yamad

1,878 reputation

418

bio	website	github.com/yamad
	location	Boston, MA
	age	28
visits	member for	1 year, 6 months
	seen	Jun 1 at 19:00
stats	profile views	36

PhD candidate in neurobiology/neuroscience. Current research focused on membrane electrophysiology.

	1,878 reputation	bio	website	github.com/yamad	visits	member for	1 year, 6 months
418 badges		location	Boston, MA		seen	Jun 1 at 19:00

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Feb 1	comment	What is the point of being selection-free? -1. "This implies that if their treatment were applied to living tissue, 18% of the cells would be repaired in situ." Not at all. If only it were true that findings in a dish could draw such a straight line to results in the body!
Jan 29	revised	Do adjacent axons in a nerve influence each other? added 562 characters in body
Jan 29	answered	Do adjacent axons in a nerve influence each other?
Jan 25	comment	Why have humans evolved conciousness? -1. The substantive part of this answer assumes the common misconception that only humans are intelligent and conscious, and that we somehow know this for a fact.
Jan 25	comment	Why have humans evolved conciousness? -1. Your question and comments are philosophical, not biological, and therefore not appropriate for this site. You seem to believe that evolution can't possibly explain it, and therefore there is really no science to be discussed. Read up on the philosopher David Chalmers, who agrees with you. Then read up on his main rival, Daniel Dennett. Note that when you get into these sorts of questions, your intuition about whether you "know" that you are "self-aware" and how to "prove" it are destined to fail.
Dec 14	awarded	Yearling
Nov 29	awarded	Revival
Nov 28	comment	Action Potential Distribution On Synapses @Armatus, the ions that flow in through ion channels during the action potential are almost certainly not the same ions that carry current axially to depolarize adjacent sites. The charge travels (that's what current is) but the ion fluxes are local.
Nov 28	comment	Action Potential Distribution On Synapses Threshold is not fixed, even within a single neuron over short periods of time. Fundamentally, threshold is reached when enough voltage-gated sodium channels open so that a rapid depolarization occurs--that is, when inward current is much greater than outward current. When this occurs is a complicated function of membrane resistance, leak currents, the recent history of the membrane, other inward currents present, the kinetics and voltage-dependence of outward currents, etc., etc.
Nov 28	answered	Action Potential Distribution On Synapses
Nov 28	comment	How do neurons form new connections in brain plasticity? Like @nico says, there is a lot of literature on dendritic "reshaping" (see, for instance, biology.stackexchange.com/q/8/72). I'd say that dendritic reshaping is discussed with about as much frequency as axonal reshaping.
Nov 28	revised	Does the speed of electrical impulses through neurones decrease with age? added 250 characters in body
Nov 28	answered	Does the speed of electrical impulses through neurones decrease with age?
Nov 28	comment	Action Potential Distribution On Synapses Can you revise your question? I am not sure what you mean when you say the "whole 40 mV is distributed" versus "a total 40 mV" which is "not there."
Nov 28	comment	How and where, in the human brain, are memories stored? For a little more on ways in which the nervous system is plastic, see my answer here biology.stackexchange.com/a/1359/72
Nov 28	answered	Is nicotine toxic to humans?
Nov 22	awarded	Nice Answer
Aug 25	awarded	Good Answer
Jun 19	awarded	Enlightened
Jun 7	comment	Understanding Membrane / Resting Potential from the perspective of ions? The resting potential is only validly called an equilibrium potential in a system containing only one ion species. Of course, cell environments are composed of several ions so the resting potential is not described by any equilibrium potential, because (as you say) the system is at steady-state rather than equilibrium. A more general term is "reversal potential" which describes the potential at which net current switches sign (e.g., inward to outward). The concept of reversal potential simplifies to a Nernst/equilibrium potential in single ion cases, but also covers multiple ion cases.