Author: Natalie Banacos
Black Swans and Tiger Moms
I am surprising myself this week by delving into the more psychological and less biological side of neuroscience. Upon seeing the haunting Black Swan over winter break, I was immediately intrigued by its psychological underpinnings. Not long afterward, a friend showed me a fitting article from the Wall Street Journal titled, “Why Chinese Mothers are […]
Atkins for Epilepsy?
…Well, it’s not exactly Atkins, but the ketogenic (or “keto,” for short) diet is now being prescribed as a treatment for drug-resistant pediatric epilepsy. This low-carb, high-fat diet involves eggs, cheese, yogurt, and cream all to a seemingly unreasonable and unhealthy extent. Patients require supplements to stay healthy and grow, and must drink enough fluids […]
A Medical Molecular Mechanism
Tired of hearing about halogenation and hydrogenation reaction mechanisms? Keep that organic chemistry book open, because it gets better: At Columbia University Medical Center, researchers have discovered the reason for the build-up of harmful proteins in Parkinson’s patients. The scientists have worked out a mechanism for the build-up of a class of proteins known as […]
Light-Up Brains
Studying neurological disorders and identifying the brain regions associated with them often involves selective activation and deactivation of neurons. Blue light has been used in the past to activate cells, but recently Stanford University neuroscientists have figured out a way to use different colors of light to inhibit neurons. Their growing area of research, optogenetics, […]
Piano Teachers Must Be Neuroscientists
The familiar mantra “practice makes perfect” may be taken too literally. The definition of effective practice as the constant repetition of a particular exercise – a golf swing, a tennis serve, a dance step – is faulty, as it turns out. Time has reported on a study published in Nature Neuroscience by neuroscientists at the University […]
Use Your Brain: Lower Your Cholesterol
This month in Nature Neuroscience an article was published by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (Perez-Tilve et al.) detailing the effects of the neuroendocrine system on cholesterol levels. According to the article, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol) is difficult to treat as a whole because there isn’t much known about the molecular origin of the […]