Month: March 2005

Today marks the start of Brain and Brain Injury Awareness week, an event to alert people to the exciting developments in the world of neuroscience and pass on some potentially life saving information.

Brain Awareness Week is an international event, so there may be events near you.

A great deal of our knowledge of how the brain works has been worked out from studying people who have suffered brain damage. This field of research is known as cognitive neuropsychology, and is greatly indebted to people who generously give their time, often after suffering disabling injuries.

In the UK, an estimated 1 million people in Britain attend hospital each year as a result of a head injury, and the figures for other parts of the world can be equally as high.

People or their families who suffer the effects often rely on charities for ongoing support and rehabilitation. So if you feel like making a difference, this week would be perfect to choose a favourite brain charity to donate to.

Although you could also help out by printing out leaflets or information, or perhaps passing on a link to a brain injury website to someone you know.

It’s a great way of saying thankyou to people who have volunteered their time after brain injury, and the information may even save someone’s life.

Link to brain injury information from the BBC.
Link to Brain Awareness Week information from the Dana Foundation.

In the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the fictional company Lacuna Inc. offers to alter the mind by erasing painful memories.

A new book on ‘brainwashing’ by neurobiologist Kathleen Taylor questions whether such technology is likely to exist by looking at the history of such claims and the science of ‘thought control’.

Taylor recently appeared on ABC Radio National’s In Conversation to discuss her book and issues including the origins of brainwashing in the Korean War, cults, advertising, neuroscience and free will.

Link to realaudio archive of radio show.
Link to review of the book from The Times.

What do squat parties in Brixton, vetinarians in Buckinghamshire, and cereals in Budgens have in common?* The answer, of course, is Special K.**

Ketamine is a tranquillising agent that was widely used until patients began to complain of its hallucinogenic effects, which they experienced when coming out of sedation. Not too fun. Except, of course, for those who take it for pleasure – of whom, according to ongoing research by Mixmag magazine and the Institute of Psychiatry, there have been more than a fourfold increase between 1999 and 2003. Apart from this population, the drug is still administered as a tranquilliser for animals, and also young children for whom the trippy effects don’t seem to occur. Notably, after Putin banned the drug in Russia in 2003, Bridget Bardot campaigned for a reversal, on the basis that it would result in more suffering for animals; whether the implications for children were weighed is not on record, but in any case Russia reversed the ban in ’04. Notably, the drug is not illegal in the EU, and whilst a controlled substance is low down in priority, at least in the eyes of the law. But if you’re an ocassional taker, or curious about it, I suggest you read further, to get the skinny on the cognitive neuropsychopharmacology of ketamine.

Continue reading “Through the k-hole”

Engineers from UC Berkley have created a mathematical model of the brain as it undergoes an epileptic seizure, and matched it with recordings taken from electrodes implanted into the brain of a person with epilepsy.

Epilepsy is often described as a ‘storm’ of electrical signals, suggesting lots of random and chaotic brain activity, but in fact, quite the opposite occurs – groups of neurons suddenly become inappropriately synchonised.

This can be seen from the image on the right – a graph of brain recordings taken from a person having a seizure. These were recorded from electrodes safely implanted into the brain by the UC Berkley team.

Instead of supporting their normal functions these neurons work in time with nearby neurons, that usually have a completely different role in the brain.

This can lead to loss of consciousness and limb shaking commonly associated with epilepsy. The rhythm of the muscle jerks are often dictated by the rhythm of the synchronised neurons.

Sometimes people just have absences, where they can lose consciousness for a few seconds with no other noticable effects. The person who has the seizure may not even know this is happening.

With some types of seizure, people may remain conscious, but have unusual sensations, feelings of deja vu, or perhaps just peculiar thoughts and mental images.

The effects of epilepsy vary greatly with the parts of the brain involved and from person to person.

The newly created mathematical model will allow researchers to create computer simulations of epilepsy, allowing theories to be tested out and ‘virtual experiments’ to take place.

Learn how to deal with epileptic seizures.

Link to item from UC Berkley News.
Link to story from sciencedaily.com.