NEWRON Vol V, Issue VII

[Natan Davidovics]

NeuroEngineering Weekly Review Of News

 

Out of coffee?  No problem.  Reach for the nearest wall socket and get the juices really 

flowing in your brain (article #2).

Disclaimer: NEWRON publishing is not liable for any injuries/bad hair days that may result from "jolting" your brain.

 

Interesting NeuroEngineering links:

Hopkins Neuroengineering web site: http://neuroengineering.bme.jhu.edu
New job blog: http://neuroengjobs.blogspot.com/
Blog for administrative questions: http://neuroengineering.blogspot.com
NEWRON on the web!: http://neuroengineering.bme.jhu.edu/Home/newron

Enjoy,
Natan Davidovics
NEWRON Publishing Corporation

Harvard Scientists Control Minds of Worms

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/1/19/leifer-neurons-worms-elegans/

To the extent that a worm smaller than a pinhead has a mind, Harvard scientists working at the intersection of neurobiology, computer science, physics, and optogenetics have shown that they are capable of controlling it. A study published Sunday in Nature Methods revealed that with the use of newly designed software and precise laser technology a team, including researchers at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science, successfully induced Caenorhabditis elegans worms to perform activities such as reversing direction, changing speeds, and laying eggs.

Electrical Brainstorm

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/02/04/news-brain-capping-2/

Stimulating the brain with gentle shocks can boost your problem solving capacity almost overnight, besides providing you with flashes of inspiration. Researchers have shown how a gentle surge of power using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can help the brain go around mental roadblocks and think laterally, which has a vital bearing on finding solutions to unyielding problems.

Understanding the anesthetized brain

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/anesthesia-brown-0103.html

How do anesthetic drugs interfere with neurons and brain chemicals to produce the profound loss of consciousness and lack of pain typical of general anesthesia? And, how does general anesthesia differ from sleep or coma? Emery Brown, an MIT neuroscientist and practicing anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, wants to answer these questions by bringing the rigorous approach of neuroscience to the study of general anesthesia. In a review article published online Dec. 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine, he and two colleagues lay out a new framework for studying general anesthesia by relating it to what is already known about sleep and coma.