A slap to the back of the neck: An antidote for pressure point TKO?

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A slap to the back of the neck: An antidote for pressure point TKO?

The other week, I received a fantastic question from a gentleman named Bill. He wanted to know whether there was any neurological basis in (what is apparently) a common technique for recovering a martial arts practitioner from a knock out induced by a strike to pressure points. 

As I've pretty much forgotten everything I ever knew about spinal nerves, I pulled a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", and phoned (read: emailed) a friend. Well, three friends. One of whom contacted a neurology resident. 

Our collective conclusion: the recovery technique is probably BS. 

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Are most published research findings false?

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Are most published research findings false?

There has been much wringing of hands of late over findings that many scientific findings are proving impossible to reproduce – meaning, they were probably wrong. Coverage in the news, concern expressed by the President's council of scientific advisors, and a call to action by Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), all suggest that this is a problem that the scientific community needs to understand and address.

In the recent issue of the journal Nature, Francis Collins and Lawrence Tabak (the deputy director of the NIH) outline their plan for improving scientific reproducibility, emphasizing a need for improving experimental design, statistical analysis, and transparency.

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A Synaptic Plasticity Twofer: Synaptic distance and Glutamatergic exclusivity

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A Synaptic Plasticity Twofer: Synaptic distance and Glutamatergic exclusivity

In this edition of Ask a Neuroscientist, Dr. David Bochner tackles a pair of questions: 1) Whether synaptic plasticity means that synapses move closer together, and 2) Whether the predominance of papers describing plasticity at glutamatergic synapses means that other synapses aren't plastic. 

Spoilers: The answer to both these questions is no. Read below the fold to learn why. 

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Neurotalk S2E14 Don Cleveland

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This week on the Neurotalk podcast, Don Cleveland talks about the mechanisms underlying ALS and other motor neuron disorders, the shift in our basic understanding of how gene mutations lead to human disease, and more!

In this week's episode of Neurotalk, Don Cleveland talks about the mechanisms underlying ALS and other motor neuron disorders, the shift in our basic understanding of how gene mutations lead to human disease, and more! Dr. Cleveland is professor of cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego.

 

Dr. Cleveland is professor of cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego.  

Ask a Neuroscientist: How do I get into the Stanford Neuro PhD Program?

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Ask a Neuroscientist: How do I get into the Stanford Neuro PhD Program?

In this edition of Ask a Neuroscientist, what does it take to get into the Stanford Neuroscience PhD program?

To help me answer this question, I sat down with the newly minted director of the Stanford Neurosciences PhD Program, Dr. Anthony (Tony) Ricci. Before his appointment as Program Director, Tony served on the Stanford PhD Program Admissions Committee; he also was involved in graduate admissions at Louisiana State University prior to his appointment at Stanford. Tony believes that graduate admission should be a transparent process, and so was happy to share his personal approach to selecting applicants.

We discuss the process by which 500 applicants are narrowed down to 30 invited interviewees, and what a successful application needs to prevent rejection. 

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Eight Ways We All Can Help to Improve Gender Diversity

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Eight Ways We All Can Help to Improve Gender Diversity

Women and academia, why does this combination seem to be so challenging? Why do so few women make it to faculty positions, regardless of all the recent campaigns and awareness-raising and the high representation of women at undergraduate and graduate levels? Is it the nature of the scientific world with its high pressure to continuously perform exceptionally? Or are we maybe expecting too much? Is changing this gender imbalance just a gradual and slow process and do we need to just wait a bit longer?

Alternatively, could this imbalance be related to something that is engraved in all of us, a tough bias that unconsciously affects our reasoning? And if so, is there anything we can do about it?

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Split Brains: Why disconnected hemispheres won't be sending independent emails

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Split Brains: Why disconnected hemispheres won't be sending independent emails

In this issue of Ask a Neuroscientist, Jennifer Esch discusses the language abilities of the independent left and right hemispheres of split brain patients. She tells us why it's extremely unlikely that split brain patients would be able to type a separate email from each hemisphere, and furthermore, why it's unlikely those patients would be able to use a keyboard in the first place. 

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Neurotalk S2E13 Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell & elephant communication

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In this exciting new episode of Neurotalk, we speak with Caitlin O'Connell Rodwell about working with elephants, elephant communication, women in science, and more!

This week on Neurotalk, we speak with Caitlin O'Connell Rodwell about working with elephants, elephant communication, women in science, and more! Dr. O'Connell-Rodwell is an assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology at Stanford University.

Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell is an assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology at Stanford University.

Neurotalk S2E12 Kamil Ugurbil: Connectomes & the birth of fMRI

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This week on the Neurotalk podcast, we speak with Kamil Ugurbil about his interesting path into neuroscience, his deep involvement with the development of fMRI, a functional human connectome, and more!

This week on the Neurotalk podcast, we speak with Kamil Ugurbil about his interesting path into neuroscience, his deep involvement with the development of fMRI, how he runs his large 100+ group, and more! Dr. Ugurbil is the Director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, and McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair Professor in the Departments of Radiology, Neuroscience, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Ugurbil is the Director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, 
and McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair Professor in the Departments of Radiology, Neuroscience, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota.