No uniformity of cortical microstructure

The sensory cortex contains many columns of vertically arranged neurons that span the width of the cortex, share connectivity, and, importantly, respond to a single peripheral receptive field. This arrangement suggests homogeneity. But that assumption fails upon closer analysis, since cell type, synapse organization, and gene expression differ widely between and within species.
Casanova et al [...]

Read Full Post »

Evolution of peripheral myelin protein 22

The evolution of the protein structure of myelination in jawed vertebrates is fascinating in part because certain vertebrates (i.e., goldfish and zebrafish) have the capability to regenerate myelin. If we could figure out the protein changes underlying this divergence, we could perhaps express genes promoting the expression of these critical proteins in humans and replicate [...]

Read Full Post »

Electromagnetic receptors in humans?

The ability of animals to sense weak magnetic fields is a fascinating ability that as of yet does not have a fully elucidated mechanism. One model has been proposed based on findings from the glass catfish, by Kolomytkin et al. In their model, glycoprotein molecules (which may consist of negatively charged oligosaccharide side chains) are [...]

Read Full Post »

The Adapted Mind book notes, part 2

Here was the first installment, and here are the rest of my notes. As always unless there are brackets please assume that it is a direct quote:

Women who make more money tend to value monetary and professional status of mates more than those who make less money.
Those individuals who rise to the top of organizations [...]

Read Full Post »

Genes coding for neurotrophins in Drosophila

Neurotrophins are growth factor proteins that induce the survival and function of neurons, in large part prenatally but maintained to an extent through the rest of the lifespan as well. Major neurotrophins in vertebrates are nerve growth factor (sensory and sympathetic neurons), brain derived neurotrophic factor (mainly found in the PNS but also the hippocampus [...]

Read Full Post »

The Adapted Mind book notes, part 1

This primer to evolutionary psychology is really more a tome than a book, as it has many different authors and approaches. Almost all of them are excellent, however. Here are my notes:

No instance of anything is intrinsically (much less exclusively) either “general” or “particular”–these are simply different levels at which any system of categorization encounters [...]

Read Full Post »

Chronicling the evolution of the neocortex in primates

Jon Kaas (2006) discusses some of the research on the evolution of the neocortex throughout mammals. He notes some interesting facets of this process, such as the “late makes great” rule, where brain regions that form late developmentally are especially large in bigger brains. The inference that humans and other large-brained mammals must have an [...]

Read Full Post »

Myelin sheathing originated in placoderms

Zalc et al published a paper earlier this year in Current Biology hypothesizing that vertebrate myelination developed in the now extinct class placoderms. It is a horrificly concise paper (that is a good thing), and their evidence is simple. As compared to ostreostaci, a class that preceded them, placoderm fossils suggest oculomotor nerves that are [...]

Read Full Post »

The Stuff of Thought book notes

Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought starts off a little bit verbose, but by the end of the book he has really hit his groove, and he uses the architecture that he has built up to make a number of fairly profound points. Here are my notes:

Linguistics is often studied based on simple intuitions. “Designating [...]

Read Full Post »

How neuroscience interfaces with evolutionary psychology

Given that evolutionary psychology and molecular neuroscience are both relatively recent fields and that both study what is going on in our head, there seems to be fairly little interplay between the two subjects. In their review article, Pankseep et al. attempt to rectify this dearth of collaboration.
The authors concede two crucial points that evolutionary [...]

Read Full Post »