Category Archives: Uncategorized

November 17

Brain and Blood, Diseases and Drugs

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Neuroscientists love neurons.  We learn about the endless types of neurons, the distinct ways in which they send chemical signals, how they connect to each other, and how these networks underlie behavior.  Most of us eat, sleep, and breathe neurons.  A smaller, badass group of neuroscientists instead champions glia, the underappreciated cells in the brain […]

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November 10

Neuroscience homecoming! SFN16 NeuWriter picks FTW!

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This weekend we are lucky thousands of amazing brain scientists are coming to visit our hometown, the beautiful sunny San Diego. This annual autumn migration is the meeting of Society for Neuroscience with scientists coming from all over the world to share their research. Presentation topics cover almost anything and everything that could possibly relate to […]

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November 03

Get Over It: Discrimination and Mental Health

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Prologue: This fall quarter at UC San Diego, the School of Medicine began its first elective course in mental health outreach for clinicians. I consider myself a rather fierce advocate for mental health care and illness awareness, so naturally I jumped at registering despite my already pretty full schedule. On October 11, 2016, I had […]

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October 31

Work Alone (A Work from Home Parody)

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The UCSD neuro grad program made another parody music video! Watch and share! If you’re coming to SD for SfN, join us Monday 11/14 at Parq

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October 20

Cuteness, or How I Scammed My Way to Adulthood

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I have a confession to make: I am a scammer. You’re born naked and the rest is scam. — Joanne The Scammer (@joanneprada) May 18, 2016 When I was born, I was completely unsuited to survive on my own.  Considering all of my accomplishments today, it’s hard to believe that when I got started, I […]

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October 13

Pop Culture Psychology: What Your Favorite Superhero Can Say About You

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[En espagñol] It’s October and the leaves are turning – Halloween is creeping up, and it’s time to start thinking about your costume. Vampires and zombies are always popular, but you’ve probably noticed a trend in the last few years: superheroes are where it’s at. We love our pop culture characters, and from Luke Cage […]

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October 06

Hiding Inside

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[En español] Every time someone asks me how I became interested in science, my memory takes me back to the early 90s. I was six or seven, and instead of being amused by princesses and unicorns (I have nothing against them though), I was a huge fan of any movie/series that featured weird creatures, like […]

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August 18

Mind your P’s and T’s: How tainted drugs revolutionized Parkinson’s research

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[En español] In 1982, a man was brought to a hospital in the Bay Area of California in a curious condition.  The man was completely catatonic (immobile), and was frozen into an awkward, statue-like posture.  Doctors initially diagnosed him with catatonic schizophrenia, a sub-type of schizophrenia characterized by rigidity and unresponsiveness. However, this diagnosis did […]

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August 11

Alzheimer’s disease: back to the basics & exploring new frontiers

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When my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), I wanted to better understand what exactly was happening in his brain as his memory slowly deteriorated. Perhaps this drive came from innate scientific curiosity, or perhaps burying myself in the gritty molecular details was my attempt at escaping from the emotional gravity of the situation.

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July 28

To improve your memory, try to get some space.

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Imagine you have a big exam or work presentation at the end of the week. You’ll have to do it all from memory, so you have some studying to do. How should you decide how much to prepare? Do you practice everything once? Twice? More? It’s intuitive (and true) that more repetition results in stronger, […]

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