Dormivigilia

For psychiatric disorders, the quantity and quality of treatment is always a concern. Some doctors argue drugs only, others advocate cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; or less common forms of psychotherapy), while another school insists a balance of psychiatry and psychotherapy. In addition, some common pharmacological therapeutics, such as antidepressants, are utilized to treat a wide [...]

This is the accompanying picture to this week’s Journal of Neuroscience. fMRI was utilized to verify that the inferior parietal lobule is highly activated while retrieving studied but not novel episodic memories. The article is fascinating, but the picture would have been even cooler if it mimicked a stereogram (i.e Magic Eye).

Yeah right. This is the disclaimer posted front and center on the official website of Drank. A new gas station-retail beverage that is the antithesis of Red Bull: it removes your wings…..or at least that’s the claim. I first encountered this beverage last Friday night at a gas station, actually the mecca of all gas [...]

Today we had another job candidate seminar for the joint Biological Science/Psychology tenure-track faculty hire (and I still can’t resist the university food services cookies….I’ll have more tomorrow…..). The candidate, Dr. Patrick McGowan, was from the Douglas Institute at McGill University. He studies epigenetic  (environmental and genetic interactions) contributions to suicide risk in humans and [...]

Remember in third grade when you were asked to construct a bookshelf-size model of the solar system using $20.00 in supplies from the craft store? Last year, The New York Times asked scientists and visual artists to design their own science/engineering project. Here are the winning entries. The grand prize winner was Dwayne Godwin and [...]

Today is my last day in the heart of the Midwest. Having spent the past two days attending a symposium, visiting WashU (and having been asked to pole vault for WashU), and giving a talk at a circadian clock journal club, today is the first full day I have to explore. Here’s a picture of [...]

If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in two days (quite unusual), I’m in Saint Louis for a one-day symposium on disentangling the genetics of alcoholism. As a digression, go to the City Museum if you ever visit. It is a giant, adult-friendly playground constructed from recycled metals and materials from Saint Louis. Oh, they [...]

This week’s job candidate was Yingwei Mao from MIT, who studies the contribution of DISC1 and related molecular machinery to the etiology of schizophrenia. A hallmark and defining neuropathology of schizophrenia includes enlarged lateral ventricles. Enlargement of the lateral ventricles causes an adverse compensatory effect in that cortical volume becomes reduced and subsequently elicits cognitive/learning [...]

As a year-round allergy sufferer, I mostly assume that a random sneeze whenever I’m in direct sunlight is attributed to plant sex/seasonal flora and not to the co-recruitment/hyperactivation of neural circuits. Swiss researchers in this week’s PLOS Open Access Journals have characterized this pseudo-allergy symptom, actually dictated as a reflex by the researchers, as “photic [...]

The March issue of Experimental Physiology features exercise physiology articles relevant to particular sports of the Winter Olympic Games that begin tonight at 7:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time) in Vancouver. Throughout the next few weeks, I will be highlighting these individual articles as well as provide related media or just some really wicked awesome stunt [...]