Monday, 3 February 2014
Glial Cells Too Are Sensitive to the Environment
For a long time, the brain’s glial cells were assumed to be mere “filler” between the neurons. For a while after that, the glial cells were assumed to serve primarily nutritive functions. But now, year after year, research findings are showing glial cells to be more and more complex. For example, recent studies have shown their role in brain plasticity and how social isolation can disrupt it.
More and more studies indicate that people who experience severe neglect and social isolation as children display cognitive and social impairments as adults. To examine this phenomenon, two research teams recreated these unfavourable conditions for baby mice by placing them in isolation for several weeks. (more…)
From the Simple to the Complex | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Human Frontal Cortex Differs Even Genetically
The basic goal of many neuroscientific studies is to determine what makes human brains so different from those of other animal species, and in particular those of our cousins, the great apes. One such study was conducted recently by geneticist Genevieve Konopka and her team, and it yielded some very interesting findings about the frontal lobe of the brain.
One difference that scientists already knew about was that the frontal lobe accounts for a greater proportion of the total surface area of the cortex in humans than in other species (29%, compared with 17% in rhesus monkeys, 7% in dogs, and 3.5% in cats). But Konopka and her team studied differences in the expression of the genes for the various neurons that compose the frontal cortex. Specifically, the team compared the genes that are expressed (and therefore, active) in the frontal cortex of humans with those expressed in the frontal cortex of chimpanzees and macaques. The geneticists found that many of these genes are expressed differently in humans compared with these two other primate species. (more…)
Evolution and the Brain | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
Junk Food and Alzheimer’s: Closer Links Than Once Believed
For most parents, packing their kids’ school lunches in the morning may seem like just a routine task, but it turns out to be a really important one. Not only can it influence children’s future eating habits, but it may also have a major impact on their quality of life when they are old enough to be grandparents themselves.
Or at least that’s what many recent studies on Alzheimerb s-type dementia seem to suggest. What’s the connection? Children may be more likely to develop obesity and diabetes—established risk factors for Alzheimer’s—if their parents fill their lunch bags with junk food because it’s easier than arguing with them about the virtues of eating a balanced diet! (more…)
Monday, 9 December 2013
Links About Our Evolutionary Inheritance
This week, as we have before in this blog, we are posting a set of links to pages on other web sites that discuss a subject covered in The Brain from Top to Bottom, along with brief descriptions of the content of those pages.
The subject this week is the sub-topic “Our Evolutionary Inheritance”, under the topic “Evolution and the Brain”—an important topic indeed, for as the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) wrote, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” And when it comes to neurobiology, that assertion is especially apt. (more…)
Evolution and the Brain | Comments Closed
Monday, 25 November 2013
Rhythms, Pain and Consciousness in Invertebrates
This week we’d like to offer you a sort of “seafood cocktail”: links to discussions of three fundamental questions of neurobiology, as investigated using three different kinds of marine invertebrates: lobsters, crabs, and Aplysia (sea slugs).
The first link below is to an article that discusses the many rhythmic activities that can be observed in nervous systems, and in particular in that of the lobster. (more…)
Pleasure and Pain, The Emergence of Consciousness | Comments Closed
