I am happy to report that the wifi situation is great this year. However, this means that the only viable excuse I have for not yet dutifully reporting on my conference activities is that I am getting my ass handed to me by SfN13.  SfN is a tough meeting to be sure and I am happy to have numerous people to meet with and lots of events, scientific and social, to attend. But finding a spare moment for anything else is challenging.I ca

This is one interpretation of the title of this post–>I am getting my ass kicked by neuroscience. The other is that neuroscience kicks ass. It may be a lucky coincidence, but this year I have had excellent success at seeing some great posters. Also, one lecture in particular was absolutely engrossing: When Good Neurons Go Bad delivered by Dr. Anthony Grace. Every now and then I find myself in a session or talk and it is impossible to keep my neuro-nerd flag from waving high and proud. I hung on to every word and had to stop myself from standing up and asking if I could get an AMEN! It was a great talk. To hit the high notes, the aim was to discuss neural circuit pathologies, particularly those with midbrain dopaminergic endpoints, that contribute to symptom profiles in schizophrenia and depression. Dr. Grace did a lovely job of summarizing his own work and that of others on these circuits. I loved the nice compare and contrast of the specific nature of the pathologies in schizophrenia versus depression, as well as the apt call for attending to the neural events elsewhere in the brain that lead to disturbed dopaminergic functioning, such as dealing with poor GABA-ergic interneuron function in the hippocampus is schizophrenia. Lots of great info on ventral hippocampus, ventral pallidum, and amygdala too. I recommend you check out his papers if you have an interest in this topic. And maybe you should check them out even if you don’t. Because they are kind of awesome. They probably even kick neuro ass.

One last note before I sign off. To everyone who came to my poster this morning and gave me hell for my one-sample t-tests and was just dying a little inside because I cared little for between-group differences, I invite you to follow this link for some education. I also invite comments or counterpoints on this topic and I will sit and discuss this at length with anyone at anytime.