The prevalence of mentoring programs in the transition from student to practitioner among U.S. dental hygiene programs.

Mentoring of students to assist them in the transition to clinical practice has been utilized in a number of health professions but has only been recently introduced in dental and dental hygiene education. A survey was sent to all U.S.

Medial vestibular connections with the hypocretin (orexin) system.

The mammalian medial vestibular nucleus (MVe) receives input from all vestibular endorgans and provides extensive projections to the central nervous system. Recent studies have demonstrated projections from the MVe to the circadian rhythm system. In addition, there are known projections from the MVe to regions considered to be involved in sleep and arousal.

Descending projections of the hamster intergeniculate leaflet: relationship to the sleep/arousal and visuomotor systems.

The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL), homolog of the primate pregeniculate nucleus, modulates circadian rhythms. However, its extensive anatomical connections suggest that it may regulate other systems, particularly those for visuomotor function and sleep/arousal. Here, descending IGL-efferent pathways are identified with the anterograde tracer, Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin, with projections to over 50 brain stem nuclei.

Intergeniculate leaflet and ventral lateral geniculate nucleus afferent connections: An anatomical substrate for functional input from the vestibulo-visuomotor system.

The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) has widespread projections to the basal forebrain and visual midbrain, including the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Here we describe IGL-afferent connections with cells in the ventral midbrain and hindbrain. Cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) injected into the IGL retrogradely labels neurons in a set of brain nuclei most of which are known to influence visuomotor function.

Retinal ganglion cell projections to the hamster suprachiasmatic nucleus, intergeniculate leaflet, and visual midbrain: bifurcation and melanopsin immunoreactivity.

The circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) receives direct retinal input via the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT), and the retinal ganglion cells contributing to this projection may be specialized with respect to direct regulation of the circadian clock. However, some ganglion cells forming the RHT bifurcate, sending axon collaterals to the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) through which light has secondary access to the circadian clock. The present studies provide a more extensive examination of ganglion cell bifurcation and evaluate whether ganglion cells projecting to several subcortical visual nuclei contain melanopsin, a putative ganglion cell photopigment.