148 posts · 150,300 views
Neurotopia
148 posts
Sort by Latest Post, Most Popular
View by Condensed, Full
- July 7, 2009
- 11:34 AM
- 1,123 views
Does stress trigger your chocolate habit?
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
There are many behavioral tasks out there which use monkeys. But a lot of people lately are asking the question: why use monkeys when you can use humans? Of course, for some of these tasks, conditions have to exist that we would be unable to obtain in humans, but there are some simple behavioral tasks which a rat, a monkey, and a human can do equally well. And Sci must imagine that tasks like this involve some amusement factor on the part of the experimenter. After all, if something looks cute when a rat is doing it, it often makes a human look profoundly ridiculous.
And this paper is interesting for other reasons. There are a lot of questions as to how well humans REALLY operate in times of stress. Perhaps some of us may think that stress facilitates our abilities. And in some people, that might be the case. But it also appears that stress brings out other behaviors in humans that may not be as positive as you think.
Schwabe and Wolf. "Stress promts habit behavior in humans." The Journal of Neuroscience, 2009.
Today's study brought to you by Nestle Quik
And a lot of oranges
You'll see why. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Schwabe, L., & Wolf, O. (2009) Stress Prompts Habit Behavior in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(22), 7191-7198. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0979-09.2009
- May 7, 2009
- 12:41 AM
- 1,116 views
Cake or Death? It's all a matter of self-control, and your vmPFC
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Cake or Death? Cake, please.
Today's article comes to you from ars technica, where a friend of the blog found this article from Matt Ford on how we pick our food. Given that Sci is in the middle of reading "How We Decide" by Scienceblogs own Jonah Lehrer, she couldn't pass this decision-making kind of article up. It was a conscious decision, I think. Or was it?
I don't know about you, but everyone Sci knows appears to be trying to regulate their diet somewhat. Most of my friends think the word "die" is in the word "diet" for a reason. But we all still try to eat well, though we're not going to be subsisting on grapefruit and wheatgrass juice any time soon. We're all hearing the messages that we need to eat lean protein, get lots of fiber, and eat as many fruits and vegetables as we can afford.
The media nowadays is jam packed with advertisements saying we need to make healthy choices, right next to other advertisements letting us know about the many many offerings available at fast food restaurants for less than a dollar. With all this coming into your brain every day, it can be really hard to make the right decisions. Would a granola bar be good right now? Or should you have some fruit instead? Should you eat the chocolate cake or the ice cream?
And these decisions become even harder when it becomes a choice of fruit vs. cake (I don't know about you guys, but the fruit would be languishing on Sci's shelf for months). In these cases, your decision making has to have some layers to it. Rather than just "ooooh! Cake!", you also need to think "eh, but I already HAD chocolate today, and I haven't had more than one serving of fruit...and I should get more fiber because apparently everyone needs more fiber..."
VS
Sorry, Banana. No contest. LOOK at the chocolate shavings on that thing...sigh...
So anyway. Our brains may want cake, and other parts of our brains want healthy. The two sides need to fight. But which areas of your brain are responsible? And how do they modulate each other? That's what this group wanted to find out.
Hare et al. "Self-control in decision-making involves modulation of the vmPFC valuation system." Science, 2009.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Hare, T., Camerer, C., & Rangel, A. (2009) Self-Control in Decision-Making Involves Modulation of the vmPFC Valuation System. Science, 324(5927), 646-648. DOI: 10.1126/science.1168450
- June 5, 2009
- 01:38 AM
- 1,115 views
Friday Weird Science: Careful with that penis, you might break it
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Yeah, yeah. Friday Weird Science is late. I know. Give Sci a break. She needed some sleep, and she is now full of delicious whole milk latte.
I have to begin this post with a direct quote from the paper, because no one can put it better:
"The human penis has always been the subject of much interest, especially, when afflicted with a medical condition"
Ain't it so. Well, ok, I can ALMOST get behind this quote, except that I HATE that comma right after 'interest'. It bugs me. A lot. But that's the way it is.
But penises are interesting. If they weren't, I wouldn't write about them half so much. And when they get "broken", they are even MORE interesting. And hard to fix.
Sawh, et al. "Fractured Penis: A Review" International Journal of Impotence Research (oh yes, there is one), 2008.
WARNING: The pictures behind the cut are not for the faint of heart. They are also probably NSFW, though they are so "surgical" in nature, I doubt the guy looking over your shoulder would really know what he was looking at. Except that it was cut open. You've been warned.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Sawh, S., O'Leary, M., Ferreira, M., Berry, A., & Maharaj, D. (2008) Fractured penis: a review. International Journal of Impotence Research, 20(4), 366-369. DOI: 10.1038/ijir.2008.12
- July 17, 2009
- 12:59 AM
- 1,109 views
Friday Weird Science: Refridgerator Mothers vs Refridgerator Kids
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
One of the great things about weird AND historical science is the great quotes that old-fashioned writing styles tend to produce. Today's quote, for example "information on the force effects of children". The force effects of children? When merely thrown? Or when using some sort of specialized device, such as a child-size trebuchet or slingshot?
(Kid sized!)
Well, no, this paper is not about forces of children when used as objects. It's about the forces of children used for doors. Refrigerator doors, actually. A study like this would probably never fly now, but heck, the world of child psychology was young. It was 1958.
Bain, Feagre, Wyly. "Behavior of young children under conditions simulating entrapment in refrigerators." Pediatrics, 1958.
Sci got this paper some time ago, and unfortunately, when she tried to go back online and get the pictures, was THWARTED. Grr. No pics. Too bad, some of them were incredibly 1950s. If anyone has a copy, pass it along? I can edit pics in! Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Katherine Bain M.D., Marion L. Faegre B.A., and Robert S. Wyly B.S. (1958) BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG CHILDREN UNDER CONDITIONS SIMULATING ENTRAPMENT IN REFRIGERATORS . PEDIATRICS, 22(4), 628-647. DOI: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/4/628
- September 24, 2008
- 10:50 PM
- 1,105 views
Beta Amyloids: Not just for Alzheimer's Anymore
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
This is the third option for "things I could present in Journal Club". Please let me know if you have a strong preference! The Journal Club is, um, tomorrow. So I probably better get my rear in gear.
As I'm sure you all know, Alzheimer's Disease is a serious problem in today's aging population, affecting 26.6 million people around the world. Diagnoses of Alzheimer's are growing, mostly due to the fact that no one's ever lived this long before, and we're able to catch it at earlier and earlier stages now. Alzheimer's is one scary problem. It's incurable (so far), degenerative (gets worse over time), and terminal. Almost every time I read about Alzheimer's I get really paranoid for a while as to WHY I'm forgetting my car keys.
Alzheimer's has a very characteristic set of symptoms: cognitive impairment and memory loss which increases over time, language and mild motor impairments, progressive loss of skills, and psychiatric manifestations such as irritability or aggression. The pathophysiology of Alzheimer's involves the build up of beta-amyloid plaques, as well as the buildup of tau proteins. Beta amyloids get misfolded in Azheimer's patients, and aggregate outside cells, sticking in clumps everywhere. Tau proteins are usually used to stablize the cytoskeleton of the cell, but when these go bad, they cuase microtubules to join to each other all over the place, making neurofibrillary tangles inside the cell.
Unfortunately, although we know what the tau protein does inside cells, we don't really have a clear idea what beta amyloid does hanging outside the cell in general. So this study looked at the changes taking place in beta amyloid by taking samples in humans.
Brody et al. "Amyloid-B dynamics correlate with neurological status in the injured human brain". Science, 321, 2008. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
D. L. Brody, S. Magnoni, K. E. Schwetye, M. L. Spinner, T. J. Esparza, N. Stocchetti, G. J. Zipfel, & D. M. Holtzman. (2008) Amyloid- Dynamics Correlate with Neurological Status in the Injured Human Brain. Science, 321(5893), 1221-1224. DOI: 10.1126/science.1161591
- January 9, 2009
- 01:06 AM
- 1,105 views
Friday Weird Science: The Horrors and Pain of...the Bra-Strap Injury
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Every once in a while, when I look at the lit, I'm truly amazed by the things people report in. This one didn't even need any playing with the title. It's just too good.
Rose, et al. "The bra-strap injury: should men have lessons?" British Journal of Plastic Surgery, 2001.
This post shall otherwise be known as "Sci's explanation on how to get off a girl's bra while avoiding possible pain and injury. It even works through a sweater." Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
V ROSE, D MOLONEY, & A FLEMING. (2002) The bra-strap injury: should men have lessons?. British Journal of Plastic Surgery, 55(2), 179-180. DOI: 10.1054/bjps.2001.3751
- July 31, 2009
- 01:49 AM
- 1,088 views
Friday Weird Science: the swimming of the sperm
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Sci will admit that the sperm paper she picked for this week really is an excuse to use this image:
(heeheehee)
But really, sperm swimming is an important questions in terms of fertility. An ovum is only viable for about 24 hours, and a female only produces one per month. Sperm are viable for a little longer than that, but still, timing is rough. And once you get past the timing, you get into sperm getting lost, sperm swimming in circles, sperm getting stuck in the vaginal mucosa, and sperm getting to the egg only to be thwarted by the zona pellucida and corona radiata (the corona radiata is a group of cells surrounding the egg, while the zona pellucida is a tough, thick protein lattice on the outside of the egg, inside the corona radiata. Tough barriers).
(Who's betting on the double-headed one?!)
So when it comes down to it, it takes more than a straight swimmer to make it to the egg. But what, exactly, does it take?
Force, et al. "Membrane fluidity and lipid content of human spermatozoa selected by swim-up method". International Journal of Andrology, 2001. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Force, A., Grizard, G., Giraud, M., Motta, C., Sion, B., & Boucher, D. (2001) Membrane fluidity and lipid content of human spermatozoa selected by swim-up method. International Journal of Andrology, 24(6), 327-334. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2605.2001.00309.x
- September 24, 2008
- 01:47 PM
- 1,085 views
Reward Prediction and Dopamine
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
So here's the second in the series of "things I could present for Journal Club". I figure I'll blog the top three, and then actually prepare whichever one I want to do the morning before. Procrastination is a mark of genius, and don't let anyone tell you different.
I'm considering this one because the series of experiments is beautifully elegant and really well laid out, and it proves a very interesting point that had been bugging the field for a while. I saw some of this data at a conference recently, and when the speaker showed the main effect, everyone in the audience went "oooOOOooo". It's that good.
Stuber et al. "Reward-predictive cues enhance excitatory synaptic strength onto midbrain dopamine neurons" Science, 321, 2008. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
G. D. Stuber, M. Klanker, B. de Ridder, M. S. Bowers, R. N. Joosten, M. G. Feenstra, & A. Bonci. (2008) Reward-Predictive Cues Enhance Excitatory Synaptic Strength onto Midbrain Dopamine Neurons. Science, 321(5896), 1690-1692. DOI: 10.1126/science.1160873
- December 26, 2008
- 12:05 AM
- 1,085 views
Friday Weird Science: Got nipple pain? Blame it on your vacuum baby.
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
So this isn't necessarily weird science, in that it's not something so odd and out there you'd never see it. It's more that the reason behind the phenomenon is a little funny.
I'm at a time of life where all my friends are getting married. And once they get married, they start spawning. I'm a fan of friend-spawn, and I certainly hope that they all grow up to be adorable awesome little geeks. I will take any kind of geek, science, history, literature, music, theater, I love them all, and I know my amazingly brilliant and talented friends and fellow bloggers will produce some amazingly talented spawn.
Being as I am around such spawning, I've had the opportunity to learn a good bit about babies. And all the charming, cute, sweet, adorable, disgusting, smelling, and gross things that go with them. One of the things I became very quickly interested in was lactation. You know. Boobs and milk. Breast is best. I never realized before that there are lactation consultants. I always thought lactation was one of those things, like sex and giving birth, that people kind of figure out eventually on their own. Survival of the species and all that, you'd figure lactation would be pretty high on the list of things that come naturally.
But in fact, for many women, it doesn't come naturally, and there are certain interventions that you can do to prevent pain and soreness during breastfeeding. But for some women, it seems that all the counseling and intervention in the world isn't working. They have consistent pain while nursing. And now, we know why. The reason? VACUUM BABIES!
McClellan et al. "Infants of mothers with persistant nipple pain exert strong sucking vacuums." Acta Paediatrica, 2008. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
HL McClellan, DT Geddes, JC Kent, CP Garbin, LR Mitoulas, & PE Hartmann. (2008) Infants of mothers with persistent nipple pain exert strong sucking vacuums. Acta Paediatrica, 97(9), 1205-1209. DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00882.x
- April 3, 2009
- 01:42 AM
- 1,083 views
Friday Weird Science: Honey, that wasp is back! Hand me the...earwax?
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
First of all, did you know that the scientific word for ear wax is "cerumen"? Learn something new every day.
I'm sure we've all had ear wax encounters. Sci has often wondered, if she let her ear wax build up enough, if she could make a candle out of it like that Shrek guy.
(Image via imdb. For the record, Sci LOVES Shrek. A lot.)
Unfortunately, I always got too grossed out by myself before ear wax levels ever got close to candle level. But what if there was a good use for earwax? What if...you could use it for insect repellent?
(Via wikipedia. This image grosses Sci out a lot.)
Ahmadian S, Fakhree MA. "Earwax (cerumen) might be formulated into a safe and biodegradable insect repellent." Med Hypotheses. 2009 Mar;72(3):370-1. Epub 2008 Nov 13. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Ahmadian, S., & Fakhree, M. (2009) Earwax (cerumen) might be formulated into a safe and biodegradable insect repellent. Medical Hypotheses, 72(3), 370-371. DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2008.09.036
- February 4, 2009
- 01:18 AM
- 1,074 views
The mouse that couldn't get high
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
In the second out of three possible papers for journal club, I got this paper courtesy of Physioprof. And I'm very glad he sent it to me. I get tons of Tables of Contents in my inbox every day, but I tend not to go through them until I need a paper for Journal Club. But PP clearly has some lit search chops, and sent me this paper 45 minutes after it first came out. Hot off the presses, indeed. Clearly, PhysioProf understands Scicurious' Big Three: Sex, Drugs, and...ok, maybe there's only two.
Thomsen et al. "Dramatically decreased cocaine self-administration in dopamine but not serotonin transporter knock-out mice". The Journal of Neuroscience, 2009.
Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents. This is a great paper, but it's also more than a bit technical. I'll do my best, but if there's anything you don't understand, do not hesitate to give a shout.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
M. Thomsen, F. S. Hall, G. R. Uhl, & S. B. Caine. (2009) Dramatically Decreased Cocaine Self-Administration in Dopamine But Not Serotonin Transporter Knock-Out Mice. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(4), 1087-1092. DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.4037-08.2009
- June 2, 2010
- 01:57 AM
- 1,074 views
Bulimia and the Vaso-Vagal Reflex
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
This is another post in Sci's investigation into the current studies being performed on eating disorders, particularly binge eating and bulimia. Usually I try to focus on the dysregulation of reward-related systems in these disorders, but this paper will be a little different.
Faris et al. "De-Stabilization of the Positive Vago-Vagal Reflex in Bulimia Nervosa" Physiology and Behavior, 2008.
It's kind of in the nature of an eating disorder that there aren't any really funny pictures or something that Sci can put in here.
So before we go forward, here's a kitten.
(ahhhhh.) Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
FARIS, P., HOFBAUER, R., DAUGHTERS, R., VANDENLANGENBERG, E., IVERSEN, L., GOODALE, R., MAXWELL, R., ECKERT, E., & HARTMAN, B. (2008) De-stabilization of the positive vago-vagal reflex in bulimia nervosa. Physiology , 94(1), 136-153. DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.11.036
- April 29, 2009
- 12:25 AM
- 1,057 views
Bornean Frogs: Feelin' Ultrasonic
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
So we b0rked the blog last night, but the wearing of sackcloth and ashes and the libations we have placed on the altar of the Overlords have gotten it fixed! I am eternally grateful.
And now, on to the science. Let's all feel supersonic together:
(oh yeah, Sci went there. Let's all be moody and wear our fake Beatles' glasses together, shall we)
Now let us all pause for a moment and be glad that there is no species that uses Oasis songs as its mating calls. Ok, there was a brief period in the 90's where the human species almost fell, but we hoisted ourselves back up again.
No, I can't think of any species that uses "Supersonic". But there ARE lots of species that use ULTRASONIC. Until now, interestingly, those species of animals using ultrasonic communication didn't include frogs, really. Until now.
Arch et al. "Pure ultrasonic communication in an endemic Bornean Frog." PLoS ONE, 2009.
First, the subject:
What a cutie pie, huh?! Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Arch, V., Grafe, T., Gridi-Papp, M., & Narins, P. (2009) Pure Ultrasonic Communication in an Endemic Bornean Frog. PLoS ONE, 4(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005413
- September 25, 2009
- 01:55 AM
- 1,057 views
Friday Weird Science: The Hyena Mating Game
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Today's post comes to you courtesy of Laelaps. Sci's been wanting to cover sex in other species for a while now (I mean, it's so WEIRD!), and Laelaps has kindly provided a whole series of great articles!!! This is good, as Pubmed is not particularly informative on other species. The weird science is flowing today. Or maybe oozing. I imagine weird science likes to ooze.
So. Hyenas. Having sex. Which they don't really seem to do very often. And there's a good reason. The females don't have it very easy. What they have...is masculinized genitalia.
Warning: pics below the fold. Does it count as NSFW if it's a hyena pseudopenis?
Szykman et al "Courtship and mating in free-living spotted hyenas". Behavior, 2007
And these scientists are DEDICATED. I know it takes a long time for me to get through grad school, but these folks spent 11 YEARS making various trips to watch hyenas on the savannah. While it's a much better and more exciting location than my graduate work calls for, it still might get kind of old. Eternal vigilance with low hope of success must grind you down after a while. Their perseverance impresses me. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Szykman, M., Van Horn, R., Engh, A., Boydston, E., & Holekamp, K. (2007) Courtship and mating in free-living spotted hyenas. Behaviour, 144(7), 815-846. DOI: 10.1163/156853907781476418
- November 12, 2008
- 11:59 PM
- 1,047 views
GOD: Do I have your attention?
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
I WAS going to blog on the history of action potentials tonight, but it's late, I'm really tired (14 hour days in the lab add up), and action potential history is hard. Luckily for all of us, a new and cool article is out in PLoS ONE! Do not fear, I'll get to that history of action potentials soon enough.
Colzato et al. "Losing the big picture: how religion may control visual attention" PLoS ONE, 2008.
Unfortunately, this paper has no graphs. Yet again, it's all tables. I fix for you. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Lorenza S. Colzato, Wery P. M. van den Wildenberg, & Bernhard Hommel. (2008) Losing the Big Picture: How Religion May Control Visual Attention. PLoS ONE, 3(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003679
- July 10, 2009
- 01:30 AM
- 1,034 views
Friday Weird Science: Careful with that Toy!
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
I think we can all agree that the American population has become a little more open with regard to sexual practices than it was in, say, the 1950's. The existence of premarital sex is discussed in multiple media outlets, and there are homosexual relationships discussed with candor. However, there are still several sexual practices which are still considered relatively taboo with regards to public discussion. While male masturbation, for example is discussed (often as comedic relief) pretty openly, female masturbation remains an extremely taboo topic in popular discussion. However, another topic also remains un-discussed (well, except for on Sex and the City, and they've discussed EVERYTHING).
Sex toys.
Griffin and McGwin. "Sexual Stimulation Device-related Injuries" Journal of Sex and Martial Therapy, 2009.
Sci would like to take this time to note that Neurotopia claims no responsibility for what happens if your boss catches you clicking around below the fold. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Griffin, R., & McGwin, G. (2009) Sexual Stimulation Device-Related Injuries. Journal of Sex , 35(4), 253-261. DOI: 10.1080/00926230902851249
- June 4, 2009
- 01:05 AM
- 1,019 views
Stand up Straight, Size Counts Around Here
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
As I'm sure you're all aware, around these digs at Neurotopia, size counts. Especially on Fridays. But size counts today in a DIFFERENT way. Honest. No penises until tomorrow. I swear.
I've been meaning to blog about this for a while. For at least a week, in fact. But things like "life" always try to get in the way of more important things like "blogging". Silly life. Like I care about it.
But anyway, let's talk about status. Status and height. Because it is, after all, the size that counts.
Marsh, et al. "Larger than life; humans' nonverbal status cues alter perceived size" PLoS ONE, 2009.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Marsh, A., Yu, H., Schechter, J., & Blair, R. (2009) Larger than Life: Humans' Nonverbal Status Cues Alter Perceived Size. PLoS ONE, 4(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005707
- September 26, 2008
- 04:07 PM
- 1,000 views
Oh yeah, love that jolt to the brain
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
I think the best part about this weird Friday is that I don't have to write it! A good thing too, I have a life outside the blog (crazy, I know), and that life has been nothing short of insane. Today's is courtesy of my friend Claire, who found it over at Mind Hacks.
Portenoy, et al. "Compulsive thalamic self-stimulation: a case with metabolic, electrophysiologic, and behavioral correlates" Pain, V 27, 1986.
Well, ok, maybe I'll talk about it a LITTLE... Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Portenoy RK, Jarden JO, Sidtis JJ, Lipton RB, Foley KM, Rottenberg DA. (1986) Compulsive thalamic self-stimulation: a case with metabolic, electrophysiologic, and behavioral correlates. Pain.
- August 21, 2009
- 02:12 AM
- 994 views
Friday Weird Science: Smoking away your Semen
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Sci will go ahead and put it out there: she hates smoking (I mean tobacco). It's gross. It smells. You NEVER get that freakin' smell out of your hair. And your teeth get all nasty. Not to mention to horrendous side effects, things like cancer and cardiovascular problems and death...yeah, those are bad, too.
So anyway, I think we all know smoking is bad for you. Addictive, cancer-causing, the addictive part is particularly bad, nicotine has an extremely high number of reinforcers obtained per drug session (you can only take one line of cocaine at a time, really, but a cigarette has you occupied, puffing away for a good few minutes). But now men have ANOTHER reason not to smoke: your little swimmers don't like it.
Kumosani, et al. "The influence of smoking on semen quality, seminal microelements, and Ca2+-ATPase activity among infertile and fertile men." Clinical Biochemistry, 2008.
(teehee, via softpedia)
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
KUMOSANI, T., ELSHAL, M., ALJONAID, A., & ABDULJABAR, H. (2008) The influence of smoking on semen quality, seminal microelements and Ca2 -ATPase activity among infertile and fertile men. Clinical Biochemistry, 41(14-15), 1199-1203. DOI: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2008.07.013
- September 2, 2009
- 01:32 AM
- 994 views
Making a Long-Term Memory? Don't Forget to Tag it!
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
I'm sure you all know that you have both a short-term and a long-term memory. Many people think of those as separate things, and to us, it may seem that way. But in fact, the formation of short and long term memories in the brain is very intertwined, and a short-term memory can become a long-term one. What we don't really know is HOW this happens. What makes the difference between remembering a phone number for a few minutes and remembering it for months? Turns out, it's a simple tag.
Ballarini et al. "Behavioral tagging is a general mechanism of long-term memory formation." PNAS, 2009. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Ballarini, F., Moncada, D., Martinez, M., Alen, N., & Viola, H. (2009) Behavioral tagging is a general mechanism of long-term memory formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(34), 14599-14604. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0907078106
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
