Anatomy, Physiology and Neuroscience

Hey guys, i saw this forum and i just had a question that i need an answer on. I am conducting a project that I need more clarification on a certain point. In my project, I differentiate pheochromocytoma cells (PC-12 cells) into neurites via NGF (nerve growth factor) in order to simulate the developing nervous system. What i am aiming to look for is the change in NOS (nitric oxide synthase) gene expression. If anyone can tell me if a change in NOS expression could have any effect on neurotoxicity in the nervous system please tell me cuz i need to know. If you want a little more info, NOS is the enzyme that synthesizes nitric oxide, an important compoun that regulates…

I'm looking for some good easy-to-read books on brain anatomy and functionality. Something that explains clearly (for an average educated person) what parts of the brain are responsible for what functions. Can anyone help me out here? PS - websites might do just as well as books.

i think it is ok to put this here instead of relgion, because my question is strictly physical. In fact i wont even mention the Nazarene. . . . well at least its out of my system now. Would the body of a victim of crucifixion cross the theshold of pain and go into shock?

Heya scientists! anyone here study exercise/sports science? We were going thru overtraining in our lecture the other day, and the signs of the athlete suffering from it (decreased performance, oss of appetite/weight loss, muscle tenderness, decreased immune function, increased resting HR/BP etc) but there doesnt seem to be a way of predicting its occurance, other than seeing the decresed performance, which is too late anyway... we discussed the poss that heart rate, blood lactate, blood enzyme levels (creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase etc), changes in the T wave of the aths ECG could possibly be indicators, but theyre either non specific or are too hard fora regu…

I'm reading a paper that talks about the anatomy of our visual system. It says that there are neurons in the occipital lobe corresponding to our perception of orientation of lines. That is, when we see a series of points in a continuous straight line, these cells become active, and moreover there is a range of cell "columns", each corresponding to a particular orientation of lines. My question is this: when each point on our retina sends information to the occipital lobe, do they each get their own full set of line-orientation neurons, or is there only one set of line-orientation neurons in the brain that each point sends its information to?

I was discussing food on another forum, and a couple mothers brought up the fact that their children had the same likes and dislikes that they had when they were pregnant. One of the woman had an aversion to one of her favorite foods while pregnant, and that child has always hated that food. The food cravings that they had ended up being some of the foods they had never eaten or liked, but it's the child's favorite food. So what exactly causes food cravings when pregnant?

after reading another thread about an injury, I got to wondering about our auto defenses against such things, some seem to be like closing the gate after the horse has bolted, for instance we get the blister After we get burned or swelling after an injury, now I`m told this is the bodies way of protecting itself against further injury, and it can`t be expected to "Predict" danger and blister 1`st. but what happens when this auto defence itself becomes the life threatening factor, why doesn`t it "switch off", for example brain swelling after an injury can be fatal, even if the initial blow wasn`t, what`s the evolutionary purpose of this? we don`t get blisters that kee…

Why do some people call them testes (singular: testis), and others call them testicles? Why have 2 names?

I know what cyborg means but someone came to me with the question, "Does taking medicine make us a cyborg?" This made me raise an eye because I didn't know. I know that wearing clothes, glasses, a watch, these things make us cyborgs because they are technological appendages in which we attach to our bodies for things such as protection or increased efficiency. However, don't bio-chemical things such as drugs have such an effect where they can make us like cyborgs by allowing us to resist things such as pain or emotional distress. Don't know if this is the right board, but eh.

Hey guys, Ok, I generally sleep in my Algebra 2 class. A lot. The teacer lets me cuz I make 100's in teh class anyway. Well, today, I really got freaked out. Not in teh funny way, but in teh like serious you-need-a-psychologist way. I am not sure if I was a sleep when all this happened or not. I was dozing off and I felt liek I was going to throw up all of a sudden, and soon after felt a very sharp pain in my back. This all happened while my head was on my desk. I don't know if this was a dream or not. I have never had a dream like this. I knew everything that was going on around me, I heard mr. quigley giving his lecture, etc... If this was a dream, it was excruciati…

i burned my hand while grilling a few days ago. it looks like fresh scar tissue. after football practice this morning, it was like a blister. a few minutes later, it was back to looking like scar tissue. what caused the change? at first, i thought that it was from elevated heart rate, but it wasn't throbbing. kinda wierd.

Hello there, I am looking for book references for an introduction to the current state of knowledge in neuropsychology. Something vulgarized, as I am in no way a student of nor possess any knowledge of neuropsych. You know, a sort of " Brief history of time " or " The Ellegant Universe " but for neuropsych. I am just interested in finding out what we know about the way the brain works as far as taught process does. Whats the deal with "consciousness", whats the actual physical materialisation of an "idea" ou a "taught" in our brains ? I am also interested in the parralels with artificial intellingence research. SO if you know a good reading for me, I would much …

Does anyone know if there is any way in which synthetic estrogens and progestins might or do effect the magnocellular neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamus and/or the limbic system in general? I'm basically wondering if there are any studies that might have anything to do with this. Thanks

I have been thinking about health foods and their actual benefits. Then figs caught my attention. They are billed as being "healthy," but what positive attributes do they actually contain? What vitamins and minerals are in them?

I wanted to ask about the science behind the feeling you get when you drink a cold liquid too quickly. You feel this rush of "coldness" up to your brain, and you simply must stop drinking until the "coldness" goes away. And is there even an official name for this?

I'm looking for information concerning the physiology of the hand adressed to piano performance. References to books, articles, web sites, etc, would be greatly appreciated.

I am extremely interested in Neuroscience. Where can I get a book called mind over matter philosophy or biology or neurology. thanks pljames@brmemc.net

I've noticed a difference in how my mind works when I'm daydreaming vs when I'm solving a simple problem. I tried looking up info but I'm not getting the answers I'm looking for. Mostly I read about "brain waves". Beta waves are supposed to be concious thought and theta waves daydreaming, but thoses are just labels and don't help me understand what's happening. Are the neurons firing differently? Stronger? Slower? Are they using more local connections vs half the brain away?

I bet a lot of you know that the eye has a blind spot. I bet you also knew that the brain fills in the space with what it thinks should go there. Have you ever tested this out? Put your brain to the test! Close your left eye and look directly at the cross-hairs in each image. Pay attention to what happens to the dot on the right! What happens when we change the background colour? Reverse it? How does the brain deal with this? What will your brain do with this?

I've heard lots of rumours about adolescent zits, and I just want to clear a few things up (no pun intended ). First of all, is it all just hormones, or do the things that one eats affect it as well? And I'm almost positive that stress has something to do with it. (I got the biggest zit of my life the day after my first kiss ) Your thoughts?

Ok, when my biology teacher gave us a big lecture on teen pregnancy and STD's, she said that the lubricant emitted from the penis during sex has more sperm than the ejaculate. I have a hard time believing this because she is _very_ biased in this area. Can anyone verify this for me?

We all know why humans initially had darker skin. (Protection from the sun.) What are the other possible advantages, that came from migrating to a new environment, that caused the physical differences among races? Why do some races have curly hair while others have straight hair? Why do asians have slightly "slanted" eyes? Why do caucasians and asians have slightly different skin tones (Both left Africa, why the change in skin tone?) What were the evolutionary advantages of the diversity?

I'm a fairly avid golfer, and one thing that myself and other golfers try to attain is a muscle memory of our swing. This is done by swining properly over and over and over again until you are able to do so without thinking about it. My question is, what is muscle memory? Is it a physiological change in the muscles or is it a psychological change? When I swing a club, it just feels 'right' when I swing it like I should. I can tell right away if my swing is bad or if my swing is good as soon as I start my downswing. The thing is, I'm not conciously thinking about the swing. I've just always wondered how and why the body is able to do this.

I am looking for information about mind manipulation directly on how to stimulate the brain into thinking it is doing something the body is not. for example eating an apple

Recently I've had a fly problem in this house because it hadn't rained for the longest time. When it did rain however, a bunch of flies decided to move in and live in the house. The first few days I had problems swatting them with the fly swatter and decided to just give up. About three days ago I began to pick up catching flies by hand. Once they land I'll try and grab them. The first day I did this, I sucked. Now I'm on the fourth day or so and I'm catching flies with lightning quick speed. A fly may land on my head and BAM! i'll grab that sucker in about half a second. How come my body was able to create such lightning quick moves in such a shor…