Month: August 2014

Please RT: Immediate Postdoctoral Fellowship Vacancy in Behavioural Neurophysiology at Trinity College Dublin

Wellcome Trust-Funded Project focused on freely-moving recordings in vivo. Exciting, scientifically compelling and mature project, with plenty of room for development. Experience of electrophysiology/neurophysiology is essential; experience in freely-moving recordings is desirable. The ideal candidate will possess high levels of intellectual curiosity, drive and motivation. Fully equipped lab with ample technical and analytic back-up. The… Read More

Remind me again why aerobic exercise is good for my brain (and mood, and thinking)…

There are lots of reasons why regular aerobic exercise is good for the brain – the effects of exercise on brain volume, cognition and mood are profound and enduring. Here are a few key papers. In an early review paper, Colcombe and Kramer (2003) conducted a meta-analysis of 18 interventional studies, conducted over a 25-year period. Their… Read More

The irregular firing properties of thalamic head direction cells mediate turn-specific modulation of the directional tuning curve

Take-home message: Anterior thalamic head direction cells are interesting in all sorts of ways. Here, we show that head direction cells remain active during sleep (how interesting is that?!), replicate the finding that these cells fire at different rates depending on whether the head makes clockwise or counterclockwise movements, and that the origin of this difference might… Read More

Savagery Explained: 5 Reasons Humans Become Inhuman

Originally posted on The Winner Effect:
As Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria butcher thousands of “infidels” and carry off their women and children into slavery, many in the West are inclined to see this as an unique outcrop of Islamic fundamentalism. Yet after over-running a Bosnian town on 11th July 1995, Bosnian Serb…

Metabolic Syndrome and Mental Decline: Is Exercise A Feasible Prevention?

Originally posted on 2014 APA Annual Convention:
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) “is an example of a health variable that may play a causal role in cognitive and language declines with age,” Avron Spiro III, PhD, said at a symposium Aug. 7 at the convention. A constellation of five interrelated risk factors (a large waistline, a high triglyceride level,…

The Conscious Claustrum

Originally posted on NeuWrite San Diego:
Consciousness and Crick The definition of consciousness, as a biological phenomenon, remains contested. Some definitions consider language necessary for consciousness, while for others, more basic aspects of experience suffice. Only recently has the study of consciousness been broached by “respectable neuroscientists”, where it had previously been the realm of…