Sleep

Consciousness Sleep 

Our Dreams Have Many Purposes, Changing Across the Lifespan

July 5, 2018 Patrick McNamara 0 Comments Brain, Brain Disorders, Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Consciousness, Cortex, Dream, Dream state, Dreaming, dreams, EEG, Inception, Multiple personality disorder, Neuroscience, NREM sleep, REM sleep, Research, Science, Science of sleep, Sex differences, Sleep, Sleep disorders, sleep-wake cycle

lthough radically different in terms of their content and feel, the range of dream states are just as complex as waking states. If we look across an individual’s lifetime, we… Read more

Brain Basics Culture Sleep 

The Wisdom of the Sloth: Is Sleep a Lost Virtue?

June 14, 2018July 12, 2018 Joel Frohlich 0 Comments Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid plaques, beta-amyloid, circadian rhythm, dreams, Health, PET, Positron emission tomography, Sleep, sloth

n the sixth century, Pope Gregory I compiled an infamous list of seven deadly sins. Of these seven, sloth is the only sin named for an animal in English. But… Read more

Big Ideas Consciousness Philosophy 

Consciousness: The Final Frontier

February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 Joel Frohlich 2 Comments Anesthesia, Brain, Cerebellum, Cerebral Cortex, complexity, Conscious, Consciousness, Cortex, Death, Evolution, Giulio Tononi, Human, Information, Integrated Information Theory, Lesions, Life, Neurons, Neurophilosophy, philosophy, Qualia, Seizure, Sleep, Solipsism, Systems, Thomas Nagel, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulaion, Zombies

When I walk through my kitchen, I smell fresh food and feel warmth radiating off of it. These internal, subjective experiences are called qualia. I assume that my refrigerator, my… Read more

Brain Basics Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders Sleep 

The inescapable nightmare of fatal familial insomnia

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017 Sean Noah 0 Comments Brain, Cortex, Disease, Disorders, Fatal Familial Insomnia, FFI, Genetics, Insomnia, Molecular neuroscience, Neuroscience, Prions, Psychiatry, Sleep, Sleep disorders

A family curse During the early 1980’s, an Italian physician was investigating a mysterious and dreadful disease that had long plagued his family. In earlier generations, this disease had killed… Read more

Brain Basics 

How to Give Thanks Like a Neuroscientist

November 23, 2016June 30, 2017 Anita 4 Comments Amygdala, Brain, Brain stem, Cortex, Cranial nerves, Emoji, Flight or fight, Food, Fusiform, Gratitude, gravy boat, Hippocampus, melatonin, Nerve, Neuroscience, Neuroscientist, olfactory, PLoS, PLOS Blogs, PLOS Neuro, Prefrontal, Pumpkin pie, Receptor, Sleep, suprachiasmatic nucleus, Thanks, Thanksgiving, Ventral, Ventral Tegmental Area, VTA

You’re on your way to the traditional Thanksgiving family get-together. You drive down a familiar street, locate your familiar house, and park in a familiar spot.… 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 2 Comments 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

52 Brain Facts Sleep 

Myth or Fact? Your brain paralyzes your body when you sleep.

August 8, 2016June 30, 2017 knowingneurons 0 Comments 52 Brain Facts, Paralysis, REM, Sleep

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Big Ideas 

Learning from Disorder: The Paradox of Information in the Brain

July 20, 2016June 30, 2017 Joel Frohlich 3 Comments Brain, Calcium, Carol Jung, Chaos, Chinese, Claude Shannon, Entropy, Experiments, Granule, Imaging, Information, Information theory, inhibitory, Komiyama, Mice, Mitral, Neurons, Neuroscience, Odor, Olfaction, Olfactory Bulb, paradox, Research, Seizure, Sleep, Sparse coding, theory, Videos, x, YouTube, z, Zebrafish

In Dante’s Inferno, the fifth circle of Hell is a place where the wrathful fight each other for eternity.  Similarly, I often consider YouTube comments to be an extracanonical circle… Read more

52 Brain Facts Sleep 

Myth or Fact? A misfolded protein can cause you to never sleep again.

July 4, 2016June 30, 2017 knowingneurons 0 Comments 52 Brain Facts, Brain, Disease, Fatal Familial Insomnia, FFI, gene, Insomnia, Misfolded, mutation, Neurons, Prion, Protein, Sleep, Thalamus

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52 Brain Facts 

Myth or Fact? A single number can soon quantify your level of consciousness.

June 6, 2016June 30, 2017 knowingneurons 0 Comments Asleep, Awake, Brain, Conscious, Consciousness, Giulio Tononi, Integrated Information Theory, Math, Mathematical, Phi, Sleep, State

… Read more

52 Brain Facts 

Myth or Fact? We only dream when we sleep.

March 14, 2016March 13, 2016 knowingneurons 1 Comment 52 Brain Facts, Day Dream, Dreaming, hypnagogic hallucination, Narcolepsy, Sleep

… Read more