comments and questions

1. What if someone with synesthesia went blind due to damage of their eyes? I am fairly certain that they would still "see" colors because the brain regions are intact and stimulated by the false connections, and that is kind of cool...

2. So string theory is vibration of tiny strings in space or on branes in ten or eleven dimensions (one being time, the rest space). So the evidence is not good for string theory at the moment (in fact there is no evidence, just the nice way it unites the particles and forces), but imagine with me that in every dimension a string vibrates through it vibrates space (which it does, causing creation of particles). But if it vibrate space it must produce a sound wave at some frequency way to high to hear I think. But imagine we could hear it. Then it would be like every instant was a ten-note chord, and the universe was a chord progression. Very cool.

3. I had something else but I've forgotten it... perhaps I'll come back and fill it in.

bipolar and internal sound localization

About bipolar- I learned that not only is lithium a protein kinase C inhibitor (I don't understand why inhibition works, but whatever), so is.. um... Lamictal maybe? I can't remember which, a drug that also treats bipolar anyway. Also, breast cancer drugs that affect protein kinase C help with bipolar, further evidence (although the study was small). So the conclusion is that one of the bipolar risk factor genes is a gene that codes for protein kinase C that has an SNP. Now I'm going out on a limb here, but if an inhibitor works for treatment, it must cause a protein kinase C that does something wacky, and if inhibiting doesn't restore normal function, it must at least get rid of that detrimental effect. I don't know though, that's just my guess. Anyway, I wonder if they're working on the genes that protein kinase C phosphorylates transcription factors of or whatever it does? That seems like the next step. My PTSD work seems simple compared to bipolar. At least PTSD isn't genetic (I mean a tendency towards it is, but you have to have the spark). I think bipolar is multifactorial as well as polygenetic. Very complicated. But it seems we're making progress! This is the field I want my Ph.D in: bipolar and pharmacological treatment of bipolar. Then I can be a psychiatrist with a strong drug background... that will be awesome (MD-PhD).

About sound localization- I was thinking. So vertical sound localization is caused by the pinna in your ear differently refracting sound waves I think at different heights. Horizontal sound localization is caused by some structure (can't remember which- LGN maybe?? that's probably wrong) receiving sound waves at different times, thus causing different amounts of action potentials because the waves are curved on either side by the curvature of the head. So my question is- why do we perceive internal noise location as being in our head when we plug our ears and hum? It definitely seems like we get the vertical and horizontal localization correct although at least the vertical localization can't be working the same way.

Hmm... well if some major neuroscientist ever reads this is the distant future, please comment and explain.

cnn in the morning

This is ridiculous. More on it later, but seriously. I know the line has to be drawn somewhere and nobody wants a future voyeur streaking naked across the stage, but seriously, here? Blowing a kiss? That's *so* normal. Jeez.

And don't get me started on the child rapist that got only one year in prison.