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More About Leptin Neuronal Rewiring
This animation illustrates how providing leptin to an obese mouse rapidly rewires its hypothalamus neurons. This animation includes audio narration: please make sure your computer's volume is up so that you can hear it.
Leptin Neuronal Rewiring Background
When obese mice were given leptin injections, researchers found that the neurons in their hypothalamus were actually being rapidly rewired. Less excitatory inputs and more inhibitory inputs were connected to those neurons responsible for encouraging feeding (called NPY), and the opposite occurred for those neurons responsible for discouraging feeding (called POMC).
From Lecture Four of the 2004 Holiday Lectures Series "The Science of Fat."
Leptin Neuronal Rewiring Teaching Tips
The animations in this section have a wide variety of classroom applications. Use the tips below to get started but look for more specific teaching tips in the near future. Please tell us how you are using the animations in your classroom by sending e-mail to biointeractive@hhmi.org.
- Use the animations to make abstract scientific ideas visible and concrete.
- Explain important scientific principles through the animations. For example, the biological clocks animations can be used to demonstrate the fundamentals of transcription and translation.
- Make sure that students learn the material by repeating sections of the animations as often as you think necessary to reinforce underlying scientific principles. You can start, restart, and play back sections of the animations.
- Urge students to use the animations in accordance with their own learning styles. Students who are more visually oriented can watch the animations first and read the text later, while others might prefer to read the explanations first and then view the graphics.
- Incorporate the animations into Web-based learning modules that you create to supplement your classroom curricula.
- Encourage students to incorporate the animations into their own Web-based projects.
Resources
The 2004 Holiday Lectures Series "The Science of Fat"
Leptin Neuronal Rewiring Credits
Scientific Direction: Jeffrey Friedman, M.D.
Animator: Joe Alexander, New Media and Design, The Rockefeller University
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