Sleep – Knowing Neurons

So that’s what the claustrum does!

September 24, 2020 Joel Frohlich 2 Comments claustrum, Consciousness, Interviews, Joel's Pick, Optogenetics, Research, Sleep, sleep waves

Three years ago, I asked “What the heck is a claustrum?” In that piece, I described the mystery of this oddly shaped brain region, located just below the cerebral cortex.… Read more

Comic of a person in bed surrounded by worried faces, witches, out-of-body experiences, and ghosts. Illustrated by Rajamani Selvam.

Brain Basics Consciousness Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders Sensation and Perception Sleep

Sleep Paralysis: What Is It and What Causes It?

December 30, 2019September 1, 2020 Mira Rakicevic 2 Comments Anxiety, Cataplexy, circadian rhythm, EEG, Electromyogram, Genetics, Hallucination, hypnagogic hallucination, Hypnopompic, Insomnia, Narcolepsy, NREM sleep, parasomnia, PER2, Polysomnography, REM sleep, Sleep, Sleep Apnea, Sleep Atonia, Sleep paralysis, stress, Vestibular-motor Hallucination

Sleep paralysis is a type of REM parasomnia or abnormal behavior that takes place during the REM sleep cycle. Also known as sleep atonia, this condition refers to the feeling… Read more

Image split in half with two backgrounds, day and night, with a watch in the center. A face on the watch is half awake on the day side of the image and asleep on the night side. Illustrated by McCall Sarrett.

Collaborations Neuroscience Technologies Sleep

What I Learned from Tracking My Sleep with Fitbit for Two Months

August 28, 2019August 28, 2019 Joel Frohlich 0 Comments Blood Oxygenation, EEG, Fitbit, Non-REM Sleep, Photoplethysmography, Polysomnography, PPG, REM sleep, Sleep, Sleep Apnea

If someone had told me a year ago that he sleeps with his watch on at night, I’d probably wonder just how eccentric of a personality I was dealing with.… Read more

Brain Basics Neuro Primer Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

Neuro Primer: Sleep

March 20, 2019September 1, 2020 Joel Frohlich 1 Comment Adenosine, Alzheimer's, Alzheimer’s disease, ascending activating system, atonia, Brainstem, Caffeine, Coffee, Dreaming, dreams, general anesthesia, Hypnogram, Hypothalamus, locus coeruleus, NREM, Optic Chiasm, parasomnia, Raphe Nucleus, rapid eye movement sleep, REM, REM sleep behavior disorder, Sleep, Sleep paralysis, suprachiasmatic nucleus, synchronization, tuberomammillary nucleus

It’s easy to ask: “Why sleep?” But we can also turn the question on its head: “Why wake?” We need to be awake, among other reasons, to find and eat… Read more

Aging Brain Basics Neuro Primer Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

Neuro Primer: Aging

October 10, 2018October 8, 2018 Gabrielle Torre 0 Comments AD, Age-related cognitive decline, Aging, ALS, Alzheimer's, Alzheimer’s disease, Amyloid, amyloid plaques, Baby Boomers, beta-amyloid, Brain activation, Brain cells, Cardiovascular health, Childhood, Cognition, Cognitive performance, Cortex, dementia, Disease, Executive function, Exercise, Genetics, glutamate, Hippocampus, Longevity, Memory, Memory decline, myelin, Nervous System, Neurogenesis, Neuroimaging, Neurons, Neuroplasticity, Neuroscience, Neurotransmitters, Normal aging, Parkinson's, Parkinson's Disease, Plasticity, Quality of life, Research, Science, Sleep, Sleep habits, Ventricles, Working memory

What happens to the brain in aging? Normal aging comes with many changes in brain structure and function. As individuals approach the age of 65 years and above, they experience… Read more

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, 2018October 8, 2019 Joel Frohlich 10 Comments Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid plaques, beta-amyloid, circadian rhythm, dreams, Health, PET, Positron emission tomography, Sleep, sloth

In 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 1 Comment 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

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