Unpacking and Utilizing Neuroscience Core Concepts

Core concepts, or overarching principles that identify patterns in processes and phenomena, provide a framework for organizing facts and understanding. Core concepts have existed for many years in some life science disciplines, including biology, microbiology, and physiology, yet have only recently been published for neuroscience through a multi-year community-derived project which identified the following neuroscience core concepts: Communication Modalities, Emergence, Evolution, Gene-Environment Interactions, Information Processing, Nervous System Functions, Plasticity, and Structure-Function Relationship. The current phase of the core concepts work involves two arms: utilizing and "unpacking." Work on utilization of core concepts focuses on strategies for utilizing the core concepts in courses, curricula, and assessment, and in diverse institutional contexts. The process of unpacking involves deconstructing a core concept into its key underlying components. Prior to the 2023 FUN Workshop, we consulted faculty members with relevant experience to aid in the preliminary unpacking of four core concepts (Evolution, Gene-Environment Interactions, Plasticity, and Structure-Function Relationship). The preliminary drafts of the unpacked core concepts were shared at the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) Workshop and Neuroscience Teaching Conference (NTC) for community feedback and guidance. This editorial describes community feedback and guidance that we received from the conferences to inform future steps.