the nerve blog |
Nice to…smell you?
Shaking hands dates back centuries, with many cultural explanations to back up the ancient customs. One study suggests that the true reason we shake hands is to find out what this new friend smells like. Why? Smell is a “socially significant chemical signal,” used by many other species in social interactions. The researchers conducting this […]
The Mystery of the Human Connectome
Did anyone read that article in BU today last week called “Untangling the Connectome?” In case you didn’t, here’s a brief synopsis. Dr. Kasthuri and his lab members are working on identifying the connections between the neurons in the human brain. This has been done before for C. elegans, which have only 302 neurons (compared to […]
An Understanding of Language-Processing with Audiobooks
When I read a book such as the one about the romantic life of Peeta and Katniss, I delve into the lives of the characters so much that I worry about myself because I relate myself to the characters’ fantastical lives. All readers face this and that is incredible. Neuroscientists like Roel Willems and Annabel Nijhof […]
Is iPhone Separation Anxiety Real?
Have you ever searched for a ringing phone, feeling your anxiety increase with each ring? Or experienced a mini heart attack when you thought you lost your phone only to discover it was in a different pocket? Most older generations would criticize you for being so obsessed with technology, but recent studies have shown that […]
Optogenetics: Using Light to Turn Memories On and Off
Scientists have known about rhodopsins that are responsible for sensing light for a while. What if there was a way to insert those rhodopsins inside neurons? That’s exactly what scientists were experimenting with in the early 2000s and it’s this idea that lead to the birth of optogenetics. By taking the DNA of channel rhodopsins […]
New Huntington’s disease clinical trial to enter Phase 1 in 2015
Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that slowly diminishes one’s ability to walk, talk, and reason until eventually control is completely lost. HD is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder, so everyone who carries the gene is guaranteed to develop the disease and will have a 50% chance of passing it on. Currently, there is […]
The Miracle of Neurogenesis
Neurogenesis occurs in two areas in the human adult: in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and in the olfactory system. The hippocampus is vital to learning new information and memory consolidation, thus it makes sense that new neurons need to be born in that region. The olfactory system is needs neurogenesis to process to […]
Food Addiction- Why You Can’t Eat Just One Oreo
Nothing is better than satisfying a craving for junk food. Be it Oreos, chips, or chocolate, digging into your favorite snack is probably the best feeling in the world. But what happens when junk food stops becoming a guilty pleasure and instead becomes a real addiction? Research has discovered that sugar is more addictive than […]
Is the brain the only place that stores our memories?
Do you ever think about your childhood or replay an event in your head that happened 15 years ago but its so vivid that it seems like it happened yesterday? Do you ever hear something and think it sounds like your favorite song and then start singing that song? These are memories that were formed […]
An Introduction to Sensory Processing Disorder
Sensory Processing Disorder(SPD) is a disorder that impairs processing of sensory information in the brain. For children it can cause klutziness, an inability to properly orient the body, poor fine motor skills, and a hypersensitivity to sound. In summary, this disorder makes it very difficult to process incoming information. The condition is very common for […]