Wax anatomical model of human head, Europe, 1801-1900
The layers of this wax anatomical model of a human head have been peeled back to reveal the underlying structure of the brain and the meninges (the protective covering of the brain). The model may have been used to teach medical students the anatomy of the brain or have been made for medical exhibitions open to the general public.
Separation of a cell
This illustration shows a cell undergoing mitosis or “cell division.” The cell membrane is shown in blue, and the cell’s chromosomes are shown in yellow. Mitosis is a well-studied and well-imaged phenomenon in two-dimensional images, but it’s never before been seen quite like this. What makes this image special is the use of a new fluorescent protein called MiniSOG, shown flying out of the cell.
Image courtesy of Andrew Noske and Thomas Deerinck (National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego); Horng Ou and Clodagh O’Shea (Salk Institute).
(Source: MSNBC)
360 degree brain
This interactive feature gives visitors a chance to get a close-up of the brain’s structure. This brain was removed from a man’s skull shortly after his death and came from the Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank at Imperial College.
How Driving a Taxi Changes London Cabbies’ Brains
Every black-cab driver in central London has to have “The Knowledge” — a memorized map of the capital, including some 25,000 streets and thousands of landmarks, right down to the order of theaters on Shaftesbury Avenue.
It’s a brutal learning process that can take three to four years to complete, with a final test — the Knowledge of London Examination System — that often takes 12 attempts to pass. Even then, ultimately only half of the trainee cabbies ace the exam.
According to a report published in the journal Current Biology, successfully learning this mental atlas of London’s spaghetti streets causes structural changes in the brain, affects memory and creates a greater volume of nerve cells in the brain’s hippocampus.
Music to Your Brain by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham
New Treatment for ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Syndrome?
Most of us have experienced it: that dull, dragging semi-conscious state of deadened awareness and desperate urge to nap that comes from sleep deprivation. For people with primary hypersomnia, however, this is the way they go through life, constantly feeling only half-awake but never able to get enough good sleep to arise truly refreshed. Also known as “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome,” the condition leaves those with the worst cases languishing in bed in what seems like the opposite of a fairy tale, without a prince’s kiss to cure them.
But a new study, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggests both a possible cause and a potential treatment for the condition, which may ultimately lead to treatments for other sleep disorders. The origin of primary hypersomnia, which has some genetic components is still unknown, as is the number of people who are affected by it.
One particularly striking form of the disease, Kleine-Levin syndrome, produces such tiredness and sleep-drunkenness that people are unable to attend school or work. In males, it can include hypersexual behavior, compulsive masturbation, a desire for promiscuous sex or making inappropriate sexual advances, all while in a sleepy, semi-conscious state.
In the latest study, researchers led by David Rye of Emory University in Atlanta studied 10 men and 22 women seeking treatment for primary hypersomnia. In the patients’ spinal fluid, the scientists discovered a previously uncharacterized chemical that stimulates the GABA-A receptor. This receptor is best known as the site where sleep-inducing drugs like Valium and Xanax have their effects, since activating GABA-A receptors can result in drowsiness.
The finding suggested a possible treatment. A drug, known as flumanezil can treat Valium and Xanax overdoses or to reverse the effects of related compounds used in anesthesia. Could it block or reverse the effects of the unknown agent that was activating GABA-A receptors in primary hypersomnia?
The authors conducted a brief placebo controlled trial with seven patients—including one with Kleine-Levin symptoms — to find out. Indeed, injections of flumanezil improved the participants’ ability to pay attention and remain alert. One participant has now taken the drug daily for four years. “Although her nightly sleep duration remained at 9 to 10 hours, she nearly always awakened refreshed without an alarm and daytime sleepiness was markedly reduced,” the researchers write.
Teenager Suffering From “Sleeping Beauty” Syndrome
Kleine-Levin syndrome is a rare sleep disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of excessive sleep and altered behaviour. People affected by this syndrome may sleep for up to 20 hours per day (hypersomnia), waking only to eat or go to the bathroom. The start of each episode is characterised by progressive drowsiness and episodes may last for days, weeks, or even months.
During episodes, other symptoms experienced include:
Episodes are debilitating and during an episode normal daily activities, such as work or school, stop. On recovery, total or partial loss of memory (amnesia) of what has happened is usual. There may be a short period of depression, or sometimes euphoria and sleeplessness. Episodes may not occur for weeks, months or even years, but then reappear without warning.
Between episodes, physical and mental health is usually normal. There appears to be no relationship between Kleine-Levin syndrome and other neurological disorders, such as epilepsy. This syndrome occurs mostly in young males between the ages of 15 and 25 years. It is uncommon after the age of 40 years. The cause of Kleine-Levin syndrome is unknown.
Diagnosis and Treatment
As disturbance of sleep and altered behaviour may accompany a number of physical and psychiatric conditions, diagnosis of Kleine-Levin syndrome is often difficult and delayed. In order to make an accurate diagnosis a careful medical history needs to be taken and tests to rule out other conditions should be performed. These tests may include blood tests and sleep studies.
The person may be referred to various specialists, including a psychiatrist and neurologist. The neurologist will undertake an evaluation of the nervous system to exclude structural abnormalities of the brain. The psychiatrist will look at any underlying behavioural problems.
Currently there is no formal treatment for Kleine-Levin syndrome due to the lack of knowledge regarding its underlying cause. Stimulant medications, such as amphetamines, may be prescribed to treat sleepiness. Medications to treat mood disturbances and depression may also be recommended.
(Source: Southern Cross)
… and does Google and Wikipedia make it better or worse? Studies show that other people and tools influence our brain power as much as our own minds.
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Research shows that people don’t tend to rely on their memories for things they can easily access. Things like the world in front of our eyes, for example, can be changed quite radically without people noticing. Experiments have shown that buildings can somehow disappear from pictures we’re looking at, or the people we’re talking to can be switched with someone else, and often we won’t notice – a phenomenon called “change blindness”. This isn’t as an example of human stupidity – far from it, in fact – this is an example of mental efficiency. The mind relies on the world as a better record than memory, and usually that’s a good assumption.
As a result, philosophers have suggested that the mind is designed to spread itself out over the environment. So much so that, they suggest, the thinking is really happening in the environment as much as it is happening in our brains. The philosopher Andy Clark called humans “natural born cyborgs”, beings with minds that naturally incorporate new tools, ideas and abilities. From Clark’s perspective, the route to a solution is not the issue – having the right tools really does mean you know the answers, just as much as already knowing the answer.
Relating the function of neuronal cell types to information processing and behavior is a central goal of neuroscience. In the hippocampus, pyramidal cells in CA1 and the subiculum process sensory and motor cues to form a cognitive map encoding spatial, contextual, and emotional information, which they transmit throughout the brain. Do these cells constitute a single class or are there multiple cell types with specialized functions? Using unbiased cluster analysis, we show that there are two morphologically and electrophysiologically distinct principal cell types that carry hippocampal output. We show further that these two cell types are inversely modulated by the synergistic action of glutamate and acetylcholine acting on metabotropic receptors that are central to hippocampal function. Combined with prior connectivity studies, our results support a model of hippocampal processing in which the two pyramidal cell types are predominantly segregated into two parallel pathways that process distinct modalities of information.
Capturing living cells in micro pyramids
A field full of pyramids, but on a micro scale. Each of the pyramids hides a living cell. Thanks to 3D micro- and nano scale fabrication, promising new applications can be found. One of them is applying the micro pyramids for cell research: thanks to the open ‘walls’ of the pyramids, the cells interact. Scientists of the research institutes MESA+ and MIRA of the University of Twente in The Netherlands present this new technology and first applications in Small journal of the beginning of December.
Most of the cell studies take place in 2D: this is not a natural situation, because cells organize themselves in another way than in the human body. If you give the cells room to move in three dimensions, the natural situation is approached in a better way while capturing them in an array. This is possible in the ‘open pyramids’ fabricated in the NanoLab of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente.
Tiny corner remains filled
The cleanroom technology applied for this, has been discovered by coincidence and is now called ‘corner lithography’. If you join a number of flat silicon surface in a sharp corner, it is possible to deposit another material on them. After having removed the material, however, a small amount of material remains in the corner. This tiny tip can be used for an Atomic Force Microscope, or, in this case, for forming a micro pyramid.
Catching cells
In cooperation with UT’s MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, the nanoscientists have explored the possibilities of applying the pyramids as ‘cages’ for cells. First experiments with polystyrene balls worked out well. The next experiments involved capturing chondrocytes, cells forming cartilage. Moved by capillary fluid flow, these cells automatically ‘fall’ into the pyramid through a hole at the bottom. Soon after they settle in their 3D cage, cells begin to interact with cells in adjacent pyramids. Changes in the phenotype of the cell can now be studied in a better way than in the usual 2D situation. It is therefore a promising tool to be used in for example tissue regeneration research.
The Dutch scientists expect to develop extensions tot this technology: the edges of the pyramid can be made hollow and function as fluid channels. Between the pyramids, it is also possible to create nanofluidic channels, for example used to feed the cells.