Introduction: Brain Topography

Here's a simple brain map of the left side I have drawn for you to give you a sense of the main gyri (convolutions of the cortex of neurons on top of the brain) and sulci (crevices made in the cortex between convolutions). Basically, the brain is mostly made of glial cells that provide support and protection to the neurons that are responsible for communication within the body and picks up information from the environment via our senses. The cortex is a layer of those neurons, but also we find ganglions or areas dense in neurons deeper in the brain. In general, the deeper or further area from the cortex, the most basic the function of that area. As a contrast, the cortical areas carry further processing and associations between new information received by the senses, common knowledge and other experiences of our past. There has been and still is the debate on whether functions in the brain are localized (organized in modules) or distributed (the brain processing all information uniformly). Nowadays, that debate seems quite useless, because as we learn more about the brain from brain injuries and disorders, we see that there is to a certain extent some processes done in specific areas. However, we are far from phrenology (the study of bulges on the skull to determine one’s personality) introduced by Gall at the beginning of the 19th century[1].

I would like to finish this post by wishing you all very nice holidays and don't stop thinking. Here's a haiku (Japanese poem of 5-7-5 syllables) I have written a while ago inspired by the brain's cortex. Hope you enjoy :)

The brain's cortex:

paper fan folding our sky's

glittering knowledge.

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[1] Phrenology. (n.d.). The Oxford Companion to the Body. Retrieved December 24, 2008, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/phrenology

Brainbows in Microscopic Pictures

“Brainbow” transgenic mouse hippocampus (40x)
by Dr. Tamily Weissman

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

“Brainbow” mouse brain stem with auditory pathway axons (40x)
by Dr. Jean Livet

Institut de la Vision, INSERM U592 and UPMC, Paris, France

Most microscopic pictures of cells, insects and small organisms can be scientifically interesting, even from time to time reasonably appealing. However, when I came across these microscopic pictures of neurons, I wondered if someone dropped gallons of paint on some poor mice’s brains…or if some artist “photoshoped” these pictures. I soon realized that these pictures meant much more than eye candy to my visual pathways. Curiosity derived me here:

Approximately a year ago, a very glowing new discovery was made by Osamu Shimomura (Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Woods Hole, MA, USA), Martin Chalfie (Columbia University, New York, NY, USA) and Roger Y. Tsien (University of California, San Diego, CA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute) who share this year’s Chemistry Nobel Prize: the discovery and use of the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP).

The GFP was first found in the jellyfish Aequorea, which is responsible for the green fluorescent color this animal has.

(from http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/Haseloff/imaging/GFP/GFPbackgrnd.html)

Thus, if we join the gene of this protein with any gene of the protein of interest, then the GFP can be used as a tracer for this protein since it is fluorescent. Furthermore, a new technique developed at Harvard University last year by the team of Jeff W. Lichtman and Joshua R. Sanes now permits neuroscientists to add many different variants of this GFP’s gene in the desired neurons’ genetic configuration and basically observe the turning on and off of the proteins as they color these cells at random in different hues. The older technique allowed for the mapping of only a few neurons at the time which limited research in the area. Thus, besides making the most amazing pictures of neurons, this new technique of making brainbows is a major breakthrough in neuroscience research.

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For more amazing microscopic pictures, take the time to look at: http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery.php

For more information on the Chemistry Nobel Prizes, please visit: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/index.html

For more on this new technique, take a look at: http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/GFP-1.htm

The Iceberg of Psychology

Hi,

It took me some time to write my first post since I didn't know how to start it...

Thus, I decided to break the ice on a more creative note with, well... an iceberg. It is a bit "cliché" since most of the time, people who think about psychology associate it with psychoanalysis, the unconscious, Freud and the famous famous couch :). Therefore, this is how I would like to start this blog and move from here on toward the psychology of today, which involves more about the brain itself and its army of neurons making up our grey matter.

Here's a concrete poem I wrote today, hope you enjoy it: