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Neuromancer49

@ Neuromancer49 @midwest.social

Posts
1
Comments
104
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Pop science comparison tropes I'm tired of hearing

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  • Pop science comparison tropes I'm tired of hearing

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  • Dopamine does a lot in the brain. Much of its function depends on where it's active. When released in the ventral tegmental area, it causes reward and happiness. In the basal ganglia, dopamine helps us coordinate movement.

    Since I'm already on my soapbox, I'd like to point out there's more than 3 neurotransmitters. These are the basic ones:

    • Dopamine - reward and muscle movement
    • Acetylcholine - motor neurotransmitter
    • Glutamate - primary excitation transmitter, important for memory and overall function
    • GABA - primary inhibitor transmitter
    • Glycine - inhibitor in the spinal cord
    • Serotonin - the other happy hormone, involved in a lot of complex stuff like sleep, depression, and hunger
    • Norepinephrine - fight or flight, adrenaline
    • Epinephrine - the other fight or flight hormone
    • Oxytocin - the nipple clamp hormone

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotransmitter?wprov=sfla1

  • Pop science comparison tropes I'm tired of hearing

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  • This one tilts me the hardest. It's like saying a 3-ligjt stoplight only uses 33% of it's lights.

  • World's oldest baby is born in the United States

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  • Actually, no, the bio soster shares the same biological father. This was an embryo adoption, not IVF

  • World's oldest baby is born in the United States

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  • Personally, I disagree. The baby's bio sister is, literally, a biological sister whose DNA comes from the same parents.

  • World's oldest baby is born in the United States

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  • The limiting factor in utero is the health of the placenta. Past a certain point, the organ no longer functions and the baby does not survive. This is why (at least in the US) inductions are required past a certain point.

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9320537/

  • 'Like a sci-fi movie': US baby born from 30-year-old frozen embryo breaks record

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  • Because, I shit you not, it's cheaper than adoption in the US.

  • What do you think is the largest number a human can actually grasp / truly comprehend?

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  • Rage jello

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  • I'm a tall guy that fenced in college. You're a monster. But every fencer consents for this torture, so you can keep on keepin' on.

  • Why do we humans love music?

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  • PhD in neuroscience here. I didn't specifically study musicology, but i did study the neuroscience of music.

    The theory that holds the most water, in my opinion, is that music activates all the same parts of the brain as motor processing. It makes us want to move, and to make predictions about what's coming next. People like makimg predictions. It's also a pro-social activity that encourages bonding and communication. These are typically positive experiences.

    Edit: you mentioned we like the breaking of patterns in music. Very true, we love syncopation. But we don't tap our foot to the rhythm, we groove to the beat.

  • Brain breakthrough: Dopamine doesn't work at all like we thought it did

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  • I studied parts of the basal ganglia, part of the dopaminergic circuits of motor control. I'm not sure if it's a poorly written (news) article or the scientist was overstating his position - I don't know any neuroscientists who think dopamine is "sprayed" across the brain.

    Edit: The paper is a breakthrough because it's reporting the first-ever direct imaging of dopamine signaling. But the news article mischaracterizes it.

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  • Have you tried learning Japanese / English after learning the other? I studied Japanese and learned how to pronounce the /r/ in Japanese correctly.

    For some people, the difficulty is less in production, and more in interpretation for someone who is native Japanese speaking and later learned English.

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  • Chiming in with more context, my PhD was in neuroscience and I worked in a language lab. As others have stated, there is a critical window for learning a language. The biology behind it is fascinating.

    As early as about 9 months of age, your brain begins to decide what speech sounds are important to you. For example, in Japanese the difference between /r/ and /l/ sounds doesn't matter, but in English it does. Before 9 months, most babies can tell the difference between the two sounds, but babies living in Japanese-speaking environments (without any English) LOSE this ability after 9ish months!

    Language is more than just speech sounds, though. Imagine all these nuances of language - there are critical moments where your brain just decides to accept or reject them, and it's coded somewhere in your DNA.

  • Owning dog or cat could preserve some brain functions as we age, study says

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  • It proved there were benefits, read the article.

  • Owning dog or cat could preserve some brain functions as we age, study says

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  • Very few things are proved definitively in science. You test a hypothesis with statistics, which always carries a margin of error. Usually, it's 5% - the probability that your data randomly supports your hypothesis, even though there's no true relationship.

    Personally, I prefer when journalists coach their language to avoid overstating the truth.

  • With a Trump-driven reduction of nearly 2,000 employees, F.D.A. will Use A.I. in Drug Approvals to ‘Radically Increase Efficiency’

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  • Great, now I have to start proof-reading any communications I get from the FDA to make sure it didn't hallucinate a scientific article in the citations. There's going to be so many Vegetative Microscopy proposals.

  • How do you do your interior styling?

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  • If you're working on a budget like I was when starting out on my own, I recommend your first purchase to be a bed frame. You can use Ceaigslist / FB marketplace to find some really cheap used options. From there, you can start buying (used) furniture that matches the bed frame. Personally, I needed a nightstand immediately after the bed frame because I wanted to put my glasses somewhere.

  • The FDA Is Approving Drugs Without Evidence They Work

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  • Good point, I'm assuming all monitors are as good as mine.