SEMCIÊNCIA

Suponha que existam dois modelos: um modelo detalhado, biofisicamente realista, de uma rede neural sem glias, e uma modelo simplificado, onde os neuronios são representados por elementos excitáveis, porém onde os Astrócitos e Oligodendrócitos também sejam representados por elementos dinâmicos simples.  Qual dos dois modelos é mais realista biologicamente? Depression and Glia Posted on  07/19/2010  by scicurious Sadly, Sci’s home laptop died another little death last night. While Le Petit Mort might indeed feel great to my laptop, the sudden loss of function was pretty rough on Sci. While Mr. S attempts to work his super magic on the issue, Sci’s post for today comes to you via Ruby, Sci’s intrepid little netbook. Everyone wave hello to Ruby, and hope she can keep herself together long enough to get this thing written. What this also means is that Sci will be unable to provide any interesting pictures until she is capable of getting to her other computer in the AM. She will do her best ...

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.02.005 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. Permissions & Reprints Review Scaling laws in cognitive sciences Christopher T. Kello1, , Gordon D.A. Brown2, Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho3, John G. Holden4, Klaus Linkenkaer-Hansen5, Theo Rhodes1 and Guy C. Van Orden4 1 Cognitive and Information Sciences University of California , Merced, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA 2 Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom 3 Department de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informatics, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Campus Nord, Edifici Omega, Jordi Girona Salgado 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 4 Center for Perception, Action and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 210376, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0376, USA 5 Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands Available online 1 Apri...

Socioeconomic gradients in autism cases may not be self-selected JULY 13, 2010 tags:  research blogging ,  personal stuff ,  autism ,  public health by EcoPhysioMichelle Throughout my life, I’ve often been told (usually by way of consolation) that autistic children are born to intelligent families. One of my two younger brothers has severe autism. I was very young when he was diagnosed, and for a while he was treated as though he had a speech and language disorder. If I had to guess, I would say that he was diagnosed around the age of 5-6. The earliest warning sign was that he didn’t start talking at the stage in development where that usually happens. While my brother is still fond of social interaction, his main symptom to this day (he’s now 23) remains an inability to carry a conversation. He uses language in a very crude manner, only stringing together 2-3 words at a time. “Go potty.” “All done.” “Hungry.” I have lots of feelings  on this subject (believe me), but that’s not the po...

Fiz um update no artigo, mas precisa revisar e atualizar a bibliografia: Dreams, endocannabinoids and itinerant dynamics in neural networks: re elaborating Crick-Mitchison unlearning hypothesis Osame Kinouchi ,  Renato Rodrigues Kinouchi (Submitted on 30 Aug 2002 ( v1 ), last revised 12 Jul 2010 (this version, v3)) In this work we reevaluate and elaborate Crick-Mitchison's proposal that REM-sleep corresponds to a self-organized process for unlearning attractors in neural networks. This reformulation is made at the face of recent findings concerning the intense activation of the amygdalar complex during REM-sleep, the role of endocannabinoids in synaptic weakening and neural network models with itinerant associative dynamics. We distinguish between a neurological REM-sleep function and a related evolutionary/behavioral dreaming function. At the neurological level, we propose that REM-sleep regulates excessive plasticity and weakens over stable brain activation patterns, specially in...

DA NEW SCIENTIST Cientistas descobriram um gene que aparentemente dita as preferências sexuais de fêmeas de camundongo. Se o gene for deletado, o fêmea resultante rejeita as investidas dos machos e, em vez disso, busca se relacionar com outras fêmeas Embora seja impossível dizer se a descoberta possui relevância para a sexualidade humana, ela fornece uma pista de como a sexualidade se desenvolve em mamíferos. Chankyu Park e companhia no Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia Avançados da Coreia, em Daejon, Coreia do Sul, retiraram o gene FucM de embriões de camundongos para averiguar seus efeitos no comportamento. Fêmeas sem o gene evitaram as tentativas de acasalamento dos macho, pararam de cheirar a urina de machos e tentaram se acasalar com outras fêmeas. A habilidade reprodutiva, no entanto, não foi afetada. O gene deletado codifica uma enzima chamada fucose mutarotase, que adiciona o açúcar fucose a proteínas. Park acredita que a desativação do gene expõe a uma dose extra de estrogênio...

Miguel Nicolelis: “Sinto-me decepcionado” Publicação: 11 de Julho de 2010 às 00:00 imprimir comentar enviar por e-email reportar erros compartilhar tamanho do texto   A+   A- O cientista brasileiro, Miguel Nicolelis, de 49 anos, é considerado um dos maiores pesquisadores do planeta na área de neurociências e, por diversas vezes, lembrado para o Prêmio Nobel. Ele lidera pesquisas que podem, por exemplo, representar avanços históricos no tratamento do Mal de Parkinson e implantou em Natal um Instituto Internacional de Neurociências (IINN), que já captou investimentos superiores a R$ 100 milhões e que pretende ser a semente da futura “Cidade do Cérebro”, uma estrutura científica, cultural, econômica e social estimada em mais de R$ 1 bilhão. Não faltam, portanto, motivos para estímulo na carreira de Nicolelis. No entanto, ele revela uma decepção: desde a instalação do IINN, há sete anos, o Instituto nunca recebeu o apoio devido dos poderes públicos estadual e municipal, nem dos políticos p...

Sinister Bias for Calling Fouls in Soccer Article Metrics Related Content Comments: 0 To add a note , highlight some text. Hide notes Make a general comment Jump to Abstract Introduction Methods Results Discussion Acknowledgments Author Contributions References Alexander Kranjec ¤ * , Matthew Lehet , Bianca Bromberger , Anjan Chatterjee Neurology Department and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America Abstract Top Distinguishing between a fair and unfair tackle in soccer can be difficult. For referees, choosing to call a foul often requires a decision despite some level of ambiguity. We were interested in whether a well documented perceptual-motor bias associated with reading direction influenced foul judgments. Prior studies have shown that readers of left-to-right languages tend to think of prototypical events as unfolding concordantly, from left-to-right in space. It follows that events moving from right...