Hey /sci/, I study Neuroscience.
AMA, if there are some good questions I'll reply
>>7970174
Here is my temporary trip btw
How do you explain the biological compulsion to meme ?
is pain a neural process in the brain? if so what process is it?
>>7970174
Is it possible to explain consciousness solely through biological mechanisms?
>>7970185
>is pain a neural process in the brain? if so what process is it?
Nociception is the process.
Thermal nociceptors respond to temperatures greater than 45C/115F, and less than 5C/41F, and activate thinly myelinated A-delta axons.
Mechanical nociceptors (activated by intense pressure applied to the skin) are also found on A-delta axons.
You also have polymodal nociceptors which can be activated by high-intensity mechanical, chemical or thermal stimuli. These are found on small-diameter, unmyelinated C axons.
You can have mutations in specific genes which code for channels used in these nociceptive neurons, which can result in hyper-sensitivity to stimuli producing abnormally high levels of pain in response to stimuli which shouldn't produce pain, or insensitivity, producing an abnormal absence of pain to normally painful stimuli
>>7970211
I wouldn't know
How to experimentally determine the phase response curve of an in-vitro neuron directly stimulated by an intracellular electrode?
If you split someone down the middle
like, perfectly down the middle
And managed to keep both halves perfectly alive
Would they both have the same personality, or would the personality diverge? Pic related
Legal question: would said person count as two people?
>>7970213
>>7970185
Further, these neurons carry pain from the body, through the spinal cord, to the brain. Through the five major ascending pathways, spinothalamic, spinoreticular, spinomesencephalic, cervicothalamic and spinohypothalamic tracts.
If you look at patients with phantom limb, there is abnormal activation of cortical regions (the sensory strip).
The overall circuit is, for example, a stimulus in your right foot, activates particular receptors, the the receptors cause an action potential in a group of neurons, which travel into the spinal cord, to the thalamus (usually), and to the associated part of the sensory cortex
>>7970174
Are there any limits to brain-computer interfaces? What do you think it's gonna happen in the future concerning this topic?
Where does brain energy go once you die? Asking in relation to conservation of energy. Does it merely go into boost the process of decomposition?
>>7970229
Assuming you've cultured the neuron on the correct medium, and given that you haven't stipulated any other conditions, you could use a multielectrode array if you have that kind of funding. It depends on the phase you want to test though, if you can go through all the phases in a short amount of time, you could use several neurons and patch clamps.
Though I'll admit that electrophysiology is not something I have covered in much depth
>>7970249
Brain energy. I'll try and give you a good answer.
Electrical activity in the brain is usually a product of ions flowing, in a somewhat controlled manner, down their potential gradients.
Energy from chemical bonds is often used by "activate-pumps" to transport these ions against their potential gradients. These action potentials are stimulated by the opening of ligand-gate channels, chemicals such as neurotransmitters.
The brain has a very high energy consumption relative to it's size. 20% of your blood is directed towards your brain after leaving the heart, even though the brain makes about 2% of your overall mass.
If you look at what happens in stroke pathophysiology, neurons can undergo irreversible damage after a relatively short period of hypoxia.
Oxygen is needed to produce the chemicals which are used by active-pumps.
Eventually, with a prolonged period of oxygen deprivation, active-pumps would no longer be able to find a source of energy to fuel them. You would no longer be able to "reset" ion potential gradients.
All of the "brain energy" would be stored in chemicals that cannot be processed any further, or in ions which cannot pass down their potential gradients without ligand gated channels being activated; and ligand release itself requires energy
TL:DR the energy doesn't go anywhere after death, it just can't be used in the same way it would in life
so I'm doing a project on multimodal integration, and I'm reading this paper and it's like "the dorsal cochlear nucleus performs a spectral analysis on the combines signals on the trigeminal ganglion and the auditory nerve".
How can we know that? You can't put a multimeter on the dorsal cochlear nucleus, it's too small.
>>7970231
Apart from the person dying?
If you could keep them alive and functional, I'd assume their personalities would be completely different. As far as I'm aware, some functions are found in different halves of the brain. For example, from what I've heard, the ability to speak is found only on one half of the brain. The idea being, during development, each half of the brain grows at different rates, at different critical points. The point of time at which a baby is learning to speak coincides with a point when one half is growing faster than the other, and so that growing side becomes the half that contains the speech centre.
I could be completely wrong, but that's what I recall reading
>>7970298
drop me the link of the paper, I'll give it a skim.
Also, where are you doing the project? which institution?
>>7970174
How is time perceived by the brain?
>>7970174
How can the effects of axonal loss and demyelination on extra-axonal diffusivity be distinguished?
How many years have you been studying neuroscience?
What do you like about it?
>>7970311
From what I've read, time is represented by the oscillation activity in cells in the cortex (outer layer) of the brain. However, rats which have their cortex entirely removed are able to approximate a time interval of 40 seconds. There are phenomena such as chronostasis, which is associated with the visual cortex, an example of which is the "stopped-clock illusion".
In all honesty though, time perception is apparently wide spread, I wouldn't know much about such a complex phenomenon without spending a large amount of time reading about it
>>7970317
You could probably test it using ultra-high resolution diffusion tensor imaging and MRI with patients with multiple sclerosis. Image their brain several times, over periods of weeks/months/years, then apply a statistical analysis to see if there is a correlation between demyelination (from MRI) and axonal loss (as measured by intraneuronal diffusion in DTI) with extraaxonal diffusion (using DTI)
What's are the functions of the pineal gland?
I read somewhere it makes us to react to the day and night, though.
>>7970319
I've wanted to study a field of brain sciences since I was about 13-14, it's about 9-10 years later now. When I was younger I wanted to go into neurology, but as I've gotten older, I've seen the limitations in the practice of medicine, and the need for innovation/research in terms of imaging techniques and biomarkers for later clinical application.
I started formally studying neuroscience a little under 2 years ago, after formally studying the general medical science foundation for 2 years (cell biology, and human system biology to be a bit more specific).
I like every part of it that I know about. Some parts interest me more than others. I have little interest in basic research, and more interest in translational research; by which I mean the translation of basic research to clinically relevant research.
The parts I'm most interested in are neurodegenerative disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders. I'm probably more interested in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, Huntington, ALS, etc. The parts I'm working on right now are how to diagnose these degenerative disorders early on, how to classify diseases/disorders in life (for example, a Parkinsons diagnosis is made "definitive" by a postmortem examination, during life you simply say they have parkinsonism; that they resemble Parkinsons).
A big thing that concerns me is the growing numbers of patients with dementia. It currently costs just under $1,000,000,000,000 a year, globally, in care for patients with dementia. Alzheimers is the biggest cause of dementia
Not sure if youre the right guy to ask but what is the fastest way to trick my brain to sleep and have good deep sleep in general(im already doing the 4-7-8 method and its still not working)?I've read alot about sleeping and still nothing really helps and i feel like i have been kicked in the head every morning.
>>7970350
The pineal gland produces melatonin which can affect sleep patterns.
The circadian rhythm is based on a cyclic production of transcription factors (molecules which play a role of "reading" DNA to produce proteins). This rhythm is found in the suprachiasmatic nuclei.
Light signals reach the suprachiasmatic nuclei and the pineal gland through the retinohypothalamic system.
>>7970174
How good of a model do you think spiking neural networks are?
>>7970174
How do you stop procrastination / increase conscientiousness?
>>7970370
I'd definitely recommend going to see a medical doctor, since I'm not a clinician, I wouldn't know the best technique.
I've read that an obstruction to breathing during sleep can result in reduced quality of sleep, so if you're overweight it may be worth losing weight, and if you have difficult breathing, you could try getting these patches which open up your nasal passage (though I don't know how effective that is).
I wouldn't know the fastest way to trick your brain to sleeping. But sleep cycles are regulated by environmental light levels, so it may be worth getting some dim lamps which you can turn on, instead of bright ceiling lights, when it is dark out.
>>7970174
Is memory formation really the function of dreaming? I've recently read in a book that some psychostimulants may completely cease REM sleep, yet the patients don't show any signs of bad memory. The author pushes foward another theory, stating that dreams reinforce genetic programming. I managed to find his paper on the topic, although I'm struggling to understand it:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2869.7.s1.1.x/epdf
How viable would you say his theory is?
>>7970379
If I knew, I wouldn't be on 4chan.
Sorry friend
>>7970364
>alzheimer
>neurodegenerative diseases
Did you study the mad cow disease?
I've heard that alzheimer development is correlated to some things in the mytochondria of every cell, is that true?
How many brains have you analized?
>>7970271
So no 4d laifu after death? The energy that fuels your consciousness can't remain?
>>7970174
How do you feel that you pursued carrier in the field that is pure wishful thinking and has weaker foundations than QFT during its inception?
>>7970374
As a model of actual neurons? If they are only activated once a critical threshold is reached, rather than being activated every-single-time it is free to be activated, then it is a much more accurate model of neuronal activity.
I wouldn't be surprised if they also added excitatory and inhibitory modulation of the nodes/neurons.
However, I have very little experience with ANNs or SNNs, and very little experience with programming in general
>>7970391
>Did you study the mad cow disease?
I don't study mad cow (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy), but I did study its human counterpart briefly (CJD)
The protein that is involved in CJD results in neurodegeneration of particular brain regions, and is self-propagating. The protein can have multiple forms, and it's harmful form can turn other normal forms into harmful forms. These harmful forms can spread.
The same thing is seen in different proteins in Alzheimer, specifically amyloid beta (look up secondary nucleation if you're interested).
Mitochondrial dysfunction is a component of alzheimers, but only vulnerable cells, under particular conditions, become damaged from the dysfunction
>>7970395
>The energy that fuels your consciousness can't remain?
That's not testable by the scientific method, friend
Can you cure my tinnitus?
>>7970399
>How do you feel that you pursued carrier in the field that is pure wishful thinking and has weaker foundations than QFT during its inception?
If you knew what neuroscience actually is, you wouldn't ask that question, since it doesn't make much sense.
I feel perplexed because I don't get how someone can be this confused about what neuroscience actually is
>>7970417
I could probably cure it, but the cure would be worse than having tinnitus.
Jokes aside, as far as I'm aware, there is no cure.
>>7970174
Do mirror neurons exist?
Also thanks for answering my previous question.
>>7970388
He is working on the false assumption that neurogenesis ends in adulthood. To the best of my knowledge, discoveries since his paper was written in 1998 show that significant amounts of neurogenesis still occur in adulthood, up until old age.
>>7970426
Do they exist?
If you define them as neurons which are observed to fire when an animal observes an action, and when the animal performs the same action, then they probably exist, and there is good evidence to suggest that they exist.
If I remember correctly, there have been popscience books written on these mirror neurons. I've never read them, but if there is controversy surrounding mirror neurons, it is probably due to misrepresentation of mirror neurons when trying to explain their function to the lay audience
>>7970430
It seems that you're right, I didn't knew that neurogenesis still continues in adulthood. Thanks for answering my question.
>>7970447
What is their function in animals and humans?
>>7970174
Neat.
So I've read this philosophy postulated by a neuroscientist that she called 'Eliminative Materialism' which among other points says human consciousness is an illusion, like an afterglow and mainstream understanding of psychology is fundamentally flawed.
One of the points is that free will is an illusion because studies show the brain comes up with a decision and almost begins to act before the person the brain belongs to is even aware that they have made a decision. Not just like base responses like closing your eyes if somebody suddenly blows air in your face, but every 'rational' decision, every action is already made for you before you realize it.
In your studies and understanding of the brain have you seen any evidence that we're really all just meat-based computers blindly following programming or is this just some kinda neo-nihlism dreamt up to sell books or something?
>>7970454
In my opinion, the safest explanation of their function, is that it is a byproduct of our ability to think about actions as abstract concepts.
For example. I can picture in my mind, myself walking to the train station. I can picture it, even though I'm not actually walking to the train station.
There are studies showing how thinking about a motor action, but not actually performing the action, results in physiological changes, such as the retention of "strength" (where we define strength as total muscle content, and the ability to activate that muscle via neuronal activity).
If I were to give my opinion, the evidence for neurons that activate when an action is observed, and activate when the individual performs the same action, are results of the brain processing the action as an abstract concept.
Of course, I have no real evidence for this. This is supposition. A lot of the proposed functions follow this line of thought though, about it being used for learning motor skills.
Personally, I'm unlikely to learn much about them, since it's more in the realm of basic research than translational research, and the only thing it seems to apply to is autism spectrum disorders
Can a person live without some part of his cerebellum or his pons?
Does dopamine levels actually measure a person's motivation?
Also, there are people who can calculate logarithms and sqrt, so if you neuroscientists analize his brain, is there a possibility we can become like him?
Thanks for answering my other questions, :^)
>>7970473
You get people who reject anything which can't be measured by the scientific method. And you get people who accept that there are things which can't be measured by the scientific method.
Consciousness and free will are things which may be impossible to measure or determine.
People seem to be jaded by philosophy, especially here on /sci/. Either way, I've reconciled myself to both options
>>7970174
Why do things trigger me into having a psychotic breakdown. I am schizophrenic and I live a pretty normal life, except sometimes I have episodes of insanity.
>>7970503
hey OP, I'm interested in how the brain does analogical reasoning. do you have any paper/book recommendations? thanks!
>>7970498
>Can a person live without some part of his cerebellum or his pons?
Without their cerebellum, yes it seems so, though they probably have some deficits because of the absence
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/133/3/652.full
without some of the pons, seems so
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3102492/
PET imaging of the dopamine system, specifically the nucleus accumbens, shows that dopamine signalling is affected by a lot of things, even perceived position in a social hierarchy
It depends on what the abnormality is which lets them calculate logs and roots. It may be the absence of a brain structure which regulates access to "lower level" information. In which case you may be able to remove that part of the brain, and do what they do.
It may be a unique series of connections inside and/or between different brain regions, in which case it may be able to do it in theory, but probably not practically for any time in the near future.
>>7970174
How can I pass my Neuroanatomy exam next month?
>>7970516
Schizophrenia appears to be a product of an insufficient number of connections, by neurons which use dopamine, in the front part of the brain.
Genes, such as DISC1, which play roles in the formation of these connections, seem to be disrupted in Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other conditions.
During acute psychotic states in schizophrenics, there appears to be chemical differences (relative to non-psychotic states in the schizophrenic individual); in which dopamine is dopamine levels are increased.
TL;DR
Abnormal connections of dopamine neurons in non-psychotic states of schizophrenia. Psychotic states are a product of transient/temporary increased levels of dopamine.
If your frontal cortex is unused to high levels of dopamine signalling then it's not a stretch to think that it will undergo dysfunction when exposed to increased dopamine.
Maybe you'll enjoy this paper, Anon.
It'll download as soon as you enter the link
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/19525360/611943554/name/Schizophrenia+-+The+Lancet.pdf
>>7970528
By studying and using Netters concise neuroanatomy.
My neuroanatomy professor used that for most of his lectures, and he's a pretty prominent neuroanatomist.
He was a member at the European Consortium for developing a protocol for Lewy body staging/typing
>>7970517
http://memorylab.stanford.edu/Publications/papers/BUN_CC052005.pdf
I wouldn't know, to be honest. I'm not really interested in basic research of the normal human brain. I care more about translational research to treat brain dysfunction/abnormality
>>7970174
when will psychedelics be legal?
lots of neuros i know experiment with drugs that are also controlled substances. are there a lot of these types in your area's neuro department?
>>7970174
Is it true that anti psychotics fuck your brain?
My doctor says it doesn't. I think he is a liar. I feel my reasoning is slower and my memory (short term and long term) are MUCH weaker. And I've already stopped to take them.
And Ive seen many papers saying it is the case (they tested on monkeys - they brain literally shrunk)
>>7971023
sorry for english errors, I've written in a hurry
>jokes about how they fucked my brain
>>7970516
google "gangstalking"
How can I fake my body into increasing it's heart rate?
>>7970174
How do I get smarter / increase IQ
>>7971033
hyperventilate
>>7970235
Does this support the notion that the brain has evolved codependently with bodily adaptations?
>Dawkins
>If we all had bigger feet, we'd get better at controlling bigger feet
>>7970174
If I pull that off, would you die?
>>7970372
So even if we devise a method for converting the data a camera recieves to suitable electrical impulses that a brain could hypothetically learn to control like an organic eye, the subject would be deprived of sleep excepting medication?
sup
also in clinical neurosciences - neurodegenerative focus, workin on PD currently
> I was about 13-14, it's about 9-10 years later now
so you're barely 24? have you even started a phd?
What is the path to neuroscience research? I'm studying computational biology now and I was wondering if I could get on that research path?
>>7971143
develop relevant research skills
develop programming python/MATLAB
develop relevant experience
develop experience with neuroscience research tools and methods
apply for a phd
>>7971153
So basically I go out and find all the labs/profs in the relevant field as I can?
>>7971157
yes, if you want to work in a field it helps a lot to have experience working in it
fundementally speaking this isnt rocket science, figure out where you want to go/what you want to do, see what they want, and start accumulating skills and experience to build a profile that matches what they're looking for
it pays to start early
>>7970390
do you feel it is ironic that you avoid doing your own work, yet you come to 4chan and start a thread that is about your work?
>>7970379
>How do you stop procrastination / increase conscientiousness?
heres the tough answer: figure out what you really want in life, and what you value. The rest will come naturally
>>7970174
Is it possible to induce savant skills in healthy individuals?
is it possible to get rid of someone's social anxiety altogether by removing a part of their brain?
what are the best books to get into neuroscience?
>>7970174
why can you not prove that there is other human beings than me?
Why does the third ventricle have a hole in it?
Where in the brain does its conscious part sit at? Go into detail.
>>7970174
Are you a qt girl?
>>7971482
you do not want to see what neuroscience majors look like
literally everyone looks like an utter neet/turbonerd. They do not know what a shower or a haircomb is. They look unbelievably autistic. Like the kind of people you find in a CS major, only half of them are women. And they are just like the guys. Actually I retract regular nerds go to CS, these people are beyond saving
thankfully thats students only the phd's and above look like normal people, guess nobody wants to hire them
![IMG_1880MONGAGEFINALNEUROSCIENCE2015edres[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/SzBFhp9.jpg "IMG_1880MONGAGEFINALNEUROSCIENCE2015edres[1].jpg")
>>7971482
here are some pictures
![graduating-undergrads-2015[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/uzjYeop.jpg "graduating-undergrads-2015[1].jpg")
Is it true PhD researchers who study the science of "happy" chemicals (i.e., dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin) can potentially be "explosive" in bed, as their understanding of these chemical triggers in regards to libido may provide an added edge to their sex life?
>>7970311
Time is created in the brain; much to the dismay of physicists such as Einstein, Time is a biological phenomenon.
Time is not counted by clocks, it is created by life.
>>7970174
What do you think about ADD, Intelligence, and Amphetamine treatment in response to diagnosis? I was diagnosed at age 9, and I've been on Adderall pretty much every school day since then. I am 18 currently and a freshman in college.
I can no longer function without it. I feel drunk without it, and I can't accomplish anything for lack of motivation or think clearly. I fear that it has damaged my creativity as well. Do you think that long-term amphetamine usage has caused this in me or is this simply my brain's nature? Also how can I fix it? Halp
Best sourced methods for increasing neuroplasticity?
Grey matter?
Neurogenesis?
Do you thing the subconscious mind will be unlocked for us to remember even the faintest memories in the next 10 years ?
Will there ever be a way to digify our memories and transfer them to different places besides our brains?
I'm a computer science major but neuroscience is interesting, I could see myself learning some theoretical or computational neuroscience. What is the path to learn neuroscience if I only know high school physics and have no knowledge of chemistry and biology?
>>7970174
Do you think tinnitus will be cured any time soon, since it's a problem connected to the brain's neuroplasticity.
>>7974295
Seconding this question.
Ans if you know of some recent study about the possible treatments for tinnitus, not cures just treatments.
I heard about some treatments with white noise.
>>7972256
>Time is counted by clocks, and then perceived by life.
ftfy mr retard
>>7974404
Anon you were replying to here.
The best(only) thing you can do is take epilepsy drugs to potentially lower tinnitus. They are trying to develop a medicine without the shitty side-effects current ones like Trobalt have
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160330102848.htm
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/attachments/mol-pharmacol-2016-kumar-mol-115-103200-pdf.9824/
>>7974485
If the clocks readings are affected at high speeds, the biology perception of time could not experiment the same changes, maybe we can percieve time normally as we travel at light speed.
Wich wouldn't mean that we are experiencing time normally.
Just our crocodile brain doing what he can given the circumstances.
>>7970174
Is there any real research being done on modern sexual fetishism? I'd love to read some current thinking on the subject.
>>7974527
your brain cells and the chemical reactions among them, ie what makes us feel time, will be affected by the increase of speed, nothing escapes physics
but I believe we could do some tricks to alter time perception in normal situations.
>>7974583
Like chronostasis for example, is there a way to experience chronostasis?
To manipulate the visual cortex, and I assume the inner ear, to make us feel like time stoped?
>>7970174
Alright brainfag, riddle me this. When I was 14 i was hit a truck while i was on my bike. The result being a massive contusion that i somehow survived without surgery. Anyway, the area affected wa the back of my neck, they said in the occipital lobe. Many years later, whenever i see a partuclar shade of orange - its very specific - i tend to get rolling headaches and my eyes hurt. Also, if i touch my hair at a very specific region of my head, i get, i get an acute pain in that area. Wtf happened to me
If given a brain that will not age, decay, or anything like that, can the brain continue to function perfectly for thousands of years, or is there a flaw in the way the brain stores and perceives information that would cause problems as time went on?
How do I stop procrastinating?
Is IQ meaningful? And could you link to papers that support your answer?
>>7974935
Are you the same as >>7970379? If so I'm not OP but I have some background in behavioral psy. Procrastination is actually an across species behavior as demonstrated in multiple studies with multiple species. As such it's only naturally you do it and as a consequence going against this impulse will require energy and produce stress. Due to this fact most people approach the problem with just optimizing the amount of work to amount of procrastination ratio by breaking up work into smaller increments with small breaks. This is also backed by across species studies.
Now could you train yourself to eliminate procrastination? I'm not sure it's phesable but you could at least reduce it to a certain degree with by progressively reducing your break times.
>>7970174
why are so many neuroscientists so profoundly confused about what they're up to? at least, it seems like a lot of people who are interested in neuroscience think neuroscience is coming to an understanding of how the brain produces memory, complex ideas, cued associations, etc, and ultimately consciousness, but isn't it really the case that there's not even a consensus on the best model of neural activation, and even if there were, it wouldn't tell you anything about WHY that activation leads to the cognitive effects I mentioned?
>>7973353
someone pls respond
What do you think of Gila Cells? Are they merely nothing more than a helping cell for the brain?
What is anxiety? I suffer from general anxiety. Things/events don't make me anxious (I'm good socially) but sometimes my anxiety just happens out of no where for no reason to the point of panic attack. Why?
>>7975881
your brain is responding to triggers that you cannot perceive/understand
temporally the attack and the event that triggered it is not typically close, think ptsd
>>7975904
I have always had general anxiety but random nonsensical panic attacks occured after my childhood dogs death. I really want to join the military (doing a STEM degree atm) but due to use of benzos to prevent random panic attacks I don't think I can join. I don't use benzos too often, maybe 2-3 times a week but I think that's enough to DQ me.
>>7974937
yes/no
>>7974928
if you have a brain that breaches the laws of physics, anything is possible
>>7974592
have you been checked by a neurologist? You should not have pain if you touch your hair, which means something very weird is going on with your brain's interpretation of pain in that area
2: you damaged your occipital cortex which processes visual information, somehow the processing of the visual information must be triggering your symptoms/mini seizure related activity, kind of how epileptics can be triggered by some visual patterns
in general you should seek neuro professionals to figure out whats going on
>>7975906
try to seek permanent treatment that goes beyond simple pharmacology, theres exciting new work in anxiety treatment that can have good effects, seek out professionals who are in the cutting edge of anxiety treatment research/is their speciality
Is there any hope for people with Tinnitus to get a "cure" eventually?
