neurophilosophy
Posts by this author
March 12, 2008
Thanks to Natasha Dantzig for drawing my attention to this talk from last month's TED Conference in Monterey, California:
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened - as she felt…
March 11, 2008
UCSD-TV, the local television station broadcast by the University of California at San Diego, has a series called Grey Matters, which is devoted to neuroscience.
To date, fifteen full-length presentations have been produced for the series, all of which are availabe online in RealPlayer at the UCSD…
March 10, 2008
From one angle, they look like miscellaneous wall markings. From another, they look like this...
[Via Crooked Brains]
March 10, 2008
In today's issue of The New Yorker, John Lancaster reviews a new book called Perfumes: The Guide, by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.
Olfaction (the sense of smell) is, as Lancaster notes, "a profound mystery". Why is it, for example, that two aromatic molecules with almost identical structures can…
March 9, 2008
My fellow M.Sc. student Maria informs me that Brain Awareness Week is about to begin:
[This annual event]...is an international effort organized by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives to advance public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. The Dana Alliance is joined in…
March 8, 2008
Sea cucumbers are marine invertebrates which live on the sea floor and feed on debris that drift down. When threatened, they can harden their skin within seconds, so that they are less likely to be devoured by the approaching predator.
This behaviour is made possible by the structure of the sea…
March 7, 2008
Here's the first 10 minutes of the recent episode of Horizon about sensory deprivation, which I discussed about 6 weeks ago. The entire program has been uploaded to YouTube: here are parts 2, 3, 4 and 5.
March 3, 2008
[Introduction|Part 2|Part 3]
The study by McKemy et al is of great significance, as it led to the identification and characterization of the first cold receptor. This study also suggests that TRP channels have a general role in thermosensation, as all the previously identified TRP channels are…
March 3, 2008
Here are a number of new neuroscience blogs that I've come across recently:
Neuropathology Blog - by Brian E. Moore, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at Southern Illinois University's School of Medicine. This is a welcome addition to the blogosphere, as neuropathology is a…
March 3, 2008
The 40th edition of Encephalon, which is now up at Mind Hacks, includes some excellent entries from the usual suspects. The next edition will be at Pure Pedantry on March 17th. If you'd like to contribute, email permalinks to your neuroscience or psychology blog posts to encephalon{dot}host{at}…
March 1, 2008
(Image: Kymmy Lorrain/BrainCells, Inc.)
The two winners of GE Healthcare's 2007 IN Cell Image Competition will be going on display on the NBC screen in New York City's Times Square at 7pm on Friday, March 7th and Saturday, March 8th.
This confocal image, which won the vote of the…
March 1, 2008
Gazzaniga is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California in Santa Barbara, and director of the Law and Neuroscience Project.
In the 66-minute interview, he discusses, among other things, the use and misuse of neuroimaging data in the courtroom, the ethics of cognitive…
February 29, 2008
[Introduction|Part 2]
Takashima et al (2007) carried out one of the first investigations of the distribution of TRPM8-positive sensory nerve terminals in various peripheral structures, using transgenic mice which express enhanced green fluorescent protein under the control of the TRPM8…
February 28, 2008
One shouldn't really need an excuse to embed this fantastic performance by Thelonious Monk, but now there is one: NIDCD researchers believe that they have identified the cognitive neural substrate of jazz improvisation.
For the study, which is published in the open access journal PLoS One, Charles…
February 27, 2008
[Introduction]
McKemy et al (2002) used whole-cell patch clamping and calcium imaging to record the responses of cultured rat trigeminal ganglion neurons to cold temperatures and various cooling compounds. They found that the cells respond to menthol and cold with an increase in intracellular…
February 26, 2008
A few days ago, I briefly discussed the article by Oliver Sacks about geometric hallucinations in migraine aura. I thought that it was published in the print edition of the New York Times, but it turns out that this is in fact Sacks's first post on a new NY Times blog called Migraine: Perspectives…
February 26, 2008
Below is the introduction to my third and final piece of coursework, an essay entitled Multiple roles for Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 8 (TRPM8) in cold thermosensation. This time, I discuss three recent studies which have contributed significantly to the understanding of the mechanisms…
February 25, 2008
If you're in London, you might be interested in this event, which has been organised by the Royal Institution in collaboration with Nature Network:
Blogging science
Dr Ben Goldacre, Dr Jennifer Rohn, Ed Yong
Thursday 28 February 2008
7.00pm-8.30pm
What is it like to work in a lab? What's the latest…
February 25, 2008
The Lobotomist, a PBS documentary about Walter Freeman which I mentioned recently, is now available online as a series of short clips that require either QuickTime or Windows Media Player for viewing.
The program charts how the lobotomy came to be regarded as a cure for most types of mental…
February 23, 2008
(Cartoon by Greg Williams, from Wikipedia)
The term hyperthymestic syndrome was proposed by James L. McGaugh, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Irvine, and his colleagues, following their case study of the woman known as A.J. (The study was published in the journal Neurocase…
February 22, 2008
In an article called Patterns, published in the NY Times earlier this month, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks discusses the geometric visual hallucinations which occur during the migraine auras that he has experienced since early childhood.
Sacks explains that the hallucinations occur as a…
February 21, 2008
In an article from last Saturday's Guardian, Rick Hemsley describes his experience of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, the neurological condition in which the perception of one's body is distorted:
Floors either curved or dipped, and when I tried walking on them, it felt as though I was staggering on…
February 19, 2008
I've just set up a Flickr photoblog, and am in the process of uploading my photographs. I have also installed a Flickr widget in the sidebar on the left; this displays 5 random photos. If you're into photography, please do take a look at my pics. I haven't uploaded many, but feel free to comment…
February 19, 2008
Here's some fascinating footage from 1942, showing Drs. James Watts and Walter Freeman performing a prefrontal leucotomy. The footage accompanies a short article called Lobotomy Revisited, and, like last week's trepanation film clip, is not for the squeamish.)
The procedure shown in the film is the…
February 19, 2008
As I mentioned recently, Alvaro has taken over as organiser of Encephalon, and he's just posted the latest edition of the carnival, which has two dozen entries on a wide of variety of neuroscience topics. I especially like this one about the hidden neuroanatomical images in Renaissance paintings (…
February 16, 2008
The great filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock had a profound insight into the workings of the human mind. "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it," he once said, and the shower scene from Psycho, demonstrates this perfectly.
This scene is one of the most shocking ever…
February 13, 2008
The 3-minute film clip below is definitely not for the squeamish. It comes from a documentary called A Hole in the Head, made in 1998, and shows a Kisi medicine man performing the "operation of the skulls".
February 13, 2008
Alvaro has kindly agreed to take over as organizer of Encephalon, the neuroscience carnival which I started back in August 2006. He has set up a new homepage for the carnival, and will be hosting the next edition this coming Monday at SharpBrains. If you'd like to contribute, send permalinks to…
February 12, 2008
I'm very pleased to announce that Bioephemera has just moved to ScienceBlogs. This fantastic blog is a curiosity box of wonderful things, such as this nineteenth century wax anatomical model by Clemente Susini, of a man's head and neck, which shows the brain's superficial blood vessels and the…
February 10, 2008
Every so often, I get an email from someone who is seeking advice on some medical issue. For example, I received this short message a few days ago:
I just came across your report on Risperdal, and was wondering what your take is on a 3 year old taking Seroquel? How about a dosage of 900 mg per day…