Home of the Stanford Neuroblog. Scientists writing about science, for a general audience.
Have a question about the brain? Ask a neuroscientist a question.
Reader Ella asks: “I read a theory that while dreaming, the brain cannot invent new people out of nowhere. Instead, the brain shows people we've seen while awake, or combines a mix of previously-seen physical features to create a "new" person. How would you prove/disprove this theory? Why does the brain do this?”
Read MoreToday our guest is Professor Dwight Bergles, a professor in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. In this episode we talk about glia and their role in neuronal circuits, following data wherever it takes you, and a dream of swimming with sperm whales.
Our guest is Olaf Sporns, Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington and co-director of the Indiana University Network Science Institute. We speak with him about network theory, “rich clubs” in the brain, and jump-starting the “connectomics” movement.
Our guest is Indira Raman, Professor of Neurobiology and Physiology at Northwestern University . We speak with her about AMPAR kinetics in auditory neurons, sodium channels in cerebellar neurons, and how Shakespeare and Science maybe aren’t all that different.
Today, our guest is Professor Ege Kavalali, the Effie Marie Cain Scholar in Medical Research in the Departments of Neuroscience and Physiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. In this episode, we will talk about the complexity of the synapse, how basic science can lead to clinical understanding, and the importance of being intellectually well-rounded.
Today, our guest is Tomomi Shimogori, Team Leader of the Lab for Molecular Mechanisms of Thalamus Development, at RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan. We’ll be speaking with her about cortical development, studying development in marmosets, and growing up around the globe.
Today, our guest is Dr. Tianyi Mao, Assistant Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Vollum Institute. We’ll talk about dissecting thalamo-cortical circuits in a systematic way; using sCRACM to understand how circuits are wired; how this approach and these maps could help us understand cortico-striatal-thalamic loops; and, how Dr. Mao’s got to where she is today.
“The witching hour… was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep, deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”
-Roald Dahl, The BFG
In folklore and literature, the sleeping hours represent a state of heightened vulnerability, a time when the “ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties” roam free and wreak havoc. Today, neuroscientists are unraveling the biological underpinnings of nightmares, night terrors, and other sleep disturbances.
Recently, I had the chance to sit down to discuss these nighttime phenomena with biologist H. Craig Heller, PhD, a member of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute and an expert in the neurobiology of sleep.
Read MoreToday, our guest is Daniel Dombeck, an Assistant Professor of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. We’ll be speaking with him about microscopy in the brain; mouse virtual reality and the original "mouse on a ball"; and how to get your mouse to groom.
Today, our guest is Rui Costa,an HHMI investigator at the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Portugal. Well be speaking with him about using transgenics to study complex disease, the neural mechanisms underlying habit learning (like piano playing), and keeping cows as pets.
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