Today in Neurobiology the topic of migraines and headaches was brought up. There was a question raised that wasn’t able to be answered adequately, and that question was, “Why do we experience the sensation of pain inside our skulls during a headache despite the fact that there are no nerves there?” Is there any primary research on this subject?

Dear Drew Brees,
As your fantasy football owner and a concerned fan, I respectfully request that you stop sucking. Your very manhood may depend on it. According to evolutionary psychologist David M, Buss, it is a well-documented phenomenon that testosterone levels in males fluctuate with the outcome of sporting events. Winners experience a boost of testosterone and mood while losers of athletic competition experience a decrease of testosterone. No wonder you feel like this:

So you’re now 0-3, you threw about four too many interceptions Monday night, and let’s be honest. That fumble in the fourth quarter? You just dropped it didn’t you. It looks like you’ve had a lot of testosterone-dropping moments this season, and I have to warn you: If you continue on this painful trajectory, you could wake up one morning to find you’ve developed female secondary characteristics. You’ll never be able to enter a locker room again! Ok… I’m kidding about the breasts, but if you won’t step it up for you, do it for your fans. Studies show that male sports fans experience similar drops in testosterone after their team suffers a loss. Hasn’t New Orleans suffered enough loss in Hurricane Katrina? It’s time to play some really football.

Sincerely,
A Friend.

Hello again! It’s amazing the things that are going on right under our noses (undergraduate noses that is). I was wondering why we can continue to form so many memories in a life time with no new cell growth after a specific age. If every memory is a new reconstruction of interacting neurons firing off with each other, wouldn’t we need new cells eventually so that the others can maintain function? I suppose this isn’t too unrealistic with billions of neurons and trillions of connections, but the idea of neurogenesis sure explains a lot.

According to a recent article from BioED, neurogenesis suggests that we can create new neurons while learning new material or having new experiences throughout life (throughout life meaning, past the age of 60). These new neurons apparently are only observed in the olfactory bulb and hippocampus of the brain, which makes sense since you are constantly creating new memories and experiencing new smells. But how neurogenesis does this is still a mystery although there are some ideas floating around out there. Check out some of these links if any of this piques your interest.

Since I’ll be using PZMyer’s lab, I’ll have access to plenty of zebra fish. As per being in his Neurobiology course, I get to design my own experiment.

Zebra fish are schooling fish. If they are isolated, I wonder if finding another fish would be their top priority. Would it be high enough that they would navigate a few turns to find? Would it be higher priority than food? It looks like I may be testing the power of a social reward.

Some other random thoughts:

In class, we bounced the idea that deer are the perfect example of depression and suicidal tendencies in the wild. Who else would stand in the middle of the road and just stare at the oncoming car?

Edit: don’t take the above comment literally. It’s more of a joke than it is a valid scientific statement. I hope the Grinch didn’t steal everyone’s sense of humor last Christmas!

Anyways, I look forward to learning more about neurobiology. Interestingly enough, I’m taking Intro to Psychology for one of my gen-eds. It will be fun to look at thought and nerves from two different ends.

In PZ’s class we’re reading and discussing Soul Made Flesh by Carl Zimmer. This non-fiction book follows the journey that neurobiology has made throughout its history. The details of this history that most prominently catch my attention are the logic, methods, and observations upon which early discoveries were built.

Plato got the ball rolling with his theory that the body consists of three souls. The human soul resides in the head where it can sense surroundings and and divinely reason about their meaning. The vegetative soul resides in the abdomen where it initiates growth, lustful desires, and so forth; and the vital soul resides in the heart where it radiates love and compassion. (Zimmer, 2004) Plato’s theory of souls was based primarily on thought and reason but is well considered and worthy of being scribed into one of the first pages of history.

Aristotle (Plato’s student) dissected a vast array of animals, most likely seeing the importance of taking it apart to see what’s inside in understanding how they work. If I myself were, for example, asked to draw a diagram of the inner workings of a wrist watch, I would fail miserably. A few centuries after the time of Plato, Galen gained a further understanding of anatomy by studying the massive wounds sustained by gladiators. The works of Aristotle and Galen remained the dominant teachings for well over a thousand years.

Gradually, around the 17th century, new ideologies began to refute the traditional teachings on human anatomy and the mind. Descartes published Discourse on Method which presented philosophical arguments about thought and human existence. William Harvey introduced the controversial idea that blood circulates through vessels. Thomas Willis, Robert Boyle, and other members of the Oxford Circle began laying the foundations of modern neurobiology by carrying out progressive experiments that no one had ever thought of before. (Zimmer, 2004)

How exciting it must have been to watch, first hand, the beginnings of this intricate science unfold. I sometimes think about what sort of contribution, if any at all, I could have made if I could somehow have been a student at Oxford hundreds of years ago, bringing with me my limited sophomore understanding of chemistry and biology. I’m excited to continue reading Soul Made Flesh to see where history goes from here. If you haven’t read this book, it provides an excellently thorough account of neurobiology from the very beginning. I will be sure revisit this subject as I continue to read and as we continue to discuss it in class.

References:

Zimmer, Carl. 2004. Soul Made Flesh. Free Press, New York, NY.

Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory may have found the key to controlling how the brain is wired while studying the bursts of activity that occur after communication between neurons.

First, I will give an overview of neural communication. Neural cells communicate with each other at a synapse, which is the point of contact between the cells at which signals are transmitted. The action potential stimulates the input cell (presynaptic) to release neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters travel across the synaptic cleft and bind to neurotransmitter receptors on the receiving (postsynaptic) cell. However, the action of the neurotransmitter needs to be controlled so that the cell is not continually activated.

That is where this new research, conducted by Sarah Huntwork and J Troy Littleton, comes in. These scientists have identified a molecule, called complexin, which acts as a gatekeeper to help control the release of neurotransmitters. As it turns out, a few cells will continue to release neurotransmitters even after the major electrical stimulus has passed. They call these events “minis”, which are regulated by complexin. However, they have discovered that in the absence of complexin, these minis can occur without regulation, and when they do, it can lead to rewiring of the brain and synaptic growth.

So what does this mean in terms of neurological diseases? The activity of complexin can be controlled, and if properly regulated, may allow synaptic growth to be stimulated and rewiring of the brain to occur.

… like a lamb to the slaughter.

I guess I’m one of the last of PZ’s sacrificial students. As you may have gathered from my clever alias my name is Katie and I’m a senior biology major. I’ve actually known PZ for a number of years–I’m a Morris native and went to high school with his son, Connlann. When I was thirteen I met Connlann in an upper level math class (something esoteric called “algebra”) and learned that Connlann’s dad was a biologist (cool!) and an atheist (he puts people to sleep before surgery??) I soon adopted him as my personal biological encyclopedia and would pester PZ with questions of science any chance I got. When I decided to stay in Morris for college, PZ became my academic advisor and I’ve been harassing him for knowledge ever since.

This year I am applying to medical school and busy preparing my senior seminar on hypothermic treatments in preserving brain cells in cardiac arrest patients. This new treatment is already in use in some hospitals across the country and completely revolutionizing the way we manage cardiac arrest victims. If you’ve come across studies on this in the literature, I’d appreciate your input. I’m especially interested in research on the way brain cells die. Apparently cells that have been oxygen deprived commit apoptosis even after re-oxygenation. For some reason, induced hypothermia after or during resuscitation increases brain cell viability.

Well that’s all I’ve got. Now go ahead. Eviscerate me (bleat!).