CBS is not typically a good source for science articles, but this is a very nice read on the science of sleep. They mention some of the aspects that we talked about in class- the need for sleep, how it affects learning and memory, and perhaps most importantly, the link between sleep and attention. People getting the shortened sleeps that the average college student experiences would drift into microsleeps (a few seconds)– enough to drive off a road. Something to think about when driving home after a week of studying for finals.
A recent article in Scientific American describes one of the treatments for patients experiencing phantom limb pain. One solution mentioned was to thrust a screw driver into the apparent trouble spot. The amputee would place his prosthetic leg where his own leg used to be, and stab at it with his screwdriver. The claim is that as long as he could see this, the pain would be relieved.
There are other solutions mentioned here, in particular, the use of mirrors.
Here is a short NPR broadcast in which AJ describes her experiences with her near “perfect” memory. She can remember near everything that has happened to her, but has a poor capacity to remember facts and even historical events. A key component to her memory is the emotional content in her memories, and recall of those memories.
In the meantime, here is a link to a National Geographic blurb on memory that is good reading.
Magicians exploit the fact that we often don’t pay attention to what is going on around us. Even though our eyes take in everything and faithfully report what they see, the brain simply must choose what to focus on. There is too much out there to take it all in and process it. We will be discussion the notion of “attention” and the attention centres of the brain in the middle part of the course.
We will look at how we often ignore what is right in front of us. This is a short video clip on Change Blindness. If the link does not work I have tried to embed the video below:
Years ago, scientists were able to link a monkey sitting in North Carolina with a robotic arm situated at MIT’s Touch Lab. This doesn’t seem all that remarkable until you notice that the control is entirely by thought. The monkey is manipulating the arm using a brain wave-machine interface that could be used to design prosthetics for humans. The technique they used allows large numbers of single neurons to be recorded separately, then combines their information using a computer coding algorithm. The scientists implanted the electrodes in multiple regions of the brain’s cortex, including the motor cortex from which movement is controlled. They then recorded the output of these electrodes as the animals learned reaching tasks, including reaching for small pieces of food.
Now they have used the same technique to have the monkey control a robot walking on a treadmill.
Despite what you might think, a little bit of caffeine can help you study, but a lot of caffeine will just ruin your memory. Moderate amounts of caffeine have been shown to increase spine density in hippocampal neurons. These are only in vitrostudies, but I suspect that students are conducting their own in vivo research right now.
This image is part of a stress test. For some individuals, these two dolphins may appear slightly different. This is an indicator of stress. The brains of individuals undergoing stress often have enhanced activity wherein they notice finer details. Final exams are one progenitor of stress.
It has long been observed that moderately stressful situations can lead to enhanced memory entrainment, but just how that works has yet to be elucidated. Recent work has shown that norepinephrine can have direct molecular effects at the synapse level. Effects that seem to enhance the receptors suspected in the formation of memories. The observation is that sympathetic release of hormone/neurotransmiter norepinephrine can lead to the alteration of GluR1 channels by phosphorylation.
Conversely, alcohol can have the opposite effects. P-rats. specifically bred to prefer alcohol, demonstrate gross learning deficits after a round of ‘binge-drinking’.
So, freak-out before the finals, party afterwards.
Neuroimaging is a rapidly growing aspect of neuroscience with lots of new toys to view the active structures of the brain during as a result of different stimuli. But this new technique takes it to a new level. There are great pictures of hippocampal neurons from the “brainbow” mouse.
Stanford’s online-medical ezine has a nice article on fMRI with links to cool images.
Here are an amazing number of stories that deal with the notion of music and language. Diana Deutch from UCSD discusses her studies how infants that are raised in different language context will have differing abilities to acquire perfect pitch. She demonstrates that children that have a tonal language (such as Chinese) will develop a much keener sense of pitch than those that have a “flat” language as their first tongue.
With our final topic of the basal ganglia: those centres that direct repeated and refined motions, this is a relevant story on their role in habit formation. Researchers at MIT found that repeated learned tasks are stored in the basal ganglia. Once the cues that drive the habitual behaviour are removed, test animals would return to normal approaches to novel situations. However, once the stimuli that defined the habitual circumstance returned, then the behaviour returned instantly. In other words, like riding a bike, old habits die hard.
CBS is not typically a good source for science articles, but this is a very nice read on the science of sleep. They mention some of the aspects that we talked about in class- the need for sleep, how it affects learning and memory, and perhaps most importantly, the link between sleep and attention. People getting the shortened sleeps that the average college student experiences would drift into microsleeps (a few seconds)– enough to drive off a road. Something to think about when driving home after a week of studying for finals.
A recent 
Magicians exploit the fact that we often don’t pay attention to what is going on around us. Even though our eyes take in everything and faithfully report what they see, the brain simply must choose what to focus on. There is too much out there to take it all in and process it. We will be discussion the notion of “attention” and the attention centres of the brain in the middle part of the course.
Despite what you might think, a little bit of caffeine can help you study, but a lot of caffeine will just ruin your memory. Moderate amounts of caffeine have been shown to increase spine density in hippocampal neurons. These are only in vitro 
This image is part of a stress test. For some individuals, these two dolphins may appear slightly different. This is an indicator of stress. The brains of individuals undergoing stress often have enhanced activity wherein they notice finer details. Final exams are one progenitor of stress.
Neuroimaging is a rapidly growing aspect of neuroscience with lots of new toys to view the active structures of the brain during as a result of different stimuli. But this 
With our final topic of the basal ganglia: those centres that direct repeated and refined motions, this is a relevant story on their role in habit formation. 