May 2013
9 posts
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World Science Festival | May 29 - June 2, 2013 →
Minds Expanded. 5 Days. 50 Events. Infinite Ideas.
The World Science Festival (WSF) is back in NYC and kicking off next week :) The festival is not specific to neuroscience but there will be a lot of neuroscience related events. This year, scientists from NYU/Columbia/Sinai will man a brain table on Brain Boulevard at the Ultimate Science Street Fair in Washington Square Park on Sunday, June 2,...
nicolecaruana92 asked: Hello, I have a Bachelors in Psychology and am currently applying for a Masters in Cognitive neuroscience at UCL. In my application i've been asked to submit what type of research i'm interested in. Do you have any tips with regards to latest research in this field or what you would write about so that I have more chance of my application being accepted? Kind regards Nicole Caruana...
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NIH Details Impact of 2013 Sequester Cuts →
After weeks of worrying about how the mandatory across-the-board 2013 budget cuts known as the sequester would play out at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the biomedical research community now has final figures. The bottom line is as grim as expected: The agency’s overall budget will fall by $1.55 billion compared to 2012, to $29.15 billion, a cut of about 5%, according to an...
moosickstuffs asked: Oh, and I too find your blog extremely interesting and enjoyable. Keep it up.
moosickstuffs asked: Though I can understand the principle of this ask, IQ has been historically criticized and recently officially debunked, and as such giving specific stats is kind of anti-progressionist because it simply gives you an arbitrary figure of a test score commonly misconceived to be an even remotely accurate measure of intelligence. It appears to be more beneficial, when in fact it is the opposite.
forgetti-on-toast asked: For that last study you presented you might want to put the average declines they reported in your account of it. I'd say it makes it a bit more accessible and clear when you can say "an average decline of 6 IQ points" rather than just the more vague 'loss of IQ'. I dunno if you'd want to talk about p values as well bearing in mind how much they varied, I guess...
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Long-term Effects of Cannabis Use on Memory and...
Cannabis is easily the most widely used illegal substance in the world. Although it still illegal at federal level, Washington and Colorado have legalized recreational cannabis use. Studies examining the relationship between marijuana use and neuropsychological function should be taken into consideration when making/reforming laws and health policies. I have received multiple questions regarding...
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Terminal Lucidity
I was introduced to this concept last week while I was attending the funeral of someone who was thought to have experienced this during his last day alive. I visited the home where he passed away and was told that the nurses and family members were in awe of his passing because he had become “another person” during his last days of life. Some aspects of his memory seemed to have come...
zombieslurpy asked: Hi, just curious, what made you want to study neuroscience? Was it like an extremely influential person, or did you come by it yourself?
March 2013
8 posts
“There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our...”
– Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
marthacharlove asked: Aloha! We loved your article & have also found in counseling hundreds of people and exploring gut instincts that the gut has much more to tell us about ourselves than when we need food and when we do not. We hope you will look at our work and research on this subject in our book "What's Behind Your Belly Button? A Psychological Perspective of the intelligence of Human Nature and Gut...
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Inside the NYU Community Brain Fair
Hi guys!
Just wanted to give you an update regarding the NYU Community Brain Fair and NYC Brain Awareness Week… In regards to the Brain Fair, we’re still here! So feel free to drop by and visit one of our many exhibits. Topics covered include : History of Neuroscience, Top 10 Brain Myths, Famous Brains (think H.M., Oliver Sacks, and Chuck Close), Chemical Senses,...
Anonymous asked: Hi There! My name is Kathryn and I just recently came across your blog. In May I graduated from NYU's Applied Psychology program and am currently taking a gap year (or two or three) to figure out where to go from here. I was excited to see that your interests are very similar to mine and even more excited to see that you also go to NYU. I'm thinking about pursing neurology and would like...
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The "Cinderella Effect" →
The Cinderella Effect is a term in evolutionary psychology that refers to higher incidence of maltreatment and/or abuse in children by step-parents compared to biological parents.
From an evolutionary perspective, natural selection has favored intensive parental care in humans. Thus, parents have to commit a lot of time and resources to raise children. Moreover, parents also have to be able to...
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February 2013
0 posts
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January 2013
6 posts
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boudu asked: Hey! What do you know about the resulting effects of abuse and neglect on brain development? I know about Perry's work with Romanian orphans. Anything else? Also, why are Romanian orphans so widely cited in psychology work? Or am I just noticing something that isn't there?
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aebl asked: I've been looking for scholarly articles on neurotransmitters and their relations to learning, and memory. Would you be able to recommend any? Greatly appreciated.
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I just wanted to say your blog is really great,...
Hey, thanks! I seem to be getting a lot of questions relating to the criminal mind nowadays…
Here’s an abstract of an article by one of the leading people in that field:
A cognitive neuroscience perspective on psychopathy: evidence for paralimbic system dysfunction.
Kiehl KA.
Source
Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT 06106, USA....
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PKMzeta Memory Molecule Theory Debunked
2013 started off with a neuroscience bang! Prior to January 2, 2013, the prevailing notion of how long term memories are formed was centered around an enzyme called PKM zeta (also known as PKC zeta). As an enzyme, PKMzeta is special due to its lack of an autoinhibitory regulatory domain, it is constitutively and persistently active- meaning that it is always “ON”. In 2007, Dudai and...
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“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances:...”
– Carl Jung
November 2012
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Is Medical Science Built on Shaky Foundations? →
Replication of empirical findings is the cornerstone of science. To me, reproducibility of the data is actually a qualifier for an experiment/project to be considered “science”. However, multiple groups are finding something that makes me and many other members of the scientific community REALLY uncomfortable- failure to replicate experimental results published in top tier journals...
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laryssanykol asked: I don't have anything to ask, but man your blog is one of the best out there! Keep up the great info! Such a joy to read!!!
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Dialogues Lecture: Artist Chuck Close and the... →
How does a portrait artist paint if he has face blindness? Thousands of neuroscientists had the opportunity to ask artist Chuck Close this question during his keynote address at Neuroscience 2012 in October.
Close has produced iconic works of art while coping with serious impairments of body and brain: he experienced a spinal artery collapse and subsequent paralysis in 1988, and has the disorder...
October 2012
13 posts
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Made the 40K mark
You guys are awesome. Thank you so much!
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cdnfoodie asked: Very cool blog! I'm a first year in the neuroscience track at Sackler, so I was surprised/excited to see you're an upper year. Looking forward to reading more posts!
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Motherhood Exerts a Protective Effect Against Drug...
Are you a mother? If so, research presented at SfN suggests that you are less likely to develop a drug addiction problem. Behavioral research from the Becker lab at U Michigan-Ann Arbor has shown that motherhood alters a female rat’s response to cocaine in a way that attenuates (i.e. dampens) her drug abuse liability. For example, the group found that virgin rats will not only press a lever more...
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Identification and manipulation of a subset of...
Recent research coming out of the Tonegawa lab at MIT has provided evidence that memories actually reside in specific neural ensembles- suggested to be the cellular correlates of memory engrams (i.e. memory trace) by showing that the activation of a subset of neurons involved during learning is sufficient to re-instate memory recall.
Specifically, they combined an inducible and activity-dependent...
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Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light →
Above is a link to an extended article (also a web exclusive) written by Karl Deisseroth for Scientific American in 2010- a highly recommended read. So who exactly is Karl Deisseroth? In the neuroscience community, he is most well-known for creating, developing and disseminating optogenetics- the combination genetics and optics to control specific and well-defined neural evens in specific cells...
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Society for Neuroscience launches new Neuroscience... →
BrainFacts.org is dedicated to sharing knowledge about the wonders of the brain and mind, engaging the public in dialogue about brain research, and dispelling common “neuromyths. It is a great resource for educators and students, with a focus on providing teaching resources.
Featured resources include:
*Key concepts about brain function; summaries of promising research discoveries;...
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HoM Blogging at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience... →
Hi followers :)
Just wanted to give you the heads up that I am back in business and very pleased I get to reconnect with all of you via my participation as an official 2012 SfN neuroblogger! I am not the only one blogging about the meeting and there are multiple topics being covered by different bloggers. For a full list, please click on the link above.
I know it has been a while but since the...
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September 2012
1 post
theabsenceofsense asked: hey i just wanted to thank you for this blog!! im a med student currently 'studying' neuroscience and as much as i absolutely love this topic, im a champion procrastinator (basically im just a very lazy person). this blog makes me feel like im not studying but i can read through and learn stuff so its great:)
August 2012
3 posts
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“The neural processes underlying that which we call creativity have nothing to do...”
– Rodolfo R. Llinás, I of the Vortex: From Neurons to Self
(Also a professor at NYU Med!)
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Upcoming Events at the New York Academy of... →
Being a graduate student at NYU has many perks. One of the best ones, in my opinion, is that we get a paid student membership to the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) for the entire duration of your Ph.D. study. Amazing, I know! Sometimes I actually feel a little guilty about not taking the maximum advantage of this opportunity. Thus, this year I have decided to be more proactive about going...
July 2012
5 posts
punkiraq asked: Congratulations on your exams!
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WHEN IM QUALIFIED
whatshouldwecallgradschool:
I am pleased to announce that I passed my qualifying exam with flying colors and am now a PhD candidate at the NYU Neuroscience and Physiology program. #shitjustgotreal
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Update: I propose in less than 72 hours!
Hi followers :)
In case you have been wondering where I went, I can be found under piles of research articles covering topics from programming effects of infant experiences to the development of the mesolimbic dopamine system to the functional emergence of dopamine receptors to the amygdala’s contribution to social behavior.
I just wanted to let all of you know that I haven’t...
