Welcome to the GPN!

The Graduate Program in Neuroscience (GPN) at the University of Minnesota is a large interdisciplinary PhD program, made up of over 120 faculty members. Our goal is to provide the students with a broad and deep understanding of Neuroscience, ranging from the molecular and genetic level to computational. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, our program is a highly collaborative and collegial environment in which to train.

Teaching Research State Fair

Education

Research

Community
We are an inter-disciplinary program, with a productive and engaged faculty, committed to providing a supportive environment so that students can achieve their full potential.  Our faculty are from 30 different  departments and have a wide range of research interests and expertise. A complete list of faculty can be found here. We support a number of programs that bring neuroscience into the community, such as Brain Awareness Week, Brains at the State Fair, and the Minnesota State Brain Bee.

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Recent GPN Publications
  • Petruk V, He B, Engel S, He S. Stimulus rivalry and binocular rivalry share a common neural substrate. J Vis. 2018;18:18. doi:10.1167/18.9.18.
  • McLoon LK, Redish AD. Demystifying graduate school: Navigating a PhD in neuroscience and beyond. J. Undergrad. Neurosci. Educ. 2018;16:A203-A209.
  • Meitzen J, Meisel RL, Mermelstein PG. Sex differences and the effects of estradiol on striatal function. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2018;23:42-48.
  • Eisinger KRT, Woolfrey KM, Swanson SP, Schnell SA, Meitzen J, Dell'Acqua M, Mermelstein PG. Palmitoylation of caveolin-1 is regulated by the same DHHC acyltransferases that modify steroid hormone receptors. J Biol Chem. 2018 Aug 29. pii: jbc.RA118.004167.
  • Zeidler Z, Brandt-Fontaine M, Leintz C, Krook-Magnuson C, Netoff T, Krook-Magnuson E.Targeting the mouse ventral hippocampus in the intrahippocampal kainic acid model of temporal lobe epilepsy. eNeuro. 2018 Aug 8;5(4). pii: ENEURO.0158-18.2018.
  • Fitzpatrick KR, Cucak A, McLoon LK. Changing muscle function with sustained glial derived neurotrophic factor treatment of rabbit extraocular muscle. PLoS One. 2018 Aug 24;13(8):e0202861.
  • Grissom NM, Reyes TM. Let's call the whole thing off: evaluating gender and sex differences in executive function. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018 Aug 14. doi: 10.1038/s41386-018-0179-5.
  • James LM, Dolan S, Leuthold AC, Engdahl BE, Georgopoulos A, Georgopoulos AP. The effects of human leukocyte antigen DRB1*13 and apolipoprotein E on age-related variability of synchronous neural interactions in healthy women. EBioMedicine. 2018 Aug 20. pii: S2352-3964(18)30313-X.
  • Yue Y, Stone S, Lin W. Role of nuclear factor κB in multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Neural Regen Res. 2018 Sep;13(9):1507-1515.
  • Yoo SBM, Hayden BY. Economic choice as an untangling of options into actions. Neuron. 2018;99(3):434-447.
  • Sweis BM, Thomas MJ, Redish AD. Beyond simple test of value: measuring addiction as a heterogeneous disease of computation-specific valuation processes. Learn. Mem. 2018;25:510-512.
  • Nippert AR, Mishra A, Newman EA. Keeping the brain well fed: The role of capillaries and arterioles in orchestrating functional hyperemia. Neuron. 2018;99(2):248-250
  • Sweis BM, Abram SV, Schmidt BJ, Seeland KD, MacDonald, AW III, Thomas MJ, Redish AD. Sensitivity to "sunk costs" in mice, rats, and humans. Science 2018;361:178-181.
  • Kim JH, Lukowicz A, Qu W, Johnson A, Cvetanovic M. Astroglia contribute to the pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxia Type 1 (SCA1) in a biphasic, stage-of-disease specific manner. Glia. 2018 Jul 25. doi: 10.1002/glia.23451.
  • Khan SS, LaCroix M, Boyle G, Sherman MA, Brown JL, Amar F, Aldaco J, Lee MK, Bloom GS, Lesné SE. Bidirectional modulation of Alzheimer phenotype by alpha-synuclein in mice and primary neurons. Acta Neuropathol. 2018 Jul 11. doi: 10.1007/s00401-018-1886-z.
  • Cash-Padgett T, Azab H, Yoo SBM, Hayden BY. Opposing pupil responses to offered and anticipated reward values. Anim Cogn. 2018 Jul 3. doi: 10.1007/s10071-018-1202-2.
  • Popa LS, Streng ML, Ebner TJ. Purkinje cell representations of behavior: Diary of a busy neuron. Neuroscientist. 2018 Jul 1:1073858418785628.
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Complex spike wars: a new hope. Cerebellum. 2018 Jul 7. doi: 10.1007/s12311-018-0960-3.
  • Ferro A, Qu W, Lukowicz A, Svedberg D, Johnson A, Cvetanovic M. Inhibition of NF-κB signaling in IKKβF/F;LysM Cre mice causes motor deficits but does not alter pathogenesis of Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. PLoS One. 2018 Jul 5;13(7):e0200013.
  • Christenson Wick Z, Krook-Magnuson E. Specificity, versatility, and continual development: The power of optogenetics for epilepsy research. Front Cell Neurosci. 2018 Jun 14;12:151.
  • Covelo A, Araque A. Stimulating astrocytes to remember. Cell. 2018 Jun 28;174(1):12-13.
  • Sweis BM, Redish AD, Thomas MJ. Prolonged abstinence from cocaine or morphine disrupts separable valuations during decision conflict. Nat Commun. 2018 Jun 28;9(1):2521.
  • Sweis BM, Thomas MJ, Redish AD. Mice learn to regret. PLoS Biol. 2018;16(6):e2005853.
  • Ebner SR, Larson EB, Hearing MC, Ingebretson AE, Thomas MJ. Extinction and reinstatement of cocaine-seeking in self-administering mice is associated with Bidirectional AMPAR-mediated plasticity in the nucleus accumbens shell. Neuroscience. 2018 Jun 7;384:340-349.
  • Lipshetz B, Khasabov SG, Truong H, Netoff TI, Simone DA, Giesler GJ Jr. Responses of thalamic neurons to itch- and pain-producing stimuli in rats. J Neurophysiol. 2018 Jun 6. doi: 10.1152/jn.00264.2018.
  • Zick JL, Blackman RK, Crowe DA, Amirikian B, DeNicola AL, Netoff TI, Chafee MV. Blocking NMDAR disrupts spike timing and decouples monkey prefrontal circuits: implications for activity-dependent disconnection in Schizophrenia. Neuron. 2018 Jun 27;98(6):1243-1255.
  • Hendrix CM, Campbell BA, Tittle BJ, Johnson LA, Baker KB, Johnson MD, Molnar GF, Vitek JL. Predictive encoding of motor behavior in the supplementary motor area is disrupted in Parkinsonism. J Neurophysiol. 2018 Jun 6. doi: 10.1152/jn.00306.2018.
  • Yoo SBM, Sleezer BJ, Hayden BY. Robust encoding of spatial information in orbitofrontal cortex and striatum.J Cogn Neurosci. 2018 Jun;30(6):898-913.
  • Pérez Ortiz JM, Mollema N, Toker N, Adamski CJ, O'Callaghan B, Duvick L, Friedrich J, Walters MA, Strasser J, Hawkinson JE, Zoghbi HY, Henzler C, Orr HT, Lagalwar S. Reduction of protein kinase A-mediated phosphorylation of ATXN1-S776 in Purkinje cells delays onset of Ataxia in a SCA1 mouse model. Neurobiol Dis. 2018;116:93-105.
  • Carpenter AF, Baud-Bovy G, Georgopoulos AP, Pellizzer G. Encoding of serial order in working memory: Neuronal activity in motor, premotor and trefrontal cortex during a memory scanning task. J Neurosci. 2018;38(21):4912-4933
  • Vergeer M, Mesik J, Baek Y, Wilmerding K, Engel SA.Orientation-selective contrast adaptation measured with SSVEP.J Vis. 2018 May 1;18(5):2.
  • Wong SZH, Scott EP, Mu W, Guo X, Borgenheimer E, Freeman M, Ming GL, Wu QF, Song H, Nakagawa Y. In vivo clonal analysis reveals spatiotemporal regulation of thalamic nucleogenesis. PLoS Biol. 2018 Apr 23;16(4):e2005211.
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Modulation of sensory prediction error in Purkinje cells during visual feedback manipulations. Nat Commun. 2018 Mar 15;9(1):1099.
  • Amemiya S, Redish AD. Hippocampal theta-gamma coupling reflects state-dependent information processing in decision making. Cell Rep. 2018;22(12):3328-3338.
  • Rousseaux MWC, Tschumperlin T, Lu HC, Lackey EP, Bondar VV, Wan YW, Tan Q, Adamski CJ, Friedrich J, Twaroski K, Chen W, Tolar J, Henzler C, Sharma A, Bajić A, Lin T, Duvick L, Liu Z, Sillitoe RV, Zoghbi HY, Orr HT. ATXN1-CIC complex Is the primary driver of cerebellar pathology in spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 through a gain-of-function mechanism. Neuron. 2018;97(6):1235-1243.
  • Tonn Eisinger KR, Gross KS, Head BP, Mermelstein PG. Interactions between estrogen receptors and metabotropic glutamate receptors and their impact on drug addiction in females. Horm Behav. 2018 Mar 10. pii: S0018-506X(18)30021-7.
  • Gupta A, Mesik J, Engel SA, Smith R, Schatza M, Calabrèse A, van Kuijk FJ, Erdman AG, Legge GE. Beneficial effects of spatial remapping for reading with simulated central field loss. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018;59(2):1105-1112
  • Eisenreich BR, Hayden BY. Cognitive science: Persistent apes are intelligent apes. Curr Biol. 2018;28(4):R160-R162.
  • James LM, Christova P, Lewis SM, Engdahl BE, Georgopoulos A, Georgopoulos AP.Protective effect of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allele DRB1*13:02 on age-related brain gray matter volume reduction in healthy women. EBioMedicine. 2018 Mar;29:31-37
  • Mesce KA, Alania M, Gaudry Q, Puhl JG. The stomatogastric nervous system of the medicinal leech: its anatomy, physiology and associated aminergic neurons. J Exp Biol. 2018 Mar 29;221(Pt 7). pii: jeb175687.
  • Azab H, Hayden BY. Correlates of economic decisions in the dorsal and subgenual anterior cingulate cortices. Eur J Neurosci. 2018 Apr;47(8):979-993.
  • Pérez Ortiz JM, Orr HT. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1: Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and preclinical studies. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2018;1049:135-145.
  • Hottman D, Cheng S, Gram A, LeBlanc K, Yuan LL, Li L. Systemic or forebrain neuron-specific deficiency of geranylgeranyltransferase-1 impairs synaptic plasticity and reduces dendritic spine density. Neuroscience. 2018;373:207-217.
  • Hedges VL, Chen G, Yu L, Krentzel AA, Starrett JR, Zhu JN, Suntharalingam P, Remage-Healey L, Wang JJ, Ebner TJ, Mermelstein PG. Local estrogen synthesis regulates parallel fiber-Purkinje cell neurotransmission within the cerebellar cortex. Endocrinology. 2018;159(3):1328-1338.
  • Covelo A, Araque A. Neuronal activity determines distinct gliotransmitter release from a single astrocyte. Elife. 2018 Jan 30;7. pii: e32237

GPN News

David Redish, Mark Thomas and Brian Sweis (Ph.D. 2018) together have two papers accepted for publication.

David Redish, Mark Thomas and GPN alum Brian Sweis together have two papers accepted for publication.

B. M. Sweis, E. B. Larson, A. D. Redish, M. J. Thomas (in press) “Altering gain of the infralimbic to accumbens shell circuit alters economically dissociable decision-making algorithms” PNAS.

B. M. Sweis, M. J. Thomas, A. D. Redish (in press) “Mice learn to avoid regret” PLoS Biology.

Congratulations to Marija Cvetanovic for being awarded R01 Grant

Marija Cvetanovic was just awarded a new, five year RO1 entitled, "Understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration"

Congratulations to Dr. Martha Streng, whose PhD thesis won the "Best Dissertation Award" in the Biological and Medical Sciences for 2018!

Dr. Martha Streng has been designated the winner of the University of Minnesota Graduate School's "Best Dissertation Award" in the Biological and Medical Sciences for 2018.

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