Neuroscience deals with the structure and function of the nervous system and its components in biological organisms.
3
votes
1answer
70 views
Neuroscience of temperature regulation and perception
The hypothalamus is known to be important in the regulation of body temperature, but I'm curious whether anyone knows about the neurocircuitry of perceived temperature. It seems like there could be a ...
5
votes
2answers
75 views
Is warmth/temperature sensed linearly or on a different scale?
I understand that the atmospheric temperature is sensed relative to external body temperature. However, is the sensation of warmth registered linearly, or is it on a logarithmic scale, similar to ...
2
votes
0answers
50 views
In scuba diving, are nitrogen narcosis and high pressure nervous syndrome the same thing?
In training for scuba diving, they tell you that when you're bellow 100 ft or so you have to watch out for changes in mental state that resemble drunkenness. The cause of these mental disturbances is ...
13
votes
2answers
241 views
How is temperature sensed?
Can anyone summarize the mechanism by which when an object of a given temperature is placed in contact with, say, the skin on a human fingertip, the average speed of the particles of the object is ...
3
votes
2answers
95 views
Can children restore brain cells?
By "children" I mean young people at the age of 10 or lower.
I know that the adult brain cannot restore brain cells, but what about children? I mean, the brain must develop from a few cells to a 90 ...
8
votes
2answers
202 views
Do memories have mass?
If it were possible to live forever, would our brains grow infinitely with the number of memories that we store? Or would we remove old memories as we create new ones?
1
vote
3answers
123 views
Action Potential Distribution On Synapses
This is a biology+physics question. Since there is no biology section, I am asking here.
In brain, when a neuron reaches to threshold value, it fires an action potential. In most graphics, that is ...
3
votes
2answers
125 views
Does the speed of electrical impulses through neurones decrease with age?
From what I read on the NatGeo app, it stated that the speed of the electrical impulses that are sent by a neurone will be approximately 332 kilometers per hour.
Will the speed of this electrical ...
14
votes
2answers
624 views
How and where, in the human brain, are memories stored?
Background
I am a computer programmer who is fascinated by artificial intelligence and artificial neural networks, and I am becoming more curious about how biological neural networks work.
Context ...
5
votes
1answer
170 views
How do neurons form new connections in brain plasticity?
I've been reading about brain plasticity and how the brain can "rewire" itself.
One of the things that is not clear to me - how neurons can establish new connections. Does this rewiring mean that ...
8
votes
1answer
116 views
What are the “stars” we see after a bump on the head?
Sorry if this might appear funny. When I close my eyes for a longer time, and suddenly open it, I see some twinkling white small circles, and when i concentrate on anyone of them it disappears, as ...
3
votes
2answers
160 views
Why is Botulinum toxin the most potent poison known?
Botulinum toxin (trade name Botox) inhibits acetylcholine release in neurons and causes botulism, an acute paralytic disease which leads to nerve degeneration and takes a long time to recover. I've ...
2
votes
3answers
141 views
Is there such thing as “half-life” of dopamine?
If a dopamine is released at T=0 and binds to receptor D2, what determines the time when the concentration of this neurotransmitter bound to the receptor reaches half of the original concentration? In ...
1
vote
0answers
69 views
What triggers creative thought in humans?
Creativity, innovation and ideation. Is there something in the brain that makes the brain think that way, as opposed to "normal baseline". What triggers creative thought in humans?
4
votes
1answer
94 views
Do effects of caffeine on human body change with habitual use?
I've been reading about homeostatic nature of a lot of neurobiological processes - the brain is trying to maintain a balance by desensitizing receptors, re-uptaking and breaking down ...
2
votes
0answers
114 views
Are inflammation and anxiety connected?
I've been reading a curious paper about the use of cannabis, and one of the passages piqued my interest:
There’s also been a lot of work done on another constituent of
marijuana, cannabinoid, ...
2
votes
1answer
50 views
How stable is in vivo whole cell patch clamping?
For a head fixed animal, how stable is the current state-of-the-art whole cell recording from a cortical neuron? The animal's breathing, and heart beat must move the neuron relative to the recording ...
3
votes
1answer
188 views
Is “tonic activity” common for neurons firing in the brain?
I've been reading about Dorsal Raphe Nucleus, a serotonin- rich part of the brain. I noticed mentioning of "tonic activity" - regular pulsing that releases neurotransmitters. On top of this "tone" the ...
3
votes
2answers
85 views
How is propagation of action potentials terminated once the “message” has been sent/received?
I'm thinking about neurons in the brain that are used for "thinking". As I read about action potentials, I see that an Axon is connected to a Dendrite of a neighboring cell and that there are ...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
The relationship between the currents of intracellular and extracellular ions of a cell
In a cell, assume that only sodium, potassium, chloride and calcium ions can cross the membrane and their currents are: $I_{Na}$, $I_{K}$, $I_{Cl}$ and $I_{Ca}$, across the whole membrane. There is ...
1
vote
0answers
30 views
Does Dorsal Raphe Nuclei firing pattern change in response to voluntary breathing?
I'm reading this paper, which discusses how Serotonin may be involved in motor functions of mammals: 5-HT and motor control: a hypothesis .
The paper includes the following diagram of the Dorsal ...
24
votes
4answers
600 views
Human perception of time depending on age
From what I can tell and what thus far all people with whom I discussed this subject confirmed is that time appears to "accelerate" as we age.
Digging a little, most explanations I found basically ...
0
votes
0answers
65 views
Could somebody explain this to me in layman terms [closed]
this is the conclusion of my fathers report
A calcified broad based right paracentral disk protrusion at C3–4, producing marked compression of traversing & foraminal right C4 nerve root & ...
4
votes
1answer
82 views
What protocol does the nervous system use?
I just read How does an inhibitory synapse communicate to the cell body of a neuron? and found myself asking this question ... hopefully I'm not asking the same thing
Any body possessed of a nervous ...
6
votes
2answers
2k views
If the brain has no pain receptors, how come you can get a headache?
I've read many years ago in books, that the brain has no nerves on it, and if someone was touching your brain, you couldn't feel a thing.
Just two days before now, I had a very bad migraine, due to a ...
7
votes
1answer
53 views
How well does it actually work to surgically reroute the optical nerve?
Two publications, Roe et al, 1992[1] and Metin & Frost, 1989[2], describe results pertaining to the ability of a region of cortex to process information from a different sensory mode than the one ...
1
vote
0answers
70 views
Why is membrane potential not zero at equilibrium?
For the squid giant axon, the membrane potential computed by the Goldman equation is -60mV. And the Nernst potentials are (the differences between the K+ and the Na+'s Nernst potential and the ...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
What is the biological basis for the perception of time?
How is the "time axis" of memories encoded in the brain? I guess the time of the event could be "stored" with each event, but how is this translated into neurons etc.?
4
votes
0answers
44 views
What light intensity determines the start/end of a photoperiod in humans?
I'm reading this article, which discusses the influence of Long Photoperiod (LP) and Short Photoperiod (SP) on melatonin production:
HIOMT drives the photoperiodic changes in the amplitude of the ...
4
votes
1answer
154 views
Is there a relationship between Melatonin, Norepinephrine and depression in humans?
I'm reading a booklet on melatonin published in 1996, titled "Melatonin and the Biological Clock". This particular paragraph caught my attention and I would like to better understand what it means:
...
4
votes
1answer
69 views
Bugs' love for light
Do bugs love light bulbs because they resemble the stars or is it the sun? How do they sense the bulb? What is the purpose of this "brightophilia" that has evolved in insects?
4
votes
2answers
171 views
Under what circumstances will a human neuron divide?
I read somewhere that a mature neuron loses its ability to divide, except for very specific situations. I was unable to find the description of those situations. What are they?
(I'm sorry I'm not ...
8
votes
3answers
222 views
Long-term-potentiation and memory. Where do we stand?
I was reading the answers to the question: How and where, in the human brain, are memories stored? and, as expected, LTP and LTD came out.
Every time I read about LTP/LTD there is always something ...
10
votes
2answers
260 views
Could an “overactive” brain increase the chances of Alzheimer's Disease?
From Raichle ME. 2010. Two views of brain function. Trends in cognitive sciences 14: 180–90:
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of progressive
cognitive decline and dementia in ...
9
votes
1answer
95 views
Is there a biophysical causation from local field potential (LFP) to spikes?
Many experiments showed that neurons tend to fire at some phase (usually trough) of local field potential (LFP) oscillations, such as theta or gamma rhythm. LFP is supposedly generated by a population ...
5
votes
0answers
62 views
Pharmacologically, can tricyclic antidepressants have a side-effect profile similar to neuroleptics?
Torticollis (wryneck, cervical dystonia) is a neurologic movement disorder causing involuntary muscle spasms in the neck. Often, neuroleptics can cause such a side effect. I'm wondering if this ...
22
votes
3answers
3k views
How does the brain's energy consumption depend on mental activity?
What is the impact of mental activity on the energy consumption of the human brain?
I am most interested in intellectually demanding tasks (e.g., chess matches, solving a puzzle, taking a difficult ...
5
votes
1answer
60 views
on/off behavior of neural networks
What causes a group of disembodied neurons in a dish to fire after a silence? If there are no neurons providing a stimulus for more firing (as in a dish of disembodied rat neurons), then why don't ...
6
votes
1answer
71 views
If a non-mammal is starved of oxygen for some time, how long would it take the animal's neurons to die?
This is a follow-up question to Why do neurons die so quickly (relative to other cells) when deprived of oxygen?.
I'm particularly interested in the case of reptiles, octopuses, and other ...
7
votes
3answers
163 views
What alternatives are there to the amyloid hypothesis?
Given the recent failure of the Bapi clinical trial, there is a lot of questions that have arised from he amyloid hypothesis. However, I can't really think of many other mechanisms that don't involved ...
4
votes
1answer
118 views
Is there a way for a 19th century scientist to prove that the octopus doesn't revive?
Say a sophiscated scientist in the 19th century noted that applying soy sauce on a dead octopus leads to movement of the legs, as a result of the voltage differences resulting from the salt in the soy ...
2
votes
1answer
30 views
Could silicon oil block Na+ ion channels in the membrane of an axon and prevent Na+ influx?
Could silicon oil block Na+ ion channels in the membrane of an axon and prevent Na+ influx?
I have been wondering if Na+ influx could have been a diluting factor in anterograde fills. If so, could ...
11
votes
2answers
286 views
When did vision evolve for the first time?
Today I wondered what the first organism to evolve vision would have been. I assume that it would have been kind of primitive and basic, but of course extremely innovative and eventually useful to a ...
4
votes
1answer
660 views
How does this illusion work?
I found this image on Google+
If you shake your head you can see a portrait of a person. Can anyone explain how the image is constructed in the brain?
6
votes
1answer
103 views
How are synaptic vesicles brought to the synapse?
I'm reading about how synaptobrevin is used to identify synaptic vesicles for tethering near the synaptic cleft. Since neurons have a synapse and dendrites, I'd like to know how exactly the vesicles ...
6
votes
2answers
403 views
How does an inhibitory synapse communicate to the cell body of a neuron?
I picture a neuron as having multiple trees of dendrites attached to the cell body with a single axon leaving the cell body. I believe the cell body near the axon root makes the decision to fire or ...
6
votes
1answer
260 views
Is there a biological basis to physical attraction?
Is there something encoded within us that makes us attracted to, e.g., someone
taller or shorter
with blonde or brunette hair
with green or blue eyes?
Or, is this phenomenon completely based on ...
10
votes
2answers
157 views
Under what conditions do dendritic spines form?
I'm looking for resources or any information about the formation of dendritic spines and synaptogenesis, especially in relation to how new connections are formed on a daily basis.
Does the ...
3
votes
2answers
90 views
Does body mass have a bearing on reflex speed?
A reflex is an unconscious action in response to some specific stimulus, e.g., blinking an eye, or pulling the hand away from a hot pin
I know from school biology, and reading online that withdrawal ...
8
votes
1answer
221 views
Why does this illusion work?
This is another image I found on Google+
All lines are absolutely straight, parallel and perpendicular but why does it appear to have a curvature?
Related: How does this illusion work?
