In this week post I will present to you the case of Phineas Gage, an American railroad worker whose case change drastically the knowledge of the frontal lobes (you can see one of his pictures below). The famous picture of Phineas Gage, holding the metal bar that pierced is skull. From neuroscienze.net This incredible story… Continue reading What happens when a metal bar gets stuck between our cheek and forehead?
How can we start fearing something even before consciously realising it?
Following up on last week’s new theme (have a look here if you missed it), today I will introduce to you a new area of the brain: the amygdala. The amygdala is an almond-shaped cluster of nuclei located deep and medially within the temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans (see picture… Continue reading How can we start fearing something even before consciously realising it?
Why is the hippocampus important in memory formation?
In my last week’s post (if you missed it, have a look here), while I was talking about how the first studies on memory started and the animal model used, I mentioned a particular structure of the brain called hippocampus. Since I have been mentioning different areas of the brain also while I was presenting… Continue reading Why is the hippocampus important in memory formation?
How did we start to study memory?
Coming back to my last semester of my last year of Master’s in Neurobiology, today I will talk about memory and in particular about the first pioneer studies by the neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Erik Kandel, that wanted to study memory from a neurophysiological point of view and that demonstrated how learning leaves traces in… Continue reading How did we start to study memory?
Who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019?
Since this past Monday the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet assigned the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, I will take another break from the posts about my university years and I will talk about the three scientists that will share the prize and their discoveries that made them Nobel Laureates. The three scientists that will share the… Continue reading Who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019?
Can music stop making sense?
For this week post, I decided to take another break from my last year of Master’s studies and I will write about the Moyamoya disease. I came across this disease by watching a Netflix’s series called “Explained” (very interesting and educative, they talk about the most different topics and if you have some time to… Continue reading Can music stop making sense?
How is Coca-Cola using Pavlovian conditioning?
In March 2015 I finally started my last semester of the Master´s in Neurobiology. Courses-wise, the semester was actually not so intense, we just had two courses, but I finally got repaid of all the efforts I had to put into getting myself around Physics, Neurophysiology and some not-so-nice professors: I was eventually connecting all… Continue reading How is Coca-Cola using Pavlovian conditioning?
What is a prion?
After the last few posts about my Neurobiology Master’s thesis, today I would like to follow up on the story of how I ended up doing a PhD in Germany and I will write about the first semester of my second and last year of Master’s. After that pretty hard first year, where I realized… Continue reading What is a prion?
What is the qRT-PCR?
Today I will briefly present to you the quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) that I used for my master thesis to verify the genic expression of some genes of interest (such as c-FOS, a marker gene for neuronal activation, or CGRP, have a look here for a brief explanation of why I elected… Continue reading What is the qRT-PCR?
How did I study the effects of KYNA on migraine?
As I have anticipated last week (have a look here to figure out some of the new therapeutic targets for migraine), the main character of my master thesis in Neurobiology is the kynurenic acid (KYNA), one of the neuroactive compounds produced during the metabolism of tryptophan, an amino acid used in the biosynthesis of proteins.… Continue reading How did I study the effects of KYNA on migraine?
