Physiology/Pharmacology
neurotopia | November 19, 2006Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) refers to a condition where recurrent seizures arise in the temporal lobe of the brain. This condition is seen in humans and animals. Often, TLE arises following a neural insult such as head trauma or tumor, but can also be triggered by infection. These febrile seizures are often seen in children under the age of five, and subsequent scans can show atrophy of temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus. The hippocampus is highly interconnected with other temporal lobe structures, so a seizure that originates from or propagates through the hippocampus is…
neurotopia | July 10, 2006I know Tara is going to kick me for this post, because as one of the resident D.I.N.K.s here at ScienceBlogs my parenting advice doesn't extend into the realm of "ethical" so much as "practical". Specifically, I've advised her on numerous occasions to just give the toddlers a "pharmacological sleep aid" of sorts. Ok, ok, so my suggested "sleep aid" usually takes the form of whiskey or Nyquil, but I'm not adverse to Benadryl either. After all, diphenhydramine is actually recommended by pediatricians to help kids sleep. Surely it is just as efficacious as my other suggestions, if a little…
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 14, 2006Pure Pedantry found this paper on leptin's effects in the hippocampus, and then went on to wonder
I have never heard of a link between leptin and memory. They also make this link between ABeta mice and leptin. ABeta is a protein whose accumulation has been linked to Alzheimer's. Mice that create to much ABeta show cognitive deficits. They show that an ABeta overproducing mouse also showed improvement when treated with leptin -- and link that result to the observation that leptin decreases ABeta. I am not sure what to make of that, but there is probably a metabolic story related to ABeta…
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.…