August 7, 2008
Category: Medicine & Health • Neuroscience • Technology
The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs, or roadside bombs) has led to an increase in the numbers of troops sustaining traumatic brain injury during military service in Afghanistan and Iraq. Such injuries are caused by the high pressure shock waves generated by the explosions, which cause rapid head movements, such that the brain is sheared and torn as it comes into contact with the inside of the skull.
Whereas conventional traumatic brain injuries caused by penetrative head wounds are easily diagnosed, those who sustain this kind of closed head injury often exhibit no external wounds. As a result, this type of TBI is often difficult to detect, and so may go undiagnosed for long periods of time. The incidence of TBI among U.S. troops is believed to be much higher than official figures would suggest, and it is now estimated that up to 15% of troops returning from the theater of war have been affected by it.
Although the brain damage caused by the shockwaves from IEDs cannot be picked up by conventional magnetic resonance imaging, recent research shows that it can be identified using a relatively new neuroimaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging. However, even in those troops suspected of sustaining a closed head injury, it may be some time before a brain scan can be performed.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have now developed a device which may be used to aid in the diagnosis of TBI. Developed by Shu Yang and her colleagues, the device was presented at the 26th Annual National Neurotrama Symposium in Orlando, Florida, last month. It consists of a sticker containing 6 micrometre-thick layers of a crystalline material which can be worn by troops on their uniforms or helmets.
The photonic crystals in the sticker have a specific three-dimensional structure which refracts light to produce colour of a given wavelength. Shockwaves from the blasts generated by IEDs alter the structure of the crystals, causing a visible change in their colour. Because blasts of different intensities produce different changes in the structure of the crystals, the stickers can reveal the force of a blast.
Such a device therefore help doctors to make a decision about whether or not treatment for a brain injury might be required. However, the exact relationship between colour change and blast intensity has yet to be determined, so the sticker still cannot be used to quantify the extent of brain damage sustained in a blast. It may therefore take years for such a device to be put into practical use on the battlefield.
Posted by Mo at 5:00 PM • 0 Comments
August 6, 2008
Category: Blogging • Events
The Science Blogging Conference will be held at the Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS, on August 30th, 2008.
According to the organizers, the event has now reached its attendance capacity, but if you'd like to be placed on the waiting list, send an email to network[at]nature.com, with the subject line 'Science blogging conference', stating your job title, affiliation and a link to your blog if you have one.
Here's the conference programme, and below is a list of registered attendees, along with links to their Nature Network profiles and blogs/websites.
Read on »
Posted by Mo at 6:55 AM • 0 Comments
Category: Blogging • Links
A few neuroscience blogs I've come across recently, most of them new:
Posted by Mo at 5:33 AM • 2 Comments
August 5, 2008
Category: Neuroscience
Synaesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory pathway evokes sensations in another sensory modality. This may occur because of abnormal connections between the brain's sensory systems, or because the flow of information between those systems is not inhibited as usual.
First described in the 1880s by Francis Galton, synaesthesia is known to exist in several different forms. Galton described "persons who almost invariably think of numerals in visual imagery". This form, now known as grapheme-colour synaesthesia, was experienced by the physicist Richard Feynman, who often said that he could see equations in colour.
The artist Wassily Kandinsky, on the other hand, is believed to have been a tone-colour synaesthete. He perceived musical notes not only as sounds, but also as specific colour hues, and tried to create the "visual equivalents of symphonies" in his paintings.
Now, researchers from the California Institute of Technology have now identified yet another form of synaesthesia. In the journal Current Biology, they report on 4 individuals in whom moving visual stimuli evoke sounds. They have named this condition "hearing-motion synaesthesia".
Read on »
Posted by Mo at 1:37 PM • 3 Comments
Category: Carnivals • Neuroscience
The 51st edition of Encephalon is online now at The Mouse Trap. This time, host Sandeep has interspersed the entries with haikus about the mind and brain.
Posted by Mo at 8:24 AM • 0 Comments
August 4, 2008
Category: Medicine & Health
Last month, I travelled to Bristol to meet 37-year-old Heather Perry, one of a very small number of people to have voluntarily undergone trepanation for non-medical reasons. As we ate a pub lunch, I asked Heather about her experience. Below is a transcript of our conversation.
Read on »
Posted by Mo at 4:05 AM • 16 Comments
Category: Blogging
You've probably noticed the yellow banner ads at the top of the page. They're advertising a reader survey being conducted by ScienceBlogs at the moment. The survey is open to everyone and if you fill it out - it'll take about 10 minutes - you'll be in with a chance of winning a 40Gb iPod, iPhone and MacBook Air.
ScienceBlogs has also added the 72nd blog to its network. Built on Facts is a physics blog written by Matt Springer, a graduate student at Texas A&M University.
Posted by Mo at 3:45 AM • 0 Comments
August 2, 2008
Category: Neuroscience
A team of researchers from Harvard and Columbia University Medical Center have reprogrammed skin cells from an 82-year-old woman suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to generate first stem cells and then motor neurons. This is a significant advance which could aid in the development of drug treatments and cell replacement therapies for the condition and related neurodegenerative disorders.
The study, due to be published in the journal Science, demonstrates that skin cells from a chronically diseased elderly patient can be induced to de-differentiate into stem cells and then re-differentiate into motor neurons, which is an important technical achievement. More importantly though, because the technique used resulted in cell lines that are genetically identical to the patient, it will provide researchers with a better model with which they can investigate how the condition develops.
Read on »
Posted by Mo at 3:50 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Music
Here's Isaac Hayes performing his extremely funky rendition of Burt Bacharach's The Look of Love.
Read on »
Posted by Mo at 3:22 PM • 0 Comments
