Nose - The Tip of the Smelling Story

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Harvard have found that smell is based on more than the neuronal networks that receive various stimuli. Different from vision (that pays attention to edges, shading, brightness, and color), smell is affected by odor molecules and a lot of other intriguing unknowns. 

Odors, good or bad, enter the nose as the front door of the smelling (olfactory) mechanism. Some smells like your breath and sweat are identified as "self" and mostly ignored. (Unless you have been on the tennis court or football field for a heavy workout. Then the usual monitoring gets kicked up a notch and even YOU notice you stink.) 

Other smells set off different neural activity patterns across the brain. 

In mammals, the olfactory bulb has neuronal circuits that process information via receptors. It sends information to higher processing brain areas, including the cerebral cortex. There, smell messages are analyzed thoroughly and sent across the brain (i.e. chocolate=yum or skunk spray=yuck) before they return to the bulb in a feedback loop.

The latest research shows that signaling is linear and is further analyzed in the brain with respect to intensity, known characteristics, and past experience (i.e., banana or mountain lion). Go Science!

Nanoparticles and Near Infrared Vision

Last month an article was published in Cell describing how researchers had injected the retinas of mice with nanoparticles that attached to retinal photoreceptor cells and changed near-infrared light (IR) to green light the animals could see in the dark. Like a mouse version of night vision goggles without the goggles.

To see if the treated mice could actually see in the IR range (700 nanometers to 1 millimeter), they checked the pupils of the injected mice and noted that the test animals' eyes constricted when shown 900 nm light, while the controls (not treated) mice did not.  

Then, researchers gave the mice a choice of two boxes: one that was completely dark and one illuminated by near-infrared light. Control mice spent time in both boxes, but mice with nanoparticle treated retinas chose the dark box, suggesting that they could see the near-IR light and preferred the dark. 

This research has tons of applications. All of which are fascinating. I plan to keep an eye on developments in mammalian night vision. Who knows? Maybe someday everyone will have excellent night vision and no one will stub a toe in the dark. Go science!

Just for Fun Science

Trivia and other knowledge-based activities have been around a long time. I enjoy testing myself with lots of different brain challenges. I am particularly addicted to word finds.  

So when I ran across the May 2018 crossword puzzle by The Scientist, I gave it a try. 

It covers a number of science topics including everything from a breed of dairy cow, biologically produced poison, and African blooms to Asa Gray's field, and #3 on the Periodic Table. 

It's just the thing for a Friday or to keep the brain thinking about science over the weekend. Do you have favorite science brain teasers? List them in the comments. Have a great weekend and go science!

Brain Folding 101

 If you're like me, you don't really think about your brain. Well, maybe when you see brain coral or a crazy brain-like cactus, but those are special occasions.

Did you know that just like the rest of your body, the brain starts out all smooth and pretty? Then, as it grows, it folds and refolds to accommodate all the connections and memories and brain stuff that needs to go in there. 

Also, scientists have noticed that the higher the intelligence an organism has, the more its brain is folded. [And before you ask, we don't have the most folded brain. Dolphins have more folds than humans. Of course they do! They get to swim and play all day long. No dolphin cubicles on the horizon.]

Anyway... Check out this super great explanation of brain folding by PhD Comics. My brain just folded a little more taking it all in. Go science!

Brain Awareness Week

When I did something particularly dumb as a child, my father used to tell me to use my head for "something other than a hat rack"  I loved hats, so it always made me grin. Now that he is gone, I remind myself of his advice on occasion. :)

But lots of people have been using their heads for important educational activities about the brain for many years. In fact, March 2015 marks the 20th year of Brain Awareness Week. And in Little Rock, the Arkansas chapter of the Society for Neuroscience will celebrate this milestone with kid- and teen-friendly activities at the Reynolds Museum of Discovery.

“On Saturday, March 21, the Arkansas Chapter of the Societyfor Neuroscience will celebrate Brain Awareness Week at the Museum of Discovery. From 10 am-3 pm, neuroscience research groups from around the state will host educational activities for children of all ages. Activities including sculpting brains out of Play-Doh, learning neuroanatomy from brain specimens, demonstrations of perceptual illusions, and teaching about operant conditioning.”

So take advantage of this chance to use your head and find out what goes on inside it too! Go science!

Neuroprosthetics or Making Stuff Work with Your Mind

Recently I came across an article in New Scientist online about progress being made in the advancing area of neuroprosthetics. 

Put simply, a neuroprosthetic is a device that boosts the input/output of the nervous system (electrical brain signals). These initiated and/or amplified signals help replace signals that have been short-circuited by disease or trauma. Researchers are also designing bidirectional brain-computer interfaces that link a device (e.g., robotic arm) to sensory nerves and muscles.

Surgical implants are being tested that restore functionality in patients with severe sensory or motor disabilities. External non-invasive brain simulators are even being sold that improve attention span while gaming. I might buy one to boost my attention when I have to gather all the information to do my taxes every year. A major snooze fest activity.

Some devices collect external stimuli/input and convert it to a signal the nervous system recognizes (e.g., cochlear implant or retinal prosthesis). This would give many folks with loss of sensory function or disabilities much more independence. Go science!

A Brain Cell Tally

Have you ever heard or said, "Well, I lost a few brain cells with that one." But how many neurons do most people start with? Until one neuroscientist did the calculations, no one knew. Watch this TED.com talk (above) to find out why the human brain is so big compared to the size of our bodies compared to other species (a mouse has 86 billion neurons). 

Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro tackled the question of: Exactly how many cells are in our brains? Lots more than we should have given our size, but I won't spill the beans early. Check out the video. The answer to how humans can maintain such large brains is simple, yet elegant. Go science!

Flying Objects With Your Thoughts

Humans 2.0 won't necessarily have to undergo invasive procedures, receive implants and be subject to gene manipulation. A researcher at the Univ. of Minnesota has been working on software that interprets brain signals and permits a trained person to move a flying quadcopter with only his/her thoughts. Totally non-invasive.

This is beyond cool. It will open all kinds of possibilities to independence for people with disabilities. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), biomedical engineer Bin He and his team at the University of Minnesota have created a brain-computer software program interface with the goal of helping people with disabilities, such as paralysis, do everyday tasks. 

For the experiments, the team uses both an actual flying quadcopter and a virtual one. Go science!

Seeing and Not Seeing

Recent results published in the journal Psychological Science by University of Arizona doctoral degree candidate, Jay Sanguinetti shows that the brain processes and understands visual input that we may never consciously be aware of. In research with his advisor, Mary Peterson, Ph.D., black and white images were shown to subjects while their EEG patterns (brain waves) were observed. The work was specifically focused on seeing the images at the outer edges of the image.

Subjects' brainwaves showed that even if a person never consciously recognized the shapes on the outside of the image, their brains still worked on figuring out their meaning. "There's a brain signature for meaningful processing," Sanguinetti said. "A peak in the averaged brainwaves called N400 indicates that the brain has recognized an object and associated it with a particular meaning. It happens about 400 milliseconds after the image is shown, less than a half a second," said Peterson.

To me, this seems to beg the question of intuition. Is intuition just the brain's unconscious recognition of a subtle visual cue? For example, sometimes you meet someone that just doesn't hit you right. You have no basis for your unease, but later find out he/she was caught stealing or cheating on a test. Perhaps the brain picked up on something and sounded the alarm subconsciously. Hmm... Go Science!

Cooking Increases Brain Size

A new study reported in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers new thoughts that cooking food made it possible for early humans to develop larger brains. The cooked food was easier to digest and made it possible for more nutrients to be available to brain cells.

Scientists have long believed there is a trade off between body size and brain cells since the brain needs about 20% of the body's total resting metabolic energy (although it's only about 2% of the body's weight.) So there just wasn't enough time in a day to gather and take in enough raw nutrients for early humans.

Hmm...food for thought when you're sitting and watching the Super Bowl game with all the cooked and snack food at your fingertips. Will bigger brains win out?

Pupillometry - The Eyes Have It

Since I spend a lot more time in the dark looking at holiday displays in December than other months, it got me thinking about the way our pupils open and close.

This is called pupillometry and it isn't just limited to adjustments to light. Pupils also dilate when a person is anxious, excited, and working on math problems! 

In fact, the pupil serves as a sensitive indicator of cognitive, emotional, and sensory responses in psychological research. The eyes really do serve as windows to the soul or at least the brain. For more details on pupillometry, check it out.  

Symphony of Science

Have you seen the Symphony of Science website? It is awesome! Science and music combine to offer scientific knowledge in a novel way via music clips and re-mixed scientists.

My favorite so far is We Are Star Dust. The tune is catchy. I'm humming it now. It's also a great tool for teachers to jazz up chemistry, biology and physics lessons.

In addition, the Symphony of Science project offers presentations on dinosaurs, Mars, space, reality, ancient/native peoples, and the environment among others.