NEWS OF THE WEEK
SMALL MOLECULE IMPROVES LEARNING O
NEUROSCIENCE: Compound may
NH2 HN O D-Cycloserine
enhance neuronal changes that lead to learning in people
W BURGER/PHANIE/SCIENCE SOURCE
Electroencephalography allows researchers to noninvasively monitor electrical activity in the brain.
E LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE: It sounds
like a trite sentiment posted by a friend on Facebook, but neuroscientists would agree. Our interactions with the world around us strengthen and weaken the connections between our neurons, a process that neuroscientists consider to be the cellular mechanism of learning. Now researchers report that boosting signaling of a certain receptor in the brain with a small molecule can enhance these cellular changes and improve learning in people. The findings could lead to new treatments for patients with disorders associated with deficits in learning, such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Through decades of research on how synapses change in animal brains, scientists have found that the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) plays a critical role in strengthening synapses during learning. Compounds that increase NMDAR signal-
SCIENCE GROUPS REBUKE INQUIRY CONGRESS: House Science Committee chairman demands documents related to climate paper
NEWSCOM
Rep. Lamar Smith, chair of the House Science Committee, is tussling with NOAA over a climate change research paper.
S
EVERAL MAJOR SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
contend that a probe by the powerful chair of the House of Representatives Science, Space, & Technology Committee could have a chilling effect on government scientists and their work. The American Chemical Society and six other large science organizations sent a letter to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) in late November outlining their “grave concern” about his investigation into federal climate change research. The organizations, which also included the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union, say Smith’s inquiry could prevent federal scientists from research related to important policy questions and inhibit the government’s ability to attract the best researchers. “Scientists should not be subjected to fraud investigations or harassment simply for providing scientific CEN.ACS.ORG
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ing can drive such changes and, as a result, help animals learn new tasks. Robert F. Asarnow at UCLA and colleagues wanted to test whether one such compound, d-cycloserine, would act similarly in people. But neuroscientists measure synapse changes in animals by sticking electrodes into slices of brain tissue to record electrical signals. “Obviously, we don’t do that to our friends,” Asarnow says. So his team used electroencephalography (EEG) to record electrical activity through electrodes stuck to the scalps of its subjects. The team monitored this activity as the subjects watched a certain pattern flash on a screen at high frequency for a couple minutes. Afterward, the subjects showed a spike in EEG activity in their visual cortex when they viewed the pattern at a later time. This suggested a population of neurons had wired themselves together by strengthening their synapses. People given a single dose of d-cycloserine showed greater activity spikes than subjects not taking the compound, a sign that it enhanced the bolstering of those connections. The compound also led to better performance in two tests of experience-dependent learning (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2015, DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.1509262112). The results are exciting, says Stefan G. Hofmann of Boston University. This is the first evidence that d-cycloserine can enhance forms of cognition relevant to some psychiatric disorders, he says.—MICHAEL M. TORRICE
results that some may see as politically controversial,” the letter states. “Science cannot thrive when policymakers—regardless of party affiliation—use policy disagreements as a pretext to attack scientific conclusions without public evidence.” Smith’s probe targets a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration team’s research into a pause in global warming trends, which some climate skeptics say is a reason to doubt human-caused climate change. The paper, published in Science in June, showed no slowdown in warming (DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa5632). Since then, Smith has sought internal NOAA e-mails and other documents related to the publication, claiming that the paper was published for political reasons. NOAA staffers have met with the committee to explain that all of the data used in the research are publicly available. But that did not satisfy Smith. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, the top Democrat on the Science Committee, has sent several letters to Smith chastising him for overstepping his bounds. Smith responded last week, accusing Johnson of ignoring her role to conduct oversight over federal research. Glenn S. Ruskin, director of ACS’s Office of Public Affairs, says, “ACS joined with its science colleagues to express grave concern that the chairman’s continued inquiries to NOAA were overly broad and beyond the scope of the research in question.” ACS publishes C&EN.—ANDREA WIDENER
DECEMBER 7/14, 2015
