Neurophilosophy

This blog has moved…

Mo — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:52:18 +0000

…to here: http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/. The sidebar on the right contains links to the latest posts on the new site, and the new RSS feed is here.

Eating foie gras may increase risk of Alzheimer’s

Mo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:25:42 +0000

The popular delicacy foie gras (which is French for “fat liver”) is produced in a way that animal rights activists insist is barbaric. Ducks and geese are force-fed corn mash twice a day, through a tube that is inserted into the oesophagus. The birds are slaughtered 2-3 weeks later, and their engorged livers are then [...]

Jacques Fabian Gautier d’Agoty

Mo — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:50:05 +0000

From Myolgie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle, by Jacques Fabian Gautier d’Agoty, 1746. Reproduced with permission from the W. W. Kellogg Health Sciences Library at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. (via a fantastic new blog called Morbid Anatomy)

I feel for you

Mo — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:44:26 +0000

Synaesthesia is a condition in which there is increased connectivity between the areas of the brain that process information received from each sense organ. This leads to a mingling of the senses: for example, sounds may elicit perceptions of colour in a synaesthete who has increased connectivity between the brain’s visual and auditory pathways. The [...]

Classically conditioned cockroaches

Mo — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:00:09 +0000

The name Ivan Pavlov should ring a few bells for anybody who has studied psychology. About 100 years ago, Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, performed a series of classic experiments which showed that dogs could be taught to respond in a particular way to a given stimulus. Pavlov was therefore the first to demonstrate a form [...]

An illustrated history of trepanation

Mo — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:00:55 +0000

Trepanation, or trephination (both derived from the Greek word trypanon, meaning “to bore”) is perhaps the oldest form of neurosurgery. The procedure, which is called a craniotomy in medical terminology, involves the removal of a piece of bone from the skull, and it has been performed since prehistoric times. The oldest trepanned skull, found at [...]

Sea sponges have the makings of a nervous system

Mo — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:59:04 +0000

Sea sponges are sedentary organisms that attach themselves to the sea bed and filter nutrients from the water that they force through their porous bodies with flagella. They are the most primitive of all multicellular animals, with just four different types of cells making up partially differentiated tissues in a simply organized body. Because [...]

Invisibility cloak materials made from reflective self-assembling squid proteins

Mo — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:51:57 +0000

A new study into the biophysical properties of a highly reflective and self-organizing squid protein called reflectin will inform researchers about the process of “bottom-up” synthesis of nanoscale structures and could lead to the development of thin-film coatings for microstructured materials, bringing scientists one step closer to the development of an “invisibility cloak.” The [...]

A miniature robot for keyhole neurosurgery

Mo — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:09:20 +0000

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a miniature image-guided robot for use during keyhole neurosurgery. The MiniAture Robot for Surgical Applications (MARS) was designed and developed by Leo Joskowicz and his colleagues at the Hebrew University’s Computer Aided Surgery and Medical Image Processing Laboratory. It measures 5 x 5 x 8.5 cm and [...]

Forgetting to remember

Mo — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:39:24 +0000

Recall of a particular memory often involves its selection from several memories which are similar to it. Although these other memories are irrelevant, their similarity to the “target” memory leads to competition for retrieval, placing demands on the cognitive mechanisms by which the correct memory is selected. A new study by researchers at Stanford University [...]