neurocuriosity
neuroscience
just your daily dose of all there is know about the brain
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Fascinated by deep brain stimulation
An individual with a severe tremor from Parkinson's disease demonstrates the effectiveness of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). DBS is the implantation of electrodes into the brain along with a pacemaker-like controller and battery which is implanted in the chest. For Parkinson's disease, the electrodes typically target the subthalamic nucleus, an area of the basal ganglia, which is involved in motor selection and even cognitive/emotional control. The settings for the device can be manually adjusted by the patient. This demonstration shows what a dramatic improvement the intervention can have.
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Everything in Moderation
Source: http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-4/299-306.htm
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Brain Aneurysms
This topic has both fascinated and terrified me for quite some time. I've known of several people, relatives of close friends and co-workers, who have passed suddenly because of cerebral aneurysms so I wanted to learn more and share that with you.
By definition, an aneurysm is a a balloon-like bulge in an artery. Blood to brain is supplied by four major blood vessels-- where these arteries join, there is often weakness that can cause an aneurysm. They are surprisingly common and mostly asymptomatic, but on occasion, can leak or rupture and result in death.
What causes aneurysms?
High blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and trauma can all contribute to aneurysms. There may be a hereditary component as well.
More rarely, they can be caused by infections of the artery wall, tumors, and drug abuse.
What are the symptoms?
An aneurysm can manifest itself through headaches, changes in vision, numbness on one side of the face (similar to what would be experienced during a stroke), and dilated pupils. The headache is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and pain and stiffness of the neck.
How to diagnose?
Brain aneurysms can be diagnosed through a CT scan, a lumbar puncture, or an angiography.
How is it treated?
Repair may require neurosurgery to put a clip across the stretched blood vessel. Doing so would prevent the blood from entering the aneurysm to cause further growth or leakage.
An alternative would be coiling, where an artery would be filled with coils of platinum wire or latex to prevent further blood from entering the aneurysm.
The takeaway:
About 10% of patients with a ruptured aneurysm die before receiving medical care with many more dying within the month if untreated (around 50%). Often if untreated, patients will often sustain another bleeding episode or suffer a stroke due to arterial spasms.
Learn to recognize the symptoms. The best thing that can be done is to seek immediate medical care to diagnose and repair the aneurysm.
Stay safe and healthy and have a happy holiday.
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Answer: staining!
Frank Nissl (late 1800s) found that basic dyes (cresyl violet, for example) could stain cell bodies of neurons and give them a purple color.
What was this later called?
Surprise! The Nissl stain!
The Nissl stain specifically stained the RNA in ribosomes, which are mostly concentrated in the neuronal cell body.
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How do we handle brain tissues?
To look at the brain under the microscope, scientists need a way to make the brain into very thin slices.
By immersing the brain in formaldehyde, it can harden the tissue and allow for thin slice preparation. Figuring it out, how can we make neurons stand out?
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Evidence for chemical transmission
Knowing what we currently know, Loewi reasoned that if a chemical was being released from the vagus nerve, he could collect it and add it to a second recipient heart, and consequently slow that heart down.
Was he right?
Yes, and he won a Nobel Prize for the idea.
Loewi, along with Dale, established the concept of chemical transmission.
Loewi showed that a compound called acetylcholine (Ach) was a chemical transmitter at the heart. Dale showed that Ach was also a chemical transmitter at skeletal muscle.
Realize now that neuronal functioning involves both chemical and electrical signaling.
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How do nerves communicate?
Now that we know about the anatomical workings of the nervous system, how can we learn about functionality? How do nerves communicate with each other?
One method: scientists studied nerve effects on the heart!
It was known that stimulation of the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) innervating heart --> inhibition of heart rate.
Now the question was: was it because of a direct electrical effect? Or was there a chemical mediator?
The answer lay in a mushroom extract, called muscarine, that also inhibited the heart. It was also observed that there was a plant extract, called atropine, that would block the effect of muscarine. So what? Atropine also blocked the effect of vagal nerve stimulation.
SO WHAT?
It suggested that a chemical (like muscarine) might be released from the vagus nerve to inhibit the heart, explaining the atropine sensitivity of the response.
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Now, back to localization
A problem presents itself-- how do we study localization of the brain? Not many would volunteer to have parts of their brain destroyed to study brain function.
Sometimes, we don't need to anything...
Paul Broca analyzed the brain of a patient who could understand language but could not speak. How could this be?
- He later found a lesion in the left frontal lobe
Correlation? Or Causation?
With additional cases, he found this same pattern to be true. Thus, the left frontal lobe is crucial for the ability to speak (now known as Broca's area)
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Bidirectionality?
Bell cut the ventral roots of the spinal cord just as they left the spinal cord --> muscle paralysis without a loss of sensation.
Magendie cut the dorsal roots of the spinal cord just as they left the spinal cord --> loss of sensation without muscle paralysis.
Within the nerve there are fibers that are unidirectional.
VENTRAL- MOTOR: carry signals TO muscles
DORSAL- SENSORY: carry signals AWAY FROM muscles (to the brain)
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Nerves and Electricity
By the early 1800s, it was recognized that electrical impulses could make muscles contract. This led to the concept that nerves carried electricity, not fluid.
The question remained, however, was this a 2-way communication scheme? Or were there separate routes for nerves carrying signals to muscles and those carrying signals away?
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But first, a detour...
Despite this idea about localization, initial focus was on the bumps on the skull surface.
Phrenology suggested that these bumps could tell you about the personality of a person, and was popularized by Franz Gall in the early 1800s.
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Beginnings of Localization
Existence of rounded elevations and grooves (gyri and fissures/sulci, respectively) led to distinguishing different lobes of the cerebrum
The separation of the cerebrum into different lobes led to the idea that different parts of the brain might have different functions.
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White Matter and Gray Matter
White Matter: Neuron fibers possessing myelin sheath
Gray Matter: Cell bodies, dendrites, nerve terminals
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A Mind/Brain Problem
Dualism and monism are two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind/brain (mind/body) problem.
Dualism --> Plato, Aristotle, and more recently, Descartes.
Descartes believed in the fluid/hollow tube mechanism for the brain influencing the body in both humans and animals BUT he believed that higher mental processes exist in an entity outside the brain called the 'mind.' He believed the mind was linked to the brain via the pineal gland.
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Views of the Brain During the Roman Empire
Galen embraced the Hippocratic view of the brain and was influenced greatly by his animal dissections. From his dissections of sheep brains, he concluded that cerebellum was in charge of commanding muscles because it was rather hard and that the cerebrum was the recipient of sensations because it was rather soft. Although his conclusions were correct, his reasoning was flawed.
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Views of the Brain in Ancient Greece
Hippocrates believed that the brain not only was involved in sensation, but also was the seat of intelligence.
Aristotle clung to the belief that the heart was the center of intellect, the seat of the soul, and the repository of memories.
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Trepanation
Dating back to as early as 7000 years ago, this process of boring holes in each others skulls was used not to kill, but to cure. This procedure was often carried out on live subjects and it has been speculated that this procedure may have been used to treat headaches or mental disorders, perhaps by giving the 'evil spirits' an escape route.
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