Anatomy, Physiology and Neuroscience

Apparently, I take unusually hot showers. I feel fine in them, but my family has felt how hot my showers are and pull their hand back very quickly as if they just touched a hotpan. Is this healthy for me? I feel fine in the shower and I have taken showers like this for as long as I can remember. I haven't done an actual temp reading on how hot it is, but I would put it 120, maybe 130 degrees fahrenheit. I take them about 15-20 minutes at a time twice a day. Is it healthy to take them that hot? Or should I cool down the shower?

Is anyone else attending/presenting at the SFN conference this year? I have a poster session... my information is: Date: Monday, Nov. 14, 2005 Presentation Time: Monday, Nov. 14, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Session Type: Poster Session Number: 500 Program Number: 500.10 Session Title: Homeostatic Plasticity II Abstract Title: Synaptic modification in spiking-rate models: a comparison between learning in spiking neurons and rate-based neuron models Location: Washington Convention Center Halls A-C Board Number: N4

So today…..I’m checking out how neurons interconnect . And I’m looking at the synaptic joins between each neuron… And I’m wondering….why have a crappy old chemical connection?… Why not have a direct hard type of connection. That would stop alcohol and the like from disrupting the purity of function. Then I started to think in reverse….why is it important to make sure the purity of function is distorted by overall chemical changes… You can see where I’m going with this….

A while ago, I remember reading that it was shown, in a scientific study, that exercise can cause the regeneration of neurons. Does anyone else know anything about this?

I just got some preliminary results of some simple tests I went through. The one thing that surprized me is that I apparently have a Working Memory much smaller than normal. Now that I think about it there may be MANY things I consider normal that may not be so. I thought it would be interesting to have a general discussion about Working Memory. How it helps, how to take advantage of/overcome problems with it, experiences that might or might not be effects of it, etc. I'll write soon with more specific (possible) problems I've had.

Is the number of heart beats fixed in a human being? Is there any theory or theories on this? Can anybody help me?

ok for some reason now i dont get bruises anymore and im like 13 ive been kicked in the shins and legs with cletes(im a soccer player) and the next day..no bruise and when i was younger i would get them all the time with a small bump is this normal?

I am trying to find out what the smallest difference in temperature is that a person can possible sense by touching objects.... Any answers, hints..

I recently went on a trip to New York. I was my first time on a plane (it was a band trip) and I was quite nervous. When I get nervous, I tend to drink coffee cup after coffee cup until I stop being nervous. Well, after about 2 cups of coffee, I had to use the restroom very badly. Over teh period of the trip, about 4 days, I had probably 40-50 cups of coffee. I didn't really like New York that much. I was using teh restroom liek crazy. The day after I got back from the trip, teh drug and alcohol person came to my school saying that coffee can't help you when your drunk. I was thinking about that tonight and realized it does help if you use it right. If you drink a…

when an area of my hand gets warm or cold I can obviously feel it, are there 2 types of nerves for this (one for hot and one for cold) or is it the same nerve that gives off a different signal to the brain? what "chems" are released and or how does the signal to the brain differ if it`s only an electrical signal?

I read recently that a study involving glial cells and there apparent role in intellect, more specifically in higher order functions from imagination to creating causal links between seemingly unrelated ideas. I think the basic premise was the higher the concentration of these cells in the cerebral cortex the more 'intelligent' the person was. As I have not studied psychology extensively the reason this discovery(if it turns out to be true) took so long to figure out astounds me. When I did study psychology in my first year at university I remember being told the role of these cells was to hold in place or 'glue' active neurons in the brain. But such a complex looking cel…

Why, physiologically, does dipping and drowning your hands in hot/warm water before a piano recital/performance allow better flexibility, agility, and endurance for your fingers? I've played a piano concert with and without doing this and noticed an increased performance when i dipped my hands in hot/warm water. Certain passages i played energetically with less fatigue while without warm water my fingers weaken and start to tired. My guess is that it has to do with increase blood flow making muscles more responsive and active through your muscular tissues.

The daily temp increased significantly in a matter of days here, and my appetite did the same. Changed from mainly meat/grain to fruit/veggie with loss of overall intake. I have a high metabolism and my current lifestyle involves little phyisical activity. Perhaps my body simply needs less fuel to maintain temperature? I'm not worried about damaging my health, this is just about maintaining "optimum balance" or something like that. My question is, how significant is this effect? Should I try to over/under compensate? Is it standard or different for each person?

what causes loss of sensation (I`m not refering to any drugs or anaesthetics here). for example sometimes at night you may have experienced your arm go "dead". Yesterday I was cutting up some pretty thick cardboard with scisors, after about 15 mins I realised that I`de got a blister on my thumb (just a pressure type caused by the rubbing) but the most curious part was that half of my thumb was completely numb! and now, a good 20 hours later, it`s still numb? any idea why and what causes it, and how I can get it back to normal again? at least at night when your arm goes dead, it comes back within 5 mins.

Cameras and such devices are rated by their resolution, or how many pixels they cram into a specific area (DPI). I was wondering, what is the resolution of the human eye? When do you think we'll be able to create cameras that see better than us?

If a person has dextrocardia, are their lungs also reversed (two lobes on the right and three on the left)? I have not been able to find an answer to this question in any of my texts.

Many of my friends hold interests in various parts of eastern spirituality. The other day one of these friends said something about Yogis or some other sort of spiritual masters being able to go hundreds of days without food or water (she might have said a longer period). I disagreed, but the science of why it couldn't work interested me, so I could give her an exact reason for it being false. I decided to do some research, so first stop here. Does anybody have any explanations proving right or wrong the above statement? Thanks.

Any Ideas (tried and tested plz not stupid theoretical ones that dont work)

On a Christian site I read the following: From: http://www.christianfaq.com/morality.html Is he right about this when he claims that a soul is necessary for free will? What are the current ideas in the field of neuroscience regarding free will?

Hi, I was hoping people could give me thier opinions on whether science is capable of finding out what conciousness is. I dont have a huge amount of knowledge in science but would like to study it next year at uni and was wondering if searching for conciousness through science was a dead end. Now it is just a matter of choosing which field to get into. My own ponderings have taken me from physics and various theories of quantum conciousness which seems to be way above my head, to molecular biology and the chemistry of mind altering drugs like lsd. It seems none of these fields focus heavily on conciousness. I noticed that Francis Crick moved away from molecul…

I stumbled across this when looking for info on Alpha wave activity in the brain. I find it quite startling, especially as I've found little or no scientific evidence to back up so called 'spiritual healing'. What are your thoughts, is there a flaw to this experiment ? Could we be on the brink of closing the gap between science and spirituality ? I wasn't sure where to post this, but I thought it would be more appropriate in the neuroscience category as it involves a controlled experiment using an EEG. http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/WorldTourMar2005_7.asp

I'm not condoning anyone try this out as an experiment but I had a discussion with a friend about withdrawal from a psychoactive drug. His argument was, that it was impossible to feel good from a withdrawal because the brain has a lack of seratonin / dopamine et.c, the brain has no capacity to feel good as it depends on these chemicals to induce well being. I don't want to go into too many specifics but this mainly concerns recreational mood enhancing drugs. However (due to some research) I'm well aware when the withdrawal starts taking place and if I feel any change in my mood, my brain instantly thinks that it's just the withdrawal of the chemical and there is…

Hi, I recently listened to a talk by a quite famous buddhist monk who was talking about how science isn't any closer to understanding what conciousness really is. This monk has a Phd in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. He used an example of what i presume was some kind of neuro scientist named John Lorber from the University of Sheffield who was doing research of people that seemed too have no, or very little brain matter. He told of a 19 yr old mathematics major who was very intelligent and yet had no brain. I figured if this was real, there would be tons of writing about it but all i can find on the web is paranormal and pseudo science sites with this …

why do we have to sleep? to rest- right- but what is the "rest" doing?

When does a electrical impulse from the brain become emotion? If there is not emotion in the brain when and where does this impulse get emotion? If it's from the heart, then should'nt there be electrical impulses in the heart as well? pljames