Questions tagged [neurology]

The medical specialty involving the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue, such as muscle.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
0 votes
1 answer
44 views

What specific molecules cause the difference in spectral sensitivity in the cones?

What causes the difference in their spectral sensitivity of the S, M and L cones. I'm guessing that the opsin or photopigments are different, but haven't been able figure out conclusively from my web ...
  • 9
13 votes
1 answer
821 views

Does the recent concern over several papers about Aβ*56 call into question the association of Alzheimers Disease with any amyloyd beta oligomer forms?

The news item by Charles Piller just published in Science BLOTS ON A FIELD? A neuroscience image sleuth finds signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles, threatening a reigning theory of ...
  • 5,011
1 vote
0 answers
17 views

What is the relationship between stress granules and circular RNAs?

I have read that circRNAs act as sponges for miRNAs and that stress granules help reduce chronic cellular stress and they are composed of proteins and RNAs. I'm interested in the relationship between ...
0 votes
1 answer
59 views

How does a neuron change its function, without changing its synaptic connections?

How does a neuron change its characteristics in order to change its function, without changing its connections with the neural networks? Basically, do any organelles change their properties and are ...
-2 votes
1 answer
64 views

Abnormally fast nerve conduction

Is there any neurological condition or disease where nerve conduction becomes abnormally fast? We know that myelinated neurons conduct impulses much more rapidly than non-myelinated ones as the myelin ...
-4 votes
1 answer
61 views

What is the probability for an offspring to inherit schizophrenia? [closed]

If an European male (i.e. white) is diagnosed with schizophrenia, but an European female (also white) 2-3 years younger than the male is healthy, what is the probability that their first child will: a)...
0 votes
1 answer
54 views

How is Vitamin D deficiency linked to multiple sclerosis? [closed]

Numbness and tingling in various parts of the body can be linked to the deficiency if vitamin D in one's diet. Also, multiple sclerosis has Vitamin D deficiency as one of its risk factors. How exactly ...
1 vote
1 answer
108 views

Appropriate cell lines to study depression

Short introduction I'm studying depression from a biochemical point of view. My interest lies in the study of protein biomarkers and I was wondering which cell lines may be appropriate for this ...
  • 111
-3 votes
1 answer
53 views

How are electrodes working? (EEG) [closed]

How do electrodes receive signals from the brain when using/doing an EEG? Is there some "circuit" for it? Is it harmful if you have many (more than 50-100) on your head? I found out that ...
  • 19
1 vote
1 answer
43 views

Read neural activity only having access to the brain from the "outside"

Is it possible to read neural activity from the outside of the head and if you had an machine learning algorithm that could learn what the signals "mean" (for example moving the right arm)? ...
  • 19
0 votes
0 answers
19 views

I just do not understand how myelination speeds up action potentials [duplicate]

first off, I've watched like 7 youtube videos, read a bunch of articles, and the explanations for why myelination actually increases action potential propagation differ each time are very vague. I've ...
1 vote
0 answers
66 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 ...
1 vote
1 answer
68 views

Why exactly does UMN lesion cause hypertonia?

The corticospinal tracts are excitatory in nature (Glutaminergic). So damage of the CST would mean less excitatory input to the LMN. By this logic, there should not be hypertonia. What is the ...
0 votes
1 answer
91 views

The Relationship between Copper and Alzheimer's Disease

I've been reading up about the research concerning the etiological factors behind Alzheimer's and I came across two papers - "Studies on Copper induced stability changes in DNA fragment (GCA ATC ...
  • 11
2 votes
0 answers
33 views

Can Inositol triphosphate (IP3)-mediated Calcium release on its own cause membrane depolarization?

This is about smooth muscles. I know that the Voltage-operated Ca²+ channels on the smooth muscle membrane can be opened by membrane depolarization to threshold. I also know that this depolarization ...
4 votes
1 answer
66 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 ...
  • 1,591
0 votes
3 answers
281 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 ...
  • 3
0 votes
0 answers
17 views

What are kinesiological factors? [duplicate]

I am in search of a term that describes movement, or practice of motor skills, as a factor of laterality. Would "kinesiological" be appropriate? I'll leave my two previous questions down ...
1 vote
0 answers
418 views

When and Why does G0 phase occur?

I've asked this question, specifically because i've seen this question. As we see in this diagram , G0 phase occurs after M phase and at a specific point within G1 phase. Is there a meaning to ...
  • 33
1 vote
0 answers
34 views

What type of factor is practice of motor skills?

I recently asked a question about the cause of motor laterality: What causes motor laterality/ side dominance? I understand that there can be genetic factors, epigenetic factors, or environmental ...
2 votes
1 answer
20 views

Does the corpus callosum have a significant relationship with motor memories/ muscle memories?

With the corpus callosum located in the cerebrum, and motor memories having a closer relationship to the cerebellum (which I'm not quite sure about), is there a significant relationship between the ...
4 votes
0 answers
43 views

What causes motor laterality/ side dominance?

I would like to understand what leads up to motor laterality, or side dominance of motor skills. I made this assumption that it depends on neuroplasticity and the side in which one first learns the ...
1 vote
0 answers
37 views

Myelination of 1st Order Neurons in Spinal Cord Ascending Tracts

When a 1st order sensory neuron enters the Dorsal Column Ascending Pathway (i.e. Spinal Cord), does it get its myelination from Oligodendrocytes (as inside CNS) or it retains Schwann Cell myelination?
0 votes
1 answer
34 views

Is grip force a reflex?

When we reach for an object, for example, a cup, is the force used to hold it a reflex? Which sensorial information is used to select the force to hold it? Why I am interested in this question With ...
0 votes
1 answer
78 views

Are “tremors” and “ tetanic contractions” the same thing?

Do these two expressions have the same meaning? 1- Tetanic contractions in the skeletal muscles 2- Rythmic shaking of the hands (These two expressions are supposed to be two symptoms of Parkinson’s ...
-2 votes
1 answer
39 views

Alternative hypothesis for learning in brain beyond the hebbian rule

I was reading on wikipedia that there are exceptions to the hebbian rule, and I was curious about the possibilities of other hypotheses of how learning occur in the brain. So I would like to know: ...
5 votes
2 answers
95 views

How do anticholinesterase pesticides kill nematodes?

Compounds that inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase are commonly used as pesticides. In animals with centralized respiratory systems controlled by the nervous system, poisoning with an ...
  • 409
-2 votes
3 answers
104 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 ...
  • 7
1 vote
0 answers
21 views

Is downregulation of neurological receptors fully reversible, i.e. complete upregulation and resensitization?

Are down/upregulation truly reciprocal mechanisms? After a binding ligand or agonist is removed, such as a prescription medication, is upregulation and resensitization able to occur to a level that ...
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
23 views

static versus dynamic equilibrium when bending over

When a person stoops/bends over, is the equilibrium functioning static equilibrium or dynamic equilibrium? I am not sure, because on the one hand the person is not moving (static), however, his/her ...
  • 121
2 votes
1 answer
51 views

Can a brain be damaged by overstimulation?

I am wondering what, if any, long term health effects there are from high levels of brain activity. I don't mean cases where a brain is being artificially stimulated, but rather where there is a high ...
  • 513
3 votes
1 answer
95 views

How does an electrical impulse spread in a muscle fiber spread from the motor end plate?

Does this impulse in skeletal muscle spread much in the same way it does in neurons, with an initial potential change that spreads to its immediate surroundings and is then re-amplified or is it the ...
  • 303
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

What causes sodium channels to open?

What triggers the opening of sodium channels in a neuronal membrane? Is it acetylcholine that activates sodium channels in the postsynaptic membrane? Are sodium channels like receptors that have to ...
3 votes
2 answers
93 views

Speed of electric signal vs chemical diffusion

I'm currently reading the book, "An Introduction to Nervous Systems" by Ralph J. Greenspan. On page 20, there is a sentence that confused me. It was, "Electrical signaling has the advantage of being ...
  • 392
3 votes
1 answer
140 views

What differentiates neurons in different parts of the brain?

For example: what makes a neuron in the hippocampus of the brain different from a neuron in, say, the amygdala, or the frontal lobe, or anywhere else in the brain? Do neurons in different parts of the ...
  • 409
2 votes
1 answer
103 views

Does loss of dopaminergic neurons totally eliminate voluntary muscular control?

Breathing is a function that is not only autonomic, but can also be temporarily overridden and placed under voluntary control. In fact, you are now breathing manually. Now, suppose that someone has ...
  • 409
2 votes
2 answers
327 views

How do organophosphates actually work?

The common explanation as to what the primary mechanism of action for organophosphates (and carbamates) is is the inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase and resulting buildup of acetylcholine ...
  • 409
1 vote
0 answers
48 views

What substances can selectively destroy certain cells?

Recently, I've watched a documentary about how, in the 1980s, people were buying and using drugs from the streets and then becoming paralyzed a few days afterwards. The drugs that they were using were ...
  • 409
5 votes
0 answers
66 views

What phosphorylates tau protein & and what causes tau to be phosphorylated?

I want to know what phosphorylates tau protein and its 6 isoforms. I know kinases cause phosphorylation events, and in tau it can be phosphorylated in a healthy neuron in the trans conformation, but ...
1 vote
1 answer
42 views

Can motor neurons in the brain stem start movements?

Supposedly (consciouss) movement is started in the cerebral cortex. But some time ago I've read a research which stated it might be possible some movements (not specified which ones, probably mean ...
  • 2,777
1 vote
0 answers
62 views

Do non-human primates have mental disorders like humans?

I was at the zoo today and watched a gorilla pick at a scab on its finger, compulsively, until it started bleeding. Is this OCD or is it just a nervous thing that non-human primates do at the zoo? Do ...
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

Are there toxins that cause heart attack and/or stroke in multiple individuals in short time frames?

Are there any known environmental factors that would cause more than one person to have a heart attack or stroke within a short period of time (e.g. 2-3 months) of one another? I'm particularly ...
2 votes
1 answer
189 views

Can cerebrospinal fluid pass through the pia mater or ependymal cells of the ventricles?

During a lecture, a professor commented that the cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid of the brain parenchyma have similar composition because they can exchange with one another. This struck me ...
  • 375
1 vote
1 answer
43 views

Can nervous disorders be cured? Will enough research be the answer? [closed]

I have searched every nook of the internet and I couldn't find a clear and to-the-point answer. Well my story is that I am a young BSc student who wants to do research on neurological conditions ...
0 votes
1 answer
46 views

Neurons and nerves [duplicate]

What is a nerve compared to a neuron? Is it a collection of axons alone or does it include cell body too? I'm pretty confused of what actually the "nerve" is composed of. I had imagined that the nerve ...
0 votes
2 answers
112 views

Why biologic systems tends to become more complex?

From elements, chemical compounds, cells, multicellular organisms, society evolves and with each step possibilities increase and things get complex. We are builing structures like ribosome builds ...
1 vote
1 answer
618 views

Can upper motor neuron lesions cause hypotonia?

I have been taught that hypotonia is always caused by lower motor neuron lesions while hypertonia is by upper motor neuron lesions. However, I recently learned of an entity called central hypotonia, ...
  • 175
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Rod and cone photoreceptors are neurons?

i mean the photoreceptors have axon and dendrite and body cell or it is not neuron any more . can we say outer segment of photoreceptor cell is dendrite ? of course these have body cells but i am ...
6 votes
1 answer
373 views

Why Is Gray Matter Gray?

When I researched I found different reason for this, the popular ones are 1) white matter is mylinated .this reason was given in reference books and this website while others say 2)cell body ...
  • 327
3 votes
1 answer
55 views

Flow diversion for cerebral aneurysms or stabilizing the hemodynamics?

I'm doing research of flow diverter for cerebral aneurysms applications and I'm wondering the reason behind stent placement underneath of cerebral aneurysms is to divert the flow or stabilize the ...
  • 165