Ronnie and me before the fire on a cool school morning!
Here is what we are reading today!
“The findings, to be published in the journal eLife,provide further proof that strategies for coping with stress are sex-specific. They also highlight the importance of a social network for females in particular and pave the way for future research into whether females befriend others as a coping mechanism during stressful situations.”
“”Wild chimpanzees are exceptional tool users, but in contrast to humans, there has been little evidence to date that adult chimpanzees teach youngsters tool skills,” said Stephanie Musgrave, the study’s first author and an anthropology graduate student in Arts & Sciences.
“We found that mother chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle teach by transferring termite-fishing probes to their offspring,” Musgrave said. “In this population, chimpanzees select specific herb species to make their fishing probes, and they produce probes that have a particular brush-tipped design. By sharing tools, mothers may teach their offspring the appropriate material and form for manufacturing fishing probes.””
“”We are excited by this discovery and now plan to uncover the molecular pathway that is responsible for the observed benefits of VGF,” said Dr. Picketts, senior author of the paper and a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa. “What is clear is that VGF is important to kick-start healing in damaged areas of the brain.””
“The USC Laboratory of Neuro Imaging of the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute has received a $21.7 million National Institutes of Health grant to study epilepsy, a condition that is currently incurable.
Epilepsy causes seizures in the brain due to a disruption of electrical communication between neurons. At least 5.1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with epilepsy or a seizure disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Abstract
“”We have known for more than 100 years that flickering light can cause almost anyone to experience a hallucination,” says UNSW Associate Professor Joel Pearson from the School of Psychology.”However, the unpredictability, complexity and personal nature of these hallucinations make them difficult to measure scientifically,” he says.”
26 Comments
linnearamirez · October 18, 2016 at 1:01 pm
The article “Running triggers production of a molecule that repairs the brain in animal models,” explains that the VGF is a molecule released by the brain and muscles during excercise that is thought to heal insulation of nerve fibers. This article was of interest to me because of its medical implications. I read a previous study regarding the over expression of the VGF23-62 peptide in relation to schizophrenia and a decrease in the peptide in some cases of dementia. I am curious as to the effect this molecule would have in treating neurodegenerative diseases, given it increased insulation in mice models. While this is a preliminary study, I am also curious as to how further research on the molecule as a medical treatment in humans could be done because a similar experiment would not be ethical on a human subject.
linnearamirez · October 18, 2016 at 1:18 pm
The article discussing hallucinations was of interest because it was feasible without using advanced technology, such as MRI scans. The subjects were students that communicated the severity of the hallucination but the team was still able to demonstrate the origin of the hallucinations. Because of a recent experience with a patient who has been prescribed opioid pain medications to ease the suffering caused by cancer, I would be interested to see the results of the exam with subjects who are not “healthy.” I would be curious as to what a brain scan would look like for patients on or prescribed opioids or what the team would conclude if the subjects could communicate the severity of the hallucinations. Because the patient experienced drug induced hallucinations, I would expect the hallucinations in this experiment would be much more severe for subjects in similar conditions.
mictom16 · October 19, 2016 at 9:46 am
The article discussing running, brains, and repair and VGF as a potential to, in the future, treat neurodegenerative disease was very interesting. The study of the article pointed out that mice with a mutated/damaged cerebellum who were given a wheel to run on lived significantly longer than mice with a mutated/damaged cerebellum who lived sedentary lives (only 30-40 days). The difference was due to VGF. My future question would be to compare the brains of sedentary and actively running mice without damage? Does VGF and running offer a selective advantage of more insulation for people who exercise throughout their lives. Or is VGF only important if brains are damaged?
Andrew Hill · October 19, 2016 at 12:08 pm
The article about hallucinogens reminds me of the different depth cues that our brain uses to process visual information. In terms of hallucinating, it is nt quite understood and we have not discovered the complex reasoning or actions our brain takes to have this effect. Pearson’s ability to actually test subjects without drugs may be an interesting way to finally understand how the process of hallucinating works, and why it does.
mariecote · October 23, 2016 at 3:49 pm
I read the article on the study of hallucinations. I have always had a fascination with hallucinations. I had no idea that it was even possible to study hallucinations, since as mentioned in the article, they tend to be complex and unpredictable. I thought it was interesting how they caused the same visual hallucinations in “healthy” people; I have mostly thought of hallucinations as being unique to every person, kind of like an iris. I like the simplicity of the study: comparing the hallucinated and real blobs based on darkness. I’m curious of what methods could be used for measuring auditory and tactile hallucinations.
cgmclean · October 24, 2016 at 12:21 pm
The article “Males and Females on Social Isolation” was interesting in that it is possible to extend the research found to humans. The discovered that female mice had higher stress levels in socially isolated instances. This is interesting giving on average, how women are known to gossip and chat nonstop with close friends. These, of course, are stereotypes. But what if there is some truth behind this? What if women have more friends and constantly talk to one another to avoid social isolation? This is a large assumption, but its interesting to think about.
cgmclean · October 24, 2016 at 12:33 pm
While reading the article “Running, Brains and Repair”, I was pleased to learn that running has more benefits than we originally thought. Running and exercise is widely known to be an anti-depressant, and be a huge endorphin-releaser. What we didn’t know is that in this study with mice, running provided more insulation in parts of the brain, resulting in a longer life span, or a decrease in certain diseases. But the running had to be consistent, the mice couldn’t just run a few times and then stop, it had to be a constant activity.
linnearamirez · October 31, 2016 at 11:21 am
The article “Females react differently to social isolation than males” discusses that coping with stress is sex-specific. It states that males lack corticosterone release in response to stressful situations. This was of interest to me because I recently took endocrinology and was able to understand this mechanism. While we didn’t discuss corticosterone release in depth, we did become familiar with the release of cortisol in stressful situations. We were taught that the release and dose of cortisol in response to good stressors and bad stressors is the same. Because of this I am curious as to how the release of cortisol in stressful situations varies by sex and if the release of corticosterone in females is the same when triggered by a good stressor or a bad stressor.
linnearamirez · October 31, 2016 at 11:33 am
In the article “Wild chimpanzee mothers teach young to use tools,” the authors found preliminary behavior that suggests chimpanzees are capable of teaching and learning about the use of tools. This article was interesting because it further supports the hypothesis that humans are closely related to chimps. We learned about how closely related we are to the species in an evolution class, and this study shows that we should share many characteristics because of this relationship. We would expect this trait to become more pronounced in populations of this species if it confers a fitness advantage as the study suggests.
mictom16 · November 2, 2016 at 9:21 am
The article “$21.7 million spurs USC research on how epilepsy develops” reminds me of an interesting neurological case that I saw with a neurologist this past summer. The patient had hair syncope in which the repetitive stimulation of the scalp and tension in the neck via brushing hair led to feelings of dizziness that progressed into convulsions. Her parents immediately assumed that she had epilepsy. I think that the $21.7 million dollars will not only help to determine more about the origin of epilepsy but will help educate people about what epilepsy is and how to accurately distinguish it.
RachelSemple · November 2, 2016 at 7:05 pm
I read the article about hallucinogens; I have always been interested about mechanisms behind hallucinations and how they have been used/ abused in history. I think it is interesting that scientists are attempting to create a way for everyone to have the same hallucination. While this may be a good idea for research purposes, I think it is impossible for two individuals to have the exact same hallucination, regardless of how carefully educed that hallucination might be. People process visual stimulus differently and experiences that are crucial in “top down” reasoning vary among individuals. These differences will cause ambiguous stimulus and hallucinations to be perceived and interpreted differently. Participants all agreed to see “grey blobs”, but the tone of grey, size of the blob, and number of blobs that people experienced more than likely varied. I believe that hallucinations are unique experiences for individual people and cannot be made to be experienced the same way for all.
meganhermer · November 8, 2016 at 8:52 am
I read the article about the positive effects of selfies on the mood and self esteem. I’ve always been one to make fun of people who take copious amounts of selfies and post them on social media, but after reading this article I wonder if I might be judging too quickly. I’ve always enjoyed Williams’s finding that to make yourself feel happier, all you have to do is act happier. The act of smiling every day and capturing that smile, or taking a flattering photo of yourself, so that you can look back on it and see your own face smiling back at you seemed to boost the moods and confidence levels of the participants in the study. On one hand, I have to wonder if these participants were fans of selfies already and having a good excuse to take more of them was the driving force behind the positive results. However, due to the already observed effects that smiling alone can have on the mood, I would be willing to accept these findings as at least somewhat legitimate.
EmmaPessereau · November 9, 2016 at 6:48 pm
I read the article about inducing hallucinations and was fascinated by how a main challenge was to produce an identical visual for all participants (in order to create a valid measurement of each hallucination). I was very intrigued by the reasoning that most hallucinations occur due to drugs or sleep deprivation or through a psychiatric disorder. I was impressed with the simplicity of the design for which the hallucinations were induced and wondered how they had decided on the shape and shading of the chosen hallucinogen. I was pleased to be able to recognize and recall terms such as visual cortex, which had been new to me before taking Biopsychology!
RachelSemple · November 10, 2016 at 2:07 pm
I read the article that described how males and females respond differently to isolation. The general claim of the article is that women experience more stress from isolation than men do. While I find this interesting, I believe it is extremely simplified. May factors can contribute to one’s reaction to isolation, while biological sex many be one of them, I do not believe the difference is so clear cut. one factor could possibly be to the extent that one in introverted or extraverted; I hypothesis that an introverted female would be less stressed in isolation than an extraverted male. In addition, the enviornemtn in which you are comparing isolation to plays a huge role; I know that I have very different stress levels when I am surrounded by friends and other familiar people compared to when I am surrounded by strangers. Personally, I think I would be more stressed in a crowded room full of people I don’t know than I would be if I was isolated. These are factors that play a big role in stress levels, and while I find the research interesting, I think the conclusions look past individual differences and overgeneralize.
savannahlestes · November 28, 2016 at 10:15 am
I find it very interesting how strategies for coping with stress very between sexes. Differences between sexes are always interesting because I’m not sure if biology of the sex influences the behavior of different sexes, or if the socialization differences based on gender stereotypes cause the different sexes to be treated differently and taught to handle things differently. Stress is especially interesting because it is seen as bad when in extreme, but is actually essential to survival.
savannahlestes · November 28, 2016 at 10:19 am
It is amazing to think that a molecule triggered by running can help repair certain kinds of brain damage in animal models. Running has always been seen as something positive for an organisms well being, but it seems that goes farther than just fitness. The molecule is called VGF, and it heals the protective coating that surrounds and insulates nerve fibres. This is very interesting because running is something animals have to do in response to danger and predation. This act of staying alive keeps the animal even healthier, which is very helpful. This is a very cool process that surely evolved with organisms that run to survive danger.
savannahlestes · December 5, 2016 at 9:20 am
That is amazing that the chimpanzees use tools. It shows how intelligent they really must be. Even if there wasn’t direct evidence of the mothers showing the babies what to do, I’m sure more studies could be done to see the chimps learning by seeing. They could radioactively label one of the DNA bases, and when neurogenesis was occurring in the brain you would see it travel to that area to create the new neurons. It’s truly amazing how learning takes place in humans and in these animals as well.
savannahlestes · December 5, 2016 at 9:27 am
I found the article about the spider DNA in the virus DNA very interesting. As a biologist, I love figuring out the why behind things, and this article was really interesting. It’s cool to look at how things evolve because it can give us insight into things like why our brains work the way they do. Natural selection works in a way that the best adapted for survival survive, so obviously there must have been some benefit to these things, even in it was at first a random mutation. Looking at the genetic evolution of things is very interesting.
RachelSemple · December 5, 2016 at 8:53 pm
I read the article about how females react differently to stress than males. According to this study, females typically exhibit stress reactions when they are in social isolation, while males typically do not. These findings reminded me of the saying some people use in psychology that females tend to “tend and befriend” in times of stress. This description implies that befriending others is used as a coping mechanism for female stress. With this in mind, it makes sense to me that the absence of friends and other various forms of human contact can have an opposite effect, educing stress. I am curious if this is a socialized difference between males and females, of if it is biological. While I am sure it is a combination of both, I believe it is more “nurture” then nature. Humans are a social species that put an extremely high emphasis on social interactions and relationships; with this in mind I would think males expierence at least some stress in isolation as well as females.
gmli · December 6, 2016 at 3:36 pm
I read the article “Females React Differently to Social Isolation Than Males.” It is reasonable to say that the results are somewhat believable. I wonder if corticosterone releases are similar in mice that show homosexual traits. Perhaps the reason behind the difference is due to a females role in nurturing offspring.
cathyvu · December 8, 2016 at 1:18 am
The article “Males and Female on Social Isolation” was interesting because I didn’t think that there would be a difference in the amount of stress a gender feels. This makes sense since I believe social norms has instilled the fact that women talk more while men are more physical in a sense. Therefore, in the absence of social interactions, it could suggest that woman would be more stressed. Although, I do think this might be an overgeneralization because environmental factors could have played a role in the results.
cathyvu · December 8, 2016 at 1:29 am
The article “running, brain, and repair” gives me much more motivation to exercise more often! I’ve always known that that running would make one feel better but it consolidated my belief as they discovered biological evidence in this study. I believe it could be breakthrough in improving the neurological diseases since it was revealed that the anti-depressant VGF and that neurons in the brain were better insulated and more stable.
Venus · January 23, 2017 at 10:38 pm
I read the article about studying hallucinations scientifically and found it very interesting. The researchers were able to locate the part of the brain that causes hallucinations (the visual cortex), which was no surprise, but I definitely believe that more parts of the brain play a role in hallucinations. Hallucinations always bring about the question if psychedelic drugs are able to be used for research and neuroscience. I think that this method is definitely risky because psychedelic drugs are not for everyone and I have read that many people suffer from life-long hallucinations taking such drugs, but can open doors to things we currently do not understand about the human brain.
kmmenden · January 28, 2017 at 3:24 pm
I read the article about running and brain repair. In high school, I ran both cross country and track all 4 years, so needless to say I ran a lot! In class we talked about how important nerve fibers and brain insulation are, so it’s no surprise that healthy nerve fibers are important in many motor functions. The VGF nerve growth factor could be used to help so many people, as they talk about in the article, with motor impairments like MS. It’s very cool the way researchers discover things like this and how this particular molecule has the potential to be life-saving for so many people.
rachelcarlson · January 29, 2017 at 10:05 pm
Re: Male and Female relationships as coping mechanisms. Today, I took the Myers Briggs Personality test a few times, and had some friends of mine take it as well so that we might discuss. I find it interesting, in relationship to the means by which males and females make friends, that there is potentially a coping related interest in the formation of female friendships. The Myers Brigs, as far as I can tell, does not at all take into account gender in assigning one of the 16 types to an individual. In this “nature” related theory that females create friendships in order to cope, many of the tenets of Meyers Brigs are devalidated. Perhaps Myers Brigs takes on more of a nurture stance, asserting the gender does not affect complex personality traits and that both males and females, regardless of gender, have the potential to form relationships for the same reasons as one another. Food for thought…
kylie.wong18 · January 30, 2017 at 8:46 am
I read the article “Running, Brains, and repair.” After running I always feel uplifted, and now know that it partly has to do with the affects of VGF nerve growth factor. However, I had no idea that running or exercise actually helps insulate nerve fibers because of the production of VGF. If this could help with neurodegenerative diseases, it could be a huge breakthrough and positively affect so many people lives. VGF is also important in just preventing these diseases and could be something to motivate people to exercise. However, I am wondering if the production of VGF declines overtime with age.