Learning and memory involves a large neural network of many brain regions, including the notable hippocampus along with the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) and lateral septum (LS). Previous studies have established that the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) plays a critical role during the acquisition and retrieval/expression of episodic memories. However, the…

The author relates their involvement in the process of testing a picture storybook to teach science concepts. The project asked: If children were learning through a story where the science content was explicit, would children be able to explain the science in the context of the story and then in real-world contexts? Would the learning become…

Adjusting behavior to changed environmental contingencies is critical for survival, and reversal learning provides an experimental handle on such cognitive flexibility. Here, we investigate reversal learning in larval "Drosophila." Using odor-taste associations, we establish olfactory reversal learning in the appetitive and the aversive…

Plasticity is a neural phenomenon in which experience induces long-lasting changes to neuronal circuits and is at the center of most neurobiological theories of learning and memory. However, too much plasticity is maladaptive and must be balanced with substrate stability. Area CA3 of the hippocampus provides such a balance via hemispheric…

While results from many past studies have implicated the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) in mediating the expression of sustained negative affect, recent studies have highlighted a more complex role for BNST that includes aspects of fear learning in addition to defensive responding. As BNST is thought to encode ambiguous or…

The current body of scholarly literature highlights the increasing importance of Mixed Reality (MR) in the field of education since it provides an alternative way through visual stimuli inside an immersive environment. In recent years, the possibility for educators to use Mixed Reality as an additional pedagogical instrument has witnessed notable…

Children have a basic knowledge of birds that they observe during their everyday life either in their garden, other gardens, round the house, walking in the local area or in the yard on school gardens. A total of 515 children, aged 3 to 16 (249 girls and 266 boys) enrolled in southern Brazilian public preschools, primary school and secondary…

When learning from others, human children tend to faithfully copy--or "overimitate"--the actions of a demonstrator, even when these actions are irrelevant for solving the task at hand. We investigate whether domesticated dogs ("Canis familiaris") and dingoes ("Canis dingo") share this tendency to overimitate in three…

We present evidence that experience and cholinergic modulation in an early sensory network interact to improve certainty about olfactory stimuli. The data we present are in agreement with existing theoretical ideas about the functional role of acetylcholine but highlight the importance of early sensory networks in addition to cortical networks. We…

Fear can potently inhibit ongoing behavior, including reward-seeking, yet the neural circuits that underlie such suppression remain to be clarified. Prior studies have demonstrated that distinct subregions of the rodent medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) differentially affect fear behavior, whereby fear expression is promoted by the more dorsal…

Background: Learning sciences researchers, including those in the sociocultural tradition, often address emotion on motivation's terms, as a condition or quality of being that propels or mediates learning activity. Other times, emotion remains implicit in analyses of learning. Methods: Toward a more robust theorization of the relationship between…

microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as potent regulators of learning, recent memory, and extinction. However, our understanding of miRNAs directly involved in regulating complex psychiatric conditions perpetuated by aberrant memory, such as in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), remains limited. To begin to address the role of miRNAs in persistent…

Learning the physiology of the cardiovascular system can be difficult for students, but the use of active teaching methodologies can help and enhance learning. To facilitate the understanding of how the cardiovascular system works, we built a functional model for Veterinary Medicine students attending a cardiovascular physiology lecture and…

Using the human-animal bond, relational ecology, and the "common world" framework as theoretical underpinnings, I set out to better understand the array of settings and experiences wherein young children are able to interact, either directly or indirectly with animals within the context of early childhood environmental education (ECEE).…

L-type voltage-gated calcium channels (LVGCCs) have been implicated in both the formation and the reduction of fear through Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction. Despite the implication of LVGCCs in fear learning and extinction, studies of the individual LVGCC subtypes, Ca[subscript V]1.2 and Ca[subscript V] 1.3, using transgenic mice have…