An alert student pointed out a study by researchers at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, CA, which found that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, did a better job at inhibiting amyloid aggregation than other drugs that had already been approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease. This approach will not “cure” Read more…
Another topic recommended by a student involves the genetic basis of fear. Most rodents are terribly afraid of open spaces, and for logical reasons. If a rodent is on the floor (I’ve inadvertently dropped a few in my lab days), it will run directly for the wall. This is likely Read more…
I’m very backlogged in posting the wonderful suggestions being passed along to me by students in my Biological Psychology course this quarter. I’m bumping this one to the front of the line, though, because it has a great deal of personal significance for me.
For years, I was a very heavy consumer of Diet Pepsi, which like most diet sodas, contained the artificial sweetener aspartame. My chemist friend, Peggy Rice, warned me that aspartame was not a terrific thing to put in your body, but I continued to drink diet soda. About three years ago, I started to have significant problems with my vision, and invested in a very large screen monitor. I also experienced bouts of dizziness. The last straw, about a year ago, was the experience of neuropathy–chronic tingling and numbness in my feet. That got my attention. I have a family history of MS, and I thought to myself, oh no, here we go. (more…)
Gordon Gallup and his colleagues developed an interesting way to test whether or not an individual had a sense of “self.” If you place a dot of red dye on the forehead of a human infant of about 18 months of age, the infant will touch his or her own Read more…
A lot of the news about addiction is rather pessimistic, but a study found by an alert student by Fulton Crews and Kim Nixon might add a ray of hope. Crews and Nixon addicted adult rats to alcohol, and observed that neurogenesis was inhibited. After only a week of abstinence from alcohol, Read more…