Behavioral Neuro
neurotopia | July 19, 2006The difficulty with treating spinal cord injuries arises from a number of factors. Firstly there is the primary damage to the axons of the spinal cord itself, resulting in mechanical damage that can inhibit neurotransmission and transport of cellular material to and from the distal cord. The damaged cord must also compensate for secondary damage such as the generation of free radicals, a lack of oxygen to the affected area (anoxia), glial scarring, and a host of other issues.
Your typical spinal neuron looks like this.
(Image snagged from http://www.steve.gb.com). The axon is a long…
neurotopia | July 3, 2006Ever wonder how people can be impaired drivers when their blood alcohol content is under the legal limit? This group shows us why. And who can resist an experiment involving a woman in a gorilla suit?
The question the researchers wanted to answer was whether a single drink could impair one's ability to notice something completely out of place. They gave participants a drink in a bar-like setting, then watch a video clip of a basketball game. The oddity was that partway through the clip, a woman in a gorilla suit wanders out to the middle of the screen, beats her chest, and walks off.…
neurotopia | June 26, 2006Inspired by Rush Limbaugh's apparent erectile dysfunction, I decided that today's Evil Journal Club should address the "other" potential uses of PDE-5 inhibitors, the most (in)famous of which is Viagra.
Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) is an enzyme that breaks down cyclic GMP. We've known for a while that cGMP is important for signal transduction and ultimately for learning and memory processes, and that nitric oxide (NO) can stimulate production of cGMP. Interestingly, changes in this NO-cGMP signaling pathway have been implicated in aging, providing a potential link to deteriorating…
neurotopia | June 9, 2006...you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sittin' in your little room
--The White Stripes
Welcome to the second incarnation of Neurotopia! The old incarnation can be found here, although lately it has just been a collection of posts where I complain about how Blogger stinks. But no more! Now I'm here on this slick new platform! The SEED overlords pulled a mean trick on me: they set up the new blog launch mere hours before I'm supposed to hit the road and celebrate my 8th anniversary by accompanying Mrs. Evil Monkey to Fallingwater for the weekend.…