Anatomy, Physiology and Neuroscience

Hi, I just spent an inordinate amount of time sifting through various articles on the web, but none answered my question adequately. Most were geared towards consumers of exercise heart rate monitors and offered very little technical information. I know four types of touch heart rate monitors: 1. Oximeter - optical - uses two LEDs one IR and one near red and a correlating comparison light absorption function. 2. Chest strap - electrical - skin contacts pick up electrical signals. 3. Grip type - electrical - found on exercise equipment and usually consists of four metal pads (two on each hand grip) that the user squeezes while exercising. 4. Finger touch type…

I was looking online but I cannot find a good resource that explains the difference b/w desmosomes and tight junctions and the rationale behind their respective locations in the body. It seems to me that they do nearly the same thing. Would someone please be able to clarify. Thank you.

The Biology of Ultrasound January 10, 2013 by Emily L. Williams posted here with the kind permission of the author, Emily L. Williams, a developmental and molecular biologist engaged in laboratory research, written on recommendation of Dr. Michael F. Casanova, M.D. Both Ms. Williams and Dr. Casanova are at the University of Louisville. Both host a science blog. The following was originally posted at E. Williams' blog. This is opened here for the dual purposes of discussion and to heighten awareness by bringing this to the attention of readers, their friends and families who are susceptible to being advised to submit to ultrasound technology.

Pardon the foolish question, but I am trying to understand the purpose and function of the placenta and umbilical cord. During birth, the umbilical cord is responsible for providing the baby with nutrients, oxygen, removes waste, etc. During birth, the umbilical cord is clamped which leads to a physiological response that ultimately results in the baby taking its first breath. What I do not understand is what purpose the placenta plays during development and birth of the fetus?

What is the difference b/w alkolotic and acidotic and neutral diarrhea and how could each come about?

Hi I'm still in high school and I'm wondering: If i want to go to into neuroscience research which courses I should take? and where? On the top of my head I know I want to take courses about: - the physical parts of the brain (cellular/molecular neuroscience) - what instruments we currently have to study the brain (neural engineering, EE?) - a course to learn more in depth about instruments/tools so I can make my own if I have to (EE?) As for schools I'm looking at John Hopkins, MIT, and Harvard (lol as if I'll get in). I know, the list is very limited lol. Sorry my own research is so limited, but honestly I just want to start somewhere and get a b…

I'm an amateur boxer. According to Wikipedia, during accidents and very stressful events, one will perceive time more slowly, giving one the opportunity to make rational decisions in a short amount of time. Naturally, inside of a boxing ring, where countless punches are thrown at you every second, this would be ideal. Is there a natural way to achieve this neurological state? Any psychological or physical exercises one can do before a match? To a certain degree, I am able to increase the amount of adrenaline by simply focusing on the match, warming up and imagining different scenarios that may happen in the ring, but as a counterpuncher, I'd be very interested in a wa…

Does anyone know if it would be possible to alter the perception of time and if so how? with out slowing down the thought processes and leaving motor skills fully intact ?

Hey,it would be great to know what would happen to action potential in axon if there would be no nodes of ranvier?Thanks

So I thought I had remembered that you are not suppose to be able to control certain things in your body at will, two of which were suppose to be hormones and your heart. I have repeatedly measured that I was able to at will feel the effects of adrenaline without being angered, which I assume is caused by the release of adrenaline in the blood stream. The second is that I was able to repeatedly and measurable slow my heart rate down at will from around 120 beats per minute to 70 bears per minute in less than 3 seconds when I at will concentrated on doing so which not only do I measure with recording the heart rate but also feeling the effects of oxygen depletion on my mus…

I’ve just read about something called ankle jerk. Apparently, if I stretch the Achilles tendon of my foot tight by flexing it at the ankle and then tap my Achilles tendon, I should experience a reflex contraction of my calf muscles. I just tried it on my foot – but didn’t experience any involuntary muscle twitching! Is this abnormal? Or am I doing the ankle-jerk experiment correctly?

As part of a scientific investigation into the design and covert usage of radio-based neural interfaces, a spin-off series of articles has been created that examines the structure of the brain in the context of computation and communications theory. The series is revealing that processing, data transfer, storage and logical constructs are not present in the biological structure of the brain. Further, the second article begins to decompose the structure of the neuron itself and reveals that it is nothing more than an electromechanical switch. The second articles examines the function of the action potential and reveals it role and how that relates to thermodynamics. …

It could be that we sleep to conserve energy. Our ancestors didn't have lights (except when they discovered fire), so they couldn't do anything at night. Maybe to conserve energy, they went to sleep. That is why people who don't sleep very much at night need to eat more food to replace the energy they lost because they weren't asleep.

i found the more regular and moderate exercise a girl has, the shorter the period days(the longer the menstrual cycle) and the less amount of blood loss she has. vice verse. why ? is it not good ? can women ignore it and continue their regular & moderate exercise ? the moderate exercise is brisk walking for 50minutes everyday, which is considered low intensity and very good for health.

Ok so the chemical is released into the blood, but how does the chemical being in the blood give you a certain feeling? Wouldn't it be some kind of change in brain state or operation to do that?

hi guys i just joined in and the only reason is i really need to know the answer : why when we listen to a song or even a sentence or a word... for many times (10-20 at least) then... these things happen: 1- we remember it during day even when we are not think of it... "ear worm" 2- we can recognize and remember it after even years... a song ive heard when i was 7... i can remember even at age 60 ! anyone can help me with that and know the science reason and terms about it so i can search more in net ?

Would speaking less often, even not speaking at all the whole day, affect my ability to speak? I'm 19 right now and this has been the case for about 2-3 years. It's not that I've been dodging social contact, but rather my circumstance is to blame. There will be days, in fact almost always, where I will not say a full sentence at all because I don't run into conversations. The only words I get so say are for when I pay for the bus fare and tell the guy where my stop is. The only full conversations I get is when I hangout with friends every few weeks. I'm worried this has any effect on my speech capabilities. I'm even worried this has somehow removed the emotions in my sp…

In the Center of the Brain is the Thalamus and it has two Lobes a Right and Left Lobe. When I look on the Web for how big it is some Sites say it is as big a a Walnut and other Sites say it is as big as a large Egg. So I googled Walnuts and looked at Photos. A walnut looks small to me it does not look like a Large Egg. So can anyone give me the right size for the Thalamus? Is it as big as a Walnut or a large Egg? Thanks

Hi All, I am a PhD student from the Computer Science department at Brown. We have developed a web-based prototype that allows you to explore existing data and literature on brain connectivity. Currently we only have one dataset based on the rat neuron projection data from BAMS (http://brancusi.usc.edu/) and basic functionality (and perhaps some small bugs), but the tool is still under active development, which means that many new features might be added and also means that your feedback might have significant influence on what the tool will look like eventually! The tool is publicly available at http://hivizexplorer.com/brain. You don't need to register to be …

Why they don't test until 4 weeks the baby is born the testosteron level. There is the theory that in this time peroid it's still possible to influence the sexual orientation.

Why there is no biological knowledge about these nuclei in the hypothalamus.

Hello guys, I'm bit confused here, hope you guys can help me out. 1. Crystalloid- Ok they contain water soluble molecules. So eg is Saline (NaCl). Now book says if I infuse crystalloids then only 1/3 of of my infusion would remain in the intravascular compartment. Now my question is why is this? If I add lot of salt to intravascular compartment eg by giving saline, shouldn't I suck more water from extracellular compartment, why am I losing 2/3 instead. What I think: Is it because Saline contains like 0.9% Saline. So this is actually more like you are adding more water to the intravascular compartment rather than salts, so some water may leak out. Does this mean if I g…

I am trying to find a list of complete nutritional requirements for the "perfect" daily diet and I can't find it anywhere. I have tried to patch one together from different sources but I get conflicting results. I would like to find a list with EVERYTHING fibre, protein , minerals, and vitamins. fat etc. It's just a pet project I'm fooling around with to try and make a meal replacement as compact as possible, If mankind is going to travel to mars I believe it's going to be on a relatively synthetic diet and I would like to try such a diet myself. Everything the body needs except........actual food. I haven't came up with a calorie source yet other than protein …

Hi! In our physiology class, we were working with the Simnerv program, where you experiment with the n. ischiadicus of a frog. In the first experiment, we were stimulating the nerve with different amplitudes: 20, 40, 60 ... mV. The amplitude of the action potential was increasing with the greater amplitude of the stimulus. My question is why? Isn't it so that the amplitude of the action potential is not dependent on the amplitude of the stimulus? That it's all-or-nothing? My second question is why do we need two stimulating and two recording electrodes on the nerve? Isn't one of each enough? I imagine that you put one stimulating electrode on one end of the nerve …

I know that nervous cells are permanently in the G0 phase of the cell cycle and that the only way that they can regenerate is by recreating their axons and dendrites to reform connections. But how do other non-regenerative tissues work? As far as I know, the heart does not regenerate itself through cells going through mitosis? How then does the heart become stronger? And why would the heart need a reservoir of stem cells as some research has shown? And if heart cells do go through mitosis, how can they connect to the already working machine of the heart while everything is moving and working? These questions can also be applied to the lungs too because they never stop eit…