- December 10, 2008
- 03:08 PM
- 1,154 views
Conduction aphasia and delayed auditory feedback
by Greg Hickok in Talking Brains
Here's an interesting nugget of information: conduction aphasics appear to be less susceptible to the disruptive effect of delayed auditory feedback. Why is this interesting? Because it is more evidence for a link between systems supporting auditory-motor interaction and the deficit in conduction aphasia. Here are the details...Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) disrupts speech production. You can prove this to yourself either by trying to talk on a microphone in a large stadium (where your ech........ Read more »
F Boller, & P Marcie. (1978) Possible role of abnormal auditory feedback in conduction aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 16(4), 521-524. DOI: 10.1016/0028-3932(78)90078-7
G Hickok, et al. (2000) A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of the role of left posterior superior temporal gyrus in speech production: implications for the explanation of conduction aphasia. Neuroscience Letters, 287(2), 156-160. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3940(00)01143-5
- December 10, 2008
- 02:27 PM
- 1,252 views
Why PhD degrees in astronomy and planetary sciences take so long
by nuclear.kelly in Miss Atomic Bomb
The citation below is for a preprint (accepted for publication in ApJ) which is the culmination of 16 years worth of observations.Damn.The researchers have essentially confirmed, by examining the orbits of stars exceedingly close to the galactic center (called "S-stars," they are found within one arcsecond of the center), that a massive black hole (about 4 million suns in mass) exists in the center of our own Milky Way. The data were collected over a 16-year span using the European Southern Obse........ Read more »
S. Gillessen, F. Eisenhauer, S. Trippe, T. Alexander, R. Genzel, F. Martins, & T. Ott. (2008) Monitoring Stellar Orbits around the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center. The Astrophysics Journal. DOI: 2008arXiv0810.4674G
- December 10, 2008
- 10:45 AM
- 1,511 views
Neuroskeptic savages the "placebo gene"
by dgmacarthur in Genetic Future
I posted last week on a paper purporting to identify a genetic variant influencing the placebo response. The main message of my post was that given the terrible history of small candidate gene association studies, a paper describing an association with a sample size of just 25 individuals should be simply ignored - and certainly not described in the popular science press as "a milestone".
Now Neuroskeptic has a detailed critique of the paper up in which he argues that the problems in the study ........ Read more »
T. Furmark, L. Appel, S. Henningsson, F. Ahs, V. Faria, C. Linnman, A. Pissiota, O. Frans, M. Bani, P. Bettica.... (2008) A Link between Serotonin-Related Gene Polymorphisms, Amygdala Activity, and Placebo-Induced Relief from Social Anxiety. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(49), 13066-13074. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2534-08.2008
- December 10, 2008
- 07:45 AM
- 989 views
Reporter models for physiology
by 96well in Reportergene
A hybrid mouse obtained by morulae aggregation of two different reporter mice (GFP and lacZ) allowed Francesca Faggioli and colleagues from the Italian National Research Council to obtain a model in which single cells may be marked differentially with GFP or bgal. So, by finding single cells expressing both reporters (immuno-histochemistry and single-cell PCR), the italian researchers found that cell fusion is a physiological process not only in muscle, throphoblast and osteoclasts, but also in ........ Read more »
Francesca Faggioli, Maria Grazia Sacco, Lucia Susani, Cristina Montagna, & Paolo Vezzoni. (2008) Cell fusion is a physiological process in mouse liver. Hepatology, 48(5), 1655-1664. DOI: 10.1002/hep.22488
Rita L Strack, Daniel E Strongin, Dibyendu Bhattacharyya, Wen Tao, Allison Berman, Hal E Broxmeyer, Robert J Keenan, & Benjamin S Glick. (2008) A noncytotoxic DsRed variant for whole-cell labeling. Nature Methods, 5(11), 955-957. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1264
- December 10, 2008
- 03:00 AM
- 951 views
Unlocking the potential of the spoken word?
by Mark D. in The Ideophone
An intriguing article in Science two months ago suggests that advances in speech processing 'may soon place speech and writing on a more equal footing, with broad implications for many aspects of society'. It reminds us that most of humanity's approximately 50,000 years1 with language was dominated by the spoken word, and that the balance [...]... Read more »
Philip Lieberman. (2007) The Evolution of Human Speech: Its Anatomical and Neural Bases. Current Anthropology, 48(1). DOI: 10.1086/509092
D. W. Oard. (2008) Unlocking the Potential of the Spoken Word. Science, 321(5897), 1787-1788. DOI: 10.1126/science.1157353
- December 9, 2008
- 08:26 PM
- 1,130 views
Prayer, God’s love, and low bone mineral density: A veiled attempt
by moneduloides in Moneduloides
In the infancy of this blog I posted some research discussing the effects of Islamic prayer on bone mineral density (BMD). It quickly became, and still is, my most popular blog post, and as such I keep a close eye on related research. Silly me, however, forgot the most simple of ways to do this, [...]... Read more »
D. Alper Hayirlioglu, Husnu Gokaslan, Canan Cimsit, & N. Ozden Serin. (2007) The impact of clothing style on bone mineral density among women in Turkey. Rheumatology International, 28(6), 521-525. DOI: 10.1007/s00296-007-0481-8
Nurettin Heybeli. (2008) Effect of prayer on osteoarthritis and osteoporosis: any difference between men and women?. Rheumatology International, 28(12), 1291-1292. DOI: 10.1007/s00296-008-0620-x
- December 9, 2008
- 02:44 PM
- 1,284 views
Fantastic Fluorescence:Brainbow and The Nobel Prize 2008
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
In my childhood, I used to be fascinated by the mysterious glow of fireflies. Later I learned that it was due to a reaction between a substance called Luciferin and an enzyme, luciferase, a phenomenon called bioluminescence. This kind of glow is not limited to land creatures. Creatures living at the bottom of oceans too emit light.Osamu Shimomura of Japan was given the task of isolating the substance which let the marine mollusk Cipridina glow when it was crushed and mixed with water. He succeed........ Read more »
Stuart Cantrill. (2008) Nobel Prize 2008: Green fluorescent protein. Nature Chemistry. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.75
- December 9, 2008
- 12:00 PM
- 1,516 views
NoScript Online Wine Shopping
by David Bradley in Sciencetext
I drink a lot of wine…not too much, I’m not quite a connoisseur, but not plain sloshed either (Fawlty Towers circa 1975). I’m also hoping that polyphenolic antioxidants are helping with the excess saturated fat in my diet too.
Anyway, I had…... Read more »
Michael J. Sheridan, Joseph Cazier, & Douglas May. (2009) Leisure, wine and the internet: exploring the factors that impact the purchase of wine online. Int. J. Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2(3), 284-297.
- December 9, 2008
- 11:50 AM
- 1,555 views
Brain's response to fear is culture-specific
by Mo in Neurophilosophy
In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin noted that facial expressions vary little across cultures. We all recognize that someone whose eyes and mouth are wide open, and whose eyebrows are raised, is afraid. This characteristic expression is a social signal, which warns others of a potential threat and serves as a plea for help. It also enhances our ability to sense potential threats, by increasing the range of vision and enhancing the sense of smell.
R........ Read more »
Joan Y. Chiao1, Tetsuya Iidaka2, Heather L. Gordon, Junpei Nogawa,, & Moshe Bar, Elissa Aminoff , Norihiro Sadato5, and Nalini Ambady. (2008) Cultural Specificity in Amygdala Response to Fear Faces. J. Cog. Neuro, 2167-2174.
- December 9, 2008
- 11:07 AM
- 1,545 views
Beating the Biological Clock - Clinical Trials of Tasimelteon
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
The Lancet recently published clinical trial data from a Harvard study which compares the experimental new drug tasimelteon to placebo in treating jet lag. The medication works by binding to the same receptor as melatonin, and activating it as a direct agonist.
Melatonin is a neurotransmitter produced by the brain that is believed to play a [...]... Read more »
S RAJARATNAM, M POLYMEROPOULOS, D FISHER, T ROTH, C SCOTT, G BIRZNIEKS, & E KLERMAN. (2008) Melatonin agonist tasimelteon (VEC-162) for transient insomnia after sleep-time shift: two randomised controlled multicentre trials. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61812-7
- December 9, 2008
- 10:59 AM
- 1,673 views
Backtracking Birds Show Islands are not Evolutionary Dead Ends [REPRISE]
by GrrlScientist in Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
tags: evolution, biogeography, ornithology, birds, avian
Kolo Sunset.
Photo credit: Christopher E. Filardi, American Museum of Natural History
(Click on image for a larger picture).
Two of my ornithologist colleagues, Chris Filardi and Rob Moyle, published a paper in the top-tier research journal, Nature. This paper is especially exciting because it shows that oceanic islands are not necessarily the evolutionary "dead ends" that they have traditionally been portrayed to be. In fact, Chris an........ Read more »
Christopher E. Filardi, & Robert G. Moyle. (2005) Single origin of a pan-Pacific bird group and upstream colonization of Australasia. Nature, 438(7065), 216-219. DOI: 10.1038/nature04057
- December 9, 2008
- 08:54 AM
- 1,715 views
Social Construction of Race: The Dark Side of Social Status
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Black is beautiful, without a doubt. We are all versions of Africans with varying degrees and patterns of non-adaptive and often unfortunate mutations owing to chance, inbreeding, or genetic isolation, and we are all subject to clinally manifest selective forces resulting in clinally distributed phenotypes. Here and there there may be a pocket of people who really stand out from the rest of the species, but that is rare and is presumably a short term phenomenon, and the level of difference if ........ Read more »
A. M. Penner, & A. Saperstein. (2008) How social status shapes race. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0805762105
- December 9, 2008
- 02:17 AM
- 1,903 views
When patients set the goals of therapy…
by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living
If you’ve been following my blog over the past week or so, you’ll see I’ve been discussion goal setting as part of pain management rehabilitation. I’ve looked at the things patients may ask for, and the difference between these goals and the goals that clinicians may need to set directly related to the treatment aims. [...]... Read more »
R. C Holliday, S. Cano, J. A Freeman, & E D. Playford. (2007) Should patients participate in clinical decision making? An optimised balance block design controlled study of goal setting in a rehabilitation unit. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery , 78(6), 576-580. DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.2006.102509
- December 9, 2008
- 01:14 AM
- 1,199 views
Friday Weird Science: Which porn gets you hot, baby?
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
UGH. First off my apologies for the weird scheduling. I have no idea why it posted itself four days ago.
And I have to start this with a personal porn anecdote. You KNOW you wanna hear it.
Woodard et al. "What kind of erotic film clips should we use in female sex research? An exploratory study." Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2008. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Terri L. Woodard, Karen Collins, Mindy Perez, Richard Balon, Manuel E. Tancer, Michael Kruger, Scott Moffat, & Michael P. Diamond. (2007) What Kind of Erotic Film Clips Should We Use in Female Sex Research? An Exploratory Study. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2007.00641.x
- December 9, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,325 views
Myopia research: some news
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Some of the new advances in myopia research presented in a recent meeting is revised. In particular, I cover the differences in the optical properties of the myopic eye in the peripheral retina and the future potential optical approaches to control myopia development based in these findings.... Read more »
Seidemann et al. (2002) Peripheral refractive errors in myopic, emmetropic, and hyperopic young subjects. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 2363.
- December 9, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,507 views
Novelty Seeking and Reward Dependence: the dopamine white matter connection.
by Sandeep Gautam in The Mouse Trap
Discusses new research that links personality traits to white matter connectivity.... Read more »
Michael X Cohen, Jan-Christoph Schoene-Bake, Christian E Elger, & Bernd Weber. (2008) Connectivity-based segregation of the human striatum predicts personality characteristics. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2228
- December 8, 2008
- 11:42 PM
- 1,226 views
'Historical' Science: Cocaine and Dopamine
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
The other day I was teaching a whole passel of high school students about cocaine and the brain. I usually give them choices about what they want to hear about, and they ALWAYS pick cocaine. I was so happy when someone picked anxiety disorders I must have looked like a total geek, but seriously, I've given that dang coke talk at LEAST 100 times. I suppose it is perfected by practice.
Anyway, I'm talkin' along, and I'm telling them that we think that dopamine is responsible for the initial re........ Read more »
Roberts DC, Corcoran ME, Fibiger HC. (1977) On the role of ascending catecholaminergic systems in intravenous self-administration of cocaine. . Pharmacology, Biochemisty, and Behavior.
- December 8, 2008
- 11:26 PM
- 956 views
Adrenalectomy improves quality of life for Cushing's patients although it may take years
by staticnrg in survive the journey
Although adrenalectomies are only a first-line treatment for those with ACTH-independent tumors in Cushing's Syndrome (ectopic and adrenal tumors, benign and malignant), they are also often a treatment for those with Cushing's Disease when pituitary surgery fails to totally remove the source of excess ACTH.Hypercortisolemia, the result of excess ACTH from the pituitary or from overproduction in ectopic or adrenal tumors, is very debilitating for those who suffer from CS/CD. According to the ........ Read more »
R SIPPEL, D ELARAJ, E KEBEBEW, S LINDSAY, J TYRRELL, & Q DUH. (2008) Waiting for change: Symptom resolution after adrenalectomy for Cushing's syndrome. Surgery, 144(6), 1054-1061. DOI: 10.1016/j.surg.2008.08.024
- December 8, 2008
- 11:20 PM
- 2,261 views
5 Differences between Psychotic and Nonpsychotic Depression
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
There are considerable data to indicate that psychotic depression is not just a severe form of depression but a distinct form of depression. Mostly in terms of clinical symptoms, course, biology, treatment response and outcomes. However, not every difference is indisputable, there are inconsistencies among studies and these differences might not be strong enough to [...]... Read more »
J. Keller, A. F. Schatzberg, & M. Maj. (2007) Current Issues in the Classification of Psychotic Major Depression. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 33(4), 877-885. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbm065
- December 8, 2008
- 10:08 PM
- 821 views
Teaching Tuesday: Theatrum Anatomicum
by barn owl in Guadalupe Storm-Petrel
No, it’s not a bar on Bourbon Street, but rather a novel medical teaching facility at Ulm University in Germany. Recent legislation on study fees in Germany has provided funding for the development of improved medical education facilities. For the faculty in the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Ulm University, this [...]... Read more »
A BOECKERS, U FASSNACHT, & T BOECKERS. (2008) “Theatrum anatomicum” – A revived teaching facility in gross anatomy. Annals of Anatomy - Anatomischer Anzeiger. DOI: 10.1016/j.aanat.2008.08.004
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