Established in 1891, JCN is the oldest continually published basic neuroscience journal. Historically, as the name suggests, the journal focused on a comparison among species to uncover the intricacies of how the brain functions. In modern times, this research is called systems neuroscience where animal models are used to mimic core cognitive processes with the ultimate goal of understanding neural circuits and connections that give rise to behavioral patterns and different neural states.
Research published in JCN covers all species from invertebrates to humans, and the reports inform the readers about the function and organization of nervous systems in species with an emphasis on the way that species adaptations inform about the function or organization of the nervous systems, rather than on their evolution per se.
JCN publishes primary research articles and critical commentaries and review-type articles offering expert insight in to cutting edge research in the field of systems neuroscience; a complete list of contribution types is given in the Author Guidelines. For primary research contributions, only full-length investigative reports are desired; the journal does not accept short communications.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Patrick R. Hof
Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Box 1639
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
1470 Madison Avenue, Room 10-118
New York, NY 10029 USA
(Editor's Biography)
 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Deanna L. Benson (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA)
deanna.benson@mssm.edu
Edward M. Callaway (Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA)
callaway@salk.edu
Thomas E. Finger (University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA)
tom.finger@ucdenver.edu
Andrew D. Huberman (Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA)
adh1@stanford.edu
Uwe Homberg (University of Marburg, Germany)
homberg@biologie.uni-marburg.de
Jeffrey H. Kordower (Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA)
jkordowe@rush.edu
Kathleen S. Rockland (Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA)
krock@bu.edu
John L. R. Rubenstein (University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA)
john.rubenstein@ucsf.edu
Paul E. Sawchenko (Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA)
sawchenko@salk.edu
 
EDITORIAL BOARD
Sue A. Aicher (Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA)
Ramón Anadón (University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain)
Allan I. Basbaum(University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA)
Martha Bickford (School of Medicine University of Louisville, KY, USA)
Nell B. Cant(Duke University, Durham, NC, USA)
Hollis T. Cline(The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Susan M. Courtney (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA)
Claudia Distler (Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany)
Jean-Marc Fritschy (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Charles A. Greer (Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA)
Sten Grillner (Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden)
Suzanne N. Haber (University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA)
Kristen M. Harris (University of Texas Medical School, Austin, TX, USA)
Andrea Hasenstaub (University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA)
Suzana Herculano-Houzel (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)
Erich Jarvis(Howard Hughes Medical Institute & Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA)
Jon H. Kaas (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)
Harvey J. Karten (University of California, San Diego, CA, USA)
Leah A. Krubitzer (University of California, Davis, CA, USA)
Giuseppe Luppino (Universita di Parma, Parma, Italy)
Lee Martin (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA)
Alexander J. McDonald (University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC, USA)
Loreta Medina (University of Lleida, Spain)
Paul Micevych (University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Zoltan Molnar (University of Oxford, UK)
Robert Morecraft (University of South Dakota School of Medicine, Vermillion, SD, USA)
Elliot J. Mufson (Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA)
Jorge Mpodozis (Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile)
Luiz Pessoa (University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA)
Mary Ann Raghanti (Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA)
Benjamin Reese (University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
Anton Reiner (University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN, USA)
Lina J. Richards (Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia)
Marcello Rosa (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia)
Michael T. Shipley (University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA)
Reinhard F. Stocker (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
Enrica Strettoi (Istituto di Neuroscienze CNR, Piza, Italy)
Ruth L. Stornetta (University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA)
Susan P. Travers (Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA)
David I. Vaney (University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia)
Robert Vertes (Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA)
Mario F. Wullimann (Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany)
Naoyuki Yamamoto (Nagoya University, Japan)
Zhengang Yang (Fudan University, Shanghai, China)
 
BIOGRAPHY: PATRICK R. HOF
Dr. Hof is the Irving and Dorothy Regenstreif Research Professor of Neuroscience and the Vice-Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He also leads the Center of Excellence on Brain Aging of the Friedman Brain Institute. His laboratory has extensive expertise in the pathology of neuropsychiatric disorders and has established an international reputation in quantitative approaches to neuroanatomy and studies of brain evolution.
Dr. Hof earned his MD from the University of Geneva, School of Medicine in Switzerland. He came to the USA as a postgraduate fellow at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, CA. In 1989 he came to Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a Senior Research Associate and joined the Faculty there in 1990. He is also a Professor of Geriatrics and Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Hof's research is directed towards the study of selective neuronal vulnerability in dementing illnesses and aging using classical neuropathologic as well as modern quantitative morphologic methods to determine the cellular features that render the human brain uniquely vulnerable to degenerative disorders. Dr. Hof also conducts analyses of the distribution and connectivity patterns of pyramidal neuron subpopulations in the macaque monkey cerebral cortex in young and very old animals to study possible age-related changes in the neurochemical characteristics of the neurons of origin of corticocortical projections. He develops stereologic, high-resolution morphometric, and imaging tools for the quantitative study of neuroanatomical specimens and brain atlas development. Among his major contributions, Dr. Hof demonstrated that specific neurons are selectively vulnerable in dementing disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. He has made contributions to quantifying the differences between normal aging brains and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as other mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and autism. Dr. Hof is also the curator of a mammalian brain collection that includes a large series of great ape specimens, as well as an extensive sample of marine mammals. He has contributed considerably to our understanding of the structure of the cetacean brain and has identified, in select mammalian brains, specific neuronal types in parts of the cerebral cortex known to be involved in social awareness, judgment, and attention, that can be considered as markers of adaptive mechanisms and functions in response to particular ecological pressures.