tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110460642011-06-08T00:06:06.961-05:00Encoding current research into long-term memory.KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.comBlogger171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-6865729662078473562007-06-12T17:39:00.000-05:002007-09-25T14:08:29.094-05:00

Olfactory receptors represent one of the largest families of G-protein coupled receptors known. In the nose, smelly chemicals dissolve into mucosal layers and interact with the genetically "hyper-variable" regions of these receptors. Such interactions trigger molecular cascades that change the membrane potential of the olfactory cells. The chemical cocktail of a given smell triggers a

Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790370611722529119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-17437147098485741772007-05-18T16:23:00.000-05:002007-05-18T16:29:54.659-05:00

My very first MRI was in the 7 Tesla scanner here at the center, and I have to say it was a pretty scary experience. I've gotten used to it now, but the opening is very very small, and there are subjective effects of the high field - specifially I felt like I was curving around a bend when I was being put straight into the magnet. There's also some evidence for mild cognitive effects of the 7T

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-21916130576208386542007-05-14T20:23:00.000-05:002007-05-14T20:25:12.944-05:00

We have two new contributors to the blog, rendering the url a bit unfair, but we're not going to change it now! Keep an eye out for posts from Dark Hollow and AN, as well as the usual, always sporadic KD.

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-53694367243473922792007-03-28T14:26:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:43:40.316-05:00

An article in today's Journal of Neuroscience elaborates on the effects of nicotine previously mentioned here .The default network is a pattern of spontanious activation that occurs when the brain is at rest - some think of it as the 'daydreaming' or 'zoning out' network. When the brain is engaged in a cognitive task (memory recall, problem solving, shifting attention, etc) the default network

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-89408876843983543832007-03-27T16:13:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:43:40.454-05:00

Gerald Jacobs at UCSB has introduced one genetic mutation into mice and enabled them to see a wider range of colors. Although the mutation only affected the photoreceptors in the retina, the mouse's cortical circuitry updated to account for the extra photoreceptors and can translate the output into colors.The implications for humans are pretty cool - night vision without goggles, electromagnetic

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-26534170036721278552007-03-21T17:00:00.000-05:002007-03-21T17:12:50.895-05:00

The NIH has over 100 Neuroscience talks available for everyone to watch for free online (Realplayer) or as downloadable Podcasts. I've only scratched the surface of these so far, having watched Bob Wurtz's attention talk and Roger Tootell's ventral stream fMRI talk. The archives are searchable by topic or by author and they are still adding new talks as they happen. They have a whole archive

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-38933596272998481452007-03-07T19:32:00.000-05:002007-03-27T16:59:43.441-05:00

I've been really busy with work but hopefully will find time to write a few more posts in the near future. I know you're all (all two of you) on the edge of your seats waiting for more summaries of cutting edge research and pictures of retinotopic activiation.In the meantime, however, you can check out my shiny (and low maintenance) new tumbalog. It's at: kdevaney.tumblr.com

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-380668802489139152006-12-25T14:34:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:43:40.616-05:00

This is an in-development piece of software (only for Macs) to manage a digital collection of articles. It's called Papers, and it bears a striking similarity to iTunes, which I think will be an advantage, since many people are already familiar with the user interface. It looks like it will automatically retreive author, title and journal info from PubMed, which is a great help to me - I have

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-85401067925678647832006-12-24T16:49:00.000-05:002006-12-24T16:55:44.160-05:00

While this guide contains a bit of outdated information,(from the section on giving a talk: If you must point at the overhead, don't actually touch the transparency since you will make it jerk around.) there's also a lot of useful content about research and networking(from the 'Getting Connected' section: When a paper cites something that looks interesting, make a note of it. Keep a log of

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-58363655299431812862006-12-13T17:57:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:43:40.746-05:00

(from Hadjikhani et al, Nature Neuroscience, 1998)

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-1150410654685317832006-06-15T17:30:00.000-05:002006-11-12T20:00:33.182-05:00

A study published in today's Neuropsychopharmacology (TOC) found that nicotine improved performance on a memory task for both smokers and non-smokers. The memory improvement occurred when people were able to devote their full attentional resources to the task, when attention was divided, the opposite effect was found (see figure, below). Comparable Effects of Nicotine in Smokers and

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-1150315266975531512006-06-14T15:00:00.000-05:002006-11-12T20:00:32.985-05:00

Neuroscience back in the day would rely on injured brains (soldiers returning from battle, Phineas Gage ...) in order to determine functions of specific parts of the brain.(NOTE: ...or even that there are functions of specific parts of the brain. After WWI, for example, many soldiers surviving gunshot wounds to the back of the head suffered from cortical blindness, but displayed the curious

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-1150242345962486402006-06-13T00:53:00.000-05:002006-11-12T20:00:32.727-05:00

Short of making your own, I think this is the only hoodie in existence with the hippocampus on it. Maybe you're just that into it. It was designed by a neurosergeon named Katrina Firlik, who has also evidently written a book about neurosurgerey. technorati tags: hippocampus

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-1139275882284233502006-02-12T19:51:00.000-05:002007-03-27T17:45:31.171-05:00

This entry has moved to:http://wayupandgone.blogspot.com/2006/02/browser-comparison-firefox-vs-safari-vs.html

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-1138672582891067052006-01-30T20:45:00.000-05:002006-11-12T20:00:31.790-05:00

^^click title for link^^So supposedly these are pictures of various objects stuck inside MRI machines. They look fake to me - especially the guy in the chair which is in the MRI - there's no way he could have "ridden" the chair all the way into the bore like that (although imagning that happening is quite funny).I have seen, with my own eyes, a quarter levitate in the field generated by a 7T

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-1133286949658797462005-11-29T12:44:00.000-05:002006-12-13T18:15:03.098-05:00

I've been working now for almost two months and, during this interval, I think I have seen my "boss" four times. This isn't the CEO of a company or anything, he is directly above me. His office is next to mine. He spends more time out of Massachusetts than in Massachusetts.It's fantastic.On the flipside, I'm in kind of an academic position, and he's a professor, so the mentoring situation

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046064.post-78307173256221864872005-05-27T20:03:00.000-05:002007-06-12T20:09:08.873-05:00

Reposted from AN's sparsely posted-to blog.Four interesting commentaries have come out in Cell 121:4 about the nascent "systems biology" field.Marc Kirschner's "The meaning of systems biology" offers historical context for this new branch of biology, and whether it is really that different from molecular biology. He points out how this new field aims to parallel the paradigm of prediction, model

KDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180115114003131450noreply@blogger.com0