University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Neuroscience Program news, updates, and events

Neal Cohen takes over as NSP Director

Posted 8.16.2011
Professor Neal Cohen has assumed the directorship of the Neuroscience Program as of today. Prof. Cohen follows in the footsteps of Entomology professors Gene Robinson, who led the program from 2001-2011, and Fred Delcomyn, who served as Interim Director starting in January of 2011.

Neal Cohen received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, in 1981. He is a Professor in the U of I Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Program, and a full-time faculty member in the Beckman Institute Cognitive Neuroscience Group. He is also a Senior Research Scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. His field of professional interest is cognitive neuroscience, specifically issues concerning memory systems of the brain, amnesia and other disorders of memory.

NSP Coordinator Has Half A Brain, Study Finds

Posted 4.1.2011
Researchers at the University of Illinois were startled to discover that Neuroscience Program coordinator Sam Beshers is apparently missing half of his brain. "We were of course quite surprised," said Dr. Monica Fabiani, who with her husband Dr. Gabriele Gratton led the study. "We have certainly never heard of another case like this."

The scientists made the discovery in the course of a routine study. "We are using a new task to look at cognitive changes with aging," said Fabiani. To validate the new task the researchers recruited volunteer test subjects from the Illinois campus. Beshers volunteered and performed the task while his brain was being imaged using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). "We saw that he performed the task okay and we were looking at the results in his right hemisphere," said Gratton. "Then we went to look at the left side and there was nothing. So we wondered how was it possible that he could function and show no effects."

Many in the Neuroscience Program expressed surprise at the finding. One student, James Lee, said Beshers "always seemed pretty normal...if you discount his twisted sense of humor." "He's really sort of out of step with his own drum," agreed Claudia Lutz. "But that's okay, I guess." Dr. Paul Gold, a faculty member with notable views on learning and memory, said Beshers is "a pretty good guy. He does have some memory lapses but we just put that down to normal aging. Except for when he forgets things he's a pretty good guy. He does have some memory lapses, when he forgets he's already said something, but we just put that down to normal aging. He forgets that he's already said something, as many of us do. It's just because he's aging."

But others in Neuroscience disagreed. Some, who declined to be identified, said they had long suspected Beshers might be, as Dr. Rhanor Gillette delicately put it, "a few cards short of a full deck." Former program director Gene Robinson, who worked with Beshers for over nine years, said the new finding "explains a great deal."

Fabiani was quick to point out that Beshers' ancestry is mainly French and Irish. "This is good because we don't need more Italian jokes," she said. "It's time to give the French their due, and now we have several people in the lab working on that."

Fabiani, Gratton, and their colleagues are eager to follow up with more studies. "So right now we have a sample size of 1," said Gratton. "But maybe we have just not looked in the right places. The current political scene offers hope that we can find others with only half a brain, if that." Dr. Neal Cohen, who studies memory and memory disorders in humans, said his group would leap at the chance to study such a unique case. "This is really a great opportunity," he said, "and it comes right when the technology is maturing and we have new and powerful magnets. I'd show you the MRI facility," he continued, "if I could only remember where I put my keys." According to Cohen, "One of the great unsolved problems in cognitive neuroscience is where memories are actually stored. Here we have half the brain missing so we think we can really pin it down."

Barbara Hug joins NSP as Public Engagement Associate

Posted 12.10.2010
Barbara Hug, Clinical Assistant Professor in Curriculum and Instruction, is now an official NSP affiliate, serving as our Public Engagement Associate. Prof. Hug has been an active contributor to NSP for several years, helping us out with Brain Awareness Day, the ISNI, and most recently Project Neuron.

Susan Schantz research featured in News-Gazette

Posted 10.21.2010
UI researchers hope expectant moms will help on $2 million plastics research project University of Illinois researchers will work with some local pregnant women and their babies to learn more about a worrisome fact of everyday consumer life:
So many products commonly used at home, work and school are made out of plastic -- yet so little is known about how regular exposure to two chemicals widely used in plastics -- bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates -- affects the growing bodies of infants and adolescents.

Susan Schantz, a UI professor of comparative biosciences, and her colleagues hope to learn some of the answers through a new three-year, government-funded research project.

The UI has received a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct the research and establish the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at the UI, which is under the direction of Schantz.

Read more at The News-Gazette.

Neuroscience Fall Retreat -- October 16

Posted 10.11.2010
The Neuroscience Student Organization would like to invite everyone to a Fall Barbecue on Saturday, October 16 at the Garden Pavilion in Meadowbrook Park. This will be an informal version of the Fall Retreat from previous years, which we hope to revive more fully next year.
We will plan to start things off around 3 pm with some games (perhaps a faculty/student game of kickball?), followed by food at 4:30. We will provide grilled items and fixings, beverages and utensils. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share if you are able . . . and if you like, enter it for consideration in our bake-off. There will be a prize for the best side dish and for the best dessert!
Please invite family and significant others, as well as neuroscience-friendly lab colleagues. You can RSVP HERE or by emailing (Claudia Lutz with: the number of people attending, whether you would prefer a vegetarian grilled option, and whether you plan to bring a side dish or a dessert. A final note--because the shelter is not enclosed, we will have to cancel in case of inclement weather, but we'll hope for sunshine!

James McGaugh leads off Fall seminar series

Posted 8.27.2010
Our fall seminar series opens with James L. McGaugh, Research Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California at Irvine. His talk on "Significant events create strong memories: Contributions of hormonal and interacting brain systems" will be given at 4:00 PM on Tuesday, August 31, in Beckman Institute room 1005. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

McGaugh is one of the world's most distinguished students of learning and memory and is credited with bringing the idea of memory consolidation into contemporary neuroscience. His impressive list of awards may be seen on his web page .

Kara Federmeier honored with James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award

Posted 7.8.2010
Congratulations to Kara Federmeier for being honored with a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar award in the Understanding Human Cognition program. The JSFM Scholar Awards support research studying how neural systems are linked to and support cognitive functions and how cognitive systems are related to an organism's observable behavior. Federmeier's research will explore cognitive and neural mechanisms of meaning comprehension.

Project NEURON featured in College of Education News

Posted 7.7.2010
Project NEURON was featured in the College of Education News from June 24 (see article). Project NEURON (Novel Education for Understanding Research On Neuroscience) is led by principal investigator Dr. Barbara Hug, Clinical Assistant Professor in the department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education, and coPIs Dr. Donna Korol (NSP) and Dr. George Reese, Director of MSTE (Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education).

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