Dormivigilia

Japanese researchers have just resolved a scientific conondrum: how to measure peripheral clock gene expression in living humans and alterations in clock gene expression with lifestyle changes without invasively and routinely sampling heart, lung, or liver tissue? The hair follicle! We already know that the hair follicle is the active ingredient in Polyjuice Potion used to transform [...]

Typically, when I see basic neuroscience research characterizing presynaptic signaling and postsynaptic receptor responsiveness within one of the big 5 neural systems (glutamate, GABA, serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine) I skim it over and don’t usually retain much information. Today, however, the sexy title of one of these articles maintained my attention long enough for me [...]

While listening my favorite weekly skeptic/scientific inquiry podcast, Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, I heard about the recent protest to ban Wi-Fi in Canadian public schools. Teachers there complain that Wi-Fi, which has low-frequency radiation, is detrimental to adolescent health and school performance. The teachers believe that Wi-Fi is causing headaches and nausea, sending many [...]

Every night between 0330-0430 AM I rush to the bathroom. Of course, I’m careful not to light pulse myself (see here). It’s not baffling that we have an endogenously entrained, circadian rhythm of incontinence given that every other hormonally-regulated behavior like sleeping, waking up, and even sexual desire (see here) is entrained by rhythmic hormone [...]

First off, I would like to acknowledge that this is the first time in months that I am publishing Neury Thursday on time (clearly indicative of animals entraining and little experimenting). Secondly, I would like to acknowledge that for the first-time in my graduate career, there are at least two articles in each of this [...]

First off, I have an excuse for my week long hiatus. My best friend from high school who has been dating her boyfriend since 10th grade (or if you count the years of endless flirtation, then 6th grade) finally got married and had a fabulous, quintessentially Italian Youngstown wedding. Now that the festivities are over [...]

Last week, I blogged about my lab mate’s upcoming publication in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. This week, I am attending the Research Society on Alcoholism meeting held in San Antonio (same place, same weather), and have already discovered that finding natural, alternative, non-pharmacological treatments, such as exercise, to reduce risk in individuals with a [...]

A few days ago, my first, first author paper was finally published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. After spending years working on the project, months writing and re-writing the paper, and another few months swearing at Adobe Photoshop for its stubborness, the journey has been captured in eight pages. Here, I describe the results, [...]

Unlike most fall sneak peaks, which are for new or continuing television series, such as my favorite guilty pleasure,  Jersey Shore, an article published by myself and former lab mates is also receiving a sneak peak; The now, Dr. Steve B. Hammer’s paper, Environmental Modulation of Alcohol Intake in Hamsters: Effects of Wheel Running and [...]

Much of this circadian meeting has emphasized circadian oscillators lying outside the SCN that nonetheless entrain rhythms even under conditions of lesioning of the master SCN circadian clock and constant conditions. Here are some of my favorites, including a novel one brainstormed by our lab, but not yet published…. MASCO: Methamphetamine-sensitive circadian oscillator. Circadian rhythms [...]