Home of the Stanford Neuroblog. Scientists writing about science, for a general audience.
Have a question about the brain? Ask a neuroscientist a question.
Eric (age 18) asks: How different are the fine motor skills in your dominant hand rather than in your non-dominant hand? Say, if I have used a computer mouse for my entire life with my right hand, but am left-handed, would my computer mouse accuracy improve if I now switched to using the mouse with my left hand? How long would it take to catch up to my right-handed computer mouse skills?
Read Moren this edition of Ask a Neuroscientist, I crowdsource the answer to a question about the differences between how the brain processes spoken versus written language.
The question comes from Minski, who wrote:
"Does writing down what I think and saying what I think activate different parts of the brain and neuropathways? I feel I have an easier time writing than I do speaking, so I wonder.
Thank you for your time and knowledge!"
Read More
My workday is full of people wearing headphones. Almost everybody on the bus to work is plugged into a music player or a smartphone. The bicyclists pushing pedals along the busy El Camino Real road that bisects Silicon Valley are also almost universally equipped with devices that occupy their ears, though arguably they would be better off paying attention to the sounds of traffic (for a summary of American laws regulating this matter, see here). Once I get to my laboratory, I have no one to say good morning to, as the hearing of my co-workers is engrossed by whatever is playing on their computers. Pretty soon, I also feel the urge to plug in to my Internet radio station and tune out the world. Once I do, I’m happier. And that got me wondering. How much do we know about the neurobiology behind compulsive behavior that generates pleasure and does the craving for music exhibited by many people around me share this neurobiology?
Read MoreThis week on NeuroTalk, Marc Freeman talks to us about falling in love with biology, eating injured axons, and more!
This week, Marc Freeman talks to us about falling in love with biology, eating injured axons, and more! Marc Freeman is an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Marc Freeman is an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Our conversation with professor Freeman can also be streamed or downloaded here: NeuroTalk S2E8 Marc Freeman
You can also subscribe to NeuroTalk though iTunes by searching for "Neuwritewest" in the iTunes store and subscribing to our channel.
This week, we talk to Cagla Eroglu about the eureka moments in scientific discovery, the role of astrocytes in synapse formation, and more!
This week, we talk to Cagla Eroglu about the eureka moments in scientific discovery, the role of astrocytes in synapse formation, and more! Dr. Eroglu is an assistant professor of cell biology at Duke University.
Dr. Eroglu is an assistant professor of cell biology at Duke University. Our conversation with professor Eroglu can also be streamed or downloaded here: NeuroTalk S2E7 Cagla Eroglu.
You can also subscribe to NeuroTalk though iTunes by searching for "Neuwritewest" in the iTunes store and subscribing to our channel.
This week on NeuroTalk, we talk to Jeff Isaacson about his journey from rock shows to neuroscience, the importance of inhibition, the BRAIN Initiative, and more!
This week, we talk to Jeff Isaacson about his journey from rock shows to neuroscience, the importance of inhibition, the BRAIN Initiative, and more! Dr. Isaacson is a professor of neuroscience at UC San Diego.
Dr. Isaacson is a professor of neuroscience at UC San Diego.
Our conversation with professor Isaacson can be streamed or downloaded here: NeuroTalk S2E6 Jeff Isaacson.
You can also subscribe to NeuroTalk though iTunes by searching for "Neuwritewest" in the iTunes store and subscribing to our channel.
Ed: This post was originally published by our partners at the Berkeley Science Review, October 1, 2013http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/learning-about-touch-sensation-from-an-unlikely-creature-the-star-nosed-mole/
This is the first in a three part series introducing the science of touch sensation.
Read MoreWhat started as an idea for a birthday party got a little out of hand. The California Academy of Sciences (one of the largest natural history museums in the world) runs an annual sleepover for grownups, during which visitors can explore the museum after hours then roll out their camping gear and sleep with the fishes in the aquarium or with the penguins in the African hall. This year, Antoine de Morrée (co-chair of the Stanford University Postdoctoral Association) decided that instead of convincing a handful of friends to attend the sleepover, the association should get together a committee to convince 40 Stanford postdocs to spend days preparing samples and scientific stories to share with the public. Astonishingly, that’s exactly what happened.
Read MoreEach week the Stanford Neurosciences Institute (SNI) invites a prominent scientist to come to campus and share their most recent work with the Stanford community. Each week, as part of the Neuwrite West podcast NeuroTalk, we engage the SNI speaker in an informal interview/conversation. This week, we talk to Graeme Davis about teaching neurobiology at Wood's Hole, how a synapse maintains homeostasis, and more!
Dr. Davis is a professor of neuroscience at UC San Francisco.
Listen to NeuroTalk S2E5 Graeme Davis by NeuWriteWest | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.
Listening options: Our conversation with professor Davis can be streamed or downloaded here: NeuroTalk S2E5 Graeme Davis You can also subscribe to NeuroTalk though iTunes by searching for "Neuwritewest" in the iTunes store and subscribing to our channel.
How useful is the laboratory mouse to research on neurodegenerative disease? Anybody who’s dissected a mouse knows that its organs are strikingly similar to textbook pictures of human organs. However, the brain is a special case. Though there are broad similarities, such as that both humans and mice have a hippocampus, humans have many more neurons, many more connections between them, and vastly more intellectual capacity. With this in mind, some neurobiologists advocate using mice to study biochemical pathways that may underlie neurodegenerative disease and not the symptoms or the clinical outcomes. The latest breakthrough in research on neurodegenerative diseases, announced in an October 9 paper in Science Translational Medicine by Julie Moreno and colleagues, is a good example of this approach.
Read MoreHome of NeuWrite West and the Stanford Neuroblog.
Do you have burning questions about how the brain works? You’ve come to the right place! Submit all your questions to NeuWrite West and we will have a neuroscientist research and answer your question.
Note: The NeuWrite West team consists of research scientists. Therefore, we can not provide answers to questions of a medical nature; we are not medical doctors.
Questions will have a turn-around time of approximately one month.
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