Archive by category | Interesting Neuroscience

Monkeys master mental math

Monkeys master mental math

Everyone has had that awkward moment at a cocktail party or at the lunch table: You: Congratulations on the little one; she’s beautiful! When was she born? New mother: Thank you, thank you. Well, let’s see, I’ve kind of lost track, but with today being January 14 and her birthday being December 17… You: Oh, so she’s already 5 weeks old then. Wow! New Mother: Uhh…no. She is exactly 28 days old. Although mistaken mental math has embarrassed us all, we humans still reign supreme in the nonverbal representation of numerical values, right? A new study in PLoS aimed to  … Read more

Learning from your horrible mistakes

Learning from your horrible mistakes

Staying on the genetics theme, a recent Science article suggests that a particular variant of the dopamine receptor (D2) causes some people to poorly learn via negative reinforcement. The A1 allele, as this variant is known, has previously been linked to increased vulnerability of addiction. The researchers recruited volunteers, who performed a learning task while lying in an fMRI machine. Individuals with the A1 allele (at least one copy) were equally successful at selecting a targeted “good” symbol reinforced with positive feedback (the display of a “smiley face”) as those individuals completely lacking the A1 allele. However, when the task  … Read more

“All the News That’s Fit to Print” (except the part about potential conflicts of interest)

Since the recent fall-out of the recent NY Times OP-Ed piece discussing the use of fMRI to predict the inclinations and feelings of swing voters is still fresh in our minds, I wanted to simply provide the link to a recent PLoS ONE paper that touches on the general concept of the media reporting on science.  Read more

Antidepressants and caloric restriction, what’s the connection?

Antidepressants and caloric restriction, what's the connection?

If it exists, it must be a tenuous link, right? Well, at least in C. elegans, it is definitely not. Linda Buck and colleagues revealed, in a recent Nature article that drugs modulating the serotonin system in the worm can increase lifespan. Caloric restriction has been a well-documented means to enhance longevity in animals ranging from rodents to worms. We have only recently begun to mechanistically understand why eating less allows us to live longer (remember the sirtuin genes?)  … Read more

Cells reverting back to their youth

Cells reverting back to their youth

Since we had a long and involved conversation on the role of embryonic stem cells in research, as well as how this issue is politicized by both sides of the debate (with additional discussion here), recent news insists that we post a follow-up on Action Potential.  Read more

Infants inherently interpret intentions?

Infants inherently interpret intentions?

While we are discussing infants, development and nature vs. nurture, it is fitting that Nature just published a new article describing the social evaluation skills of pre-verbal infants (6-10 months old). In a nicely-designed experiment, researchers allowed infants to view a toy as it was made to climb over an obstacle. Near the top, another toy would either help the first toy complete the ascent, or impede its progress by pushing it back. When then allowed to choose one of the second two toys for playtime, the infants overwhelmingly chose the “helpful” toy over the “hurtful” toy. In addition, infants  … Read more

Genetic control of intelligence

Genetic control of intelligence

No, this isn’t another post about Jim Watson; the title is just a shameless ploy to draw in the search engine crowd… It is relevant though, as you’ll soon see. I’ve been meaning to talk about this next topic for a couple of weeks now, but have been distracted with unexpected news stories, editorial discussions regarding the review process, etc. A recent study in PNAS has demonstrated a significant interaction between nature and nurture that influences intelligence.  Read more

Patience, fairness and getting the girl.

Patience, fairness and getting the girl.

No, Action Potential is not going to start giving dating advice…yet. I just needed a catch-all title for a catch-all blog entry. After last week’s ugly Watson debate, I figured that I would return to research science and have a little fun updating you on some recent primate research. The usual caveat applies to this entry, as with many of mine, that the neuroscience links are tenuous. Of course, that depends on your definition of neuroscience. Since mine is quite broad, it looks like we can proceed.  Read more