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