Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The Coming Alzheimer’s Epidemic, the Cholinergic Hypothesis, and Nerve Growth Factor Gene Therapy
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the top cause of dementia, and the top risk factor for AD is age–with almost half of people above the age of 85 suffering from the disease. With the aging baby boomer generation and medical advances squaring off the life expectancy curve, the United States is projected to have over 9 million […]
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Month in Review: July – Unconscious passwords, “gay genes,” high-less pot, and the Higgs Boson
Here are the articles I thought were tweet-worthy in July 2012. If you find the topics interesting, follow me on twitter. I really appreciate your support. July was an interesting month, including: unconscious passwords stored in procedural memory, neuroethics of the “gay gene,” Virtually THC-free (but CBD-rich) marijuana, oh and lets not forget the Higgs Boson (puts […]
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First, experimental economists and psychologists like nobel laureates Vernon L. Smith and Daniel Kahneman taught us that we aren’t economically rational–we’re influenced by biases and we use flawed heuristics (though often in very testable, repeatable ways).(1) Then, Neuroeconomists showed that biology affects economic decisions–internasal oxytocin raises trust in risky exchanges, serum serotonin levels predict whether […]
Filed under: Anatomy, Behavior, Dorsolateral PFC, Field / Technique, fMRI, Genetics, Genoeconomics, Human, Insula, Neuroeconomics, oxytocin, Peptides, Uncategorized, Vasopressin | Leave a Comment
Using machine learning, Harvard researchers create a web-based tool to diagnose autism in minutes
Original full text of the study available from Translational Psychiatry here. Conventionally, children are diagnosed using Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised (ADI-R) a 93-question survey, and/or the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) which measures behavior. The two test can take up to 2.5 hours and must be administered by clinical professionals. Dennis Wall–the lead author of the paper and director […]
Filed under: Autism, Behavior, Disease, Human, Psychiatric, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Imagine cold fingers creeping up someone’s calf. Now imagine that whenever you saw someone else being touched, you would feel the sensation on your own body. That is mirror-touch synesthesia. Psychologists at UCL verified mirror-touch synesthesia and further showed its linked with heightened empathy in their report in Nature Neuroscience.
Filed under: Behavior, Genetics, Human, SNPs, Uncategorized | 30 Comments
Just saw Paul Garrity present an interesting story on the function and evolution of TRPA1–a chemical and temperature sensitive cation channel of the transient receptor potential family. He initially discovered TRPA1’s role in thermosensation using an RNAi screening of drosophila larvae on a thermal gradient. As small ectotherms (a term which essentially means cold-blooded), drosophila […]
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Tags: Drosophila, Genetics, Molecular, Receptors, Transient Receptor Potential, TRPA1
Today was a two-lecture day at MIT. I’ll just post about the first for now. Bertil Hille, PhD, from the University of Washington, lectured on G-protein signal transduction, specifically slow effects due to PIP2 (Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate) depletion–which was first shown in his lab by Byung-Chang Suh in 2001. Psychiatrists, in addition to biophysicists and neuroscientists, […]
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Tags: G-Proteins, MIT Lectures, PIP2, Signal Transduction
Ben Kuebrich
Neuroamer 