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From Gold Thongs to Opioid Receptors: The Placebo Effect
All things considered, maybe it’s not so preposterous that our perceptions of pain or other ills can change if our brain expects them to.
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Your Brain on Sex
What happens in the brain during sex? Are gender stereotypes a cultural construct? Or are there true neurological differences in how men and women experience sex—desire, arousal, orgasm?
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Aging: Telomeres and Meatballs
What causes the slowly encroaching physical signs that we are past our prime? Scientists often gain understanding about a particular physiological process by studying cases in which that process goes...
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Two brains in one head?: The story of the split-brain phenomenon
The idea that a person is right-brained or left-brained is a myth [...] However, the brain is indeed split into a right and left hemisphere, and the two are connected by a structure called the “corpus...
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Altruism: A Story of Amygdalae and Kidneys
So, how do you begin to study the neural underpinnings of something so difficult to define or identify? And since virtually all of us do kind things on occasion, how would one compare altruists and...
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Anorexia: Neuroscience, Psychology, & the Path to Recovery
Anorexia nervosa. A disease for the privileged? Shallow white girls trying to look like fashion models? [...] The stereotypes attached to anorexia add to the devastating reality of a serious brain...
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Your Brain on Thirsty Thursday
Alcohol: loss of motor coordination, a sense of invincibility, amplified emotions, loss of inhibition, hazy memory, blackout. What kind of crazy things are happening in the brain?! How does alcohol...
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Reflections on #SciComm Boot Camp
Communicate. It is part of the scientific process, and yet scientists are notoriously terrible at distilling their work into an understandable form.
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Alzheimer’s disease: back to the basics & exploring new frontiers
When my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), I wanted to better understand what exactly was happening in his brain as his memory slowly deteriorated. Perhaps this drive came from...
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Work Alone (A Work from Home Parody)
The UCSD neuro grad program made another parody music video! Watch and share! If you're coming to SD for SfN, join us Monday 11/14 at Parq
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Brain and Blood, Diseases and Drugs
Neuroscientists love neurons. We learn about the endless types of neurons, the distinct ways in which they send chemical signals, how they connect to each other, and how these networks underlie...
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Pain: Can’t live with it, can’t live without it
Imagine what life would be like with no pain. No headaches or sore throats. You would never experience the anguish of a papercut or a stubbed toe or a sprained ankle. No stomach cramps or muscle...
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AN update: disease in a dish
While the phrase “stem cells” used to spark bitter controversy, scientists can now take a harmless skin biopsy from a human patient and transform those (skin) cells into a bunch of stem cells capable...
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Apply now for ComSciCon at UCSD!
Applications for ComSciCon-SD close in one week (on June 15th)! Apply today. A scientist and a non-scientist walk into a bar. As the night proceeds, the non-scientist asks the scientist the...
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Psychopathy, qu’est-ce que c’est
Psychopathy, qu’est-ce que c’est A thought experiment Imagine that you are a respected scientist trying to better understand psychopathy. What might be different in the brain of a psychopath? As you...
View ArticlePsychosurgery: from ice picks to electrodes
If you were to hazard a guess at the date of the first neurosurgery, what would you say? An image from [1] showing evidence of brain surgery in a Stone Age skull I’m going to bet that “the Stone Age”...
View ArticleCan a corpse have an orgasm?
Can a corpse have an orgasm? It’s not entirely unlikely [1]. The clue comes from patients with spinal cord injuries. Let’s start with the spinal cord, and we’ll come back to dead bodies in a bit....
View ArticleA Tribute to Ben Barres
I was thoroughly star-struck. Ben did not exactly look like a celebrity in his usual cargo shorts (in October in Chicago!) and sneakers, but the impact of his science and his tireless fight for gender...
View ArticleLymph, glymph, sleep, & sickness
Consider the word “lymph.” What comes to mind? To me, “lymph” sounds like a viscous liquid that might ooze out of the orifices of some terrifying wounded creature. Or perhaps your mind jumps to the...
View ArticleDoes imagination make us human?
Do you take your coffee with milk? Would you like a slice of pizza? Oh hold on, that pizza will have to wait—someone is calling on the plastic phone on the kitchen wall. Who? Obviously my best friend...
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