PhysioLOLogy
“If Ralph Wiggum wasn’t intellectually inept, his claim of “It tastes like burning” could have been due to a disorder called “Synesthesia”, a ‘disorder’ of which people’s senses have their wires crossed.
Can you hear strawberry icecream? Taste light? See music? etc… People with this disorder can!!!”
”@PhysioLOLogy the 3-way illegitimate child of Phun, Phunny stuff and Physiology!
Have seized a conference room with MASSIVE whiteboards and HUGE LCD screens as computer monitors. Pumping some Dance, Alt. Rock and Electro whilst smashing out research on CCR’s (5, 6 and 7) along with related chemotactic factors and results of previous experiments and their designs….. plus learnt I need to ‘befriend’ the experimental mice…. yay.
… The Chinese students are hating on me something chronic! :P
”
It takes an artist like Björk to turn the complex process of DNA replication and transcription into something as simple and beautiful as a pop song. For the video of her song “Hollow,” from last year’s app-based album Biophilia, Björk has collaborated with biomedical animator Drew Berry to create a partly-scientific representation of the haunting song.
![neurolove:
Familial depression and cortical thickness
To continue with a discussion of how depression might manifest in the brain, I thought I would talk about bigger picture things like brain anatomy. Back in 2009, this paper was published that compared brains of 131 people with or without familial history of depression. By this, I mean that their parents or grandparents had moderate to severe depression. These were not people who had depression, but who had a high (characterized by familial history) or low risk of developing it.
They found that people who had a high risk of developing depression had a 28% thinning of right hemispheric cortex. This is a huge reduction in cortex. They hypothesized that this thinning of cortex might confer a higher risk of depression by impairing that person’s ability to attend and respond to social and emotional cues from other people.
Furthermore, though thinning on the right side likely conferred a risk of developing depression, subjects who also had thinning on the left side most often actually did develop depression or anxiety. This makes it seem like it would be a graded likelihood to developing depression… thinning on the right side makes you more highly at risk, and the more thinning you have- for instance, if it also is thinned on the left side, the more likely you are to develop depression.
[Article Source: Peterson, B., Warner, V., Bansal, R., Zhu, H., Hao, X., Liu, J., Durkin, K., Adams, P., Wickramaratne, P., & Weissman, M. (2009). Cortical thinning in persons at increased familial risk for major depression Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (15), 6273-6278 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0805311106]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzge2mKZ3K1qb6etto1_1280.jpg)
Familial depression and cortical thickness
To continue with a discussion of how depression might manifest in the brain, I thought I would talk about bigger picture things like brain anatomy. Back in 2009, this paper was published that compared brains of 131 people with or without familial history of depression. By this, I mean that their parents or grandparents had moderate to severe depression. These were not people who had depression, but who had a high (characterized by familial history) or low risk of developing it.
They found that people who had a high risk of developing depression had a 28% thinning of right hemispheric cortex. This is a huge reduction in cortex. They hypothesized that this thinning of cortex might confer a higher risk of depression by impairing that person’s ability to attend and respond to social and emotional cues from other people.
Furthermore, though thinning on the right side likely conferred a risk of developing depression, subjects who also had thinning on the left side most often actually did develop depression or anxiety. This makes it seem like it would be a graded likelihood to developing depression… thinning on the right side makes you more highly at risk, and the more thinning you have- for instance, if it also is thinned on the left side, the more likely you are to develop depression.
[Article Source: Peterson, B., Warner, V., Bansal, R., Zhu, H., Hao, X., Liu, J., Durkin, K., Adams, P., Wickramaratne, P., & Weissman, M. (2009). Cortical thinning in persons at increased familial risk for major depression Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (15), 6273-6278 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0805311106]
I know nobody will probably care… but here’s a glimpse at a few of the molecules I’ll be working with.
You’re probably wondering, “Isn’t cholesterol only for heart disease?”
No…. no it isn’t! The body is one single vessel, every molecule inside that vessel effects all the other molecules in some way.
Here’s an analogy;
In a workplace, 10 people are all together in a lift (a confined ‘isolated’ area)…. 1 of them farts… it effects the other 9 people directly. 1 of the 9 quickly opens the door and runs away going to be sick grossing everyone else out at work (it then effects everyone else indirectly).
So, in short, shit gets around and preventative measures are necessary!
Q.E.D.
ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2012) — A new marker of Alzheimer’s disease can predict how rapidly a patient’s memory and other mental abilities will decline after the disorder is diagnosed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.
In 60 patients with early…
(via neuroanatomyblog)
SENSES!
BOOM!
You’re probably wondering why I’m so excited about the senses, well, It’s ‘cos they’re so ”FREAKIN’ SWEET!” (- Peter Griffin, 2005)
The way the senses work are from the 4 things hidden in this anagram;
- Modality
- Intensity
- Location
- Timing
Confused? Let’s explain and simplify, yes, it’s possible!
Modality: The mode of which the signal is transmitted e.g. Bioelectrical, Hormonal etc.
Intensity: How “intense” is the stimulus? E.g. Noise, is it loud or quiet? Taste, is it REALLY salty or has it got just a little bit?
Location: *Ahem* ….. If you don’t understand what this means, question yourself as to why you are bothering to study this in the first place….. *Ahem*
Timing: Is the timing associated with something else that might be triggering the same or a different sense? Is the signal needed to be cross-analysed with another sense to make “sense”?
Get used to these for now and we’ll roll with more explanations and analogies later…. but for now, HERE’S A SHAVED LLAMA!!!
Tehehehehe YO LLAMA! You’re looking a tad SHEEPISH but with a long neck… and you’re not a sheep….. shut up, stop trying to mock my try-hard joke, you look ridiculous!
I swear this one looks like a sock puppet!
