Merging Brain and Machine

A PDF article (from Rolling Stone mag) can be found here



Is it far fetched? Less and less with everyday that goes by!

The brain is the boss

Here is a good demonstration of a simple concept: An oxygen-depleted brain will shut down unecessary functions in order to survive.....do not try this at home!

Love and Pain

Everybody that's ever been in love knows that. You might even have heard (or said): "I love you so much, it hurts"....well, there you go!


Via: http://www.insidestory.iop.org/mri.html (Picture was modified from pictures on site)

OK..I am coming out of the closet...

Well....I have something to tell you! I am....well......I am confused about.....about my.....well...I am confused about where my right is! YES! I am one of those persons that do not know their left from their right! Tell me to turn right....my body always wants to turn left! Tell me to turn left....well I will turn left! Sometimes I am totally convinced left is right! Does that make any sense? Is there a name for a condition like mine? Does that mean I have no right hemisphere? Well.....Bayblab dudes.....now you know! I am a leftie that knows nothing but left! It's like right does not exist....Seriously!

Mmmm....brain soup!

The microscopic world of protists is so diverse. From the cute and swift Paramecium caudatum to the diarrhea-causing Giardia lamblia. A colleague recently sent me an email with a story of the brain eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri....I had to investigate!

First, lets say that infection are rare but more common when heat waves are present....since these heat waves are likely to be longer and more prevalent, this story is of public interest. This interesting organism enters through the nose and makes its way to the central nervous system by crossing the olfactory neuroepithelium. From 1995 to 2004 only 23 infections have been documented but the recent death a of a 14 year-old boy sparked fear in Arizona.

When you look at the way this parasite travels, we find that the strategies are almost always the same: ENZYMES! How do you get into a cell...easy! First break the membrane with a specialized key known as a phospholipase (phospholipase A2). Then attack proteins with a specialized protease. By attacking the cellular cement holding the tissues together you end up liquifying them. The angry amoeba can then phagocytose the remaining fragments and voilà....you are history!

With only a few cases in the last decade chances are that you can die of many other things....and if you smoke...well....do not even bother about this story, your relative risks are virtually "0"!

For a list of publications on the infective mechanisms click HERE

Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Free-living_amebic_infections.png

The biological problem with binge-drinking

Binge dinking is not a new phenomenon...especially with college students. These parties can last for days, an the impact on academic success is often dramatic resulting in failures and, lets face it, money loss.

A study by a french group found that teenage haevy drinkers can lose more than marks on a test. Brain scans of alcohol-dependant individuals aged from 30-50 years showed a definitive loss of white matter. What is important here is this, the age at which these individuals started drinking is related to decreased grey matter volume in the cerebellum, brainstem and frontal region.

Reference: Chanraud et al. 2006. Brain Morphometry and Cognitive Performance in Detoxified
Alcohol-Dependents with Preserved Psychosocial Functioning. Neuropsychopharmacology, October issue, p. 1-10.

Image by Ottmar Liebert taken from Flickr under creative commons (CC) license