biology

William E. Skaggs

William E. Skaggs is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William E. Skaggs rather than just read about it. In short: William E. Skaggs was an American neuroscientist.

Key takeaways

William E. Skaggs belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect William E. Skaggs to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of William E. Skaggs from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William E. Skaggs was an American neuroscientist. He is noted for his work on the functioning of the hippocampus.

Education Skaggs obtained his PhD in 1995 under the direction of Bruce McNaughton at the University of Arizona.

Scholarship Skaggs was a faculty member at the University of California, Davis, where he conducted research on neurophysiology in primates, often using computational neuroscience. He was noted particularly for his elucidation of the role of theta waves in the function of the hippocampus, via their role in phase precession and firing replay. This work led to a greater understanding of memory, learning, and navigation through space. He was also a science writer who helped popularize scientific concepts for a general audience. In this role, he contributed to the Scientific American and was an editor at Wikipedia, under the name Looie496. A special issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience was dedicated to Skaggs in 2020, noting that he had died from a heart attack.

Publications Google Scholar lists more than 40 publications that, together, have been cited over 10,000 times (three of them over 1000 times each), giving Skaggs an h-index of 26. His most-cited papers are:

Skaggs, William E.; McNaughton, Bruce L.; Wilson, Matthew A.; Barnes, Carol A. (1996). "Theta phase precession in hippocampal neuronal populations and the compression of temporal sequences". Hippocampus. 6 (2): 149–172. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-1063(1996)6:2<149::AID-HIPO6>3.0.CO;2-K. PMID 8797016. S2CID 15813385. (>1800 citations) Skaggs, William E.; McNaughton, Bruce L. (29 March 1996). "Replay of neuronal firing sequences in rat hippocampus during sleep following spatial experience". Science. 271 (5257): 1870–1873. Bibcode:1996Sci...271.1870S. doi:10.1126/science.271.5257.1870. PMID 8596957. S2CID 23694471. (>1300 citations) McNaughton, B. L.; Barnes, C. A.; Gerrard, J. L.; Gothard, K.; Jung, M. W.; Knierim, J. J.; Kudrimoti, H.; Qin, Y.; Skaggs, W. E.; Suster, M.; Weaver, K. L. (1 January 1996). "Deciphering the Hippocampal Polyglot: the hippocampus as a path integration system". Journal of Experimental Biology. 199 (1): 173–185. doi:10.1242/jeb.199.1.173. PMID 8576689. (>1000 citations)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William E. Skaggs

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William E. Skaggs claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William E. Skaggs before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William E. Skaggs ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William E. Skaggs

In research: William E. Skaggs appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William E. Skaggs in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William E. Skaggs is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century births, 21st-century deaths, American neuroscientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William E. Skaggs outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study William E. Skaggs in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William E. Skaggs means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain William E. Skaggs out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William E. Skaggs in simple terms?

William E. Skaggs was an American neuroscientist.

Why does William E. Skaggs matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William E. Skaggs?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William E. Skaggs.