Science Gender Equality in Germany: Soapbox Science Berlin

In recent years, we got used to seeing movies where scientists have become no less than superheros, saving humanity from natural disasters and alien invasions. Whether it is the super engineer Tony Stark (Iron Man) or the nuclear physicist Bruce Banner (The Incredible Hulk), scientists are usually portrayed by males who lead their teams to that great discovery or solution that will ensure the survival of the human species. Is it any coincidence that studies have shown that children aged 5 to 11 tend to draw scientists as men, not women [1]? 

 Only 30.9% of German scientists are women

In part, this gender stereotyping seems to be promoting the (incorrect!) reasoning that professions requiring higher cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills (like the scientific ones) are not for girls. Accordingly, recent research has demonstrated that girls as young as 6 tend to divert from novel games said to be for bright children, as they see ‘genius’ and ‘excellence’ as male traits [3]. Further, the number of women scientists holding a PhD in academic disciplines believed to require higher levels of ‘brilliance’ (e.g. physics, math, philosophy) is lower than the number of men [4].

Rain or Shine, Female Scientists Are Here to Stay!

As an attempt to overcome these implicit biases instigated by gender inequality in the scientific world, Nathalie Pettorelli and Seirian Sumner (ZSL and UCL, respectively) founded the Soapbox Science platform, an initiative that gives visibility to women scientists through open-air public events that foster scientific discussion and public learning. On June 4th 2017, Berlin hosted its first Soapbox Science event at the Tempelhofer Feld. Twelve female scientists from all over Germany took part of the Soapbox Science Berlin (SSB) 2017 and talked about the science they do in the fields of psychology, biology or engineering. Despite unexpected rain and wind, the first Germany-based Soapbox Science event had over 150 participants from different nationalities and educational backgrounds, whose contribution enabled a dynamic exchange of ideas between female scientists and the public. 

 SSB promotes science gender equality in Germany

Yet, the lively scientific discussions and the number of participants were not the only predictors of this Soapbox Science event success – the Berlin team was invited to organize another event as part of the Berlin Science Week 2017. This second event took place at the Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz and brought together 8 women scientists from various research areas: biomaterials, neuroscience, ecology and biomedicine. This time, 256 participants (12 to 89 years) craving for scientific knowledge showed up. Given the goal of eliminating the biased generalization that only boys can be scientists, the Berlin team invited high school students to attend the event with the objective of empowering teenagers of both genders to pursue scientific careers.

What's Next for the Team

After two amazing and successful events, the SSB team is preparing for the next happening and for further integrating the Berlin team into the worldwide network of Soapbox Science summer initiatives. Join the 2018 speakers in Berlin, June 1st (from 2 to 5pm; location TBD) and challenge your scientific knowledge with some sun and fun! Besides promoting science gender equality, the SSB team hopes to broaden girls’ views about their future career choices and increase the number of German women scientists. Even though the proportion of female researchers in Germany has already increased from 28.2% in 2010 to 30.9% in 2014 [5], the gender gap is far from being closed. Soapbox Science Berlin aims to close the gap and empower young girls to be the scientists of tomorrow.

by Ana I. Faustino, Postdoc AG Judkewitz

Former Soapbox Science Berlin Co-head

Want to find out more? Get in touch with us!

Facebook: @soapboxscienceberlin 

Twitter: @berlin_soapbox

Email: soapboxscience.berlin@gmail.com

[1] Chambers, Sci. Educ., 1983

[2] Mead and Metraux, Science, 1957

[3] Bian et al., Science, 2017

[4] Leslie et al., Science, 2015

[5] http://bit.ly/1RytgHf

From Academia to the Authorities

Let's start with the basics. My name is Henriette, I am 28 years old and I will soon be an alumna from the MedNeuro MSc and PhD programs at the Charité. 

I started my PhD in 2014 in the group "Experimental Psychiatry" with Prof. Christine Winter. My focus revolved around neuropsychiatric disorders and my daily work contained a mix of performing stereotactic surgeries, behavioral experiments and electrophysiological recordings. My thesis is written and ready to go, the plan is to open the procedure this summer.
However, a lot has happened since I finished lab work in 2017. I moved back to Denmark, mainly with the purpose of getting closer to my family (I am a dane) and finding a job. Luckily, all of this fell into place rather quickly.

Henriette Edemann Callesen

I started looking for jobs a few months before moving back to Denmark. I spent a lot of time figuring out what kind of job I wanted, which wasn’t easy. Moving from research into the “real world" seemed rather daunting. I mainly saw myself as a researcher and was interested in continuing in this field. Yet, after almost three years of working with rats, I wanted to get out of the lab. I did quite a lot of soul searching to figure out what kind of position met my requirements and to understand what qualifications the PhD had given me. In this period, I even wrote an article in the CNS newsletter about this topic – simply because I had to put my own doubts into words and let go of the imposter syndrome.

Let go of the imposter syndrome

I eventually boiled all my qualifications down to a proper CV that included my PhD, but also some organizational work I had been doing on the side. I made sure that the focus was not on my published papers nor my everyday handling with rats, since this is only relevant if you want to stay in academia. Back in Denmark, I sent out a bunch of applications. To make the story short: I am now an Academic Employee at the Danish Health Authorities in Copenhagen.

My Work Has Clinical Impact
My daily work evolves around constructing National Clinical Guidelines. I attend meetings with clinicians to figure out where the problems in their daily work are. For example, we discuss whether there is lack of evidence for the treatments that are being applied, or if one treatment is better than another. Then I go through research publications, critically evaluating its quality (using the so-called GRADE method [1]) in order to find out more about the effects of different treatment options. All of this is then composed into a National Clinical Guideline, which physicians can use in their daily work when doubt arises.

Use your qualifications wisely

And, boy, is this work different from being in the lab! I no longer work with rats, I have normal working hours and I get to drink coffee at my desk, while going through research. I developed competencies in understanding what contains good research (and what not) and I get insight into the challenges doctors face daily. Moreover, my products have clinical impact, which is very motivating.
What I miss, though, is being able to sit down and scientifically analyze and interpret data. I miss the flexibility that comes with being a PhD student, including structuring the day myself. I miss my friends and colleagues in Berlin and the thrill of being abroad. With that said, right now, I would not change it for the world. My new position offers other interesting possibilities and I get to grow in a different direction then what I would have if I had stayed in academia.
So, to all of you currently in academia who are thinking about changing tracks: first of all, yes, your PhD is a valuable asset that can land you a job in the “real world”. However, be aware that when promoting yourself, employers outside academia value other aspects of your work than a potential PI. There are indeed jobs out there, where you can combine research and regular working hours. Seriously, let go of the imposter syndrome that many PhD students have. Use your qualifications wisely, take a leap and go for it.

by Henriette Edemann Callesen, MSc and PhD Alumna, MedNeuro


[1] http://bit.ly/1IQ69Ub

This article originally appeared March 2018, in Beauty and the Brain , Vol 11 - Issue 01

A Makeover for the Newsletter?

Shortly before the winter holidays, the CNS newsletter team had the privilege to attend a scientific writing workshop hosted by Dr. Jochen Müller, a neuroscientist now working in consulting and scientific communication. Together with Jochen, we critically evaluated the last few issues of the newsletter and talked about ways in which we can expand our readership.

Although the CNS newsletter is a 100% volunteer-driven initiative, we still pride ourselves on trying to produce stories that are informative, original, and educational, even if readers don't have a background in neuroscience. As Jochen pointed out, one of our strengths is covering a topic -  for example Neuroaesthetics -  from a variety of different angles. However, we were encouraged to move beyond purely covering "textbook-style" knowledge, and delve deeper into stories where we can provide a unique perspective.

Please fill out a short reader survey!

To this end, we are going to try and write more about our number one area of expertise: being neuroscience students in Berlin! For example, in this issue, we have collected on-the-ground interviews with students (page 18), as well as covering advice on how to find a career entry after graduation (page 24), and taking a long, critical look at funding schemes for PhDs (page 22).
For upcoming issues, we have some new and interesting article types up our sleeve: "behind-the-scenes" of scientific discoveries in Berlin, critiques of neuroscience in books and on TV, debates on Big Questions of the field, and so much more. We're really looking forward to sharing it with you!

A key part of our strategy to improve the newsletter depends on finding out more about YOU, dear reader. Please fill out a short reader survey. It will help us to plan our future issues, and it takes less than five minutes!

Constance Holman (on behalf of the CNS newsletter editorial team)


Link to Reader Survey: https://goo.gl/forms/CVQrDaMZOm1ecS0k2
Learn more about Dr. Müller's work and writing philosophy here: http://www.jochen-mueller.net/

Brain Networks for Ticklish, Taunting or Joyful Laughter

Laughter in response to tickling is a primordial reflex in animals and promotes play behavior and social bonding. But humans also exhibit more complex laughter types such as joyful or taunting laughter to express happiness (or other conscious messages) to peers. 

 Researchers at the University of Tübingen studied the brain responses of participants listening to ticklish, taunting or joyful laughter using functional MRI [1]. They also asked the participants to identify the laughter types. The participants were able to correctly distinguish the laughs in the majority of cases, though they were less accurate in identifying ticklish laughter.

This study shows that distinguishable brain regions are involved in ticklish and complex laughter types. Ticklish laughter (involving rapid high-pitched sounds) was found to activate brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex and auditory association cortex, involved in processing complex acoustic signals. The perception of the two complex laughter types, joyful and taunting laughter, on the other hand, activated partially overlapping brain regions involved in social processing.

The researchers, however, observed differences in the strength of connections in brain regions between these two laughter types. During taunting laughter, the data showed stronger connection between auditory association cortices and regions involved in analyzing others’ mental states (mentalizing areas). In the case of joyful laughter, the visual areas were more strongly connected to the mentalizing areas. They suggest that in recognizing joyful laughter, seeing faces plays an important role.

Studies on laughter have implications on clinical disorders such as schizophrenia, depression or autism in which people misinterpret or fail to recognize social signals. Understanding how the brain recognizes laughter can not only offer insights into these disorders but also on human social behavior and language evolution. 

[1] Wildgruber et al, PLoS ONE, 2013

By Aarti Swaminathan, PhD Student AG Schmitz

This article originally appeare March 2015, in Vol 08, Issue 01, Humor

How is Ticklishness Coded in the Brain?

People laugh when tickled. It sounds natural, but its mechanism remains to be determined. Shimpei Ishiyama from the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience investigates the neural correlate of ticklishness in rats.

CB: What is your project about?
SI: Nobody knows how ticklishness is encoded. We speculated that ticklishness might be represented in the brain, most likely in the somatosensory cortex. For my project, I tickle rats which are implanted with electrodes in this brain region.

Why do you use rats to study ticklishness?
Tickling is considered to mimic play behavior. Therefore, we needed a very social animal. Mice are not that social compared to rats. We use young rats because they are more ticklish than older rats. Correspondingly, young rats play a lot, while old ones do not. Jack Panksepp was the first to discover that rats vocalize intensively when tickled. He proposed a very bold theory that rat vocalization might be an evolutionary ancestor of human laughter.

How do rats laugh?
Rats evoke ultrasonic vocalizations that are divided into 22 kHz, indicating negative emotions, and 50 kHz, indicating positive emotions. They emit 50 kHz vocalizations during social interactions with conspecifics or mating, while consuming addictive drugs, and during ‘play fight’. We found that rats have specific patterns of vocalization depending on the stimulus. There is a pattern which looks really complicated and appears particularly when the rats are touched or tickled. There are other patterns called “Trill” and “Modulated”; these are continuously pronounced during a break between bouts of tickling. And there are others that are pronounced during touching or tickling. However, I would hesitate to call this the same as human ticklishness or human laughter, but at least rat ticklishness and laughter.

How do you tickle the rats?
Young rats target the nape of the neck during play fight. Professor Panksepp discovered that tickling the nape of rats induces more 50 kHz vocalizations than tickling other parts, which indicates a close relationship between ‘tickling’ and play fight in rats. For the experiment, I put a rat in a big box which is placed underneath a camera. I then put on gloves and tickle the rat with my hand. If I tickle the rats' trunk, they laugh heavily; if I tickle them on other body parts such as the tail, they are less excited.

How do you define ticklishness?
There are two types of ticklishness. One is called knismesis – a very light, itchy, annoying feeling of ticklishness, like the touch of a feather. This does not induce laughter. You can even do it by yourself anywhere on your body. The other is called gargalesis. This ticklishness induces heavy laughter. Obviously that is the one I am studying. Rats show positive emotions and a lot of vocalizations when exposed to ticklish stimuli. It can even make them addicted.

How do you record the rats' brain activity?
We implant 8 tetrodes, which consist of 32 electrodes, within a space of approximately 2.5 mm in the somatosensory area representing the trunk region, because we think this is the most ticklish body part. The electrodes cover nearly the whole area. We use tetrodes that extracellularly detect spikes. These represent action potentials from single cells. In the recorded traces you see different spike amplitudes. Each amplitude size corresponds to a single cell corresponding to the position of the electrode. Therefore, we can separate the signals by analyzing the amplitudes and many other features – this is called clustering – and measure the frequency of action potentials of single units.

Do you see specific activity in the somatosensory cortex while tickling the rats?
Yes indeed! We detected specific firing during the tickling phase when I overlay the electrophysiology data with the video information of the tickling session. The high firing rate was phase-locked to the tickling. There is always baseline firing, but I found cells that fire more during tickling phases.

How do you know that the neuronal activity corresponds to tickling and not just touch?
We just started our investigations and we are not sure yet. Some cells in the somatosensory cortex fire intensively when I tickle the rat, but less when I gently touch the rat. You can assume that this higher activity during tickling compared to gentle touch might be the neural correlate of ticklishness.

Some people are not as ticklish as others. Do you also observe this in rats?
Yes, I do. Rats also have characters. Some are really jumpy, some are very shy. Typically the jumpy rats are more ticklish. Ticklishness is also dependent on mood. If I give the same physical stimuli but the rat's mood is less excited, it vocalizes less. I have bright lights in my setup; rats are scared of bright light as they are nocturnal animals. Under bright light, they don’t move much and laugh less, even if the tickling stimuli are the same.

The findings have since been published in Science

Claudia Willmes, PhD Alumna AG Eickholt / AG Schmitz

This article originally appeared March 2015, Volume 08 Issue 01, Humor

Laughing at Ourselves and Others - How Does Humor Make Us Better People?

Most people would probably agree that both people and animals (e.g., dogs or dolphins), can enjoy themselves. However, most people would likewise agree that humor is somewhat different from plain joy. How can we really tell the difference, though?

The term 'humor' stems directly from the Latin word humor, meaning moisture. Why is that? It originates from the ancient theory in Greco-Roman medicine, where four different body fluids (humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm) determine one’s personality traits. An imbalance of one may cause either choleric, sanguine, melancholic, or phlegmatic temperament – none of which is particularly cheerful [1]. This theory concerns ancient physicians like Hippocrates and Galen, but what is the philosophers' point of view?

Nowadays, philosophy is not usually perceived as extraordinarily funny either, thanks to Plato and Socrates, who heavily influenced our rather serious philosophic tradition. Yet, one man is known as the `Laughing Philosopher´ – Democritus of Abdera. Historic reports call him a cheerful person and he was always amused by people's foolishness [2]. Indeed, today, we would agree that humor means taking oneself less serious and laughing about one's own foolishness.

A day without laughter is a day wasted

Humor enables us to step back from life’s struggles and confronts us with our own faults, while remaining free of moral persecution. Humor has furthermore helped people endure misfortune, misery, and tyranny. Diogenes of Sinope, better known as the founder of Cynic philosophy, was well known for embarrassing and sabotaging his fellow philosophers Plato and Socrates. He also made continual inappropriate jokes about the Macedonian king and Emperor Alexander the Great [3]. Modern comedy often unknowingly follows Diogenes’ footsteps, as cynicism and sarcasm are still very popular in political cabaret and satire. Thereby, the ancient cynics never mocked in vain, but rather imagined how people could live a good and happy life, free from the pursuit of fame and glory.

Thus, it is not disrespectful to call the antique philosophers the first popular entertainers, as they all tried their best to delight people. This is what they have in common with timeless modern day humorists like Monty Python. Another example is Charlie Chaplin, who, in total contrast to antique rhetoricians, did so without uttering a single word. He knew that “A day without laughter is a day wasted”*.

[1] http://bit.ly/1uRN3pe

[2] http://bit.ly/1s2k1jO

[3] http://bit.ly/1BQb16T

* But see http://bit.ly/1zvJ1Hp

Bettina Schmerl, PhD Student AG Shoichet

This article originally appeared 2015 in Vol 08, Issue 01, Humor

April Fools' Day

Right, this article does not have much to do with the brain and nope, there are no serious PubMed articles on the effects of April fools' pranks on the central nervous system. However, considering that April is approaching, this might be of general interest.
April Fools' Day is not a national holiday. Still, traditionally, it is well known in most of the western world. Every year on the first of April, people play practical jokes on each other. People are sent on errands that do not exist or are made to believe ridiculous things. The joke is then revealed by shouting out “April fool!” (or “April, April” in Germany).

'Washing of the Lions' hoax from 1857Credit: http://bit.ly/1EQgssI

The origin of this tradition is unclear, but reports date back to the 17th century in Germany. The press and other media tend to report hoax stories on this day, and the stories are revealed as fake on the subsequent days. The BBC did a famous hoax on April 1, 1957, presenting a documentary on how spaghetti can be harvested from spaghetti trees. Hundreds of listeners then called them, inquiring about how to grow spaghetti trees themselves [1].
Google is also famous for its April fools' hoaxes. In 2005, they announced the marketing of the drink Google Gulp. They claimed that it analyzes the DNA of the drinker in real time and carefully adjusts neurotransmitters to enhance intelligence while using the Google search engine. How, you might ask? Well, according to Google this works through a patented technology that involves monoamine oxidase inhibition. It was offered in four flavors: Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, Beta Carroty, and Sero-Tonic Water [2].
Easy to identify as a hoax for us scientists, don't you think? Of course, on other topics we might be just as susceptible to hoaxes as others. Maybe this year everybody reading the CNS Newsletter will be a little better prepared!

[1] http://goo.gl/YZ91EN
[2] http://goo.gl/0L8aUY

by Ann-Christin Ostwaldt, PhD Alumna (AG Fiebach)

This article originally appeared March 2015, Vol. 08, Issue 01, Humour