Have you ever been in love? Has it made you do crazy things? Whether it was sending your lover bundles of flowers, stalking their social media (or stalking them in person), or boiling a rabbit in a pot of water, we’ve all been there. We know that love is enthralling. It is potent enough in […]
Tag Archives: dopamine
July
07
The Forgotten:
posted by Donovan Cronkhite
Image source: “New Awakenings: The Legacy & Future of Encephalitis Lethargica (EL)” (Sparacin 2012) Some call it “the sleepy-sickness”, others encephalitis lethargica. This mysterious disease, lost to time, bears its colloquial name because those who contracted it entered an “all-enveloping trancelike sleep” (1); and some of those who entered this sleep, did not awake for […]
September
03
Microglia as Architects and Designers for Your New Brain
posted by Jess Du
[En español] While neurons tend to get the spotlight in the brain, there’re tons of other cell types working in the background to support brain health and function. Microglia are one such cell type, often described as the immune cells of the brain, patrolling and gobbling things up like white blood cells do in the […]
March
26
How is your brain coping with social distancing?
posted by megkirch
[En español] Amidst an ever-growing national and global crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ve probably already heard about (and are hopefully practicing) social distancing. The Center for Disease Control defines social distancing as “remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible”. […]
September
05
“I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it”
posted by egeyalcinbas
I would never have thought that an Ariana Grande song could lend itself to talking about an interesting avenue of neuroscience research. Yet the catchy phrase repeatedly featured in her most recent hit song “7 rings,” “I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it,” implicitly highlights the relationship between liking and […]
October
25
The Science of Stuttering
posted by Catie Profaci
A special thank you to Kaja Bajc and Jaymie Horak for their incredibly helpful personal input. How is it that someone can sing fluidly but struggle to introduce herself? Or smoothly imitate a foreign accent without trouble, but get stuck on words when speaking without pretense? Stuttering is a communication disorder characterized by disruptions (“disfluencies”) […]
December
28
Machines Comparing Circuitry (or, Understanding Our Uniquely Human Brain)
posted by megkirch
I became fascinated by the brain because I was – and continue to be – fascinated by humans. Why are we so obsessed with other people’s lives, including (sometimes especially) those whom we’ve never met? How are we able to communicate such complex emotions with a raise of an eyebrow or even just a glance? […]
September
28
Dopamine is NOT your brain’s reward chemical
posted by Drew Schreiner
Dopamine is NOT your brain’s reward chemical. Or rather, dopamine is not JUST your brain’s reward chemical, nor is it your brain’s ONLY reward chemical.
April
06
AN update: disease in a dish
posted by Catie Profaci
While the phrase “stem cells” used to spark bitter controversy, scientists can now take a harmless skin biopsy from a human patient and transform those (skin) cells into a bunch of stem cells capable of becoming many different types of cells in the body, including brain cells.
January
12
Dosing Dopamine to Regulate Rest
posted by kkiritah
Sleep is great. We all do it (sort of), and the fortunate among us can look forward to getting some sweet slumber every night. But sometimes, something better comes along. A new video game, Netflix series, or Tinder date might be so captivating that even late into the night, our body’s need for sleep seems […]
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