Neuroscience posts from Last Month
- January 31, 2012
- 11:20 AM
- 125 views
Reward and Punish: Say Hello to Dopamine’s Leetle Friend
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Dopamine recruits a helper to track drug rewards.
Ah, dopamine. Whenever it seems like researchers have finally gotten a bead on how that tricky molecule modulates pleasure and reward, and the role in plays in the process of drug and alcohol addiction, along come new findings that rearrange its role, deepening and complicating our understanding of brain function.
We know that the ultimate site of dopamine activity caused by drugs is the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, and an associated ........ Read more »
Cohen, J., Haesler, S., Vong, L., Lowell, B., & Uchida, N. (2012) Neuron-type-specific signals for reward and punishment in the ventral tegmental area. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature10754
- January 31, 2012
- 06:00 AM
- 95 views
Correcting presbyopia with corneal inlays: ¿reinventing the wheel or the advantages of simplicity?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
A simple method to correct for presbyopia is evaluated...... Read more »
Tabernero, J., Schwarz, C., Fernandez, E., & Artal, P. (2011) Binocular Visual Simulation of a Corneal Inlay to Increase Depth of Focus. Investigative Ophthalmology , 52(8), 5273-5277. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.10-6436
- January 31, 2012
- 03:29 AM
- 131 views
Voodoo Neuroscience Revisited
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Two years ago, neuroscientists were shaken by the appearance of a draft paper showing that half of the published work in a particular field had fallen prey to a major statistical error.Originally called "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience", it ended up with the less snappy name of Puzzlingly high correlations in fMRI studies of emotion, personality, and social cognition. I prefer the old title.The error in question is now known variously as the "circular analysis problem", "non-independe........ Read more »
Vul, E., & Pashler, H. (2012) Voodoo and circularity errors. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.027
- January 30, 2012
- 08:27 AM
- 87 views
Listening to cells spike with your phone
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
In 1992, Linder and Palka proposed using a very simple cockroach leg preparation to teach students about neuroscience; specifically to teach them about the most visible electrical property of the neuron, the action potential. The company Backyard Brains expanded and modernized this idea by creating the SpikerBox, an inexpensive, portable way to record action potentials. And now you can download their app for your smart phone! A quote from their download site explains it all:"When was ........ Read more »
Linder TM, & Palka J. (1992) A student apparatus for recording action potentials in cockroach legs. The American journal of physiology, 262(6 Pt 3). PMID: 1616063
- January 30, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 7 views
Psychology ignored and depression neglected in the media's coverage of mental health research
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Research into some mental disorders receives disproportionate media coverage at the expense of other disorders. That's according to the first systematic study of the way the UK mass media covers mental illness. And in a wake-up call to psychology and its advocates, the analysis found that mental health research stories were biased towards neurobiological aspects of mental illness. They tended to be accompanied by commentary from medical charities, and........ Read more »
Lewison, G., Roe, P., Wentworth, A., & Szmukler, G. (2011) The reporting of mental disorders research in British media. Psychological Medicine, 42(02), 435-441. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291711001012
- January 30, 2012
- 01:40 AM
- 105 views
Are there two types of cognition?
by Janet Kwasniak in Thoughts on thoughts
J. Evans’ 2008 paper reviews a number of proposed dual-processing descriptions of cognition. (see citation). He finds some stable divisions in the theories but a number of conflicting ones also. Calling the dual processing system 1 and system 2 appears to him to give a mistaken impression of how cognition works; he feels that [...]... Read more »
J. Evans. (2008) Dual-Processing Accounts of Reasoning, Judgement, and Social Cognition. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 255-278. info:/
- January 29, 2012
- 02:46 PM
- 25 views
Reading the mind’s eye: Online detection of visuo-spatial working memory and visual imagery in the inferior temporal lobe
by Julien Colomb in neuro JC
Posted on behalf of Jaime Martinez:
The authors of the present work studied the extent to which visual brain regions participate in non-sensory cognitive processes of visual representation. To this end, they evaluated the role of ventral visual pathway areas in visual imagery and working memory by analyzing intracerebral EEG recordings from the left inferior temporal [...]... Read more »
Hamamé, C., Vidal, J., Ossandón, T., Jerbi, K., Dalal, S., Minotti, L., Bertrand, O., Kahane, P., & Lachaux, J. (2012) Reading the mind's eye: Online detection of visuo-spatial working memory and visual imagery in the inferior temporal lobe. NeuroImage, 59(1), 872-879. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.087
- January 29, 2012
- 03:28 AM
- 142 views
2011 Orwellian Prize for Journalistic Misrepresentation
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
The Orwellian Prize was set up to identify bad science journalism. The winner for 2011 contains a spectacular number of errors in reporting on a paper about cannabinoid receptors in rats.... Read more »
Kucewicz, M., Tricklebank, M., Bogacz, R., & Jones, M. (2011) Dysfunctional Prefrontal Cortical Network Activity and Interactions following Cannabinoid Receptor Activation. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(43), 15560-15568. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2970-11.2011
- January 28, 2012
- 05:38 PM
- 2 views
Epidemiology of Brain Cancer
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
A recent summary of the trends in cancer highlighted the epidemiology of brain and other nervous system tumors. In the United States, 213,500 brain and other nervous system tumors were diagnosed during the four year period from 2004 through 2007.Brain and other nervous systems (ONS) tumors rank fourteenth in the top 15 cancers for men and fifteenth in the top 15 cancers for women in the United States.Overall rates for brain and ONS tumors during this period were 22.37 per 100,000 for men a........ Read more »
Kohler, B., Ward, E., McCarthy, B., Schymura, M., Ries, L., Eheman, C., Jemal, A., Anderson, R., Ajani, U., & Edwards, B. (2011) Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2007, Featuring Tumors of the Brain and Other Nervous System. JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 103(9), 714-736. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djr077
- January 28, 2012
- 04:53 AM
- 127 views
Six
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Today was the sixth anniversary of this blog. I'm not much for meta-blogging or general chattiness, but I thought I would highlight the nine posts (out of 700) with the most comments. Thank you for your support over the years, and keep the comments coming.9. Friston Is Freudian - Friday, March 12, 2010Neuropsychoanalysis is in the news again because of the recent publication of Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. In 2010, first author Carha........ Read more »
Edward Vul, Christine Harris, Piotr Winkielman, . (2009) Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
- January 27, 2012
- 11:22 PM
- 110 views
Taking the sacred path to decision making
by Andrew Watt in A Hippo on Campus
They say that when in polite company one should never discuss religion or politics. An old adage which is perhaps even more pertinent when you find yourself dining with boors. After all there are few topics of conversation with the innate ability to turn a soiree into a shouting match as those we hold sacred. Whether it be our views on life or what follows afterwards, there's just something about those consecrated concepts that doesn't allow any room for compromise. But what is about these funda........ Read more »
Berns, G., Bell, E., Capra, C., Prietula, M., Moore, S., Anderson, B., Ginges, J., & Atran, S. (2011) The Price of Your Soul: Neural Evidence for the Non-Utilitarian Representation of Sacred Values. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.1817982
- January 27, 2012
- 01:57 PM
- 117 views
Bad at Music, Bad at Chinese
by Callum Hackett in For the Ears
Another recent study (this one conducted by laboratories in Beijing and Montreal) has shown a link between the mental processing of music and language, though this time by looking at cognitive dysfunction. Most people could not imagine living without the capacity for enjoying and creating music, but … Continue reading →... Read more »
Nan Y, Sun Y, & Peretz I. (2010) Congenital amusia in speakers of a tone language: association with lexical tone agnosia. Brain: a journal of neurology, 133(9), 2635-42. PMID: 20685803
- January 27, 2012
- 11:15 AM
- 49 views
The Whole Enchilada: New Method for High-Res Brain Images
by Karen Kreeger in Penn Medicine News Blog
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides exquisite structural detail of the brain, for example, to detect tumors or relative size of regions. However, current MRI methods are not capable of imaging the distribution of neurotransmitters – the brain’s chemical messengers -- across the whole brain. A new Nature Medicine paper out this week from Perelman School of Medicine researchers led by Ravinder Reddy, PhD, professor of Radiology, describes a first-of-its-kind MRI technique (GluCEST) to me........ Read more »
Cai, K., Haris, M., Singh, A., Kogan, F., Greenberg, J., Hariharan, H., Detre, J., & Reddy, R. (2012) Magnetic resonance imaging of glutamate. Nature Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/nm.2615
- January 27, 2012
- 10:10 AM
- 141 views
Oxford University Censor First Broadcast of Lecture That Resulted in Censuring of Prof. Nutt, Former UK Government Drugs Advisor
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Watch the full video of the lecture and uncover what was in the slides censored for "copyright reasons"... Read more »
Nutt, D., King, L., & Phillips, L. (2010) Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558-1565. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6
Nutt, D. (2009) Estimating drug harms: a risky business?. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. info:/
Halpern JH, Sherwood AR, Hudson JI, Gruber S, Kozin D, & Pope HG Jr. (2011) Residual neurocognitive features of long-term ecstasy users with minimal exposure to other drugs. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 106(4), 777-86. PMID: 21205042
Carhart-Harris, R., Erritzoe, D., Williams, T., Stone, J., Reed, L., Colasanti, A., Tyacke, R., Leech, R., Malizia, A., Murphy, K.... (2012) Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119598109
Editorial team. (2010) The EMCDDA annual report 2010: the state of the drugs problem in Europe. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, also published in Euro surveillance :European communicable disease bulletin, 15(46). PMID: 21144426
- January 27, 2012
- 09:30 AM
- 36 views
Are Wallabies Left or Right Handed? Both! (Sometimes)
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
Which limb do you prefer? If you’re like most members of our species, you prefer your right hand for most tasks. If you’re like a smaller minority of our species, you might prefer your left hand. Very, very few of us are truly ambidextrous. Most of us have at least a minor preference for one [...]
... Read more »
Giljov, A., Karenina, K., & Malashichev, Y. (2011) Limb preferences in a marsupial, Macropus rufogriseus: evidence for postural effect. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.031
- January 26, 2012
- 11:51 PM
- 127 views
Hemispatial neglect: a one-sided world
by Jordan Gaines in Gaines, on Brains
Check out the dog, Barley, in this video. Notice how he doesn't seem interested in the food on the left side of his bowl. Perhaps he's blind in his left eye?... Read more »
Koch G, Bonnì S, Giacobbe V, Bucchi G, Basile B, Lupo F, Versace V, Bozzali M, & Caltagirone C. (2012) Theta-burst stimulation of the left hemisphere accelerates recovery of hemispatial neglect. Neurology, 78(1), 24-30. PMID: 22170878
- January 26, 2012
- 10:26 PM
- 123 views
The "Human Neuron", not so special after all?
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
Von Economo neurons, a set of neurons classified by their elongated, 'spindle-like' shape, were once thought to belong only to humans and great apes. This uniqueness, as you might imagine, encouraged extensive speculation about what this neuron does. Do they make you smart? Do they process emotions? social cues? future planning?Not that extensive speculation is a bad thing, it's just that it is easy to jump into the deep end and assume that because something is unique to humans, it is what........ Read more »
Butti C, Santos M, Uppal N, & Hof PR. (2011) Von Economo neurons: Clinical and evolutionary perspectives. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. PMID: 22130090
- January 26, 2012
- 09:14 PM
- 55 views
Sniffing out Parkinson's disease
by Nsikan Akpan in That's Basic Science
Via my new Nature Network blog, a breathalyzer for Parkinson's disease based on carbon nanotube technology.... Read more »
Tisch, U., Aluf, Y., Ionescu, R., Nakhleh, M., Bassal, R., Axelrod, N., Robertman, D., Tessler, Y., Finberg, J., & Haick, H. (2011) Detection of Asymptomatic Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic Lesion in Rats by Exhaled Air Analysis Using Carbon Nanotube Sensors. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/cn200093r
- January 26, 2012
- 01:14 PM
- 131 views
NOT "Killed by Cannabis"
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A quick factual decomposition of the assertion that cannabis is lethal, made by the Daily Mail in response to Richard Branson's evidence at the Select Committee on drugs.... Read more »
Hughes CE, & Stevens A. (2012) A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs. Drug and alcohol review, 31(1), 101-13. PMID: 22212070
- January 25, 2012
- 02:27 PM
- 158 views
IQ Varies with Context
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
In a very interesting way.
As a regular reader of this blog, you know that IQ and similar measures are determined by a number of factors, and for most "normal" (modal?) individuals, one's heritage (genes) is rarely important. Putting it another way, variation across individuals in IQ and other measures have been shown again and again to be determined by things like home environment, diet and nutrition, and even immediate social context. Here's another finding supporting this: Read the rest o........ Read more »
Kishida, K., Yang, D., Quartz, K., Quartz, S., & Montague, P. (2012) Implicit signals in small group settings and their impact on the expression of cognitive capacity and associated brain responses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1589), 704-716. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0267
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