neurophilosophy | June 9, 2008Below is a video of a recent talk given by Carl Zimmer about the evolution of the mind, at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NYC.
neurophilosophy | June 8, 2008Logo by Ricardo at My Biotech Life
Welcome to the 33rd edition of Gene Genie, the blog carnival devoted to genes and genetic diseases.
In this edition, there is a strong emphasis on cancer. There's also a focus on leukodystrophy, and a special section on personalized genetics.
Spotlight on Leukodystrophy
The term leukodystrophy refers to a group of diseases characterized by progressive degeneration of the white matter in the brain. The conditions are normally inherited, and are associated with mutations in the genes encoding components of the myelin sheath.
Leukodystrophy came under the…
neurophilosophy | June 7, 2008This necklace comes from the Anatomica Collection by Paraphernalia, which features vintage illustrations and woodcuts printed on acrylic.
I can think of two ladies who would adore these anatomical accessories. They'd probably know which illustrations were used to make them, too.
(Via Dark Roasted Blend)
neurophilosophy | June 7, 2008Here's another great quote about the brain, from Ian McEwan's novel Saturday:
He's looking down at a portion of [the] brain...with its low hills and enfolded valleys of the sulci, each with a name and imputed function...Just to the left of the midline, running laterally away out of sight under the bone, is the motor strip. So easy to damage, with such terrible, lifelong consequences. How much time he has spent making routes to avoid these areas, like bad neighbourhoods in an American city...For all the recent advances, it's still not known how this well-protected one kilogram or so of cells…
neurophilosophy | June 6, 2008
Photo by Einat Adar
Our feathered friends provide us with some beautiful examples of the link between brain and behaviour. In some bird species, groups of cells involved in seasonal behaviours die after they have performed their function, but are regenerated by neurogenesis as and when they are needed.
Male songbirds, for example, serenade females; the brain nuclei which produce the vocalizations die when the mating season ends, and regenerate as the next one approaches. Similarly, the Clarke's nutcracker stores tens of thousands of pine seeds in many different caches spread across a…
neurophilosophy | June 5, 2008I've just registered at Research Blogging.org, the initiative by Dave Munger to aggregate academic blog posts about peer- reviewed research. I started using the Research Blogging icon some time ago (and resumed using it on yesterday's post), but have only just gotten round to registering with the site, as I've been busy for past few months with exams. Now that they're over, I've got more time for serious blogging.
As of now, every post on this blog displaying the icon will appear on the front page of Research Blogging, and in the Biology category. The Research Blogging site is very useful for…
neurophilosophy | June 5, 2008Some old, some new:
The Reflection of Light
Psychedelic Research
Brain Stimulant
Brain Mind & Society
NeuroScene
Neurodisorder
Neurotonics
The Neuroprotective Lifestyle
Giovanna Di Sauro
The Cortical Column
Neurology Minutiae
neurophilosophy | June 5, 2008Researchers report today that human stem cells can rescue mice from an otherwise fatal neurological condition caused by the brain's inability to conduct nervous impulses. The findings, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, raise the possibility of cell transplantation treatments for a number of neurological diseases in which the ability of nerve cells to communicate with each other has been compromised.
The new study, led by Steven Goldman, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center, used glial progenitor cells (GPCs) obtained from the brains of…
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008Imagine listening to a piece of music, and perceiving a rattle of pots and pans instead of the harmony of the combined component sounds; or developing an insatiable desire to play the piano after being struck by lightning; or to be able to reproduce a complex piece of music after hearing only once, despite being blind, autistic and needing round-the-clock care.
People with these conditions are among those encountered by Alan Yentob, in a documentary called Oliver Sacks: Tales of Music and the Brain, which was broadcast on BBC1 last night. As its title suggests, the programme features…
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008MIT Tech Review reports that a San Diego-based pharmaceuticals company BrainCells Inc. is carrying out a phase II clinical trial to test the efficacy of a neurogenesis-stimulating compound as a treatment for depression.
It has been known, for about 20 years, that the brains of mammals (including humans) contain stem cells which are capable of dividing to generate new neurons. This process, called neurogenesis, occurs throughout adulthood in several discrete areas of the brain (the hippocampus and olfactory bulb), but the exact function of the newly-generated cells remains unclear.
Reduced…
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008Today sees the launch of UCL's iTunes platform, which can be used to download, among other things, lectures and seminars. There's not much material on there yet, but the university promises that highlights of UCL on iTunes U will include:
first-hand expert accounts of the history of neuroscience, produced by the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
a weekly audio round-ups of news from UCL [and]
UCL's hugely popular Lunch Hour Lectures, providing the public with a behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge research
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008This month's issue of IEEE Spectrum Online magazine contains an excellent special report on the singularity, the hypothetical point in time at which technology will be sufficiently advanced so as to enable the human race to transcend their biology and take their evolution into their own hands.
Some transhumanists envision a future characterized by cyborg-like beings and thinking machines with superhuman artificial intelligence, and await the singularity as eagerly as end-timers wait for the Second Coming. Some go as far as to say that we will one day be able to cheat death by uploading our…
neurophilosophy | June 2, 2008Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the headquarters of the Stasi (the East German secret police) were found to contain a large room in which many thousands of "smell jars" were stored.
Each jar contained an odour sample from a suspect, collected either during interrogation, by means of a perforated iron smell sample chair, or by breaking into the suspects' homes and stealing their dirty underwear.
The smell samples were collected so that released suspects could be found for further interrogation at a later date. Stasi agents would then retrieve the suspect's sample, and give it…
neurophilosophy | June 2, 2008
This email from the owner of the website explains:
Gliocast is a set of software tools for visualizing fiber tracts. The emphasis is on the 3D display technologies. Gliocast includes a rudimentary model for tumor growth, but more physically realistic models can be substituted for it.
Fiber tract imagery provided by the Banks Laboratory at the University of Tennessee.
Brain dataset courtesy of Gordon Kindlmann at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah, and Andrew Alexander, W. M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of…
neurophilosophy | June 1, 2008According to the Daily Telegraph, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Commission, a former Rear Admiral called Chris Parry, believes that "children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years."
The article continues that Parry told the Times Educational Supplement: "It's a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge."
Actually, it is highly unlikely that this will ever be a possibile. Downloading information to the brain, or, conversely, uploading information…
neurophilosophy | June 1, 2008
From Lithographische Abbildungen nebst Beschreibung der vorzuglicheren alteren und neueren chirurgischen Werkzeuge und Verbande, nach dem Handbuche der Chirurgie von Chelius geordnet, und am Schlube mit einer systematischen Zusammenstellung sammlicher abgebildeter Geratschaften versehen, by Franz Andreas Ott, 1829, Munich (via BibliOdyssey).
The book contains a total of 48 plates, and is just one of about 100 digitized monographs available at the Edoc database at Humboldt University in Berlin. Among the instruments in the plate above there appear to be several trepans; earlier today, at…
neurophilosophy | June 1, 2008In the first installment of The ScienceBlogs Book Club, which was launched today, Carl Zimmer discusses his new book, Microcosm, with John Dennehy, Jessica Snyder Sachs and PZ Myers.
The discussion of the book will take place in the comments section of the book club blog, and will continue until June 14th. If it proves to be popular, it may become a regular thing.
I've got a copy of the book, and might read it after I've finished Trick or Treatment, by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst, so that I can join the discussion. If you've read it, or plan to do so in the next two weeks, why not get…
neurophilosophy | May 30, 2008SciCurious has written an interesting post about Sigmund Freud's experiments with cocaine.
Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was also a pioneer of psychopharmacology; as well as being one of the first to scientifically investigate the properties and effects of cocaine, he also played a key role in the growth of the pharmaceuticals industry.
In 1884, Freud read a paper which described the effects of cocaine on Bavarian soldiers. The author, a German physician named Theodor Aschenbrandt, reported that the drug suppressed the appetite and increased mental powers and endurance.
Intrigued,…
neurophilosophy | May 30, 2008Encephalon 46 is now online at The Neurocritic's blog, and contains lots of fantastic neuroscience blogging, including posts on Senator Ted Kennedy's brain tumour, phantom supernumery limbs, and anti-drug vaccines.
The previous edition, at PodBlack Blog, also contains plenty of good reading material; I didn't link to it at the time as I was still busy with my exam revision.
neurophilosophy | May 29, 2008Neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh report that they have successfully trained monkeys to feed themselves using a robotic arm controlled by a brain-computer interface (BCI). The study has been covered extensively in the media, and I've written quite a lot about these devices in the past, so, rather than elaborate on it here, I'll refer you to my previous posts, and to this post by Ed at Not Exactly Rocket Science.
However, I suggest that the new study is somewhat overhyped in some of the news stories that I've read. According to The Independent, for example, it is "a major…