Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Two pioneers in research on neurogenesis and vision
Today I just want to draw your attention to two researchers who are senior citizens but still active and still inspiring: Fred Gage and Deric Bownds.
Fred Gage recently gave an interview on his scientific career, in which he told how he became a pioneer in research on neurogenesis—the development of new neurons in the brains of adult mammals. It’s always interesting to learn about the scientific career of someone who disproved an idea that was previously dogma. In Gage’s case, it was the idea that had emerged during the last decades of the 20th century that when humans are born, their brains contain as many neurons as they will ever have and will only continue to lose them as their lives go on. (more…)
From the Simple to the Complex | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 14 September 2021
The great complexity of the brain’s mental mapping system
In the 1930s and 1940s, rats’ ability to learn their way through a maze was explained, according to the behaviourist paradigm prevailing at that time, as simply a process of building connections between sensory stimuli and behavioural responses. When a rat found its way through a maze successfully, it reached the final chamber where it received a reward of food, According to behaviourist theory, this reward strengthened the neural connections underlying the associations that the rat had had to make to complete its task successfully. But this reasoning could not explain the surprising observations made in an experiment by U.S. psychologist Edward Tolman in 1948, in which some rats reached their rewards by finding shortcuts through the maze along paths that they had never taken before! (more…)
Memory and the Brain | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 1 June 2021
Quiz about memory
Which of the following is your memory most like: 1) a huge library where all your memories are shelved? 2) a computer hard drive where data are stored in a binary code of 0s and 1s? 3) a dresser with lots of drawers full of memories? 4) the game of telephone, where one person whispers a message to the next until it ends up being distorted? (more…)
Memory and the Brain | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 4 May 2021
Neuroscientifically Challenged: a highly educational website about neuroscience
This week I want to tell you about a highly educational website that offers a wealth of information about neuroscience. Its name is Neuroscientifically Challenged, and its author is Marc Dingman. Dingman began blogging about neuuroscience in 2008, as his interest in the subject was growing. He took a break from writing the site in 2010 to concentrate on finishing his doctorate in neuroscience, which he received in 2014, when he also accepted a teaching assignment at his university. Neuroscientifically Challenged is aimed at the general public, but Dingman draws his references directly from peer-reviewed scientific articles and monographs on neuroscience. (more…)
From the Simple to the Complex | Comments Closed
Monday, 19 April 2021
Evolution : a branching pattern like a bush, not a linear one
The word “hominids” is often used to refer to the human line that diverged from chimpanzees some 6 or 7 million years ago. It includes not only all the species of the genus Homo, bus also some related genera, such as Australopithecus, that are now extinct. The evolutionary history of our human line has been determined from findings of fossils, some consisting of just a few bone fragments or teeth. These fossils have shown that human evolution has followed a branching pattern, like a bush, and not a linear pattern like you see above, where the chimpanzee starts losing hair, walking more upright, and becomes Homo sapiens, only to end up working hunched over again, first with an industrial tool and then at a computer. There are various versions of this image—some show Homo sapiens in a suit and tie, or riding a bicycle—but all of them convey several false ideas about human evolution. (more…)
Evolution and the Brain | Comments Closed
