms of genderqueer identity, recent studies have shown evidence of neurobiology congruent with transgender people’s identities. This is especially the case for those that undergo hormone therapy, in which they take either testosterone or estrogen to allow their body to transition into the gender they identify as (note that in much of the existing literature, politicized language is used in ignorance of its connotation). It was found that both MTF and FTM individuals “presented lower bilateral insular gray matter volumes than the cisgender women group (Nguyen 2019).” Similarly, a study that used “erotic stimuli” as a mode to track cognitive processing revealed that MTF women presented “female-like cerebral processing (Gizewski 2009).” In addition, Antonio Gillamon et al. of Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia extensively analyzed MRIs with attention to specific subcortical locations, done in Spain by. It explains that in FTMs, the volume of the putamen most resembles the cisgender male putamen, which plans and aids in limb movement. In all of the above examples, men and woman are most similar to each other whether cisgender or not. And lastly, information that best reflects an idea shared by much of the genderqueer community; “The brains of transsexual individuals do not seem to be entirely feminised or masculinised – instead, research points towards a selective feminisation or masculinisation of brain structures or processes that are sexually dimorphic in control subjects (Smith 2015).” The idea, once again, that gender is truly a social construct.

Along with the rest of society, the neuroscience community is beginning to reach the conclusion that gender may not be as straightforward as we thought. Understanding that sex and gender are separate is scraping the bottom of the barrel - the true nuance is developed when we begin to ponder the way that neurology and socialization impacts gender expression and identification. As is with most things, it’s not possible to separate a queer person from their learned experiences, traumas, and upbringing. As such, science can be a powerful tool to encourage acceptance as long as it’s in conjunction with humanitarian scholars. When we operate in a pervasive a system where transgender people are more like to be uninsured and have have their identity medicalized and invalidated, both need to come together to dismantle it.

Works Cited Burke, Sarah M et al. “Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation.” Scientific reports vol. 7,1 17954. 20 Dec. 2017, doi:10.1038/s41598 -017-17352-8 Davy, Zowie, and Michael Toze. “What Is Gender Dysphoria? A Critical Systematic Narrative Review.” Transgender health vol. 3,1 159-169. 1 Nov. 2018, doi:10.1089/trgh.2018.0014 Drescher, Jack. “Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality.” Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 5,4 565-75. 4 Dec. 2015, doi:10.3390/bs5040565 Fine, Cordelia. “Delusions of Gender" July 2010.

Gizewski, Elke R et al. “Specific cerebral activation due to visual erotic stimuli in male-to-female transsexuals compared with male and female controls: an fMRI study.” The journal of sexual medicine vol. 6,2 (2009): 440-8. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.00981.x Goldman, Bruce. “How Men’s and Women’s Brains Are Different.” Stanford Medicine, 2017, https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html.

Eliot, Lise. “Neurosexism: The Myth That Men and Women Have Different Brains.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 27 Feb. 2019, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-01900677-x. de Oliveira, Rúbia Maria Weffort. “Neuroplasticity.” Journal of chemical neuroanatomy vol. 108 (2020): 101822. doi:10.1016/j.jchemneu.2020.101822 MacLellan, Lila. “The Biggest Myth about Our Brains Is That They Are ‘Male’ or ‘Female.’”

Quartz, Quartz, 18 Aug. 2018, https://qz.com/1057494/the-biggest-myth-about-our-brains is-that-theyre-male-or-female/.

Manzouri, A, and I Savic. “Possible Neurobiological Underpinnings of Homosexuality and Gender Dysphoria.” Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) vol. 29,5 (2019): 2084-2101. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhy090 Nguyen, Hillary B et al. “What has sex got to do with it? The role of hormones in the transgender brain.” Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology vol. 44,1 (2019): 22-37. doi:10.1038/s41386-0180140-7 Smith, Elke Stefanie, et al. “The Transsexual Brain – a Review of Findings on the Neural Basis of Transsexualism.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Pergamon, 30 Sept.

2015, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0149763415002432?via%3Dihub#sec0090.

Acknowledgements Moth Almanzan (they/he/she) Anonymous (they/them) M. Blaise Willis (she/they) 24

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Rice Neurotransmitter team would like to thank Dr. Flynn and Dr. Lefeldt for their support in producing this first article and the team for their contributions to the journal.

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