MY FRIENDS WHEN THEY ARE TRYING TO TALK TO ME
Hahahahaha! This blog is seriously hilarious if you are a grad student studying science, or are an undergrad who spends a lot of time in the lab!
another shitty science blog
(Source: fayefactorial)
![The Brain May Disassemble Itself in Sleep
An interesting article touching on the possibility that sleep is not only involved with memory consolidation and attenuation, but also neuronal homeostatic control and tuning, which would suggest that synaptic connections and strength are weakened during sleeping hours (particularly, slow wave sleep), in order to ‘reset’ synaptic connections to baseline.
Our brains may be literally deconstructing themselves, physically, in order to organize our memories, hopes, and dreams; that they may be stronger and more well formed when we wake.
In the words of Shakespeare, [sleep]“knits up the ravell’d sleave of care.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4lb0qO5hJ1rp7bj0o1_400.jpg)
The Brain May Disassemble Itself in Sleep
An interesting article touching on the possibility that sleep is not only involved with memory consolidation and attenuation, but also neuronal homeostatic control and tuning, which would suggest that synaptic connections and strength are weakened during sleeping hours (particularly, slow wave sleep), in order to ‘reset’ synaptic connections to baseline.
Our brains may be literally deconstructing themselves, physically, in order to organize our memories, hopes, and dreams; that they may be stronger and more well formed when we wake.
In the words of Shakespeare, [sleep]“knits up the ravell’d sleave of care.”
Somehow the unstable stuff of which we are composed has learned the trick of maintaining stability
—
Walter Cannon, The Wisdom of the Body
Currently reading an article on synaptic self-tuning/homeostasis that begins its introduction with this quote; love it!
Exactly! All day, every day.
(via Dan)
I’ve been a huge fan of Ze Frank for years. He has a way of approaching things in novel and encouraging ways.
It is also worth noting that he has a degree in neuroscience from Brown University, which is particularly evident in this episode.
View Larger As odd as this may sound, I have a slight obsession with this enzyme…
Allow me to introduce Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, CaMKII. Important in memory, learning, cellular homeostasis, and many, many other things.
It has also been implicated as a possible player in the physical, structural encoding of memory onto the microtubules within each neuron.
That’s is all. Just nerding out over molecular neuroscience.
are you really working with Ed Boyden? So im not even in college yet and i take this course that has to do with independent research, and i chose optogenetics as my "topic" and its the most intriguing thing...i wish he was my mentor xDfrom Anonymous
I will not be working directly with Dr. Boyden; I will be working in the Tye lab, which is in the Picower Institute (Dr. Boyden works in MIT Media Lab). We will be using optogenetic and electophysiological methods to look at BLA (Basal lateral amygdala) projections into the mPFC (medial prefrontal cortex), in regards to emotional valances and homeostasis (I believe).
But, I hope to have a chance to meet Dr. Boyden while I am there!
Optogenetics is an incredibly fascinating and powerful technology that I really look forward to using. If you are interested in reading a very good, albeit quite dense review article on optogenetics, I would highly suggest Optogenetics in Neural Systems.
FYI, I also plan to post a short synopsis of this article soon.
Also, I am very open to questions, and conversation, so don’t feel the need to post anonymously; it is always refreshing to meet new people!
View Larger “NASA” published a photograph of the eclipse today.
Quite jealous of those who live in a part of the country where the eclipse was visible.
