Neuroscience posts
- August 12, 2010
- 01:15 PM
- 961 views
The Eyes Have It - sometimes: using eye position to enhance strength
by mc in begin to dig (b2d)
I was fascinated by Geoff Neupert's article in the latest Power by Pavel Newsletter about his experience using eye position in the kettlebell press. Absolutely awesome to see eye position highlighted in relation to how that action can support movement practice, but also how that support is variable depending on rather a lot else going on in our sensory-motor system, or where the issues are in a complex movement. So let's look at eye position and postural reflexes and how they support m........ Read more »
Morningstar, M., Pettibon, B., Schlappi, H., Schlappi, M., & Ireland, T. (2005) Reflex control of the spine and posture: a review of the literature from a chiropractic perspective. Chiropractic , 13(1), 16. DOI: 10.1186/1746-1340-13-16
Riemann BL, & Lephart SM. (2002) The Sensorimotor System, Part II: The Role of Proprioception in Motor Control and Functional Joint Stability. Journal of athletic training, 37(1), 80-4. PMID: 16558671
Rougier P, & Garin M. (2007) Performing saccadic eye movements or blinking improves postural control. Motor control, 11(3), 213-23. PMID: 17715456
- August 12, 2010
- 10:21 AM
- 697 views
The Eyes Have It - sometimes: using eye position to enhance strength
by mc in begin to dig (b2d)
I was fascinated by Geoff Neupert's article in the latest Power by Pavel Newsletter (issue 209, 08/09/10) about his experience using eye position in the press. Geoff is the author of Kettlebell Muscle. Absolutely awesome to see eye position highlighted in relation to how that action can support movement practice. That support is rather dependent on where and how in a compound move it's being used, and also what else may be happening in our somato-sensory systems. So let's look at eye position an........ Read more »
Morningstar, M., Pettibon, B., Schlappi, H., Schlappi, M., & Ireland, T. (2005) Reflex control of the spine and posture: a review of the literature from a chiropractic perspective. Chiropractic , 13(1), 16. DOI: 10.1186/1746-1340-13-16
Riemann BL, & Lephart SM. (2002) The Sensorimotor System, Part II: The Role of Proprioception in Motor Control and Functional Joint Stability. Journal of athletic training, 37(1), 80-4. PMID: 16558671
Rougier P, & Garin M. (2007) Performing saccadic eye movements or blinking improves postural control. Motor control, 11(3), 213-23. PMID: 17715456
- August 12, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 869 views
Genetic predisposition to chronic pain
by Lorimer Moseley in BodyInMind
Tim Vaughan pretty much suggested that we comment on this paper which concerns a mouse study in which the scientists inflicted a neural injury and looked at a specific genetic marker in the mice who did and didn’t develop chronic symptoms consistent with pain. They also looked at the marker in post-surgical humans who developed [...]... Read more »
Nissenbaum, J., Devor, M., Seltzer, Z., Gebauer, M., Michaelis, M., Tal, M., Dorfman, R., Abitbul-Yarkoni, M., Lu, Y., Elahipanah, T.... (2010) Susceptibility to chronic pain following nerve injury is genetically affected by CACNG2. Genome Research. DOI: 10.1101/gr.104976.110
McGowan PO, Sasaki A, D'Alessio AC, Dymov S, Labonté B, Szyf M, Turecki G, & Meaney MJ. (2009) Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse. Nature neuroscience, 12(3), 342-8. PMID: 19234457
- August 12, 2010
- 06:52 AM
- 646 views
Very Severely Stupid About Depression
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
An unassuming little paper in the latest Journal of Affective Disorders may change everything in the debate over antidepressants: Not as golden as standards should be: Interpretation of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.Bear with me and I'll explain. It's less boring than it looks, trust me.The Hamilton Scale (HAMD) is the most common system for rating the severity of depression. If you're only a bit down you get a low score, if you're extremely ill you get a high one. The maximum score's........ Read more »
Kriston, L., & von Wolff, A. (2010) Not as golden as standards should be: Interpretation of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Journal of Affective Disorders. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2010.07.011
Kearns, N., Cruickshank, C., McGuigan, K., Riley, S., Shaw, S., & Snaith, R. (1982) A comparison of depression rating scales. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 141(1), 45-49. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.141.1.45
- August 11, 2010
- 01:58 PM
- 756 views
Is The Child The Father of the Man?
by Jason Goldman in Child's Play
One of the fundamental themes (and a continuing debate) in developmental psychology concerns the continuity or discontinuity of temperament and personality from infancy through the rest of a child’s life and into adulthood. Some researchers believe that they have found evidence for the continuity of relatively stable personality traits through development. Despite the clear importance [...]... Read more »
Schwartz, C. (2003) Inhibited and Uninhibited Infants "Grown Up": Adult Amygdalar Response to Novelty. Science, 300(5627), 1952-1953. DOI: 10.1126/science.1083703
Caspi, A. (2000) The child is father of the man: Personality continuities from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(1), 158-172. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.78.1.158
- August 11, 2010
- 01:30 PM
- 963 views
Importance of phonemes in speech production
by Greg Hickok in Talking Brains
In a previous post I have questioned whether we need to explicitly represent phonemes in speech perception. Massaro and others have raised this issue in the past. Phonemes, the line of thinking goes, are only really important for production. There are linguistic arguments for this that I won't detail here. There is also well-known speech error data which shows that phoneme size units can break off and dislocate themselves. Here I want to highlight some evidence from aphasia. A reviewer of ........ Read more »
Nickels, L., & Howard, D. (2004) Dissociating Effects of Number of Phonemes, Number of Syllables, and Syllabic Complexity on Word Production in Aphasia: It's the Number of Phonemes that Counts. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21(1), 57-78. DOI: 10.1080/02643290342000122
- August 11, 2010
- 12:32 AM
- 697 views
Impairment of Blood Vessels in the Brain Isn't a Good Thing
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Exercise correlates with a reduced risk of suffering dementia in later life, just as excess visceral fat is correlated with an increased risk of later developing dementia. The underlying mechanisms are somewhat different, but they both boil down to the quality of the blood vessels in your brain. Impaired blood vessels mean a lower blood flow or the breakages and lesions of vascular dementia - neither of which is good for you in the long term. Another issue to consider in this context is the ongo........ Read more »
Dolan H, Crain B, Troncoso J, Resnick SM, Zonderman AB, & Obrien RJ. (2010) Atherosclerosis, dementia, and Alzheimer disease in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of aging cohort. Annals of neurology, 68(2), 231-40. PMID: 20695015
- August 11, 2010
- 12:04 AM
- 553 views
Anorexia and Estrogen
by Scicurious in Neurotic Physiology
I’m sure that most people know that anorexia occurs more often in women than in men, though overall in about 0.3-0.6% of the population. What a lot of people DON’T know is that anorexia nervosa is a highly heritable disease. In fact, cases of anorexia nervosa have been reported as early as the 16th century [...]... Read more »
Versini, A., Ramoz, N., Le Strat, Y., Scherag, S., Ehrlich, S., Boni, C., Hinney, A., Hebebrand, J., Romo, L., Guelfi, J.... (2010) Estrogen Receptor 1 Gene (ESR1) is Associated with Restrictive Anorexia Nervosa. Neuropsychopharmacology. DOI: 10.1038/npp.2010.49
- August 10, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,083 views
Anxiety and mood in people with fibromyalgia or neuropathic pain – different mechanisms
by Lorimer Moseley in BodyInMind
Professor Troels Jensen‘s clever group of researchers have published an interesting paper in the European Journal of Pain. We were thinking about writing a little spiel on it so you can get the idea and then we thought – what about asking the authors? So we did. Fortunately for us, Lise Gormsen, who has now [...]... Read more »
Gormsen L, Rosenberg R, Bach FW, & Jensen TS. (2010) Depression, anxiety, health-related quality of life and pain in patients with chronic fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain. European journal of pain (London, England), 14(2), 1270-8. PMID: 19473857
- August 9, 2010
- 01:33 PM
- 709 views
Zapping Memory Better in Alzheimer's
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Last month I wrote about how electrical stimulation of the hippocampus causes temporary amnesia - Zapping Memories Away.Now Toronto neurologists Laxton et al have tried to use deep brain stimulation (DBS) to improve memory in people with Alzheimer's disease. Progressive loss of memory is the best-known symptom of this disorder, and while some drugs are available, they provide partial relief at best.This study stems from a chance discovery by the same Toronto group. In 2008, they reported that st........ Read more »
Laxton AW, Tang-Wai DF, McAndrews MP, Zumsteg D, Wennberg R, Keren R, Wherrett J, Naglie G, Hamani C, Smith GS.... (2010) A phase I trial of deep brain stimulation of memory circuits in Alzheimer's disease. Annals of neurology. PMID: 20687206
- August 9, 2010
- 12:56 PM
- 1,397 views
Storytellers and How They Force Their Brainwaves on Their Audience
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
In a previous post, I suggested that writers were brain manipulators. Now I'm refining the description. It's more like a Vulcan mind meld.
A recent experiment by scientists at Princeton University shows neural coupling (coordinated brain activity) between a storyteller and a listener. The researchers used fMRI to scan a speaker’s brain as she told an unrehearsed story about an experience from high school. They then scanned 10 volunteers as they listened to a recording of the story.
The ba........ Read more »
Stephens GJ, Silbert LJ, & Hasson U. (2010) Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 20660768
- August 9, 2010
- 10:35 AM
- 736 views
Sugar and Cocaine, Episode TWO
by Scicurious in Neurotic Physiology
Sci had a chance to blog an interesting paper on the value of cocaine in rats (as compared to nice stuff like sugar), and someone pointed out to her that she authors had done a follow up! I think what they found in this followup is really rather exciting and has some very interesting implications [...]... Read more »
Cantin L, Lenoir M, Augier E, Vanhille N, Dubreucq S, Serre F, Vouillac C, & Ahmed SH. (2010) Cocaine is low on the value ladder of rats: possible evidence for resilience to addiction. PloS one, 5(7). PMID: 20676364
- August 9, 2010
- 08:15 AM
- 710 views
Migrating neurons clear their path
by Kevin Mitchell in Wiring the Brain
Most neurons in the brain are not born in their final position – they are generated by cell division in one part of the brain and have to migrate, sometimes over long distances, along complicated routes, to finally arrive at their pre-specified destination. This process entails an incredibly complex and dynamic set of genetic instructions and interactions between different cell types. A prime example is the migration of interneurons to the cerebral cortex – these inhibitory neurons make........ Read more »
Kaneko N, Marín O, Koike M, Hirota Y, Uchiyama Y, Wu JY, Lu Q, Tessier-Lavigne M, Alvarez-Buylla A, Okano H.... (2010) New Neurons Clear the Path of Astrocytic Processes for Their Rapid Migration in the Adult Brain. Neuron, 67(2), 213-223. PMID: 20670830
- August 6, 2010
- 12:33 PM
- 762 views
Amantadine Reduces Pathological Gambling in Parkinson's Disease
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Parkinson's disease (PD) commonly includes a variety of behavioral disturbances related to impulsivity. Impulse control problems noted in (PD) ncludes hypersexuality, compulsive shopping, compulsive eating and pathological gambling.These behavioral problems may be related to the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease. However, drugs commonly used in Parkinson's disease appear to increase the risk for impulsive behavioral problems. Clinicians face a dilemma in drug-induced behavioral ........ Read more »
Thomas A, Bonanni L, Gambi F, Di Iorio A, & Onofrj M. (2010) Pathological gambling in Parkinson disease is reduced by amantadine. Annals of neurology. PMID: 20687121
- August 6, 2010
- 01:11 AM
- 480 views
Friday Weird Science: PEEEEE… INNN….SPAAAACE!!!!
by Scicurious in Neurotic Physiology
Sci may have mentioned before just how much she loves Mary Roach’s writing (warning, the webpage has a roach on the front. I’m warning you because if you’re like Sci and have a roach phobia, it can be…unpleasant. Just scroll down to the bottom of the screen and avoid it). Mary Roach, author of Stiff: [...]... Read more »
WARD JE, HAWKINS WR, & STALLINGS HD. (1959) Physiologic response to subgravity. II. Initiation of micturition. Aerospace medicine, 572-5. PMID: 13842868
- August 5, 2010
- 11:48 PM
- 930 views
Can smoking pot make you smarter?
by Michael Slezak in Good, Bad, and Bogus
Is it possible that if you have schizophrenia, smoking marijuana will actually improve your cognitive performance?
Since this blog is often concerned with the relationship between science and its communication, something which has come up once or twice here is the way drug and alcohol research is reported in the media.
Very often, it is reported that [...]... Read more »
Yücel M, Bora E, Lubman DI, Solowij N, Brewer WJ, Cotton SM, Conus P, Takagi MJ, Fornito A, Wood SJ.... (2010) The Impact of Cannabis Use on Cognitive Functioning in Patients With Schizophrenia: A Meta-analysis of Existing Findings and New Data in a First-Episode Sample. Schizophrenia bulletin. PMID: 20660494
Frisher, M., Crome, I., Martino, O., & Croft, P. (2009) Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005. Schizophrenia Research, 113(2-3), 123-128. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2009.05.031
- August 5, 2010
- 12:35 PM
- 1,373 views
Memory, observation, and consciousness in Octopus Vulgaris
A while back, I wrote a post about short and long term memory processes in cephalopods. I wrote then that there is good evidence for a dissociation of short and long term memory process in cephalopods, but that this isn't a good basis (alone) for inferring the presence of consciousness, or in the case of arguments about animal's rights, the capacity to suffer (which, I guess, usually comes along with being conscious.) I stand by ........ Read more »
Fiorito G, & Chichery R. (1995) Lesions of the vertical lobe impair visual discrimination learning by observation in Octopus vulgaris. Neuroscience letters, 192(2), 117-20. PMID: 7675317
Fiorito, G., & Scotto, P. (1992) Observational Learning in Octopus vulgaris. Science, 256(5056), 545-547. DOI: 10.1126/science.256.5056.545
SANDERS, G. (1970) Long-term memory of a tactile discrimination in Octopus vulgaris and the effect of vertical lobe removal. Brain Research, 20(1), 59-73. DOI: 10.1016/0006-8993(70)90154-X
- August 5, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 848 views
Eyes on the edge: How archerfish see in and out of water
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Archerfish rock.
These little sharpshooters are famous for being able to spit water at an insect, not on the surface of the water, but a good ways above it. And these insects are often camouflaged to boot. Then, they have to catch the insect when it hits the water before other fish get it, or it gets swept away by any water currents.
In other words, archerfish have to calculate, perform precision maneuvers, and anticipate the outcomes of their actions.
This paper, though, looks mainly at the ........ Read more »
Temple, S., Hart, N., Marshall, N., & Collin, S. (2010) A spitting image: specializations in archerfish eyes for vision at the interface between air and water. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1694), 2607-2615. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0345
- August 4, 2010
- 03:51 PM
- 1,012 views
The genetics of dystonia in CRPS – not what we were expecting
by Lorimer Moseley in BodyInMind
The genetics of dystonia in CRPS - genes don't seem to predispose or cause dystonia in CRPS. This doesn’t mean that there is no genetic contribution, but it does mean that the genes that underpin familial dystonia are not important in CRPS-dystonia.... Read more »
[1] Fahn S. (1988) Concept and classification of dystonia. Advances in neurology, 1-8. PMID: 3041755
[2] van Rijn MA, Marinus J, Putter H, & van Hilten JJ. (2007) Onset and progression of dystonia in complex regional pain syndrome. Pain, 130(3), 287-93. PMID: 17499924
- August 4, 2010
- 03:44 PM
- 732 views
Real Time fMRI
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Wouldn't it be cool if you could measure brain activation with fMRI... right as it happens?You could lie there in the scanner and watch your brain light up. Then you could watch your brain light up some more in response to seeing your brain light up, and watch it light up even more upon seeing your brain light up in response to seeing itself light up... like putting your brain between two mirrors and getting an infinite tunnel of activations.Ok, that would probably get boring, eventually. But th........ Read more »
Hinds, O., Ghosh, S., Thompson, T., Yoo, J., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Triantafyllou, C., & Gabrieli, J. (2010) Computing moment to moment BOLD activation for real-time neurofeedback. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.07.060
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