Questions tagged [neuroscience]
The study of the structure and function of the nervous system and its components.
1,278
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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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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
33 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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48 views
What are the current developments and ability of nanotechnology/nanobots in neuroscience (2021)?
(source: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9466139) Currently there are nanobots like Neuro-SWARM3 which can access human brain, detect and transfer information wirelessly. What are such ...
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1answer
3k views
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
31 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
53 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 ...
3
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1answer
43 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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22 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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12 views
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 ...
3
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1answer
44 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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20 views
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 ...
3
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3answers
147 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
39 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
64 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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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
37 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
36 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 ...
2
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0answers
76 views
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
138 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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0answers
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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0answers
39 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
37 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
129 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
27 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
112 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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0answers
12 views
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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36 views
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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59 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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0answers
20 views
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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9 views
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 ...
2
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1answer
14 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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0answers
53 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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1answer
43 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 ...
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0answers
49 views
What are "inactive" cells during Ca2+ imaging of neurons?
I am reading this paper, and have found the following Figure (Extended Data Figure 5) where they show maps of active cells in the amygdala as imaged with a miniscope and GCaMP6m:
Legend:
Using the ...
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1answer
71 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 ...
3
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1answer
40 views
Are synaptic boutons always located on axons?
I am learning about the protein Synaptophysin and I have read that it is an integral membrane protein localised to synaptic vesicles. I have also read that it is a specific and sensitive marker for ...
0
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1answer
26 views
What is meant by the term synaptic targeting?
I am studying whether a protein interacts with the mitochondria in the synapses of neurons and I have come across the term "synaptic targeting". I am reading this paper and I have come ...
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0answers
17 views
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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0answers
32 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 ...
2
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1answer
72 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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1answer
44 views
Would tinnitus be explained by perpetually-bent/opened hairs in the cochlea?
When I look around for what causes tinnitus and the like, the usual response is "Well, loud sounds and hearing damage" but I feel like that's a little plain and I am curious about the ...
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1answer
560 views
How does pressure travel through the cochlea exactly?
I cannot find this answer anywhere.
What I do know is that the stapes pounds on the round window of the cochlea and this causes the fluid to move inside the cochlea itself, which has the three ...
4
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1answer
44 views
Why do water molecules diffuse along axons direction?
I am studying tractography technique which aims to reconstruct bundles of axons in brain by following the diffusion direction of water. It is very interesting because it is non-invasive. It exploits ...
43
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3answers
14k views
Are humans more adapted to "light mode" or "dark mode"?
I was discussing with a colleague about using dark-mode vs. light mode and remembered an article arguing that humans vision is more adapted to light-mode rather than dark-mode:
I know that the trend “...
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25 views
Has anyone tried using functional near-infrared spectropathy to quantitively measure sodium concentrations in the brain?
Functional near-infrared spectropathy "fNIRS", is a biophysics/medical technique that uses the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum (around 680nm to 810nm in wavelength) to ...
