Questions tagged [neurophysiology]
The study of the physiology of the nervous system, with emphasis on transcellular communication, and cellular and molecular processes involved in neural communication.
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Why can't MEG distinguish EPSPs and IPSPs?
I see this fact stated in many places that discuss the basis of the MEG signal but it's never been made completely clear why MEG can't distinguish IPSPs and EPSPs. Please could someone elaborate?
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Effect of number of post-synaptic neurons, and of inhibitory neuron/synapse, on post-synaptic neuron potential
I need to know which of the following statements are correct, if any:
1)
[pre]------>[post]
Single postsynaptic neuron: when [pre] fires, [post] fires, too (a ...
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Evolutionary explanation for the neural structures generating representations (visual subset) [duplicate]
From my interpretation of the descriptions of individuals with specific types of brain damage (see the example in the next paragraph), it seems that in some cases part of the movie of consciousness ...
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What does the current literature say on the relationship of psychedelic drugs and neuroplasticity?
The majority of my understanding of the current literature comes from this paper found in Nature.
The purpose of the paper is to examine "specific questions about the effects of psychedelics on ...
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Are there any papers on the neurobiology/ neuroscience of hyper-industriousness?
I'm quite intrigued by this topic, and, unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any interesting papers on the subject...More specifically, I'd like to know more about the mechanisms that regulate ...
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Averaging across electrodes in P300 to make a figure
I have a dataset in which we expect to evoke P300 peaks in an oddball setting. My part of the project considers building a machine learning model to classify whether a participant saw a relevant ...
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At what rate and to what extent do metabolic waste products from neurons diffuse throughout the brain?
At what rate and to what extent do metabolic waste products from neurons diffuse throughout the brain?
Do the metabolic waste products remain local to the neurons being used, or do those waste ...
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Do neurons have any cognition-related continuous-domain effects on other cells?
While the inputs and operation of neurons appears to be a rather continuous and complicated process, the output of a neuron is typically thought of as a "spike." This is a highly discrete ...
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Correlation of Gene Expression with Dynamic Imaging Phenotypes
I've been researching the process of performing a spatial correlation between gene expression in the brain and particular imaging phenotypes such as structural white matter connectivity. My research ...
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What happens to your body when overcoming side effects of SSRIs?
When you start taking SSRIs your body experiences side effects like vomiting, headaches, diarrhea etc.
Apparently these side effects go away after regular consumption.
What happens inside your body to ...
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Gene Expression Database for Psychological Disorders
Is there a comprehensive database available online of gene expression across the brain taken from individuals with psychological conditions? Resources like the Allen Institute's Human Brain Map (link ...
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What are the biological reasons for hearing loss?
I recently stumbled upon an interesting online hearing test on YouTube, and it got me thinking about the root causes of hearing loss. I'm curious about the main contributing factors behind the loss of ...
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Is there a complete overview and classification of all Probabilistic Neuronal Codes (PPC)?
I am trying to gather an explicit and complete overview of so-called Probabilistic Neuronal Codes (PPC). I have found various PPC models from literature, but have difficulties having them classified, ...
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Does the Nernst equilibrium in a neuron for a specific ion represent the potential voltage that would be needed to bring the net to 0?
I am learning about the Nernst equilibrium in a neuron (along with the Goldman equation), and while I understand certain concepts individually, I struggle to bring it all together. The Nernst ...
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Why are there receptors inside neural cells?
Reading a recent article which argues on why psychedelic substances are more effective than the naturally occurring neurotransmitters in the brain:
*Breakthrough study discovers that psychedelics ...
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Literature reviews on nerve conduction velocity?
The Wikipedia article for nerve conduction velocity is frustrating because it lacks citations. What is a good survey or overview of the research on nerve conduction velocity?
I'm particularly ...
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What is Cortisols role in a chronically activated fight-flight-freeze response?
It is my current understanding that cortisol is released 20-30 minutes after the initial release of adrenaline to a stressor if the stressor has not been dealt with. (Source: '20 - 30 minutes' and 'a ...
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What happens to the endplate potentials on the muscle fibre when the firing frequency of the motoneuron decreases?
A multiple choice question I came across which confused me a little. The options were:
A)The amplitude decreases
B)The duration decreases
C)The frequency decreases
I know that the force of contraction ...
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Are there open data for long-term potentiation/depression experiments?
The following is Figure 8.2 from Dayan & Abbott (2001), p. 292:
It describes the phenomenon of long-term potentiation/depression (LTP/LTD): Change in synaptic strength (y-axis) is inversely ...
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What is the difference between "electrode" and "pad" on extracellular probes?
Some authors seem to use these terms interchangeably, others distinctly.
What is a pad? How is it different from an electrode? Is a pad where stimulation can happen? Can recording also happen at a pad?...
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Is sprouting an example of an axonal or dendritic mechanism of synaptic plasticity?
Hi I am having trouble wrapping my head around the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity which include
Sprouting
Rerouting
Pruning
I have read conflicting sources of information, some suggesting that ...
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How do hair cells recognize frequencies?
I read that "a neuron can fire up to 1000 all-or-none impulses/sec" 1. But the hair cells in our ears are trimmed to recognize frequencies up to 20 kHz.
How can a hair cell detect a ...
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Are all synapses "gappy", and what exactly is in the gap?
First, although I was always taught that the axon and a dendrite were separated by a synaptic gap of about 20 to 40 nm, I recently saw a reference I've since lost that seemed to suggest we've found ...
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Can disease, drugs, or other physiological conditions violate the all-or-none rule for action potential?
We are taught that the amplitude of a neuron's spike is always the same (within a negligibly small range)--all or none. But it seems that anomalous physiological conditions like certain diseases or ...
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Why do SSRIs take multiple weeks to reach their full effect?
What is it about SSRIs that they require 2-4 weeks for their long-term effect to become present?
Is this the result of small accumulations over time in some aspect of the brain?
Are there other ...
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How can someone enjoy something without dopamine?
In this video, Andrew Huberman says people and even animals with depleted dopamine levels can still enjoy stuff.
How does one enjoy without dopamine? Isn't it the pleasure chemical?
Can serotonin, ...
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What does it mean if a neuron is "expressing" something?
Sorry for the simple question, not a neuroscientist just trying to understand a paper for school. In a study with mice, there was 2-photon calcium imaging done, and part of it read:
We used single- ...
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Changes to the brain regions due to PTSD
I mentiond in my other question today (Changes to the amygdala due to PTSD) that the one thing I have often heard regarding changes in the brain due to trauma and PTSD is that the amygdala is enlarged ...
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Changes to the amygdala due to PTSD
The one thing I have often heard regarding changes in the brain due to trauma and PTSD is that the amygdala is enlarged (e.g. Kuo et al, 2012). This is understandable considering the amygdala is ...
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In pyramidal neurons, are there any differences (morphological or otherwise) between the basal synapses and proximal synapses on the apical tuft?
In pyramidal neurons, are there any differences (morphological or otherwise) between the basal synapses and proximal synapses on the apical tuft ? As far as I know, they both have dendritic spines, ...
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Why are there different neurotransmitters in central nervous system?
If an effect of binding the neurotransmitter depends on the receptor type, not the neurotransmitter itself, then why don't we have just one neurotransmitter and many different receptors?
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Why are synapses that are connected to co-transmitting presynaptic vesicles uniformly distributed on the postsynaptic neuron?
This paper on functional implications of co-release and co-transmission says that "Consistent with a co-transmission phenotype, cholinergic synapses are uniformly distributed on the postsynaptic ...
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Is thermoception part of the sense of touch in the 5 human senses or is it a 6th separate sense?
In an answer provided by DavidCian, it is mentioned that thermoception is separate to the 5 human bodily senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste). Yet, I would have thought it would be part of ...
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Are centre-surround antagonism and lateral inhibition synonyms?
On Wikipedia, there is one page for centre-surround antagonism and one for lateral inhibition. They both concern the activity of a neuron being reduced by stimuli present not in the center of its ...
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where is the second electrode in case of electrostimulation
With electrostimulation or functional electrostimulation, a response from the neuron is generated by electrical impulses.
But I always read, for example, that a stimulating electrode is above position ...
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How do the outer hair cells amplify the traveling wave?
Depending on the movement frequency, outer hair cells can stretch and contract, amplifying the amplitude of the traveling wave at the basilar membrane.
How can they do this exactly? what is the point ...
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What are the advantages of biphasic nerve stimulation?
One can stimulate nerves or muscle cells in different ways - with single-phase or multiphase pulses, cathodic or anodic, and via surface electrodes or implanted ones.
What exactly is the advantage of ...
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Deflection of the basilar membrane
The basilar membrane becomes thicker and heavier from the basal end to the apical upper end - this is why high frequencies are perceived in the lower range and low frequencies in the upper range.
But ...
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Understanding ketamine, the role of synatptic placitity in Major Depression
I am having a bit of an issue with my intuitive understanding of Ketamine's newfound role in treating depression. It is my understanding that Ketamine works by allowing synaptogenesis. The evidence ...
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Do induced brain wave patterns give the same cognitive and perceptual consequences as those that arise naturally? [duplicate]
What I mean to ask by this particular question is that, are the effects resulting from neural interactions in the brain that cause the emergence of certain behaviours, with the neural frequencies in ...
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What are the values of the absolute intracellular and absolute extracellular potentials in a neuron?
Most texts on neurons give the value of the membrane potential and do not state the absolute values of the intracellular and extracellular potentials in a neuron. I understand that this is because the ...
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What is the cochlear frequency response by number of hair cells?
I am trying to recreate the cochlea/basilar membrane response to sound and want to know how the hair cells are bucketed or binned by frequency, so an ideal list would be something like 10 kHz - 12 kHz:...
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What is the size limit of molecules entering the intracellular sections of a neuron?
As voltage sensitive organic dyes enter the inside of neurons and quantum dots are seeking to replace these due to their higher quantum yield, I was wondering what the seize limit is, as quantum dot ...
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Does the sensation of pain arise in the brain? [duplicate]
I can feel pain in my arm or in my brain.
I have read that you can feel a phantom pain. As if the pain exists outside the body. There is a related process in the brain but the feeling itself seems to ...
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Are there equivalent calcium imaging molecules that fluoresce in the presence of neurotransmitters between axons?
Molecules like GCaMP fluoresce when calcium ions attach to them. I was wondering if this can work with the other neurotransmitters in the brain or compounds that transmit signals outside of neurons.
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How close are fluorescent dyes to individual neurons in two photon microscopy?
Considering the minute electrical excitation produced by neural cells needed to excite fluorescent dyes, how close are they to these cells, considering that being too close will disrupt cell processes....
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What is the neurobiological mechanism behind masochism?
I tried to search in textbooks and papers but barely found any concrete answer to which exact mechanism is behind non-intuitive transition from pain to pleasure.
Does it have something to do with:
...
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What comes first? Thought or electric activity?
Our thoughts are basically the result of the electro chemical activity which are happening in our neurons. The signals sent by different neurons to each other back and forth create a pattern which we ...
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What is "required reading" in training that describe mechanisms behind learning?
I've previously studied spiking neural networks in the context of machine learning applications and I'm interested in gaining a better understanding of the biology of the brain. My goal is to ...
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Can some stimulants take the place of others?
I learned in class recently that neuroreceptors can cause different chemical changes in the brain and nervous system. I was told that stimulants increase heart rate and awareness, which got me ...