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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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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What is the share of body energy that the brain consumes? Is 20% reliable?

"20% of the energy at only 2% of the weight" is a frequently regurgitated factoid. More precisely, it should read: 20% of oxygen consumption. The problem starts when one looks into the ...
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How optimal are the distances of voltage-gated ion channels on axons?

In both myelinated and not-myelinated axon segments ("axons" for short) there are theoretically maximal distances of voltage-gated ion channels beyond which propagation of the action potential would ...
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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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How is consciousness linked to the brain?

Could the brain be working without consciousness? Does the brain interact with consciousness? Alternately, is it that consciousness can't really control the brain, and you only have the impression ...
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Does brain activity generate heat gradients in the brain?

I'm reading this article on guiding axon growth using temperature gradient, and it mentions that the trajectory of growth of neuron connections can be influenced by temperature gradients as little as ...
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How widespread among mammals is the glymphatic system's metabolite clearance in the brain during sleep currently known to be?

The glymphatic system and "brain washing" (metabolite clearance) during mammalian sleep: Xie et al. (2013) Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain (also here) has been cited ...
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Newts in a rodent larder. Limits of regeneration? (NSFSqueamish)

Observation. In the Surrey woodland of southern UK mainland I chanced upon a piece of corrugated metal. Lifting it up I found a bare patch of soil except for what appeared to be a nest of dry plant ...
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Can an epileptic seizure start in the spinal cord?

My understanding of an epileptic seizure is caused by "invalid electrical signaling" in the brain. Can these start from the spinal cord (outside the brain) and move into the brain and cause an ...
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What is operating temperature of the human brain?

I've heard several times that human brain can die in temperatures over 40 °C, or under 10 °C, as an engineer I'm curious. In what temperature region can brain properly work? And just an underlying ...
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What happens to apetite hormones like ghrelin and leptin when a person in coma?

Don't coma individuals feel hungry? If so, how does the brain senses this condition (as coma is caused by neural death or damage) and switches off gene expression of ghrelin and leptin. Is there any ...
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Access and decay time of long-term memory

As for STM (short-term memory), access time is 70 ms and decay time is 200 ms. Is there any calculated time for LTM (long-term memory) also? And does LTM really decay with the passage of time?
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What is the biological basis of "energy" that extraverted humans draw from social engagements and introverts expend?

This question is related to this question about introverts becoming exhausted after extended social events on cognitive sciences stack exchange. As I read more on the topic of human extraversion-...
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How do duplicate brain regions (ex: left/right amygdaloid body) operate together?

I frequently hear talk about parts of the brain like "Amygdala" or "Hypothalamus", so I looked them up in an app called "essential anatomy". What I see is that there's mirror symmetry, and most of ...
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Happiness from sunlight is from IR or UV?

I found this study that shows that UV light makes our skin release feel-good endorphins. This is the pop-sci writeup. On the other hand, it seems like IR is what causes the sense of warmth in the skin ...
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Does any brain-computer interface model draw on neural temporal codes?

I am studying brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and neural encoding/decoding for a class. Most decoding algorithms that I have encountered for BCIs tackling movement problems seem to assume a neural ...
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How is brain calorie intake affected after hemispherectomy?

So, I hear brain consumes 20% of the body's energy, and also according to studies people with only one hemisphere can function mentally fine with little to no problems. My question is, how does that ...
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What will be the deficits when left half of the brain is removed in adults?

Hemispherectomy is a surgical procedure to remove half of the brain. It is typically done on children with severe epilepsy. What will be the deficits when left half is removed in adults? Is aphasia a ...
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At what rate does synaptogenesis occur in adults?

From many articles, I can find the rate of synaptogenesis at its highest: roughly 580,000/minute (weeks 6-23 after conception). However, I'm having trouble finding the rate with which it occurs in ...
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Spatial distribution of axons connecting distant groups of neurons

It would help me to shape my picture of the brain, if I knew the following: Consider two specified groups of neurons A and B in the brain that are well-located but quite distant from each other (e.g. ...
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Can memories intentionally be overwritten, or forgotten?

Over the years, I've come across studies (e.g., here, here, and here), and have watched documentaries (similar to this), that speak about memory retrieval, and how that, every time you recall a memory,...
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Is 8 hours of sleep necessary?

Many studies claim that humans need 8 hours of sleep. During sleep there are several different stages, from stage 1 to 4 as well as REM sleep. However, are all these stages actually necessary? If yes, ...
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What happens to the brain during sleep versus unconsciousness?

How does being unconsciousness differ from being asleep and whether it causes breaks in consciousness?
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Acetylcholine and muscles- excitatory or inhibitory? (muscle atonia and myasthenia gravis)

I have heard that acetylcholine can be excitatory or inhibitory, but I am confused as to which it is when it comes to muscles. On the one hand, I believe that muscle atonia during REM sleep is ...
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Is it possible that weak memory is due to interference between signals in the brain?

"Weak memory", as used in this question, refers to the inability to retrieve a memory that a person otherwise knows he has memorized earlier. An example of this is some fact snippet that the ...
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TV's so loud when I turn over

Scenario: I'm about to fall asleep with the T.V. on. Having completely forgotten that it was, no longer even hearing it, just before falling asleep I turn over with a 'fresh' ear and it's blaring. If ...
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The Operation of tuning in the S1 layer of ventral model

According to my previous question in ventral Stream pathway and architecture, I want now to get a brief example about how the S1 layer is constructed. In other words, how all the simple units are ...
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Does binge watching cause sleep problems?

According to a study from 2017, binge watching is correlated with various sleep problems: The people who reported binge-watching were 98 percent more likely to report poor sleep quality compared with ...
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Does acuity of a re-mapped region of cortex depend on the need of the animal to resolve between two closely related stimuli?

From my informal research so far, I've learned that cortical magnification is evident in at least the visual cortex and the somatosensory cortex. My question is the following: If there were a ...
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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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How sharp are the borders between Brodmann areas?

How does the border between two Brodmann areas look like in Nissl stains? How large is the transition zone where one cannot tell to which of the two areas a neuron belongs to? How many neurons are ...
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Pharmacokinetics and cell-membrane permeability of Adenosine triphosphate disodium hydrate

【My Question】 (1) Please tell me the pharmacokinetics of this ATP (or Adenosine triphosphate disodium hydrate) when it is administered orally or intravenously. In particular, Does this material has ...
Blue Various's user avatar
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What are the differences (if any) in brain activity when hallucinating versus perceiving a real object?

I was wondering if there is difference in brain activity when someone is hallucinating an object, say a giraffe compared to when someone is genuinely observing a real giraffe?
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The colors blue and golden (yellow-orange) and the human eye / brain

Many years ago I read a review in an article about why we love for example Lapis Lazuli so much. The article stated that there are two specific colors, yellow as golden (when it glows or shines) and a ...
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Alternative conditions for Liquifactive Necrosis

A person is beaten on the head hard enough to swell the whole front part of the head. The body is thrown into the river and recovered after about 36 hours. Is this condition enough for liquifactive ...
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Neurobiology of tantrums

As mentioned here, tantrums are primarily observed in young children and often involve a loss of self-control, both physical control and the ability to calm after a demand has been met. What changes ...
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Being able to write/type different texts using each hand respectively, at the same time?

Has there been any documentation of being able to either write down (jot down) or type in (key in) different texts using the left hand and the right hand respectively, simultaneously? So, I'm ...
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Atlas from human brain structures to 3D coordinates?

I would like to visualize specific human brain structures in the three dimensional space and compute specific geometric properties of these brain structures (size, centroid, etc). Therefore, I am ...
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Is there an evolutionary reason why so many white matter tracts decussate in the brainstem and spinal chord?

From a developmental perspective, I would tend to assume that it would be much simpler for the fibers descending from (for instance) the pyramidal tracts, superior cerebellar peduncles, or ascending ...
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Limits of brain neuronal spatial mapping

It is being claimed that brain maps the world space in (roughly) 1-to-1 correspondance of a place to a neuron (link1, link2). My question is: as the mapping happens in 1-to-1 manner, then is it ...
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Thinking quickly causes elevated mood

I read this article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060926171045.htm It says, "When people are made to think quickly, they report feeling happier as a result. They also say they are ...
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Is dysharmonia an actual disease or something only Oliver Sacks believes in?

In his book Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks discusses a case involving a woman named Rachel Y. who lost the ability to process harmony in a car accident. He then explains how this lead to simultanagnosia. ...
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Physiologically, how can stress/anxiety cause neuropathy?

According to the Mayo Clinic, stress/anxiety can cause "pins and needles" (neuropathy) sensations all over the body. But how can this be? My understanding of the sensory pathway is that sensory ...
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When the mind is highly active, roughly how many neurons become excited in one second?

I'm curios to know how many times neurons send signals in one second when the brain is highly active (Highly active meaning during difficult problem solving, or any task that might bring the brain to ...
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1 answer
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How some virus are able to reach the CNS?

I know that the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) could provoke meningitis and encephalitis when this virus reaches the brain. However, there are other viruses like Varicella (VSV), ...
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Caffeine tolerance

I researched about caffeine tolerance and found out that regular consumption of coffe can build caffeine tolerance even if it's 1 cup per day, within few days or a week at most. Supposedly the body ...
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What is the extent of the CSF system out of the brain?

Does it spread sideways from the spinal cord at all? How far down does it go? I've found a lot of information about the spinal cord itself but not about the central canal, and more specifically if it'...
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Is there any research on episodic-like memory in reptiles?

I've been studying the area of episodic-like memory in non-human animals and our old reptile cousins seem to be really underrepresented (or not represented at all). Is there any research that I am ...
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How does brain activity change when focusing on something within peripheral vision, as opposed to the fovea?

Normally when looking around, we mentally focus on what we see within our fovea, as that is where we have the greatest visual acuity. However, it is still possible to focus (both physically with the ...
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How does the female body sense its own pregnancy?

I understand that after the fertilized ovum attached in the uterus the female body will not produce the required hormone surge for ovulation the next month. Therefore no new ovum will be sent down the ...
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