neurophilosophy
Posts by this author
November 3, 2008
Yesterday's episode of the CBS programme 60 Minutes featured this report called Brain Power, about the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) by a number of patients who have been paralysed by various conditions. (The 12-minute report is preceded by a commercial.)
Generally speaking, BCIs record…
November 3, 2008
Learning and memory are widely thought to involve long-term potentiation (LTP), a form of synaptic plasticity in which a neuron's response to the chemical signals it receives is enhanced. This leads to a strengthening of the neuronal circuit, so that the memory encoded in the circuit can persist…
October 31, 2008
Netsuke are miniature Japanese sculptures which are most often carved from ivory or wood, and sometimes from other materials. They were first made in the early 17th century, and used to fasten a small box (the inro) containing medicines and personal belongings to the sash (or obi) worn around…
October 28, 2008
The pioneering experiments performed by Hubel and Weisel in the late 1950s and early 60s taught us much about the development of the visual system. We now know, for example, that neurons in the visual cortex are organized into alternating ocular dominance columns which receive inputs from either…
October 27, 2008
The term phonagnosia refers to an inablity to recognize familiar voices or to discriminate between unfamiliar ones. This is a rare condition that is usually associated with brain damage: the ability to recognize familiar voices is impaired by damage to several regions of the right parietal lobe,…
October 25, 2008
Artist Madeline von Foerster provides some insight into her extraordinary self portrait (above), in a comment posted on my article about trepanation:
During a previous period of depression in my life, I often experienced a severe sensation of pressure in my cranium. It sometimes felt so…
October 24, 2008
Erasing memories has long been a popular plot device for Hollywood scriptwriters. In the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for example, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet play a separated couple who undergo a radical treatment in order to abolish every trace of the relationship from their…
October 22, 2008
The fourth dimension - time - is essential for many cognitive processes, and for rhythmic movements such as walking. Recent research has begun to elucidate how neuronal activity encodes events that occur on the timescale of tens to hundredths of milliseconds (hundredths of a second) and contain…
October 20, 2008
When confronted with threatening stimuli and predators, the crayfish responds with an innate escape machanism called the startle reflex. Also known as tailflipping, this stereotyped behaviour involves rapid flexions of the abdominal muscles which produce powerful swimming strokes that thrust the…
October 16, 2008
Researchers from the University of Washington have demonstrated that paralysed monkeys can move using a simple neuroprosthesis consisting of an external electrical circuit which connects individual neurons in the motor cortex to muscles in the arm.
Similar prostheses have been used to move…
October 14, 2008
When David Savage was 19 years old, his right hand was crushed in a metal-stamping machine and subsequently amputated at the wrist by doctors. Afterwards, Savage was fitted with a mechanical cable-hook prosthesis, which he wore until December, 2006, when he became the third American recipient of a…
October 13, 2008
Japanese researchers have developed a design concept for a light microscope which could in principle be used for imaging of nanoscale objects. The device would rely on a novel subwavelength imaging technique which allows for the visualization of objects that are smaller than the wavelength of the…
October 12, 2008
The BBC has film footage of the legendary Bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock playing the banjo whilst having his brain operated on.
Adcock is suffering from essential tremor, a progressive neurological condition characterised by tremors in the arms which appear during voluntary movements and which are…
October 10, 2008
This reconstruction, produced by researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany using a technique called digital scanned laser light sheet fluorescence microscopy, shows the movements of all 16,000 cells in an 18-hour-old zebrafish embryo.
To make the film, the…
October 8, 2008
In his 1941 book Man on His Nature, the Nobel Prize-winning physiologist Sir Charles Sherrington described the brain as "an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern." Little could he have known that within 50 years neuroscientists would have at their disposal…
October 7, 2008
The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which include variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans, "Mad Cow" Disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep, are progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the accumulation within nerve cells of an abnormally folded and…
October 1, 2008
Cataract 3, Bridget Riley, 1967.
In the 1960s, the British artist Bridget Riley began to develop a distinctive style characterised by simple and repetitive geometric patterns which create vivid illusions of movement and sometimes colour and often have a disorientating effect usually described…
October 1, 2008
These X-rays show a knife plunged into the skull of a 16-year-old boy from southeast London. Fortunately, his injuries were nowhere near as serious as they might have been - according to a police officer quoted in The Times, "the blade was a kitchen knife and because of that it was flexible and…
September 29, 2008
Learning to play a musical instrument is known to involve both structural and functional changes in the brain. Studies published in recent years have established, for example, that professional keyboard players have increased gray matter volume in motor, auditory and visual parts of the brain, and…
September 29, 2008
This scanning electron micrograph of diatoms attached to an invertebrate host won first place in the photography category of the 2008 Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.
Other winners and honorable mentions can be seen in this slideshow.
September 26, 2008
Around 15 years ago, researchers discovered that the adult rodent brain contains discrete populations of stem cells which continue to divide and produce new neurons throughout life. This discovery was an important one, as it overturned a persistent dogma in neuroscience which held that the adult…
September 25, 2008
Radiation therapy is a common treatment for adults and children who present with tumours in or close to the brain. In the last 20 years, advances in radiotherapy have significantly improved the prognosis for brain cancer patients. However, the resulting longer survival rates reveal that the therapy…
September 25, 2008
A short piece in the MIT Technology Review describes a new retinal implant designed to remain in place for long periods of time:
In retinal diseases such as acute macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, the light-sensing cells of the retina may no longer work, even though the neurons that…
September 24, 2008
The September issue of Scientific American contains an excellent and lengthy article about a state-of-the-art technique called optogenetics, by molecular physiologist Gero Miesenböck, who has been instrumental in its development.
As its name suggests, optogenetics is a combination of optics and…
September 23, 2008
We continually rely on our abilities of spatial navigation, be it for the daily commute to work, a trip to the local supermarket, or simply to make our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. These tasks involve complex cognitive processes, yet most people perform them effortlessly and some…
September 22, 2008
The current issue of The Economist contains a short article about how weblogs are beginning to change the way science is being communicate:
Earlier this month Seed Media Group...launched the latest version of Research Blogging, a website which acts as a hub for scientists to discuss peer-reviewed…
September 17, 2008
The new issue of Seed contains a short piece by me called Beauty and the Brain, about the emerging field of neuroaesthetics, which seeks to investigate the neural correlates of the appreciation of beauty in art.
Neuroaesthetics was pioneered by Semir Zeki, who has been criticized as making…
September 15, 2008
Welcome to the 54th edition of Encephalon, the neuroscience and psychology blog carnival. This edition has everything from the perception of colour and shapes to behavioural economics, the neuroscience of sports and squabbling psychologists.
First up is the editor's choice: an in-depth review of…
September 14, 2008
I took this photograph yesterday at a park in central London. My knowledge of botany is scant, so I have no idea what species it is.
September 14, 2008
The Seed Media Group is offering a big prize to celebrate the millionth comment on the ScienceBlogs network. One lucky reader, selected at random from those who comment over the next few days, will win a four day trip to New York City, which includes four nights in a 4-star hotel and dinner with…