Did You Know? Archives - Page 2 of 4

Stimulating Neural Circuits with Magnetism

January 4, 2017June 30, 2017 Joel Frohlich 1 Comment Brain, Broca, Cortex, DBS, Deep Brain Stimulation, depression, Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex, ECT, EEG, electroconvulsive therapy, Motor, Parkinson's, Parkinson's Disease, Prefrontal, Prefrontal Cortex, rDCS, Seizure, TMS, transcranial direct current stimulation, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Brain stimulation might sound like some Frankensteinian demonstration from a Victorian science fair. But in reality, it is a contemporary technique making a huge impact in neuroscience by addressing a… Read more

Did You Know? Popular Articles

Our Year in Review

December 21, 2016June 30, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 0 Comments 2016, Neuroscience, Research, SciArt, SciComm

Knowing Neurons had an amazing year, and we are so thankful for all your support throughout our journey! Here are some highlights from 2016!… Read more

Did You Know? Weird Animal Brain

Weird Animal Brain: Manta Ray

November 21, 2016June 30, 2017 Kayleen Schreiber 1 Comment Artery, Blood, Brain, Cortex, Dive, Elasmobrach, Infographic, Manta Ray, Marine Biology, Neuroscience, Ocean, Retia mirabilia, Swim, Vein, Warm

Last month, on the big island of Hawaii, I swam with giant, beautiful aliens. Or at least that’s what it felt like. I went night snorkeling with manta rays and… Read more

Did You Know? Sensation and Perception Weird Animal Brain

Weird animal brain: Sharks

October 31, 2016June 30, 2017 Kayleen Schreiber 0 Comments Brain, Electricity, Fact, Head, Infographic, Knowing Neurons, Lorenzini, Neuroscience, Organ, Perception, Receptor, Research, Science, Sense, Shark

Everyone knows sharks are fierce predators. How exactly they hunt so well is in part due to their extra sixth sense: electroreception!… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro News

The Mighty and the Weak: How Science Explains Cuteness

October 26, 2016June 30, 2017 Joel Frohlich 0 Comments 2016, Circuit, Cute, Cuteness, Dopamine, fMRI, Kringelbach, MRI, Nucleus accumbens, PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Reward, Reward pathway

Cute things are usually vulnerable, fragile and weak. But cuteness itself is mighty indeed. Morten L. Kringelbach and his colleagues at the University of Oxford recently described cuteness as ‘one… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro News Sensation and Perception

How a mother’s voice shapes her baby’s developing brain

October 12, 2016June 30, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 1 Comment auditory, Brain, Fingerprint, Mother, Pattern, Reward, Soothe, Speech, Study, Voice

It is no surprise that a child prefers its mother’s voice to those of strangers. Beginning in the womb, a fetus’s developing auditory pathways sense the sounds and vibrations of… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know? Sleep Weird Animal Brain

Weird animal brain: Bottlenose dolphin

October 10, 2016June 30, 2017 Kayleen Schreiber 0 Comments Awake, Brain, Calf, Dolphin, Drown, EEG, Fact, Knowing Neurons, Mother, Neuroscience, Porpoise, Science, Sleep, Swim, WAKE, Whale

Marine mammals, such as dolphins, whales, and porpoises, spend their entire lives at sea. Like us, they need to breathe, avoid danger, and care for their young. Like us, they… Read more

Did You Know? Sensation and Perception

This is Your Brain on Starbucks

October 6, 2016June 30, 2017 Joel Frohlich 1 Comment Adenosine, Adenosine triphosphate, ATP, Caffeine, Coffee, Espresso, Mescaline, neurotransmitter, Psychoactive, Sleep, Starbucks, Stimulate, Tea

My father often jokes that hundreds of years from now, future anthropologists will speak of the cult of the Seattle goddess, her shrine adorning every airport, shopping mall, and train… Read more

Did You Know? Sensation and Perception

When the blind can see again: A critical question of perception

September 28, 2016June 30, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 0 Comments Acuity, Blind, Cat, Cataracts, Color, Critical Period, Deprivation, Development, Hubel, Illusion, Kitten, Light, Monocular, Oversegementation, Perception, Perceptual, Project Prakash, See, Sight, synaptic plasticity, Touch, Vision, Visual, Visual cortex, Wiesel

Our sense of sight is arguably our most important sense. Imagine how different your life would be if soon after birth, you lost the ability to see. For over 1.4… Read more

Did You Know? Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

Copy Number Variants: A Window into Psychiatric Illness

September 21, 2016March 18, 2018 Rachel Jonas 0 Comments ADHD, Autism, Bipolar, Brain, CNV, Copy number variant, Deletion, DNA, gene, Genetics, Genome, LCR, Low copy repeat, Map, mutation, Population, Psychiatric, Schizophrenia, Syndrome

The human genome consists of nearly 25,000 protein-coding genes – and a mutation in just one of these can have dramatic effects on our brains. Remarkably, one tiny change in… Read more

Did You Know? Movement Weird Animal Brain

Weird animal brain: Jewel wasp

September 19, 2016June 30, 2017 Kayleen Schreiber 3 Comments Brain, Bug, Cockroach, Disease, Fact, Infographic, Insect, Knowing Neurons, Neurons, Neuroscience, Pain, Science, Wasp, Weird Animal Brain

The jewel wasp’s venom is potent on two levels. … Read more

Feature image of a brain with a circle pulsating from the center, to symbolically describe synesthesia.

Did You Know? Sensation and Perception

What is Synesthesia?

September 13, 2016June 5, 2019 Kayleen Schreiber 1 Comment Audition, auditory, Brain, Color, Colors, Dendrite, Hear, Hearing, Mix, Mixed, Music, Perception, See, Sense, Senses, Sight, Synesthesia, Vision

Have you ever wondered if you experience the world like everyone else? We assume that our senses tell us what’s going on in the world, but they’re far from perfect.… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro News

Neuron See, Neuron Do: The Mirror Neuron System and Clinical Implications

August 31, 2016March 18, 2018 Jenn Tribble 1 Comment 2016, ASD, Autism, Autism as a neural systems disorder: A theory of frontal-posterior underconnectivity, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Brain, Broken Mirror Theory, Connection, EEG, Electroencephalogram, fMRI, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Iacoboni, Just, Mirror, Mirror me: Imitative responses in adults with autism, Mirror Neuron, MRI, Mu, Mu rhythm, Munchau, Neuroimaging, Neurosci, Neuroscience, Rhythm, Schunke, Science, The mirror neuron system and the consequences of its dysfunction, theory, Underconnectivity, Varma

If you grew up with siblings, it is likely that you have heard the phrase, ”Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” However, it wasn’t until a groundbreaking finding in… Read more

Did You Know? Neuroscience Technologies Sensation and Perception

Hacking your Brain with Smart Drugs

May 25, 2016June 30, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 3 Comments Adderall, ADHD, Aid, Alert, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, Caffeine, Chocolate, cognitive enhancer, cosmetic neurology, dextroamphetamine, Dopamine, FDA, Focus, Green tea, Herb, Limitless, Methlphenidate, modafinil, neuroprotective, Nootropic, Nootropics, Norepinephrine, placebo, Provigil, Psychostimulant, Ritalin, Smart Drugs, Stacks, stimulant, Study, supplements

What if you could take a pill to enhance your cognitive abilities? What if this pill could help you ace a test, get more work done efficiently, and truly multitask? … Read more

Did You Know?

Teleportation! Hippocampal Oscillations during Navigation

May 11, 2016March 5, 2017 Jillian L. Shaw 0 Comments EEG, Hippocampus, Memory, Navigation, Neural Oscillations, Oscillation, Teleportation, Theta, Video game, Virtual

Who hasn’t wanted to snap their fingers and dive into the pages of the gorgeous places featured in National Geographic? Caught in a miserable physics exam that you haven’t studied… Read more

Did You Know? Learning and Memory Neuro News

Is too much sugar a form of brain abuse?

May 4, 2016March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 1 Comment Adrenal, Amygdala, Brain, cortisol, depression, Disorder, Early Life Adversity, ELA, Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, gene, Gland, glucocorticoid, glucose, Hippocampus, Iacoboni, Limbic, Maniam, Memory, Neurod1, Neurogenesis, Neuroplasticity, Plasticity, Psychotic, PTSD, Rats, Receptor, Spatial Navigation, stress, Sugar

We all know too much sugar is bad for us. But did you know that having unfettered access to sugar might produce brain changes similar to highly stressful situations, such… Read more

Did You Know?

What is Peer Review?

March 23, 2016March 23, 2016 Kate Fehlhaber 1 Comment Editing, Frontiers for Young Minds, Infographic, Peer Review, Process, Publication, Publish, Publishing, Science, Write

~ This infographic was made in collaboration with Frontiers for Young Minds. Check out the infographic we made for them here. ~ Written by Jillian Shaw. Graphics by Jooyeun Lee.… Read more

Big Ideas Did You Know?

Gliders, Blinkers, and Pulsars: Complexity and the Game of Life

March 16, 2016March 5, 2017 Joel Frohlich 1 Comment A New Kind of Science, cellular automata, Game of Life, Graph Theory, John Conway, Microtubules, Model, Quantum computer, Roger Penrose, Self-organized criticality, SOC, Stephan Wolfram, Stuart Hammeroff, The Emperor's New Mind

Previously on Knowing Neurons, we considered self-organized criticality (SOC) and network science (AKA graph theory) as two possible sources of complex behavior in the brain and other physiological systems. As… Read more

Did You Know? Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders Popular Articles

Why Dopamine Makes People More Impulsive

March 10, 2016June 6, 2020 knowingneurons 2 Comments D2 receptors, Dopamine, fMRI, L-dopa, Parkinson's Disease, PD, Temporal discounting, Ventral Tegmental Area, VTA

Over the past few decades, the neurochemical dopamine has earned the reputation of being the brain’s reward molecule. This image is built on observations that when animals and humans experience… Read more

Big Ideas Brain Basics Did You Know? Neuroscience Technologies Philosophy Popular Articles

How Do We Know? The Value of Scientific Models.

February 24, 2016July 10, 2017 Joel Frohlich 1 Comment Action Potential, DNA, EEG, Hodgkin and Huxley, inverse-source localization, Math, Mathematical, mathematics, Model, modeling, NASA, planet, planet ix, theoretical, theory, Theory of mind, Truth, watson and crick

Last month, astronomers announced the prediction of a new giant planet in our solar system dubbed Planet IX, a genuine ninth planet with ten times the mass of Earth. The… Read more

Did You Know? Popular Articles Sensation and Perception

Digging Out the “Earworms:” Involuntary Musical Imagery Correlates with Cortical Structure

February 11, 2016March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 4 Comments ACC, Anterior cingulate cortex, Auditory cortex, Cingulate, Consciousness and Cognition, Cortical thickness, Default mode network, DMN, Farrugia, frontal cortex, Fronto-temporal network, GM, Gray matter, Heschl's gyrus, HG, Hippocampus, Imagery, Imagine, IMIS, INMI, Involuntary, involuntary musical imagery, Involuntary Musical Imagery Scale, Kelly Jakubowski, Lauren Stewart, Music, OFC, Orbitofrontal cortex, Parahippocampal cortex, Posterior Cingulate Cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Rhodri Cusack, Teodora Stoica, Tunes stuck in your brain, Voxel-based morphometry

You don’t know you know this song, but you definitely know this song: “Hey Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you…” Did the end of the lyric materialize in… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know? Popular Articles Sensation and Perception Videos

This is Your Brain on Music

February 10, 2016March 5, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 7 Comments Amygdala, Anatomy, Auditory cortex, Brain, Cerebellum, Distracting, Dopamine, Emotion, Genius, Health, Hippocampus, Learning, Mozart, Music, Neuroanatomy, Neuroscience, Neurotranmistt, Nucleus accumbens, Prefrontal Cortex

Big Ideas Brain Basics Did You Know? Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders Popular Articles

The Fugue of Life: Why Complexity Matters in Physiology and Neuroscience

February 3, 2016March 5, 2017 Joel Frohlich 5 Comments Autism, Criticality, Distribution, EEG, Epilepsy, Math, Modularity, Power law, Scale, Schizophrenia, Seizure, Self-organized criticality, Simplicity, SOC

People like simplicity. Each decade, corporate logos grow progressively minimalistic, pop songs use ever simpler melodies, and visual art embraces simpler compositions, as Monet gives way to Picasso and Picasso… Read more

Did You Know? Sensation and Perception

A Tale of Monogamy and Dopamine

January 21, 2016March 5, 2017 Jenn Tribble 1 Comment Ashley Madison, Coolidge effect, Dopamine, Dynamic Changes in Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Efflux During the Coolidge Effect in Male Rats, Fiorino, Jennifer Tribble, Journal of Neuroscience, Mate, Mating, Mesolimbic, Monogamy, Motivation, Novely, Nucleus accumbens, Pathway, Pleasure, Prefrontal Cortex, Reward, Ventral Tegmental Area

In a recent hack, private information from nearly 30 million users was leaked from Ashley Madison, a “dating” website intended to facilitate extramarital affairs. The sheer number of Ashley Madison… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro News

Our Year in Neuroscience

December 30, 2015March 5, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 2 Comments 2015, Articles, Brain, Neuroscience, Popular, Posts, Review, Top, Year

2015 was a great year for neuroscience and an incredible year for Knowing Neurons. With the launch of our 52 Brain Facts, Brain Books, YouTube channel, and Instagram account, we… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro SciFi Neuroscience Technologies

The Neuroscience of Star Wars

December 16, 2015October 29, 2017 knowingneurons 4 Comments Alpha, Arm, BCI, Bespin, Brain, Brain-computer interface, Carbonite, Cryonics, Cybernetics, DARPA, EEG, Electroencephalogram, Force, Freeze, Future, Habituation, Han Solo, Harrison Ford, Jedi, Les Baugh, Limb, Liquid Nitrogen, Lord Vader, Luke, Luke Arm, Master, Meditation, Movement, Neuroscience, Prosthesis, Prosthetic device, Qui-Gon Jinn, Robotics, Science Fiction, Sith, Sith Lord, Star Wars, The Force Awakens, Vader, waves

For the first time in over a decade, a new Star Wars film is upon us, and if you’re like the staff of Knowing Neurons, your nucleus accumbens is firing… Read more

Artificial Intelligence Did You Know? Learning and Memory

The Doors of Perception

December 9, 2015July 10, 2017 Joel Frohlich 3 Comments Associative memory, Fusiform face area, Hebb, Hebbian learning, Hopfield network, Inkblot, Magnetoencephalogram, MEG, MRI, pareidolia, Perception, Positive feedback, Rorschach

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.” – William Blake The friendly headlamps and grill of a car. A sly… Read more

Did You Know? Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders Sleep

Melatonin: An Old Hormone with New Tricks

December 2, 2015March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 1 Comment Autoimmune, Circadian, Clock, Disease, EAE, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, Inflammation, interleukin, melatonin, MS, multiple sclerosis, Neuroinflammation, Pineal gland, Rhythm, Season, T cell

Melatonin: you’ve undoubtedly seen it in the supplement aisle at the drugstore…that natural sleep remedy your aunt recommended once, sounding vaguely like a portmanteau of mellow and serotonin. But between… Read more

Brain Development Did You Know? Videos

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Discusses the Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain

November 20, 2015March 5, 2017 Jillian L. Shaw 0 Comments Adolescent, Age, Aging, Brain, Cognitive, Development, Mature, Neuroscience, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Social Brain, TED, Teen

What brain regions are employed when we interact with other people? Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains the “social brain” in her TED talk and sheds light on the complex networks… Read more

Did You Know? Neuroscience Technologies

Mapping Brain Connectivity Using Graph Theory

October 21, 2015March 5, 2017 Joel Frohlich 0 Comments Brain, Brain mapping, Consciousness, Default mode network, DMN, fMRI, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Functional MRI, Graph, Graph Theory, Hubs, Leonhard Euler, Map, Neocortex, Network, Node, Phrenology, Place Cell, Prefrontal Cortex

Have you ever wondered why the same brain regions are often implicated again and again in many tasks and behaviors? For instance, the prefrontal cortex is implicated in so many… Read more

Did You Know? Learning and Memory

Forever Young: The Story of Patient H.M.

October 14, 2015March 5, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 0 Comments Amygdala, Entorhinal cortex, Episodic memory, H.M., Hippocampus, HM, Learning, Medial temporal lobe, Memory, Motor learning, Patient H.M., Procedural memory

“Do you know what you did yesterday?” asks the doctor. “No, I don’t,” responds the patient.… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro News Science Policy

Science Advocacy on Capitol Hill: Bridging the Legislative Gap to Medical Research Funding

September 25, 2015March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 0 Comments Budget, Capitol, DC, Funding, Money, National Institutes of Health, NIH, Research, Science Advocacy, Science Policy, Washington

Last Thursday, September 17th I had the privilege of joining over 300 organizations including patients, physicians and fellow researchers in the Rally for Medical Research on Capitol Hill. Now in… Read more

Consciousness Did You Know? Sleep

Screensavers of the Brain: The Science of Dreaming

September 2, 2015July 10, 2017 Joel Frohlich 0 Comments Awake, Cycle, Dream, EEG, Hypnogram, K-complex, PGO, ponto-geniculo-occipital, Rapid eye movement, REM, Sleep, Spindle, waves

Each night, you place your head on your pillow, close your eyes, and, barring insomnia, you lose consciousness of the world around you, drifting into blissful oblivion. Eventually, you reawaken,… Read more

Did You Know? Sleep

Messing with the ‘Flip-Flop’ Switch: Why Getting Sick Makes You Sleepy

August 26, 2015March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 0 Comments Brainstem, Cytokines, Flip-flop, Grossberg, Histamine, Hypothalamus, Imeri, Narcolepsy, Neurotensin, Nishino, Orexin, Raphe Nucleus, Saper, serotonin, Sick, Sickness, Sleep, Switch

We all know how it feels to be sick. The fatigue, increased sleep, and general malaise that accompany a cold are the primary reasons people stay bedridden when ill. Even… Read more

Artificial Intelligence Did You Know? Neuroscience Technologies

The Turing Test: Is that Human or Machine?

August 19, 2015July 10, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 1 Comment 2015, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Computing machinery and intelligence, Eugene Goostman, Geman, Human, Imitation Game, Intelligence, Machine, PNAS, Turing Test, Visual Turing Test

I propose to consider the following question, ‘Can machines think?’ Thus begins Alan Turing’s paper “Computing machinery and intelligence.” It’s 1950 England, and the world’s first computer is being used… Read more

Did You Know? Neuro News Neuroscience Technologies

The emotional mechanics of the robot-human interaction

August 12, 2015March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 2 Comments Amygdala, Emotion, Insula, mentalizing network, MRI, MTN, Nao, person perception network, PPN, Robot, Robot-human interaction, Uncanny valley

First impressions are pivotal. While reading another person’s cues, an abridged version of them forms as we draw on complex social inferences in merely seconds of interaction. That is, if… Read more

Big Ideas Brain Basics Did You Know? Popular Articles

Scale Invariance: A Cautionary Tale Against Reductionism

July 29, 2015September 24, 2017 Joel Frohlich 6 Comments 80-20, Avalanche, Average, Blue Brain Project, Distribution, Fractal, Math, Mathematical, Model, Normal distribution, Power law, Reductionism, Scale Invariance, Self-organized criticality, SOC

How long is the coast of Britain? It doesn’t matter how good your geography is — the answer depends on the size of your measuring stick. The coast of Britain… Read more

Did You Know? Learning and Memory

Blondes or Brunettes: It’s All About Conditioning

May 13, 2015March 5, 2017 Jenn Tribble 0 Comments Brom, c-Fos, Classical Conditioning, Hypothalamus, Kippin, learning and dopamine in sexual behavior, Limbic system, Pavlov, Pheromone, Sexual preference, The nature of the conditioned response mediating olfactory conditioned ejaculatory preference in the male rat, The role of conditioning

Like it or not, we all have preferences in choosing romantic partners. Piercings, freckles, hair color, eye color, body physique – through adolescence and into adulthood, we begin to develop… Read more

Did You Know? Neuroscience Technologies

CRISPR-Cas9: Targeted Genome Editing

March 18, 2015March 5, 2017 Jooyeun Lee 0 Comments Animal model, Cas9, CRISPR, Disease, Disorder, DNA, Double-stranded break, Editing, Enzyme, gene, genetic, Genome, Infographic, Knock-in, Knock-out, KO, Mutagenesis, mutation, PAM, Replacement, Scissors, Targeted, Technique, Therapeutic

~ Infographic by Jooyeun Lee and Kate Fehlhaber. ~ References: Hsu P. & Feng Zhang (2014). Development and Applications of CRISPR-Cas9 for Genome Engineering, Cell, 157 (6) 1262-1278. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.010… Read more

Big Ideas Brain Basics Consciousness Did You Know? Philosophy

Ghost in the Machine: The Neuroscience of Consciousness

March 4, 2015July 10, 2017 Joel Frohlich 1 Comment A measure for brain complexity: relating functional segregation and integration in the nervous system, A universe of consciousness: how matter becomes imagination, An information integration theory of consciousness, Brain, Cerebellum, Consciousness, Cortex, Edelman, EEG, Giulio Tononi, Idea, IIT, Integrated Information Theory, Neuroscience, Phi, Seizure, Thought, Tononi

Some questions cannot be addressed by science. Like parallel universes, the consciousness of others is not something that can be directly observed, measured, or experienced. Rene Descartes famously said, “I… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know? Neuroscience Technologies

Surfing Brainwaves with EEG: A Classic Tool for Recording Temporal Brain Dynamics

January 28, 2015March 5, 2017 Joel Frohlich 2 Comments Alpha rhythm, Biomarker, Brain activity, Brainwaves, EEG, Electroencephalogram, fMRI, Functional MRI, gamma rhythm, Imaging, MRI, Time

Pictures are powerful tools for illustrating quantitative data and capturing public interest. Each year, NASA releases many beautiful images of Martian dunes and distant nebulae which help win public funding. … Read more

Brain Basics Brain Development Did You Know? SfN 2014

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Neural Stem Cells

November 18, 2014March 5, 2017 Anita 0 Comments Fiona Doetsch, Neural Progenitor Cells, Neural Stem Cells, Neuroepithelial Cells, Neurogenesis, Pluripotency, Potency, Presidential Lecture, Radial Glial Cells, Self-Renewal, SfN14, SfN2014, Society for Neuroscience, Stem Cell Niche, subgranular zone, Totipotency, Ventral-Subventricular zone

Stem cells have two characteristic and essential properties: Self-renewal. They can divide to give rise to another stem cell. Potency. They are capable of differentiating into specialized cells.… Read more

Did You Know? Interviews Sensation and Perception SfN 2014

Science with a Touch of Art: A Conversation with David Ginty

November 10, 2014March 5, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 0 Comments @KnowingNeurons, Art, Brainstem, Creativity, Grad School, Intuition, Mechanosensory, Neurons, Organization, Postdoc, Sense, Sensory, SfN14, Spinal cord, Touch

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/176184172″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] If you think about it, the surface of the human body, the skin, is actually one huge sheet of tactile receptors. The dozens… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know? Popular Articles SfN 2014

Inhibitory Neurons: Keeping the Brain’s Traffic in Check

November 5, 2014March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 2 Comments 5HT3aR, Basket cells, Epilepsy, Feedforward inhibition, GABAergic neurons, Inhibitory Interneurons, Interneurons, Martinotti cells, Parvalbumin, Reelin, SfN, SfN14, Somatostatin, Vasoactive intestinal peptide

Imagine that you’re driving down a road undeterred, no red lights or stop signs to slow you down. While that may seem like a very exciting idea, it is obviously… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know? Popular Articles SfN 2014

Hubel and Wiesel & the Neural Basis of Visual Perception

October 29, 2014March 5, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 1 Comment 1981, Activity, Columns, David Hubel, Electrophysiology, Neurons, Neuroscience, Nobel Prize, Recording, SfN14, Topographical map, Torsten Wiesel, Vision, Visual, Visual cortex

Snap! Crackle! Pop! Those are the sounds that Professors David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel heard in the early 1950s when they recorded from neurons in the visual cortex of a… Read more

Did You Know? Interviews Sensation and Perception SfN 2014

Understanding the Visual System: A Conversation with Botond Roska

October 27, 2014March 5, 2017 Kate Fehlhaber 0 Comments Blind, Botond Roska, Circuits, Computational, Cortex, David Hubel, Neural, Neuroscience, Retina, See, Sense, SfN14, Sight, Thalamus, Vision, Visual

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/174013562″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] When we see the world, there is a huge amount of processing that occurs in the neural circuits of the retina, thalamus, and… Read more

Did You Know? Interviews SfN 2014

From Stevens to Synapses: A Conversation with Kelsey Martin

October 22, 2014March 5, 2017 Jillian L. Shaw 0 Comments and Synapses, Conversation, DNA, Eric Kandel, gene, Interview, Kelsey C. Martin, Kelsey Martin, Learning, M.D./Ph.D., Memory, Neurons, Peace Corps., Plasticity, SfN14, Synapse, Synapses, The Living Record of Memory: Genes, UCLA

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/173263228″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Take your wildest guess. How many neurons make up the human brain? You’re not guessing wild enough if you said anything less than… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know? Neuro News SfN 2014

Getting Technical: Methods in Neuroscience

October 15, 2014March 5, 2017 Anita 0 Comments Biology, Brain, BRAIN Initiative, Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, Electrophysiology, fMRI, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Genetics, Molecular, Neuroscience, Optogenetics, PET, Positron emission tomography, SfN, SfN14, Single-cell recording, Spatial, Technology, Temporal, TMS, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulaion

It is an exciting time for neuroscience. The BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) is in the spotlight as a part of the new Presidential focus and recently… Read more

Brain Basics Did You Know?

Walking the Line: The Complexity of Punishment Decisions

October 1, 2014March 5, 2017 knowingneurons 1 Comment Amygdala, Decision-making, Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex, Medial Prefrontal Cortex, Posterior Cingulate Cortex, Punishment

One night, Mark withdraws $200 cash from an ATM. He is on his way to meet his family, and intends to treat everyone to a special dinner at his favorite… Read more

Did You Know? Movement Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

(Transneuronal) Attack of the Mutant Huntingtin!

September 17, 2014March 5, 2017 Jillian L. Shaw 0 Comments 2014, Autosomal dominant, Botulinum neurotoxin, CAG, Chorea, Disorder, DNA, gene, Genetics, HD, HTT, Huntingtin, Huntington’s disease, mHTT, Movement, Nature Neuroscience, Trinucleotide repeat disorder

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an incredibly debilitating neurodegenerative disorder. Currently, there is no treatment that effectively reverses the progression of the disease or delays its onset. Huntington’s is a particularly… Read more