I’ve been going into podcast overload lately, mainly because of this boing boing post. Wanted to alert you all to the high quality and interesting sound engineering of Radio Lab if you didn’t know about it already. I’ve jammed the Memory, Placebo, and Stress episodes so far and was pleased overall with the level of […]

Did you know that neurons have resonant properties? I didn’t know that until I read this paper from the Johnston lab down in Austin, TX. Usually I think of synaptic transmission in terms of a single action potential or other event that releases neurotransmitter, so I don’t end up in the frequency domain. But, of […]

The first genome-wide association study on human episodic memory back in 2006 showed an association between the T allele of a gene called KIBRA and better performance on certain list-learning tasks. That study contained two replications in different populations, and the outcome was independently replicated in healthy, elderly folks. Next, another group showed an association […]

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has a report out (available here) entitled, “Synthetic Genomics: Options for Governance.” I haven’t read the whole thing, but it looks to be a consideration of the options for minimizing risks associated with widespread use of this technology. They are concerned first and foremost with malicious uses followed […]

Do two points make a line? Better Memory and Neural Efficiency in Young Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 Carriers The apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon4 allele is the major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, but an APOE effect on memory performance and memory-related neurophysiology in young, healthy subjects is unknown. We found an association of APOE epsilon4 […]

Pardon the interruption, but if anyone has successfully used Parallels with a Windows XP partition in Boot Camp that is FAT 32 configured would you please drop a line (clicking the name “amnestic” above will result in a pop-up window with a contact box)? I have been combing through the knowledge bases, blog entries, and […]

One of my favorite recent ideas wondering through the literature is that of an RNA regulon or post-transcriptional operon. Operons in prokaryotes are groups of genes whose protein products all function in the same biochemical pathway. The genes are coordinated by sticking them all next to each other and transcribing all when you transcribe one. […]

AMPA receptors are the major receptors for excitatory neurotransmission. There is a firm basis for the hypothesis that synaptic plasticity and thus memory is based on the increase or decrease in the number of AMPA receptors in specific synapses. AMPA receptors are actually ligand-activated ion channels made up of subunits. Sodium passing through the AMPA […]

Rapid Erasure of Long-Term Memory Associations in the Cortex by an Inhibitor of PKM{zeta}Reut Shema, Todd Charlton Sacktor, Yadin Dudai Little is known about the neuronal mechanisms that subserve long-term memory persistence in the brain. The components of the remodeled synaptic machinery, and how they sustain the new synaptic or cellwide configuration over time, are […]

I did a poor job asking pubmed for the paper Razib mentioned earlier, but this surely does look interesting: Brain pathology in pedophilic offenders: evidence of volume reduction in the right amygdala and related diencephalic structures.Kolja Schiltz, Joachim Witzel, Georg Northoff, Kathrin Zierhut, Udo Gubka, Hermann Fellmann, Jörn Kaufmann, Claus Tempelmann, Christine Wiebking, Bernhard Bogerts […]

Recently purchased a video iPod. I am the nerd sitting outside the coffeeshop groking brain network dynamics on my tiny screen. At least my case is stylish. Here is a trove on that subject:Conference on Brain Network Dynamics, 1/26/2007 That conference was in part a tribute to Walter Freeman. Here is more from him:Poetry of […]

Kosik and colleagues used laser capture microdissection to get RNA populations from dendrites or cell bodies of cultured rat neurons. They optimized their technique so that mRNAs known to be enriched in dendrites, such as CaMKII and MAP2, showed about equal levels from soma and dendrite. They then performed multiplex PCR for several mRNAs and […]

I picked up a copy of Cerebrum 2007, a collection of essays related to neuroscience published by Dana Press. There were a couple good articles on stroke and pain (arguing that cancer patients have little danger of addiction even using infamous opioids like morphine), but I was disappointed by Henry Greely’s scaaarrry article about the […]

The Henry Stewart free ‘talk of the month’ in on vascular tissue engineering. Talk Summary Tissue engineering approaches – Different cell sources for a blood vessel substitute – Circulating endothelial progenitor cells: their characteristics, their use in a blood cell substitute and recruitment from the host circulating blood – Differentiation from ES into endothelial cells […]

There is a rather salty piece of correspondence in the new Nature Neuroscience from one Maureen Condic regarding Nature’s editorial position on the likelihood of development of ES cell-based therapies anytime soon. Apparently, Condic has a skeptical take on the issue and Nature had some disparaging words. The issues of immune rejection, tumor formation and […]

RNA interference is a process by which small (20-22 nt) RNAs bind to a fully or partially complementary messenger RNA and reduce the amount of protein product from that mRNA. The general rule is that if the match is perfect (full complementarity) then the target mRNA is cut into two pieces and destroyed forthwith. If […]

I know this isn’t the Learn Japanese forum, but when I have time for playing around I’ve been enjoying this Final Fantasy / Zelda takeoff that helps you with katakana, hiragana, and some kanji. It is called Slime Forest. The slimes attack and yell characters at you to which you must respond appropriately. Save the […]

A recent paper issue of Cell came with an ad for the Calcium Signalling series from Henry Stewart Talks. These are apparently nicely produced lecture-format videos from experts reviewing diverse areas of biology. I’m not willing to shell out the $690 it would take to view the whole thing, but they have a free talk […]

People who study glia are getting all excited about the ‘tripartite synapse’ where astrocytes that wrap around the synaptic cleft play an active role in controlling neurotransmission. Well TAKE THAT glia researchers! Selective Stimulation of Astrocyte Calcium In Situ Does Not Affect Neuronal Excitatory Synaptic ActivityTodd A. Fiacco, Cendra Agulhon, Sarah R. Taves, Jeremy Petravicz, […]

Redefinition / turnin’ your play into a tragedy / exhibit level degree on the mic / passionately – Kweli Nature has an Insight section up ostensibly about epigenetics starting with an article by Adrian Bird suggesting a re-definition. It’s free. I think the term is useful to the extent that you can predict something about […]