Questions tagged [neuroscience]
For questions on the structure and function of the nervous system.
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How to calculate Fano Factor for spike train data?
I've heard this used many times but never had to do it myself. How does one calculate Fano Factor (FF) for spike train data?
Let's say that you have for some neuron the spike count in a certain time ...
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1answer
35 views
What are the differences between bipolar channels and monopolar channels for EEG?
In EEG, each electrode records a biopotential which must be compared to a reference biopotential in order to obtain a channel of measurement. Two types of channels are the so-called bipolar channels ...
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23 views
Does all motivation and desire originate in the limbic system?
My current understanding is that subcortical structures in the limbic system determine what we desire, and that the prefrontal cortex is essentially an uncaring tool utilized by the limbic system to ...
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1answer
12 views
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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60 views
How is sexual arousal different in men and women?
I was watching ASAPScience video on the Male vs Female Orgasms.
At 1:45 they say that PET scans of brain show that arousal of men and women are different.
How exactly are these different, as in what ...
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1answer
36 views
Is there any evidence that some people who claim to see auras around persons actually see them?
I have found that seeing "auras" is used for diagnosis of some neuropathologies. However, I wasn't able to find evidence that some people truly see what is colloqially known as auras. Is ...
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1answer
23 views
What is the difference between brain parcellation and brain segmentation? (question based on Freesurfer)
What is the difference between brain parcellation and brain segmentation? (question based on Freesurfer that produces parcellation volume and segmentation volume measures)
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26 views
How do humans remember information?
When conversing, I often find myself using words or conveying ideas that I wasn't aware that I knew, nor whether these words/ideas were actually relevant to the conversation. It is only after googling ...
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1answer
31 views
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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1answer
33 views
What psychological indicator activates the parasympathetic nervous system after fight/flight response?
I am new to neuroscience study and read recently about the brain's ability to balance parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system to achieve homeostasis following stressful stimuli.
From my ...
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1answer
189 views
How does the chemical structure of a drug determine potency?
I'm rather new to neuropharmacology, and I am particularly interested in why some psychotropic medications are more potent than others despite being in the same category of one another, (i.e.: ...
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1answer
54 views
How is the memory compressed when moving from the hippocampus to the PFC?
I have recently been intrigued by memory. I found that the hippocampus stores new memories.
In sleep, the newly formed memories are moved to the neocortex.
I was curious about how this transition ...
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21 views
What is the purpose of having both a ground electrode and a reference electrode in EEG setups?
In almost all electroencephalography (EEG) recording setups, there are two auxiliary electrodes in addition to the ones used to record: the ground electrode and the reference electrode.
I've so far ...
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1answer
18 views
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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88 views
"Reverse Tolerance" Hypothetical
Let me use Caffeine as an example for this question, because it's a classically understood case of drug tolerance.
Caffeine is an adenosine antagonist; it works by blocking the adenosine receptors in ...
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0answers
28 views
Do the brains of experts show less neural activity at a task when compared to novices?
I recently came across this article, where the writer says that it is commonly assumed among researchers that the brains of experts show less neural activity than those of novices, at the task that ...
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22 views
On Hebbian learning rule's weight update
I'm trying to program a Hebbian learning rule for a simple fully connected deep neural network (DNN), which is structured as:
$$z_i = W_iy_{i-1}+b_i$$
and
$$y_i = g(z_i)$$
Based on Hebbian learning ...
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1answer
125 views
How do "ideas" or "concepts" appear in the brain?
I'm new to neuroscience and psychology and recently learned about Hubel & Wiesel cat experiment where "some neurons fired rapidly when presented with lines at one angle, while others ...
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36 views
how do the neurons get stronger physically? [closed]
I wanna know about the possibility of simulating the brain state physically to know about the possibility of getting an answer for (free will or random will) vs determinism in the future.
so for the ...
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1answer
28 views
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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0answers
22 views
At what point do dopamine/serotonin receptors become downregulated/upregulated?
It's well known that behaviors like pornography viewing lead to dopamine receptor downregulation to compensate for the extreme stimulation. Obviously, drugs like methamphetamine would lead to an even ...
2
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1answer
34 views
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 ...
2
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1answer
29 views
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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1answer
40 views
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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1answer
121 views
Is there a theoretical maximum for IQ?
In "Eugenics: A Reassessment" Richard Lynn writes:
The intelligence level of the population would be expected to stabilize at its theoretical maximum of around 200 after six or seven ...
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1answer
41 views
Does the brain send signals continuously to muscles during movement?
If I make one swift movement with my arm, like just raising it, is my brain continuously sending signals throughout the whole movement? Or does it just send signals one time? The latter seems to make ...
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1answer
55 views
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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21 views
Does the increase (i.e. more positive) of an equilibrium potential always cause the membrane potential to increase (i.e. the cell depolarizes)?
I am a little bit confused. I know that for potassium, when less ions are going down the concentration gradient, Ek increases and the neuron becomes depolarized. However, I am also aware that if Ena ...
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0answers
39 views
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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1answer
17 views
What is the meanning of an x-expressing neuron, with x = some protein?
I'm studying a neuroscientific paper, and in it the authors state that "defensive behaviors are mediated by a BLA population of magnocellular R-spondin 2-expressing (RSPO2⁺) neurons".
I know ...
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0answers
57 views
What part of the brain is different when you have a really good memory?
I wanted to know how the brain of someone with a great memory differs from that of an average memory. This memory does not have to be eidetic, or highly superior autographical or even hyperthymesia. ...
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0answers
25 views
What is meant by the so often heard phrase that we only use 12% of the brain?
I have heard it so often that we use only 12% of our brain. I truly don't understand this. All neurons in the brain are are firing within a small amount of time. Even in my sleep this is going on.
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1answer
77 views
What's the exact definition of a cognitive mechanism?
I've been trying to get to a specific definition of a cognitive mechanism, but googling it surprisingly didn't give me anything. The only things I've found out are :
How to know if something can be ...
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40 views
Difference in neural activity of a thought vs. a memory
I want to understand the difference in neural activity between a "thought" and a "memory impression". Is it a "thought" while the neural activity is present in working ...
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1answer
151 views
What is the difference between the processing of visual information and auditory information?
We can read:
The visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe of the brain and is primarily responsible for interpreting and processing visual information received from the eyes. The amount of ...
3
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2answers
129 views
Why is it only positive charge that gets injected into a neuron when we inject a current into it?
Learning about the basics of theoretical neuroscience from the youtube lectures from Michale Fee's introduction to neural computation course.
We're considering a very simplified model of a neuron, ...
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0answers
53 views
How is the brain divided in parts?
Now I can imagine the body being separated in parts. There is the liver, the bones, the skin, the eyes, the kidneys, the feet, the legs, or the brain.
All these sub-units work together coherently and ...
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1answer
75 views
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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29 views
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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0answers
34 views
From a neuroscientific point of view does internet gaming disorder have the same effect on the brain as porn addiction?
Wang, et al. (2015) proved that among people with internet gaming disorder GMV (Gray Matter Volume) of the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), precuneus, supplementary motor area (SMA), ...
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1answer
75 views
Lunar cycles linked with mental health issues?
From what I can find...
Anecdotally, my mother used to work in nursing homes for the elderly and found that around the full moon, patients slept less and were more agitated.
Anecdotal evidence ...
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1answer
23 views
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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1answer
30 views
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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1answer
24 views
What is the actual interpretation of the "correlation of a connection between neurons"?
I am student of Mathematics who is currently studying the utility of Algebraic Topology in the field of Neuroscience. In the paper I am reading (Reimann et al 2017) the authors explain that for ...
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1answer
86 views
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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0answers
19 views
How much credence can you give to human cognitive studies using mice?
This question is concerning the question, How does the brain’s visual memory work? and the Neuroscience News (2020) article linked in an answer, talking about false memories.
I have discussed false ...
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1answer
63 views
Neurologically, how does a thought terminate?
What prevents my brain from holding the same thought forever, like a frozen computer?
How do neurons terminate a firing pattern and move onto the next?
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16 views
Do people with sociopathy, neuroticism need medical attention?
Do people with sociopathy, neuroticism need medical attention? I thought people with dark traits don't need medication unless it causes them to have problem functioning in society like working with ...
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1answer
52 views
Does being sporty affect a person's reaction to emergency situations?
I have always been quite sporty, and I tend to remain relatively calm and composed in emergency or high stress situations. From my personal experience, people who are quite sporty and have been in ...
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1answer
49 views
What scientific evidence is there for the definable real world quality of redness independent our perception?
'With light poise and counter-poise, Nature oscillates within prescribed limits. Yet thus all arise the varieties and conditions of the phenomena which are present to us in space and time.' - Goethe
...
