Highlights from BYU colleges

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

• A newly published study by BYU researchers details how marijuana affects an adolescent brain’s reward center. The research, published Oct. 16 in the Journal of Neuroscience, finds the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana depresses cells in the brain that inhibit dopamine release. The study provides evidence that marijuana doesn’t just stimulate dopamine release directly. It also could mediate reward indirectly by impacting the GABA cells that moderate dopamine cell activity. When the synaptic plasticity of brain cells is modified, normal pleasurable experiences aren’t rewarding any more, leading to withdrawal. Trying to meet the higher reward threshold can lead to addiction.The study was carried out on the brain cells of adolescent mice, but the receptor in question, CB1, can be found in both mice and human brains and is in the same region of the brain in both species.

  

College of Fine Arts and Communications

• BYU School of Music students had the opportunity to play for BRAVO! Performing Arts guests artists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge at a masterclass on Oct. 19. Lage is a jazz guitarist who has collaborated with a range of musicians like Nels Cline, Gary Burton and Fred Hersch. Eldridge is a bluegrass artist who plays in Punch Brothers, an acoustic group that combines folk instrumentation with pop and other musical experiments. The duo have released two albums together. Lage and Eldridge answered students’ questions before listening to and critiquing two ensemble groups.

  

J. Reuben Clark Law School

• Utah Supreme Court Justices Christine M. Durham and Constandinos Himonas visited BYU Law School’s American Constitution Society Student Chapter on Oct. 10 to speak on diversity in the law. Himonas said the more diverse any decision-making group can be, especially within the law, the less likely bias will influence the outcome.
  Durham shared her experience of being the “super minority” as a woman throughout her legal education and practice in the early 1970s. She discussed the implicit biases all people acquire during their lives and ways to change them.

  

Library

• Dr. Carl Sederholm will speak on Oct. 31 at 1 p.m. in HBLL 1131, discussing Edgar Allan Poe and the tradition of horror. Afterward, participants can view the “Strange Things from the Archives” exhibit in Special Collections, including February 1845’s The American Review where Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” was first published.