Category Archives: Neuroscience

I don’t mean to NAAG you, but….

Posted on August 15, 2006 by | Comments Off on I don’t mean to NAAG you, but….

Jenna has been nagged by NAAG recently, to the point of obsession. It is also one of the molecules I included in the Synapse puzzle.
So, if you want to learn a little bit of nitty-gritty detailed neurochemistry of this exciting (as of recently) neuromodulator (and possibly neurotransmitter), you should check her two-part post reviewing what is known about it: Part I and Part II.

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Posted in Neuroscience

Mokie-Koke

Posted on August 2, 2006 by | 4 comments

When I saw this article in SEED Maagazine, I had only one thought – Mokie-Koke!
Readers of science fiction know what I am talking about. I was reminded of “The Merchant’s War“, the 1984 sequel to the 1952 brilliant dystopia “The Space Merchants“, the book that beat “1984” and “Brave New World” in its accuracy of prediction. The initial novel – one of the all-time-greats of the genre, was written by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth. The sequel, 32 years later, was written by Pohl alone.
It’s been at least 15 years since I last read The Merchants’ War, but if I remember correctly, each megacorporation (one of the very few ruling the world of the future) manufactures its own brands of a coke-like drink, a candy bar and cigarettes. These three products are designed to be addictive in themselves, but also, to induce cravings for each other. So, drinking Mokie-Koke makes you want to light up a cigarette (made by the same company), which in turn makes you want the candy bar, eating which makes you crave a Moki-Koke. Thus, workers/citizens of the future world are forever loyal to the Corporation-State.
The SEED article highlights some recent science showing that such connections between different commercial products are a reality – although not by corporate design. Alcohol and nicotine are in cahoots with each other – when you have a drink, you are more likely to want to smoke (and it feels better) and vice versa. I have certainly noticed this in myself and others. However, I have also noticed (since I am not a big alcohol consumer, but a big caffeine consumer), that Coke and cigarettes tend to induce cravings for each other (as does coffee – this is anecdotal, but a well known anecdote). Chocolate (any brand) makes me want to drink Coke which makes me want to light one up.
This should not be that surprising, as the brain tends to deal with all of its addictions in pretty much the same place using pretty much the same neurochemicals. So, being addicted to gambling, pornography or Internet will also make you drink and smoke? Perhaps….

4 Comments

Posted in Books, Food, Medicine, Neuroscience, Physiology

Neuroblogging of the week

Posted on July 31, 2006 by | Comments Off on Neuroblogging of the week

Encephalon #3 is up on Thinking Meat Blog.

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Posted in Carnivals, Neuroscience

The Perils of Polls

Posted on July 21, 2006 by | 4 comments

Survey questions themselves may affect behavior:

Simply asking college students who are inclined to take drugs about their illegal-drug use in a survey may increase the behavior, according to a study that’s making researchers understandably nervous.
“We ask people questions, and that does change behavior,” study co-author Gavan Fitzsimons, a marketing professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, said Thursday. The provocative effect, he added, can be “much greater than most of us would like to believe.”

Read the rest, it is quite interesting. My first thought – can frequent polling during the election year, using, of course, conservative frames, influence the outcome of the election?

4 Comments

Posted in Cognition, Neuroscience, Politics, Psychology, Science News, Science Practice, Society

Encephalon 1.2

Posted on July 17, 2006 by | Comments Off on Encephalon 1.2

The second edition of Encephalon, the neuroscience carnival, is up on Pure Pedantry.

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Posted in Carnivals, Neuroscience

Sex On The Brain (of the science reporters)

Posted on July 12, 2006 by | 2 comments

Sex On The Brain (of the science reporters)

Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

This post was a response to a decent (though not too exciting) study and the horrible media reporting on it. As the blogosphere focused on the press releases, I decided to look at the paper itself and see what it really says. It was first posted on August 09, 2005. Under the fold…

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2 Comments

Posted in Cognition, Neuroscience, Psychology, Science Reporting, Sex, Society

The Synapse, Vol.1, n.2

Posted on July 8, 2006 by | 8 comments

synapseborder.jpgWelcome to the second edition of The Synapse, the new neuroscience carnival.
This time, you have a puzzle to solve. Next to each entry, there is an image depicting the structural formula of a neurotransmitter, neurohormone or neuromodulator. Your job is to figure out what they are and leave the answers in the comments (or in your own posts that link to this edition). If I have managed to figure out MovableType by now, you should be able to click on images to enlarge.
Watch out – not everything is mammalian, or even vertebrate neurochemistry! The winner – whoever is the first to correctly identify all ten compounds – will be highlighted first and with an extra post, when I host Encephalon, the other neurocarnival, later this Fall on November 6th. Some answers are easy but some are hard, so this exam is open book. Bonus points for extra precision, e.g., getting the exact variant if there are multiple possibilities.
So, let’s begin:

TITLE1. Scientifically Minded looks at the potential perils of the new form of polygraph and why people are led to think it may be better than the old kind, in fMRI lie detection back in the news.

TITLE2. Neurophilosophy has two entries: one about Ethics at the dawn of the neurotechnological age and the other about Kuru: Study of Fore peoples predicts an epidemic of vCJD.

TITLE3. PZ Myers of Pharyngula dissects the amazing Octopus brains.

TITLE4. Robots that see and hear are nothing new, but researchers are now developing machines that can distinguish and identify odors. Joe Kissell of Interesting Thing of the Day has more in Robots that Smell: Interesting Thing of the Day

TITLE5. Jenna is an undergrad physiology student with a wonderful blog Cyberspace Rendezvous. In Achromatopsia, she looks at injury-caused loss of color perception.

TITLE6. David Ng of World’s Fair sent American Pitch: More on music and science, a piece on pitch perception (the neurology part) as it relates to American Idol (not so neurological).

TITLE7. Vaughan of Mind Hacks comments in the Brain re-growth after 19 years unconscious.

TITLE8. Jake Young of Pure Pedantry has two very different posts this week: about the Homunculus – The Lies You Learn in College: Motor Cortex Edition and about emotions – Do mice have empathy?

TITLE9. The Neurocritic serendipitously wrote Are You Conscious of Your Precuneus? just days before the big news hit. So, it was easy to follow up with The Precuneus and Recovery From a Minimally Conscious State.

TITLE10. Evil Monkey of Neurotopia spans neuroscience from perception – Nobody Expects the Spanish… err, a Chick in an Ape Suit to medical molecular biology – SIRT1 Pathways and the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Pathology

11. And finally, from me, circadian stuff, of course, this time in hamster brains: Tau Mutation in Context.

Next edition of The Synapse will occur two weeks from now and the host will be Neurophilosophy.

I will post correct quiz answers right here once someone gets them all correct or in 48 hours, whichever comes first.

8 Comments

Posted in Carnivals, Neuroscience

The Synapse – last call for submissions

Posted on July 7, 2006 by | Comments Off on The Synapse – last call for submissions

The second installment of The Synapse, the neuroscience carnival, will be held right here this coming Sunday, on July 9th. Please send your submissions to me by Saturday night at 8pm EDT at: Coturnix1 AT aol DOT com.

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Posted in Carnivals, Neuroscience

Neuroscience carnivals

Posted on July 1, 2006 by | Comments Off on Neuroscience carnivals

Yes, there are two neurocarnivals. They occur on alternate weeks.
So, if you have written something this past week, send your entry to the Encephalon which will be posted on Neurophilosopher’s blog on 3rd July, 2006.
Posts you write afterwards, during next week (or, if you really, really, really hate Neurophilosopher and really, really, really, love me), send to me for the inclusion in the next edition of the Synapse, to be held right here on July 9th, 2006.
Both carnivals are listed on Blogcarnival.com so you can use their automated submission forms.

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Posted in Carnivals, Neuroscience

Daily Rhythms in Cnidaria

Posted on June 27, 2006 by | 1 comment
Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

The origin and early evolution of circadian clocks are far from clear. It is now widely believed that the clocks in cyanobacteria and the clocks in Eukarya evolved independently from each other. It is also possible that some Archaea possess clock – at least they have clock genes, thought to have arived there by lateral transfer from cyanobacteria.[continued under the fold]

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1 Comment

Posted in Chronobiology, Clock Zoo, Evolution, Invertebrates, Neuroscience, Physiology

The Synapse

Posted on June 25, 2006 by | Comments Off on The Synapse

The Synapse, new carnival of neuroscience – from molecules to cognition and everything in-between – is the first carnival that originated here on SEED scienceblogs.com. Today, the first edition saw the light of day, so you should go over to Pure Pedantry to check it out. The homepage of the carnival, with archives, instructions for submission, etc., can be found here.
In two weeks, on July 9th, 2006, the carnival will be held here, on A Blog Around The Clock. Please send your entries to me by July 8th at midnight (Eastern Time). You can send your entries to: the DOT synapse DOT carnival AT gmail, or straight to me at: Coturnix1 AT aol DOT com, or you can use the automatic submission form over on Blogcarnival.com.

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Posted in Carnivals, Cognition, Neuroscience, Psychology

Spiders and Bycicles

Posted on June 23, 2006 by | 2 comments

From The Archives
Since everyone is posting about spiders this week, I though I’d republish a sweet old post of mine, which ran on April 19, 2006 under the title “Happy Bicycle Day!” I hope you like this little post as much as I enjoyed writing it:

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Basic Biology, Fun, History of Science, Neuroscience, North Carolina, Personal

Knowledge Is A Drug

Posted on June 23, 2006 by | 1 comment

Is this what makes us scientists function on a daily basis? Are we just junkies for comprehension?

Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix.

Hat-tip: Shakespeare’s Sister

1 Comment

Posted in Neuroscience

Translated!

Posted on June 21, 2006 by | 1 comment

My post about sleep has been translated by Davide ‘Folletto’ Casali into Italian, and posted on his blog. You can see the translated post here. If you can read Italian (and even you do not – just for fun, and to reward his hard work), go and look around his blog.

1 Comment

Posted in Blogging, Chronobiology, Neuroscience, Physiology, Sleep, Time

Melatonin in Human Milk

Posted on June 19, 2006 by | 3 comments
Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

Melatonin is secreted in human mother’s milk with a daily rhythm – high at night, undetectable during the day (see the figure under the fold):

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3 Comments

Posted in Chronobiology, Clock News, Medicine, Neuroscience, Physiology, Reproductive Health, Rhythmic Human

BIO101 – Lecture 6 – Physiology: Regulation and Control

Posted on June 16, 2006 by | 4 comments

It is impossible to cover all organ systems in detail over the course of just two lectures. Thus, we will stick only to the basics. Still, I want to emphasize how much organ systems work together, in concert, to maintain the homeostasis (and rheostasis) of the body. I’d also like to emphasize how fuzzy are the boundaries between organ systems – many organs are, both anatomically and functionally, simultaneously parts of two or more organ systems. So, I will use an example you are familiar with from our study of animal behavior – stress response – to illustrate the unity of the well-coordinated response of all organ systems when faced with a challenge. We will use our old zebra-and-lion example as a roadmap in our exploration of (human, and generally mammalian) physiology:

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Basic Biology, Neuroscience, Physiology, Science Education

Brain Region Linked To Fly Slumber

Posted on June 13, 2006 by | 5 comments

When a news release states that a brain region is crucial for something, one is led to believe that this is the MAIN center controlling that function. If it is crucial for thermoregulation than it is the center for thermoregulation and without it the animal does not thermoregulate. Or am I misunderstanding English (it is a second language for me, after all)?
So, when the article starts with: “Researchers at Northwestern University have pinpointed a brain area in flies that is crucial to sleep, raising interesting speculation over the purpose of sleep and its possible link with learning and memory,” I expect to see total sleep loss when the brain region is deleted. But, “How the mushroom bodies control sleep is uncertain, but Allada and colleagues show that if the area is destroyed chemically, flies sleep less,” suggesting that a sleep center (if such exists at all – it may be a distributed brain function even in insects) is elsewhere.
Both the Allada study and the Seghal study are excellent and the information is really exciting, but why does a news release have to go beyond, far beyond…

5 Comments

Posted in Chronobiology, Mis-clock-ceptions, Neuroscience, Sleep

SAD is a different kind of depression

Posted on June 12, 2006 by | Comments Off on SAD is a different kind of depression

So, Wellbutrin is now officially a drug for treating Seasonal Affective Disorder. And chocolate is so unofficially. But, those may only take the edge off of the symptoms – they cannot affect the underlying causes.

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Posted in Chronobiology, Mis-clock-ceptions, Neuroscience, Rhythmic Human, Sleep

New Neuroscience Carnival – The Synapse

Posted on June 11, 2006 by | 1 comment

The Synapse is a new neuroscience carnival. The first edition will appear on Pure Pedantry on June 25th, and the second two weeks later here on A Blog Around The Clock.
Anything involving the brain, nervous system, behavior and cognition is fair game for this carnival, from brand new research to historical studies, from pure basic science to applications in medicine or robotics. Please send the links for the first edition, including your name, your blog’s name and a short blurb about the post, to Jake at: jamesjyoung AT gmail DOT com.
Then, once your post appears in an edition of the carnival, you are eligible to become a host, so tell Jake on the above address and he’ll put you on the schedule. He is going to make a post that will serve as Homepage/Archives. All we need now is a really nifty logo, so if you have Photoshop talents, send your ideas to Jake as well.
BTW, it appears there is also a move to start a genetics carnival, which, should it become reality, should promptly lose the word “carnival” from its title. RPM (personal communication) has a great suggestion – “Mendel’s Garden”
Update: The genetics carnival has officially changed its name to Mendel’s Garden. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm on June 15. Use the Blog Carnival submission form.

1 Comment

Posted in Carnivals, Neuroscience