Neural Plasticity and Undergraduate Neuroscience Publishing
Leslie Sargent Jones
Director of the Heltzer Honors Program,
Professor of Biology
A.B., Bryn Mawr College, PA (Psychology)
Ph.D., Northwestern University, IL (Anatomy)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University, NC (Pharmacology)
My laboratory work was focused on questions related to neural plasticity. The in vitro kindling model in rodent hippocampal slices was used as a model system to examine questions such as the role of integrins and their extracellular matrix ligands (e.g., laminin) in mediating the anatomical concomitants of neural plasticity. An additional interest is in neuroethics, which has come from my involvement with Institutional Review Boards, conversations with neuroethics colleagues in the Society for Neuroethics, and some work on ethics in credibility assessment. The ethical considerations for research on healthy human subjects using neuroscientific tools, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, are of particular concern to me (Science, 315:1663).
Currently, my interests have shifted to strategies for involving undergraduates in original, authentic research. Since 2004 I have been advising undergraduates worldwide who are the publication team for an international, online journal for undergraduates to report their neuroscience research findings. This journal, IMPULSE, is the first of its kind, posting original research findings and review articles by students from around the world. Presentations on the journal and the opportunities it offers for research and experience in neuroscience publishing for the students, and for teaching by their professors, have been given at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN, ’04, ’05, ’06, ‘07), the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO, ’07, Melbourne), and the Federation for European Neuroscience (FENS, ’08, Geneva). For more information about IMPULSE please visit the website (http://impulse.appstate.edu/)
Some Recent Publications:
* Yoshida, Y, Shigeri, Y, Saito, Y, Jones, LS, and Niki, I, (2007) Chemical Reactivities and Physical Effects in Comparison between Tocopherols and Tocotrienols, J. Biosci. Bioeng., 104: 439-445.
* Jones, LS (2007) The ethics of transcranial magnetic stimulation, Science, 315:1663.
* Jones, LS, Black, LC, Bright, L, Meekins, C, Thakur, V, and Warren, C (2006) An Undergraduate Course on Publishing in Neuroscience, Journal for Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (online), Spring 2006 Vol. 4, Issue 2. (Winner, Editor’s Choice Award)
* Jones, LS (2005) Recent advances in the role of integrins in developmental and adult synaptic plasticity, in Synaptic Plasticity and Transsynaptic Signaling, Eds:P.K. Stanton, C. Bramham, and H.E. Scharfman, Springer.
* Nikonenko, I, Toni, N, Moosmayer, M, Shigeri, Y, Muller, D, Jones, LS (2003) Integrins are involved in synaptogenesis, cell spreading, and adhesion in the postnatal brain. Developmental Brain Research, 140: 185-194.
* Smith, MD, Jones, LS, and Wilson, MA (2002) Sex differences in CA1 slice excitability: reduction by gonadectomy and restoration by estrogen or testosterone. Neuroscience, 109: 517-530.
* Jones, LS, Paulman, LE, Thadani, R, and Terracio, L (2001) Medical Student Cadaver Dissection Improves Performance on Practical Exams but not on the NBME Anatomy Subject Exam, Medical Education Online, 6(2).
