Questions tagged [brain]
The primary component of the central nervous system, which, along with the spinal cord, controls the body of bilaterally symmetrical beings.
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Is there an 'opposite' neurotransmitter to dopamine?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (i.e. chemical) in the brain that gives us great feeling. From here:
Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure. It's a big part of our unique human ability to ...
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50 views
Is it possible to create an alternate reality through intercepting neurons and creating artificial neuron signals like in SAO (Sword Art Online)
I have been thinking a lot about creating an Alternate Reality that would essentially allow you to experience similar or as close as possible sensations as if in real life, and I really need some help ...
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Why do women have less synapses / neurons / brain mass than men despite having the same average IQ?
I don't mean to cause offence or suggest than men and women shouldn't be of the same intelligence — that's not something I'm here to dispute. What I want to understand is how this is possible given ...
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42 views
Differences between comatosed states and brain death
What are the neurological, physical, etc. differences between someone who is in a coma (one that is not medically-induced) and someone who is colloquially deemed "brain dead" (being ...
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Brain centers vs areas (and how they relate to nuclei)
I'm looking for a reputable source that can provide succinct definitions differentiating the following terms in the central nervous system (CNS; particularly in the brain):
Area
Center
Nucleus
...
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51 views
How are thoughts biologicaly generated?
I want to know how thoughts are biologicaly generated. I know that electrical impulses can trigger formed memories in the brain but what I want to know is how the electrical impulse is generated in ...
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65 views
Can we decode memories?
Premise: I don't have a strong background in neuroscience or human biology, so I would ask you to answer like you would at a 5 years old child. I have done a couple of research on the web, as well as ...
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Is there a word that describes symmetrical correlations between a damaged brain region and behavioral disability?
Specifically, I'm looking to address phenomena such as (1) how damage to only one side of the substantia nigra leads to Parkinson's symptoms on only one side of the body, or (2) retinotopy, how ...
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69 views
Why is gyrification advantageous?
Standard 'Explanation':
I've seen countless neuroscience articles and experts explain that 'cortical gyrification is advantageous because it increases surface area which obviously increases your ...
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18 views
Is the tip of the temporal lobe the “top” of the brain neural tube?
The neural tube that forms the central nervous system forms around a cavity that becomes the ventricular system. Is the end of the lateral ventricles in the temporal lobe the top of this original ...
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1answer
92 views
Can scientists “see” thought?
Touching an object activates a nerve - something that can be observed by scientists.
Scientists can also trace the resulting "signal" through your nerves to your brain. They may know which ...
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Biological Neural Network Modification to Unlearn Understandings [closed]
Lets assume that a person grows up thinking that religion X is true religion. So he builds up a profile in ones head and when notion of religion X appears the neurons that is related are fired, giving ...
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question on brain dissection
I was dissecting a sheep's brain for my students and one of them asked a question about the corpora quadrigemina he asked why did two of them(the superior colliculus) look more red than the other two ...
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219 views
Single cell organism's brain [closed]
Multi cellular organisms have brain.But what about single celled organisms do they have brain to control the cell's work?If they have something what that part called?You can say that the nucleolus do ...
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Biological Neural Network Training for Babies [closed]
I am concerned by the fact that babies cant walk because the muscles in their limbs arent developed and tuned to give directional control, it takes years before babies gain mobility and dexterity. So ...
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31 views
Difference between Processing and Preprocessing
In the wikipedia article of emotion lateralization it is mentioned:
The right hemisphere is important for processing primary emotions such as fear while the left hemisphere is important for ...
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37 views
Parts of Brain Active for Dreams | Right Hemisphere or Cortex
I found a research that states cortex is responsible for the contents of the dream. Contents could be people, place, objects etc.
The cortex is responsible for the content of dreams, including the ...
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1answer
54 views
Can potassium ions depolarise neuron membranes?
I am reading a journal paper about the cell adhesion molecule NCAM2 and I have come across the following statement:
To confirm the functionality of the reporters, neurons were time-lapse
recorded ...
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3answers
270 views
If due to some reasons a small portion of our neurons die, how does our body remake them?
There are various reasons such as intake of neurotoxins, and possibly traumatic injuries, that can cause neurons to die.
After several hundreds, or thousands of our neurons die, how does our body ...
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57 views
Is new idea equivalent to forming new synaptic connection?
We get new ideas quite frequently hence I am curious that is getting new idea equvant to formation of new synaptic connections? I am aware of neural plasticity but somehow doubt that it happens quite ...
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26 views
How reward / penalty is comprehended?
Technically brain is composed of billions of neurons for abstract computation of the world around us. I am bit confused that how does emotions such as fear/anger gets simulated by amygdala, which is ...
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1answer
40 views
Does GABA enhance or inhibit negative effects of glutamate? [closed]
A study on NCBI studied the correlation between a depressive mood and chronic pain. I researched this because today I noticed unusual emotional volatility as a result of 2 days of acute back pain ...
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1answer
45 views
Are the transitions between the different brain frequencies states easy to see on an EEG?
Are the transitions between the different brain frequencies states: Gamma to Beta, Beta to Alpha, Theta to Delta, etc. easy to distinguish on an EEG? How quickly can the brain transition between any ...
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47 views
Do neurons with dopamine inside only send signals to another neuron with dopamine?
A nerve cell with dopamine receptors gets an action potential and releases dopamine to other neurons. Does this nerve cell only release to cells with dopamine inside? Because what if a neuron has a ...
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25 views
Is there such a thing as transcranial magnetic inhibition? inhibit regions of the brain?
is there such a thing as transcranial magnetic inhibition?
There is an instrument capable of inhibiting regions of the brain as does transcranial magnetic stimulation, but in reverse?
By inhibiting, I ...
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0answers
13 views
Term for context based behavior?
Is there term in neuroscience that describes change in neuronal circuits depending on context: low sugar/fear/... => hormones => different pathways of behavior ...?
I know that is something from ...
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1answer
119 views
What percentage of the brain is memory | Storage of thoughts, episodes
I was reading the article, in which it is mentioned that human brain constitutes 2.5 petabytes of memory. This made me wonder how much of the brain is associated with memory itself. If we categorize ...
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Does too much screen time really damage your brain? [closed]
So I was looking on the internet for articles to whether computers really damage your brain and I found that half of them say the do and the other half say the don't. Personally I don't think it does ...
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How much oxygen does a brain consume?
I am not a biologist - my background is in quantitative sciences, and I am trying to answer a rather quantitative question:
How much oxygen does a brain consume?
This however raises many sub-questions ...
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108 views
How do the biophysics of how cerebrospinal fluid mechanically protects the brain work?
The two mechanisms I've seen mentioned are the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) acting as a hydraulic cushion or shock absorber, and how CSF creates a micro-gravity environment through buoyancy.
I have very ...
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2answers
97 views
Evolution: what were we doing for 100.000 years? [closed]
I'm not a biologist/anthropologist but there is a question that comes up again and again and which I couldn't find any deeper thought, even not a speculation. As far as I understand it, according to ...
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1answer
58 views
What exactly is “lateral septum”?
I came across the phrase lateral septum and I can't seem to find the precise definition online. Is it "the areas roughly to the right and the left of the septum pellucidum"? Or is it the ...
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1answer
35 views
What are “intrinsic hypothalamic fibers”? (From an article on neuronal mechanisms of sexual desire)
I came across the phrase intrinsic hypothalamic fibers which I cannot understand. What is meant by intrinsic - that these fibers (long myelinated axons?) start in the hypothalamus? Or that they start ...
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Why do we get tunnel vision during fight or flight response?
I have a question regarding tunnel vision during the fight or flight response. I believe that during fight or flight high levels of adrenaline are released which causes the pupils to dilate allowing ...
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Why do we have both on and off bipolar cells?
I have a question regarding the reason behind the 2 bipolar cells.
So, from my understanding we have both on and off bipolar cells and from the numerous diagrams I have seen, I find that most show a ...
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When assessing a threat, does the amygdala compare the stimulus to memories of the amygdala or the hippocampus?
Two excerpts from the one article.
My understanding of this excerpt is that the amygdala is using its own memories:
The amygdala learns how to respond to various stimuli based on it’s reference to ...
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0answers
15 views
Can the eye determine which type of defocus is presented to it?
I have a question regarding myopic and hyperopic defocus.
My question is, is the eye able to determine which type of defocus is presented to it and if so what mechanisms allow it to distinguish ...
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1answer
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How do we know that selective agonists are indeed selective?
Suppose we know that compound X is a selective agonist of receptor Y, meaning that it binds only this receptor Y and no other. But how do we know this that it doesn't bind some another receptor? I ...
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226 views
Can the human eye axial length decrease?
I just have a quick question regarding the axial length of the eyeball.
I understand that the axial length of the eyeball grows up until your around 20 years of age which is why hypermetropia ...
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3answers
99 views
If the Brain can store as much information as a billion hard disks why cant i memorize a single word document of random letters?
I read a lot of articles on this and all seem to agree that the brain storage in neural connections is tremendous but that doesnt explain why we forget things so easily and have such a modest memory ...
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2answers
60 views
Is Brain Eye connections reversed in all animals or just Humans?
I know that Brain Eye connections are reversed in Humans,
Left Hemisphere controls the Right eye/Right side of the body
Right Hemisphere Controls the Left eye/Left side of the body
Is it true in ...
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0answers
31 views
Alzheimer's disease - Hyperexcitability
I am trying to read literature on Alzheimer's disease.
A very important phenomenon that occurs in AD patients, is hyperexcitability in neurons close to A-beta concentrations.
Some authors only ...
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1answer
63 views
What is the significance of the amplitude of brain waves?
What does the amplitude of brain waves represent and to what neuronal activities is this amplitude related to?
For example, in a hypothetical situation, the frequency of brain waves is kept the same, ...
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1answer
20 views
What is a neuronal loop?
Stanford Medicine's OCD page says that
Many investigators have contributed to the hypothesis that OCD involves dysfunction in a neuronal loop running from the orbital frontal cortex to the ...
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1answer
60 views
Why isn't hearing the same as tasting? How do we feel and differentiate external stimuli?
When I was at school, I learned that:
Skin, tongue, ears, and other sensory organs have sensors/convertors that turn external environment stimuli into "electric" signals.
Neurons send information as ...
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69 views
Why doesn't the spinal cord get thicker the further up we go?
The cervical and lumbar enlargements exist on the spinal cord as a result of the increased nerve input/output required for the arms and legs respectively.
However, I don't understand how the ...
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0answers
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Schematic of neural lineage tree and position of Choroid Plexus cells
I am trying to understand which are the different type of progenitors in the human brain and I am currently following this schematic.
My question is, are Choroid Plexus cells progenitors to Radial ...
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25 views
Breakdown of functional human genome by organ/What fraction of the functional human genome is devoted specifically to brain functioning?
Of course, there won't be a precise known answer to the question, as it is not even known precisely what percentage of the genome is functional in the first place - but I am still looking for research....
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Why does it take so long for the human brain to develop from an evolutionary point of view?
I have read that it takes about 25 years for the brain to be fully developed.
Coincidentally, humans from the Neolithic and Bronze Age had a very short life expectancy, in fact most of their life ...
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52 views
How does high-intensity aerobic exercise affect the brain?
I have been reading articles claiming that serotonin, endorphins and BDNF are produced during exercise, but they never mention the intensity or duration of exercise for this to happen.
To not make ...
