Am I Hallucin(8)ing?

Hallucinations are one of the most misunderstood and interesting psychiatric phenomena presently known today. While there are certain drugs known to induce hallucinations, using them on animals to explore the drugs' effects--as is done with many pharmaceuticals--is nearly impossible (if only mice would learn English...).

In light of this, Jan Dirk Blom recently published an entire dictionary of hallucinations (rightly called A Dictionary of Hallucinations). What makes it even better is that you can download it for free here!

So next time you have any questions about that pink elephant in the corner, look no further than your readily available (because who wouldn't print out all 553 pages and transform it into a pocket-sized tome?) Dictionary of Hallucinations. FYI-pink elephants are a type of hallucination called zoopsias.

Upcoming event!

For those of you who are interested, Dr. Roy Hamilton, a neurologist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, is coming to speak on Monday January 31st at 5 PM in JMHH F45 for the Neuroscience Society at Penn.

Social Agression in a Single Gene!

Imprinting is an interesting genetic phenomenon where one parental allele at a certain gene is preferntially expressed over another. For instance, in one gene the maternal copy inherited might be expressed while the paternal copy is silenced. In an article published in Nature today, researchers identified an imprinted gene that affects social behavior in mice. The gene Grb10 is normally paternally expressed and encodes a protein that interacts in different signaling pathways. When the paternal copy of the gene is knocked out, researchers found that the mice exhibted increased social agression and dominance behaviors.

The evolution of imprinting is thought be a result of conflict between parents; sometimes a male parent will have different goals for his offspring than the female parents. This gene's pattern of expression may be a survival strategy: over or under express to create a wide variety of offspring that will fit into different social niches, as a New York Times article suggests.

upcoming seminars!

Here are a few upcoming lectures on various areas of neuroscience. For anyone who attends a lecture: if you are interested in writing about the things you learned to post on Brainstorm, please email Rachel at rachem@sas.upenn.edu . Enjoy!


MINS - Elliott Lecture
Thursday, Jan 27
Helen Mayberg, M.D., FRCP, Psychiatry-Neurology, Emory University
Deep Brain Stimulation: What can it teach us about the pathophysiology of depression?12 noon,BRB II/III Auditorium
IRCS/Computational Neuroscience
Friday, Jan 28
Peter Dayan, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, London
Computational Psychiatry: When Good Decisions Go Bad
12 noon, 3401 Walnut St, Ste 400A

Vision Seminar
Monday, Jan 31
Maarten Kamermans, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Unconventional Inhibition in the outer retina--mechanism and function12:15 pm, Barchi Library (140 John Morgan Bldg)

Treatment Research Center
Monday, Jan 31Laura Peoples, Ph.D., UPenn, Dept of Psychology Progressive and persistent increases in accumbal neuronal responses to nicotine- and cocaine-predictive events
3 pm, 3900 Chestnut St, Main Conf Rm

Center for Neuroscience & Society Public Talk Series
Thursday, Feb 3
Alan Leshner, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, American Association for the Advancement of Science and Executive Publisher of the journal Science
Title: The Evolving Context for Neuroscience and Society
Location: Ben Franklin Room, Houston Hall (3417 Spruce)
Time: 4-5:30 pm


Neuroscience of Obesity Special Seminar
Joint sponsored by SOVM Neuroscience Center and IDOM
Tuesday, Feb 15
Greg Barsh, MD, PhD, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology; Dept of Genetics Stanford
Genetics of color variation: Model systems & model organisms in a post-genome world
4 pm, 2011 Hill 131 Aud

Movie Night Part 2!

Last semester's showing of The Prestige was a great success! Now we want some input...What movie would you like to see for this semester's BBB Movie Night? Any good professor you'd like to hear speak about the movie? Comment to let us know!

Penn Speaks for Autism

Penn Speaks for Autism

GBM Monday, January 24^th @ 7:00pm

Steinberg-Dietrich 204

Executive board positions available, especially for freshmen and sophomores!

Pennspeaksforautism@gmail.com

Social Animal

I know this article may be a little bit long but if you read one thing all day, it should be this. It is incredibly well written and ties tidbits of science research to everyday life. The author tells a story that I think everyone can relate to in some ways..

Anyways, its titled "Social Animal- How the new sciences of human nature can help make sense of a life" and is written by David Brooks.

Here's one of my favorite (though not necessarily characteristic) quotes from the piece:

"...We inherit a great river of knowledge, a flow of patterns coming from many sources. The information that comes from deep in the evolutionary past we call genetics. The information passed along from hundreds of years ago we call culture. The information passed along from decades ago we call family, and the information offered months ago we call education. But it is all information that flows through us."

Question Everything, Including Yourself (and your study habits)

It's the beginning of a new semester, and you're ready for a fresh start. In my case, a fresh start that involves doing the least amount of work in the most efficient way possible, but I digress. If you're shopping for the latest and greatest study fad to try out, look no further. This interesting approach is easy, relatively painless and much more effective than "my dog ate my homework" (or these actual exam answers).

According to an article recently published in Science, students who studied using only practice tests (i.e. memory retrieval) retained up to 50% more information than those using concept mapping (integrative diagrams) or repetitive memorization!

By practicing retrieval, students can apparently better prepare themselves for the actual test-taking experience while being made aware of what they should study more. That is, by seeing what they get wrong on the practice tests, students will know what they should learn in more extensive detail.

Ironically enough, though the students using the retrieval method outperformed the two other groups, they predicted they'd remember the least amount of information come exam day. This is probably because the students using repetition and concept mapping never actually asked themselves what they knew without having direct access to the information (as is done in the retrieval method); thus, they felt they knew more than they actually did.

So in the end, school is no different than any sport, instrument or video game (Super Mario Bros. 3, anyone?): practice makes perfect.

Hahaha....Aha!

I am the first to admit that when I am confronted with a problem that has not yet been solved, I become obsessed. Anything from riddles, to sudoku, to rubik’s cubes, to crossword puzzles, and even homework problems (well…sometimes) have the ability to grab my attention to such an extent that I can’t let go until I am successful. So what provides the incentive to partake in these tedious conundrums? While dopamine may play a role in the feelings of reward upon the completion of such puzzles, research suggests that the mere idea of trying to solve a puzzle shifts the brain into a different state- one that is playful, creative, and open- providing a pleasant escape, calling on not only intellect, but also creativity to find a solution. The longer a puzzle goes unsolved, the more taunting it becomes, until finally there is a spark. This “sudden insight” may be due to the recognition of subtle environmental cues by the brain, while it is in such a creative state, that are not otherwise picked up. “Creative problem solving requires both analysis and out of the box insight, which may be devoted to two entirely different states,” says Adam Anderson, a psychologist at the University of Toronto. A recent study from Northwestern University has found that humor may help us to better achieve this creative condition, flickering on that proverbial light bulb, and helping us pull together pieces of a previously unconnected puzzle. “What we think is happening is that the positive mood of humor lowers the brain’s threshold for detecting weaker or more remote connections to solve puzzles,” said Mark Beeman, a neuroscientist who conducted the study. With a positive mood, sudden insight tends to be the modus operandi as opposed to trial and error, suggesting that the state one is in prior to solving a puzzle really does have an effect on one’s efficiency in doing so. The anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain involved with selective attention, shows the most activity during problem solving. Surprisingly, the brain seems to widen its attentional capacity in evoking that “Aha!” moment, becoming more prone to distraction, but simultaneously more aware of the usually overlooked background cues hinting at a particular solution. Findings imply that a positive mood helps to set one in this broader state of attention, so that one is physically taking in more information, henceforth more clues to solving the problem.

So before your next exam, watch some funny clips or a comedy skit online to put yourself in a positive mood. It may not only relieve anxiety, but also help you to become a more creative thinker when getting through the exam.

Try it out for yourself right now! There are some interactive features linked in the margin of the article to test your problem solving ability. Click here.