Brain Cupcakes

Coolness

How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams and God.

http://accidentalmind.org/

According to Googlebooks 


"The Accidental Mind shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover, Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and, ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations."


I cannot wait to read this book and everything else by David Linden.He's my second favourite neuroscientist. LOL! 
(Context http://sciencelol.blogspot.com/2011/05/dreric-kandel.html)

Stoned reindeer?!

"Intoxication with psychoactive drugs is not an exclusively human proclivity. Animals in the wild will also voluntarily and repeatedly consume psychoactive plants and fungi",according to "The Compass of Pleasure" David Linden's book that explores how our brains make fatty foods, orgasm, exercise, marijuana, generosity, vodka, learning, and gambling feel so good.


AN ABSOLUTE PLEASURE TO READ!

http://compassofpleasure.org/bob-dylan-and-siberian.html

Vitamin D and cognitive decline in the elderly.

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/170/13/1135

Cognitive decline is a really horrible subject to think about, but looking at this study gives hope that simple solutions are out there for those who are suffering from non-neurodegenerative disease linked cognitive decline.

A 6-year study done at University of Exeter has shown that people over 55 with low vitamin D levels are 60% more likely to suffer from substantial cognitive decline than those with adequate levels of the nutrients.

Naughty neuroscience #2/NeuroscienceLOLcano

Advertisement for Fiat.An Italian car company.

Those Italians,they've got it on the brain.

BOOM BOOM! ScienceLOL

Hmmmm what will I do when I get my degree in Neuroscience?

I know!Use Neuroscience for EVIL.And by evil I mean marketing.And by marketing,I mean marketing.

http://www.neurosense.co.uk/index.html

According to their blurb:


"Accurate insight into consumer responses to products, advertisements and mainstream marketing materials depends on precise knowledge about how these strategies impact on memory, learning, emotion and decision-making. These processes are largely inaccessible through introspection, so traditional methods that require consumers to explain how they might feel or think in the future, are limited in predictive power. At Neurosense, we specialise in using modern scientific research technologies that go straight to the powerhouse of thought and emotion - the human brain."


As seen on BBC3, Tuesdays 9pm: 17th, 24th, 31st May 2011. Alex Riley explores the world of the Superbrands.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011cr8h/Secrets_of_the_Superbrands_Technology/ 
(Only available in the UK.Boo)

Researches grow brain in dish.Researchers also write misleading title.

From science.slashdot.com and article about neural networks and hippocampal cultures.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/05/26/1421256/Researchers-Grow-a-Brain-In-a-Dish

Yay!Finally something that I've actually done in a lab!


Here is the source article http://www.news.pitt.edu/news/Zeringue-memory-cell-networks

So here's what they're doing:
-Put adhesive type proteins on culture plate
-Culture pure hippocampal cultures onto said plate (I can do that.Bam.)
-Allow neural networks to form
-Electrically stimulate networks. (I can measure that.Double Bam)
RESULT: the neural netwoks were able to sustain the burst of stimulation and resulting network activity for 12 seconds compared to 0.25 seconds in an In vivo model. This demonstrates the neural networks ability to hold information "online" long after stimulation......i.e. form memory....basically.

Misleading bit number 1-It's not a brain,its a MODEL of a brain.But that doesn't matter-its the most interesting Neuroscience article I've read in a while.
Plus the images are perfect.
I'd also like to know if they used FLIPR or impedance or a type of HCS (high contents screening) or MEAs (Multi Electrode Arrays)  to do the voltage measurents.....I will investigate further!

What does Cell culture mean? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_culture

Here we go again,more brain myths debunked.Jeez,go read a text book.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Top-Ten-Myths-About-the-Brain.html
An article from smithsonianmag.com clarifying (allegedly) some commonly held myths about brains.

In summary: brains are important and complex. Yawn.

Dr.Eric Kandel.

Dr.Eric Kandel.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons.
Also,the cutest man in Neuroscience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Kandel

Sweet Dreams nerds......zzzzzz

The smart pyjamas they call them.
A boring article,but I really wanted to type the words "Smart pyjamas"

NeursocienceLOL!

Read it and weep.Or sleep. (see what I did there?!)

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37606/?p1=A3

Note to self: Astrocytes are really important.

Astrocytes are the multi purpose handy-men of the brain and spinal cord: they help compose the Blood Brain Barrier,the are involved in nutrient provision to tissues of the nervous system and in the scarring of brain and spinal cord following traumatic injury. 


But astrocytes have also been implicated in several brain disorders.

So why the hoopla at the University of Wisconsin when it was shown that several billion of these guys can be produced from just one single stem cell.

Well it enables complex diseases to be more easily modeled I suppose.

Have a read of this article from science.slashdot.org (and the abstract from Nature) and decide your self.

http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/05/23/0322248/Human-Astrocytes-Developed-From-Stem-Cells
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nbt.1877.html

What are Astrocytes?Here's your answer- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrocyte

This stuff is crazy yo!

This is a film from the 'Brains on Film' contest at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. It describes some of the work carried out on vocal expertise with a beatboxer, and includes audio clips of his performance plus data from MRI scans.


 It is also pretty cool.

For a closer look at more of this kind of work check out  the Speech and Communication Laboratory at UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.


.https://sites.google.com/site/speechskscott/

Brain Sculpture in sand

Dr Zarinah Agnew's entry for the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience "brains on film" competition, 2011.

Oh!You naughty Neuroscientist!

In a dissection room filled with the sweet fumes of formaldehyde I very nearly made what would have been a very embarrassing blunder.

I very nearly asked why the mammillary bodies were called the mammillary bodies (How embarrassing). My near escape happened after a formidable lecturer knowingly asked rhetorically "And we all know why the mammillary bodies are call so,don't we?" Smug laughs and chortles from my class mates followed.I remained baffled,but luckily, silent.

Then I googled.

Then I blushed.

Then I breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank god I didn't ask.

Oh us Neuroscientists are naughty ones! ;)

Check out this article from Slate.com explaining where some of the more cheeky names for neuroanatomical structures came from.

http://www.slate.com/id/2294833/pagenum/all/

Above are the mammillary bodies of a sheep's brain,demonstrating their..em...shape.

Ears:They are sooooo in right now

Brainwave controlled cat ears for humans.

Different EEG frequencies dictate a relaxed or concentrating state,making the ears point upwards or flop down.The EEG frequencies are not a direct correlate of mental state/emotion however......all I know is that I want a pair.And I want them now.

Who said that Neural Engineering was boring?! (Not me,I secretly love it)

(Watch the video,it's brilliant!)


http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/5/neurowear-cat-ears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w06zvM2x_lw&feature=youtu.be

http://neurowear.net/

Hey smarty pants-lay off the booze.

Vikings thought that drinking water made you weak and unfit for battle,so they drank lots of beer instead!It makes sense when you think about it-it's sterile water-well,kind of.Water stagnates relatively quickly compared to beer.Simples.

That's the evolutionary reason (sort of) but psychologically,whats the dealio?

Why do intelligent people drink more than those who are less intelligent?

This article might give you the answer.


http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201010/why-intelligent-people-drink-more-alcohol