16
votes
Accepted
How does methamphetamine (meth) damage neurons?
Nice question! I will directly begin with the process through which methamphetamine causes damage to neurons, putting in as much details as are known, and adding appropriate citations wherever ...
- 14.1k
14
votes
What is the cause that angina pectoris is felt in your left arm?
It has mainly to do with the embryonic origin of organs, with the heart being a typically left sided organ, it develops sharing some nerves with the left thorax and left arm.
There is however high ...
12
votes
Accepted
Does the recent concern over several papers about Aβ*56 call into question the association of Alzheimers Disease with any amyloyd beta oligomer forms?
Does the recent concern over several papers about Aβ*56 call into question the association of Alzheimers Disease with any amyloyd beta oligomer forms?
From my understanding, no. alzforum.org has ...
- 1,855
8
votes
Accepted
Why Is Gray Matter Gray?
The terms gray and white matter relate to their color in gross specimens (i.e., not microscopic specimens) that have been formalin fixed. Nissl granules describe a microscopic structure, the rough ...
- 8,741
7
votes
Accepted
What causes the range of severity of neurological deficits in Down's syndrome?
The symptoms of Down syndrome occur due to overexpression of genes present on the duplicated chromosome.
If possessing an extra chromosome meant an equivalent change in gene expression, one would ...
- 41.3k
7
votes
What is synaptic bias?
Often artificial neurons are created with conventions that zero is "rest" and 1 is "threshold". The unit starts at 0, and when it reaches 1 it will send an input to all of its targets and be reset ...
- 41.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Are there any known rules that neurons always follow while transmitting/receiving signals?
Short Answer:
"Always" is always a dangerous term in biology.
Longer Answer:
What does a neuron do if it does not get stimulated/receives no signal for a long time. Will it die ... or try to find ...
- 41.3k
6
votes
Accepted
What is two photon calcium imaging?
what does the "two photon" means?
Ordinary confocal microscopy uses single photon of laser light to excite the molecule of fluorescent dye.
In two photon microscopy you use two photons, with lower ...
- 726
6
votes
Accepted
If action potential is "all or nothing" then how are finely tuned signals sent from one neuron to another?
how is one type of neurotransmitter secreted rather than another
Most neurons release a single major neurotransmitter. JM97 commented a link about cells releasing more than one, but that is talking ...
- 41.3k
6
votes
Neuron connectivity- how are they connected physically
Neurons are suspended, as you say, in an extracellular matrix. Brain tissues are a little bit more specific. Here I quote a few summaries from literature to answer and give your a perspective on your ...
- 6,152
5
votes
Accepted
Why do polyneuropathies affect the extremities first?
Polyneuropathy is actually not a very specific term, so the reasons will no doubt vary depending on which specific class you are talking about.
That said, here are two reasons that longer neurons are ...
- 41.3k
5
votes
What is the cause that angina pectoris is felt in your left arm?
Our pain-sensing neurons work in useful ways only when they inform about skin areas or muscles. When nettles sting your left hand, you want to retract your left hand right away. This is in part an ...
- 1,140
5
votes
Accepted
Neuroscience of mathematicians
Short answer
People competent in mathematics have been shown to have higher activation of the left angular gyrus according to fMRI. EEG recordings have shown larger activity in the posterior parietal ...
- 52.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Why can't dopamine cross the blood brain barrier but l-dopa can?
Both L-Dopa and Dopamine are polar molecules and thus hydrophilic. They are solvable in water but not in lipids, so they are not able to cross the Blood-brain barrier on their own.
The difference is ...
- 262
5
votes
Accepted
If the Brain can store as much information as a billion hard disks why cant i memorize a single word document of random letters?
The brain is trained to remember patterns and predictable associations. Randomness is the absence of patterns, so it's the exact opposite of what the human brain is for. A human can remember random ...
- 9,322
5
votes
Appropriate cell lines to study depression
tl;dr there is no 'depression' cell line. Cell lines would be suited for studying pharmacology, cellular or molecular mechanisms, none of which are depression. Depression also has no good correlates ...
- 6,152
4
votes
Accepted
Is there any way a human could whistle and be unable to speak?
Short answer(s)
Someone with a damaged larynx may still speak with the use of a speech aid (electronic larynx).
The ability to understand speech does not necessarily mean one can speak normally. ...
- 52.2k
4
votes
Is there any way a human could whistle and be unable to speak?
You can whisper without a larynx. "Patients who have undergone partial or full laryngectomy are typically unable to speak anything more than hoarse whispers, without the aid of prostheses or ...
- 403
4
votes
Accepted
What is the specific role of the cerebellum when it comes to 'coordinating movement'?
The principal function of the cerebellum, which was detected years ago, is to calibrate detailed movements rather than initiating movements or deciding which movements to execute (Ghez et al, 1985). ...
- 14.1k
4
votes
difference between neurotransmitters and hormones
At heart, the distinction between neurotransmitters and hormones is how they are transmitted - not necessarily a difference in the chemicals themselves.
Neurotransmitters are sent over synapses, ...
- 1,515
4
votes
Accepted
What parts of the visual system could be responsible for a fixed, monocular scotoma?
Yes. You're right.
A scotoma only affecting one eye (i.e., one that is not perceived when one eye is closed) is diagnostic of a lesion upstream from the optic chiasm.
See Brust's Practice of Neural ...
- 8,741
4
votes
Neuron connectivity- how are they connected physically
It's true, neurons in the brain are really sparse within an extracellular matrix. But I would like to say that there exist several type of synapsis.
The first one, to which you referred is the ...
- 41
3
votes
Accepted
Why can nervous inflammation radiate symmetrically in the limbs?
Padua et al. (1998) did find that 87% of followed patients developed bilateral CTS (i.e., carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands).
Most patients that develop unilateral symptoms, eventually have the ...
- 29.2k
3
votes
Accepted
What is a starter cell?
Nice question - this terminology isn't referring to a special type of cell or anything, but to a peculiarity of the technique they are using.
They are labeling a subset of cells with rabies virus; ...
- 41.3k
3
votes
Does the effect of light on melatonin release adapts to light level over long periods of time?
This paper, for example, shows that indeed, melatonin is suppressed more in the light after a week of dim light exposure compared to after a week of bright light exposure.
However, the authors note ...
- 41.3k
3
votes
What is the specific role of the cerebellum when it comes to 'coordinating movement'?
When attempting to execute a movement, a signal is not only sent from the motor cortex through the spinal chord and to the muscles, but also one is sent from the same motor cortex to the cerebellum, ...
- 621
3
votes
Accepted
Minimal viable EEG equipment for dissertation research on BCI / BMI
I have been working with BCI since some time and would recommend you to try these ones. They all have been widely used in MS/PhD research and their results are more or less accepted everywhere:
...
- 1,623
3
votes
What causes the range of severity of neurological deficits in Down's syndrome?
The extra genetic material present in DS results in overexpression of a portion of the 310 genes located on chromosome 21. This over expression has been estimated at around 50%. Some research has ...
- 513
3
votes
Accepted
What neuro-motor diseases cause the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to malfunction?
This is called achalasia. According to UpToDate, the mechanism for this diseases are generally unknown. What is known, however, is that the esophagus has a neural system called the myenteric plexus ...
- 149
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