The Synapse, Vol.1, n.2

Welcome 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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

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

4. 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

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

6. 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).

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

8. 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?

9. 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.

10. 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.