Questions tagged [neuroscience]
The study of the structure and function of the nervous system and its components.
1,290
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Which part of the visual pathway does not change activity during microsaccades but changes activity upon pressing on the eyeball?
We perceive a page of text as stable while reading despite our eyes are moving considerably, but the image shifts quite drastically when we press on the eyeball. I am looking for a brain region which ...
8
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1answer
59 views
In evolutionary history, which came first - neuron or astrocyte?
As research is showing astrocytes role in information processing [1], I am interested in knowing which evolved first - an astrocye or a neuron ?
[1] Santello, M., Toni, N. & Volterra, A. Astrocyte ...
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11 views
What is the purpose of interkinetic nuclear migration during neurogenesis?
I am reading about neurogenesis and I am learning about the different types of neural stem and progenitor cells (neuroepithelial cells, radial glial cells and basal progenitors). I have read that ...
2
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2answers
700 views
Why are nerves blocked even though potassium channels are not blocked?
One could read "Local anesthetics produce a very slight, virtually insignificant,
decrease in potassium (K+) conductance through
the nerve membrane." At Handbook of Local Anesthesia 7th ...
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What is the risk of permanent brain damage and/or long term cognitive effects from a single exposure to extreme altitude?
I have read some of the papers on the subject of the permanent brain damage induced by high to extreme altitude (5000m-8000m) climbing. The evidence seems contradictory. One paper (Fayed 2006) found ...
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1answer
20 views
Is Signal Transduction Unidirectional from the Stimuli to the Final Receptor?
I wonder if signal transduction in biological systems including visual, olfactory, tactile or any other biological system, is unidirectional. Suppose that $X_i$ is the $ith$ cell in the signal ...
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What mechanism causes the presence of photosensitizers in mitochondria to change membrane ionic currents?
In the original question, the article in question was talking about specifically about this compound, Benzoporphyrin:
Characterization of Perturbing Actions by Verteporfin, a Benzoporphyrin ...
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1answer
64 views
Why can sodium oligomannate (GV-971) improve cognition in people with Alzheimer's Disease?
There is a Phase 3 placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of sodium oligomannate (GV-971) in the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD).
A Study of Sodium ...
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1answer
51 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)...
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530 views
Why is Heart Rate Recovery after exercise reasonably well described by a mono-exponential decay?
I have been measuring my heart rate recovery after exercise and I see that it can be fit reasonably well using a single exponential:
$HeartRate(t) = HR_{max} \times e^{-t/\tau} + HR_{resting}$
This ...
5
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1answer
98 views
Hodgkin huxley neuron not spiking consistently for currents greater than threshold?
Hi I am currently studying physics at the undergraduate level. As part of my final year project Ive got to implement the HH model and investigate certain types of behaviour.
My issue is the following.
...
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Is there a reference brain sample for the RNA-Seq data in the Developmental Transcriptome tool from the Allen Brain Atlas?
I am using the Developmental Transcriptome tool from the Allen Brain Atlas to determine at what stages of development a specific gene is expressed in the human brain.
I have read the official ...
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2answers
286 views
Why do neurons turn black in Golgi staining?
I am learning about the Golgi staining of neurons. I know that to this day it is unknown why some but not all neurons in a tissue get stained. I have read online that to harden the neural tissue, ...
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1answer
28 views
How does slowed action potential propagation in the optic nerve cause blurred vision?
Multiple sclerosis is accompanied by optic neuritis, and there is demyelination of the optic nerve, causing the action potential to be propagated more slowly along axons. But how does this lead to ...
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1answer
101 views
How is a thickening of grey matter possible?
There are plenty of studies that document grey matter thickening in certain brain areas as a result of meditation or exercise. However, it's often said that the extent of neurogenesis outside of the ...
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1answer
69 views
When recalling the same piece of memory in different times, are the brain activities different?
When we are thinking about the same piece of memory in multiple different times, would the corresponding brain activities always be the same? Or how similar/different can the corresponding brain ...
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2answers
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What is the primary purpose of the prefrontal cortex?
I've heard of many functions of the prefrontal cortex (e.g. creativity, working memory, abstract thought, inhibition, planning, executive function, etc...).
But I'd like to know what its primary ...
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1answer
34 views
Can the hippocampus store working memory?
I'm a little bit confused about the role that the hippocampus plays in memory.
I've heard that it stores episodic memories and then consolidates the important ones into long-term memory.
My question ...
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Does every person have unique nervous system?
If we had the technology to directly interface electronic devices with the nervous system and we wanted to connect a robotic arm to a person that lost his/her real arm, would we be able to find the ...
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1answer
38 views
How fast does eyelid close when eyelash is triggered?
What is the reaction of blinking like when an unexpected piece of wood or something hits an eyelash and then an eyeball?
A piece of stone flew into my eyeball when we knocked a wall down, and it hit ...
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1answer
58 views
how do we feel electricity on skin even though merkel cells are pressure sensitive only?
Note: Here I am not talking about electric shock (one feels when a lot of electricity passes through), I am talking about smaller sensations one feel directly on the skin.
Note: I am not able to find ...
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1answer
48 views
How easy is it for quantum dots to enter the intracellular portions of cells?
As quantum dots have better quantum yield than organic dyes, many are being developed as a substitute for them. Nonetheless, could these substitutes be small enough to enter inside cells as current ...
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24 views
Image recognition for neuron-astrocyte connections
For my research, I am interested in training a deep learning model to recognize images of brain circuitry. From my understanding, there is technology for detecting neuronal wiring (neuron-neuron ...
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Question about using primary neuronal cultures from mice to support findings from in vivo models
I am analysing synapse formation during early postnatal development using the brains of postnatal day 2 (P2) and postnatal day 10 (P10) wild-type and knockout mice. Through Western blot analysis, I ...
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1answer
47 views
What is the process by which fluorescent proteins in two photon microscopy are optically stimulated by membrane depolarization?
How does the flow of calcium ions through neurons cause the dyes to activate? The voltage is extremely small, so the dyes have to be extremely close to the neurons, which would disrupt the cells, so ...
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Clarifying Resting membrane potential [duplicate]
I need some help understanding how the resting membrane potential is maintained in neurons. I understand that there are more K+ leak channels than Na+ leak channels, meaning that more K+ ions leave ...
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3answers
220 views
Is there a difference between human neuron cells compared to those of other animals?
Thanks for looking.
Firstly, I am nowhere near biologist, just a student, so my apologies if this isn't a "good" question.
Background:
So I was searching about intelligence, brains and ...
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1answer
40 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 ...
2
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1answer
67 views
Cumulative synaptic transmission delay
Assume the following:
there are at least 10^11 neurons in the human brain
there are approximately 10^14 synaptic connections in the human brain (because on average each neuron gets inputs from ...
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0answers
28 views
How Fast can the Electrochemical Gradient on a Neuron be Reestablished? [duplicate]
The electrochemical gradient of Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Cl- between the inside and outside of a neuron is vital for its function. When a neuron fires, this gradient reverses. How long does it take for the ...
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1answer
39 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)? ...
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0answers
37 views
How do brains find the peak/valley point on a curve?
It costs O(n) time if we find the max/min value in a number sequence with the length n. However, if we convert this sequence into a curve and find the peak/valley point with our eyes, it will use much ...
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19 views
Specified effect of trans cranial electric stimulation on neurotransmitters
Can a specific voltage from a trans cranial stimulation activate specific neurotransmitter receptors or channels? By specific, it means receptors dedicated to specific neurotransmitters such as ...
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By what means do "nerve agent" compounds like VX spread through the human body so quickly?
It has been demonstrated that so-called nerve agents are able to incapacitate and kill a human in only minutes after exposure. One such substance, VX, only requires a few milligrams to contact the ...
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17 views
How does the presynaptic terminal stay at the postsynaptic neuron? [duplicate]
I wondered about this because the two neurons never actually touch. The synaptic cleft is very small, but if there is no connection the neurons might easily separate...
[in chemical synapses]
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1answer
299 views
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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33 views
Does estrogen have a more potent neural pruning effect in adolescence than testosterone?
I have read a study here which finds that female rats with their oestrogen inhibited had more neurones in a region of the visual cortex than intact female rats. To me, this suggests that estrogen may ...
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48 views
How does expansion of the skin via mitosis influence the density of its specialised nerve endings
I found a reddit question Do nerves & nerve endings expand with skin or does skin expansion causes loss of nerve density where a user references the study Assessment of Epidermal Nerve Fibers: A ...
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1answer
38 views
What is the number of synaptic vesicles in an axon terminal?
Is there any research as to the average number of synaptic vesicles per axon terminal in a human neuron's axon? On top of that, what percentage of those vesicles are used in a single action potential ...
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Is B27 necessary to culture neural stem cells?
I've seen many papers using B27 (e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24694094/ & https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167488919300242) but it is really expensive and I was ...
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1answer
149 views
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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1answer
30 views
Connectivity Relation between axon terminal synapses and dendrites
With regards to the synapses between axon terminals and dendrites, what is the relation between a given neuron's axon terminals and its neighbouring neurons' dendrites?
Does each axon synapse on only ...
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2answers
113 views
What makes the neurons of the auditory nerve with such high-speed?
What makes the neurons of the auditory nerve with such high-speed? So the most labile are the fibers of the auditory nerve, in which the frequency of the generation of PD reaches 1000 Hz, while for ...
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Are bFGF and/or EGF necessary in NSC expansion medium?
My understanding is that it isn't necessary since it appears that the idea behind a feeder layer is that the stem cells produce their own bFGF & EGF along with other growth factors. Yet I've still ...
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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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62 views
Why is there a notch in the Na curve for an action potential?
Just out of curiosity, why does the Na curve dip down like in the figure below? I can't seem to find an explanation!
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Neanderthal minibrains vs human minibrains
Minibrains are lab-grown balls of neurons that have some (distant) semblance to a brain.
One study showed that cells with the genome replaced with Neanderthal genes produced mini-brains that were &...
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In-plane rotation of vectors of neural population responses
In this paper on fear conditioning, the following is given:
The n-dimensional population vector (activity of n neurons) evoked by the conditioned stimulus (CS+, auditory tone) before conditioning
The ...
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1answer
16 views
Comparing angles between population vectors of neural activity
I am reading this paper on fear conditioning, where the following is given:
The n-dimensional population vector (activity of n neurons) evoked by the conditioned stimulus (CS+, auditory tone) before ...
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58 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 ...
