Why The Smell of Cut Grass Reminds Me of My Dad

Hello Science Experts!

http://cliparts.co/cliparts/gce/ogL/gceogLGMi.jpg

This week, we are talking about the Chemical Senses. Olfaction (smell) is one of our oldest sense
(human life began in a chemical environment). Although we do't rely on our sense of smell as much today as an ancestors did thousands (maybe millions) of years ago, the sense of smell still has a powerful influence on our everyday lives. Smells create the strongest memories for us. The smell of coffee may remind you of your mom drinking her cup of joe in the morning when you were a kid, or the smell of cinnamon may remind you of Thanksgiving when you were six. For me, the smell of cut grass always reminds me of my dad mowing the lawn Saturday morning when I was eight.

Even more striking is how long theses memories last. Everyday information like old addresses and telephone numbers fade with time, but smell memories remain as crisp as the day you formed the memory. In fact, Alzhiemer's patients, long after they no longer recognize their families, often can recall long-forgotten people, places, things by a smell.

Although we all experience these strong memories, the question remains why? One theory is that, in the brain, information about smell travels near areas that are involved in emotions and making memories. This provides the opportunity for smell information to interact and influence these areas. Moreover, some research suggests that brain areas responsible for memory are activated at the same time that someone is actively smelling something. If you want to read more about this topic, feel free to read the NT time article, 'The Nose, an Emotional Time Machine,' which can be found by clicking here.

Your Voice Tastes Like Green

Greetings Students of Excellence! Tomorrow's class marks the start of our adventure into the neurobiology behind our senses. I know that you all can name the five senses... go ahead... say them out loud... I'll wait....
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Excellent! For most of us, each of our senses evokes a very different perception. Colors and sounds are different. Tastes and touches too. However, for approximately 4 % of the population, the senses are not nearly as independent. For those who experience synesthesia, sounds may evoke the perception of colors or tastes, or numbers may be perceived as specific colors. The neurobiology at work in both who experience synesthesia involves an increase in the number of connections between brain areas.

Although it you may think that synesthesiacs (those who experience synesthesia) are at a disadvantage, in fact the ability to link multiple sensory experiences together actually greatly improves your ability to remember things. Thus, synesthesiacs typically are able to form long-lasting memories with relative ease.

If you want to watch a great Ted-Ed video on synesthesia, please view it below (or click here).

Getting High Throughout HIstory

Hi all! Great class today! As you know, in class I talked a bit about some of the pharmcological
agents people use/have used to ameliorate discomfort, such as magic mushrooms, weed, and even nutmeg. However, if you want to know more about the history of pharmacology, I recommend that you check out this link.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks,
Dr. Stratford

Half-brained takes on a whole new meaning...

Greetings! Sorry for the brief post, but I'm mired in test preparation. I spoke briefly in class about a women who has lived her entire life without a cerebellum.

If you want read more, check out these links (sorry that one of them is an AOL article):

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329861.900-woman-of-24-found-to-have-no-cerebellum-in-her-brain.html#.VBGPCvldU60


http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/12/woman-found-to-be-missing-an-important-portion-of-her-brain/20961523/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing9%7Cdl10%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D528529

Cheers!

Close Encounters of a Movie Kind

Hello Budding Behavioral Neuroscientists! Do you ever feel like a mindless zombie when you leave a movie theater? Although I don't have time to write to a full-on blog post this week, I thought you may like to hear about what happens to your brain when you watch a movie in the theater. As we learned in class, one way to visualize brain activity in awake, behaving humans is with fMRI
(functional magnetic resonance imaging).

Researchers at Princeton university recorded brain activity while subjects watched a movie, and found that several brain areas appear to 'sync up.' However, the effect doesn't happen with all movies ('structured' movies are better at syncing). Perhaps as a precursor to mind control, movie studio executives should screen test all their movies with the audience sitting in fMRIs! If you want to know more, please click here.

What Dead Salmon Tell Us About Statistics

Greetings Students of Science!

In class, we discussed the importance of using the appropriate statistical analyses and controls, but it may surprise you to find out that using a dead salmon in a research study can actually lead to a scientific revolution!

In 2010, a study published in the 'Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results' (yes, that is a real scientific journal) showed how important it is to properly analyze your data. In their study, Bennett et al. put a dead salmon in an fMRI machine, showed the salmon a serious of visual images, and then analyzed the fMRI results in several different ways. Typically, fMRI data is analyzed by comparing changes in blood flow
between up to 130,000 different subareas of the brain (called voxels). However, all the different comparisons made exponentially increases the chance of finding a false positive result (e.g. a significant result when there isn't one). While most fMRI researchers correct for these multiple comparisons, at the time that Bennett et al. did their study, some fMRI researchers did not.

Dead Salmon 'brain activation.' Image courtesy of
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-brain/2012/09/25/
ignobel-prize-in-neuroscience-the-dead-salmon-study/

To address this issue, Bennett et al., analyzed their fMRI-dead-salmon data in two different ways (either controlling for multiple comparisons, or not). The authors found that when their data were analyzed without correcting to the use of multiple comparisons, the dead salmon's brain showed significant activation in response to various visual stimuli. Surprisingly, the reaction from the scientific community was mostly positive, and encouraged many researchers to rethink the way they analyzed their data.

If you want to read more about this 'fishy' tale, please click here.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from ????

Hello fellow neuroscientists. This week we will review the cells of the nervous system, and the structure and function of various parts of the brain. Did you know that very little is known about how the brains of men and women differ at a cellular or molecular level? Its true! For years, researchers shied away from using female subjects because, as one scientists said to me, 'why would you want to have all those hormones muck things up?'

Unfortunately, this oversight may have severe consequences. We know that men and women metabolize some medications differently (ex. this). What about our brains? How do the brains of men and women differ? This question isn't purely philosophical, as it has important implications for the treatment of diseases in men vs. women. Luckily, scientists are now beginning to recognize the importance of using females in basic science research. In fact, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)  now requires that animals of both sexes must be used in all new scientific research (you can read about the new NIH initiative here). Not to be cliché, but only time will tell whether this new scientific direction provides invaluable insights.