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.
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