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Posts Tagged ‘Neural network’

Genomic solutions for really big computational problems

Posted in Mindfulness, Visual cortex, tagged , , , on June 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Pity the poor brain.  What a job it has!  Did you know that just to reach into a refrigerator and grab a glass of milk, involves at least 50 or so key muscles in the hand, arm and shoulder which can, in principle, lead to over 1,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations of muscle contractions?  [...]

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Sit quietly (with your genome) and discover yourself

Posted in default network, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia This past friday, I attended my first meditation session at my new yoga school.  I love this school and hope – someday – to make it through the full Ashtanga series and other sequences the instructors do.  In the meantime, I found myself sitting on my folded up blanket, letting my mind [...]

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Genes in the brain are like genes in muscles

Posted in Basal Ganglia, Caudate nucleus, DAT, Dopamine, Putamen, Substantia nigra, Subthalamic nucleus, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Image by theloushe via Flickr ** PODCAST accompanies this post** I have a little boy who loves to run and jump and scream and shout – a lot.  And by this, I mean running – at full speed and smashing his head into my gut,  jumping – off the couch onto my head,  screaming – [...]

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RARB says I was born when my late born striosomal cells were born

Posted in Basal Ganglia, RARB, Striatum, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Everyone has a birthday right. Its the day you (your infant self) popped into the world and started breathing, right?  But what about the day “you” were born – that is – “you” in the more philosophical, Jungian, spiritual, social, etc. kind of a way when you became aware of being in [...]

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rs4680 helps me tonically ponder the Burger King menu and phasically choose the least healthy items

Posted in COMT, Cingulate cortex, Frontal cortex, Hippocampus, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

One of the complexities in beginning to understand how genetic variation relates to cognitive function and behavior is that – unfortunately – there is no gene for “personality”, “anxiety”, “memory” or any other type of “this” or “that” trait.  Most genes are expressed rather broadly across the entire brain’s cortical layers and subcortical systems.  So, [...]

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31,000 blind people and an elephant?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »

In 13th century India,  the story was originally told of a group of blind men (or men in the dark) who touch an elephant to learn what it is like.  Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk.  They then compare notes on what they felt, [...]

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Too much yin and not enough yang in cortical networks of MeCP2 mutant mice

Posted in MECP2, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia In previous posts, we have explored some of the basic molecular (de-repression of chromatin structure) and cellular (excess synaptogenesis) consequences of mutations in the MeCP2 gene – a.k.a the gene whose loss of function gives rise to Rett syndrome.  One of the more difficult aspects of understanding how a mutation in a [...]

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echoblog: understanding how neuromodulator (genes) help the brain compute

Posted in 5HTT, Dopamine, Noradrenaline, acetylcholine, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by jurvetson via Flickr pointer to: Computational Models of Basal Ganglia Function where Kenji Doya provides computational explanations for neuromodulators and their role in reinforcement learning. In his words, “Dopamine encodes the temporal difference error — the reward learning signal. Acetylcholine affects learning rate through memory updates of actions and rewards. Noradrenaline controls width [...]

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Epigenetic puppetmasters pull strings of cognitive development from a safe distance

Posted in HDACs, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Image by eugene via Flickr The homunculus (argument) is a pesky problem in cognitive science – a little guy who might suddenly appear when you propose a mechanism for decision making, spontaneous action or forethought  etc. – and would take credit for the origination of the neural impulse.  While there are many mechanistic models of [...]

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