Volume 26, Issue 2 -

Brain-friendly learning is a new catchphrase in school and university instructional practice. However, it often escapes the notice of the teachers and learners involved that neurodidactics is not simply a plausible concept – it can also be a myth if applied incorrectly. Numerous international studies show that both pre-service and in-service teachers as well as university educators endorse misconceptions on the topic of learning and the brain and orient their didactic conception on so-called neuromyths. This paper presents nine neuromyths on the topic of learning and memory. Based on a review of the current research, we discuss what determines their emergence and prevalence, to what extent neuromyths pose a problem for practice, and why and how both neurodidactics and neuromyths should be made an object of university instruction.

The current report focuses on shrimps from deep hydrothermal vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that live in an environment characterized by high hydrostatic pressure, lack of sunlight, and with hot and potentially toxic emissions of black smoker vents. Malacostracan crustaceans display a large diversity of lifestyles and life histories and a rich repertoire of complex behavioral patterns including sophisticated social interactions. These aspects promote this taxon as an interesting group of organisms for those neurobiologists interested in evolutionary transformation of brain structures and evolutionary diversification of neuronal circuits. Here, we explore how analyzing the nervous system of crustacean species from extreme habitats can provide deeper insights into the functional adaptations that drive the diversification of crustacean brain structure.

Transgender persons identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. Although describing oneself as transgender is not a new phenomenon, media attention has lately been increasing exponentially, thanks to progressive changes in laws and change in societal attitudes. These changes also allow more people nowadays to (openly) identify as transgender and/or seek gender-affirming treatment. However, simultaneously, not much is presently understood about the underlying neurobiology, and specifically the brain structure and brain function of transgender persons. One major question in neuroimaging and neuroscience has been to determine whether, at the brain level, transgender people resemble more their gender identity, their sex assigned at birth, or have a unique neural profile. Although the evidence is presently inconsistent, it suggests that while the brain structure, at least before hormonal treatment, is more similar to sex assigned at birth, it may shift with hormonal treatment. By contrast, on “sex-stereotypical tasks,” brain function may already be more similar to gender identity in transgender persons, also before receiving gender-affirming hormone treatment. However, studies continue to be limited by small sample sizes and new initiatives are needed to further elucidate the neurobiology of a ‘brain gender’ (sex-dimorphic change according to one’s gender).

Sleep contributes actively to the consolidation of many forms of memory. This review describes the neural oscillations of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, the structures underlying these oscillations and their relation to hippocampus-dependent memory consolidation. A main focus lies on the relation between inter- and intraregional interactions and their electrophysiological representation. Methods for modulating neural oscillations with the intent of affecting memory consolidation are presented.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique widely employed in biophysics, for instance to study topography of living cells and cell mechanics. Cell mechanics is a very interesting, biophysical parameter of cells, because it is strongly changed by various cellular processes, for example during cell division, cell movement, differentiation, aging, and also various diseases. Since cancer is a prominent example of changes in mechanical properties of diseases, the concept of the mechanical fingerprint has developed, which makes it possible to distinguish between healthy and diseased cells. In this article we report on various studies of cell mechanics with the AFM. We will first give a brief introduction on AFM principles and operational modes and then we will report on some applications of AFM in the field of cellular biophysics, like discriminating between healthy and cancer cells, as well as distinguishing cancer cells at different stages of malignancy. Overall, we will show that AFM has made a significant contribution in studying the biophysics of cancer and the concept of mechanical fingerprints could find a wide variety of applications in biomedicine and medical diagnostics.