I am not a neuroscientist. Having poked a few cockroaches with electrodes as an undergraduate, I left the brain behind for the glamorous world of immunology. But immunologists and neuroscientists alike are challenging the long-held belief that the brain is separated from the immune system, and are exploring the idea…
Back when I was a first year, I remember Craig Heller telling a story about how squirrels lose a huge proportion of their synapses during winter hibernation, which they then somehow grow back when they awaken. I’ve used this as cocktail party conversation since then, but only recently have I gone back and actually checked out the details about this phenomenon. It turns out it’s pretty incredible.
The past week has been all about maths for me. Well, not all about maths. There was quite a bit of coding (PHP is not my friend) and some experiments (I blocked ALL the acetylcholine receptors). But special tribute must be paid to all the maths. First, for those who…
Birds are marvelous little alien creatures. Who hasn’t looked at a swallow or a hawk and dreamed of soaring, or smiled fondly at a little sparrow hopping about after crumbs, or marveled at the iridescence of a hummingbird? They may be evolutionarily distant from us, but somehow they remain emotionally compelling, at least for me. I may not have feathers, wings, a beak, or an appetite for worms, but I feel I can put myself in a bird’s 3-toed shoes with easier empathy than I can muster for many mammals with whom I share a closer evolutionary bond. (And of course for “empathize”, you should feel free to read “anthropomorphize”.)
Part 5 in an occasional feature, highlighting recently published articles featuring an author (or authors) who is a current member of the Stanford Neuroscience Ph.D program. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)* First off, 4th year student Sung-Yon Kim (Deisseroth lab) published his study of distinct subregions of the bed nucelus of the stria…