more cool things my brain can do

So I know that the brain isn't really great at touch localization on certain body parts in relation to others due to the differing representation of body parts in the humunculous down the center part of the brain (ie we are much better at localizing touch to our hands than touch to our backs or something). But something we should get credit for I think is that imazing cortex (I can't remember which... really I am often am a failure of a neuroscience student) involved in three-dimensional representation of the world. For instance, I can close my eyes and touch accurately all of my body parts without making a mistake, even the fine tuning on my face. If you asked me to touch somebody else's nose you'd get a pin the tail on the donkey problem, but my 3D localization is tied up with my body sense, so I'm so much better at proprioception or whatever it's called than I am at knowing where your body parts are.

Just one more reason our brains are amazing.

haha bureaucracy

Quote from my hazardous chemicals training for work. Shock value, anyone? :-P
" Note: When handling toxic materials that penetrate the skin, the proper glove is critical. A researcher died from skin exposure to dimethyl mercury."

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.

Most beautiful chord progressions in history:

1. "Elegie" by Faure, the piano accompaniment towards the end while the cello is holding some note (it's like this string of three chords or so repeated twice... melts me every time)
2. "Sonts my Mother Taught me" by Dvorak, towards the end, it kind of slides down this beautiful line. SO SO beautiful... it's five seconds long, but I rewind over and over again.
3. The beginning six or so chords of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Opus 85, Allegro Moderato... sucked me in eigth grade, and I haven't been the same since.
4. The end of Andrew Loyd Webber's "Music of the Night" (I think that's the right song)... it just climbs upward in this amazing pattern.
5. (my least favorite, but still awesome) Mahler's Symphonie Number 1 in D mvmt 2, the augmented or something pizzicato. I liked that a lot when I first heard it in early high school It's not beautiful the way my other favorites are, but it's characteristically brialliant Mahler.

Okay, back to studying... but I just love beautiful chord progressions so much that I had to share. I think I caught this love from my father, who made me appreciate them at a young age.

obligatory finals rap

If I see one more paired end on plasmid strings
if I have to deal with one more amino acid that metabolism brings
if I have drill one more hole to get to a rat's brain
I confirm to you that I just might go insane.

If I have to write one more essay about moral will
if I have to hold one more soft body that I have to kill
if I have to calculate the lod score on one more pedigree
I swear I think I might just flee away from MIT.

I'm tired of going to bed once the sun has risen
I'm sick of being too tired to make a real decision
I don't want to see another Gaussian fit
not even if my tuning curves depend on it.

It's getting old waking up with the same confused dreams
when everything is chemistry and nothing's as it seems
and it takes thirty minutes to convince my mind
I'm not speaking in light of the photosynthetic kind.

Yeah, it's this time of year that I forget my position
and not much can improve my annoyed disposition
because I'm always confused with my head in a daze,
population genetics putting my face in a haze.

So really I think it's about time for these exams to desist
so I can back to my mountains and the peace that I've missed
and quit spending nights in a pergutory of p-sets
struggling to assimilate knowledge my brain never gets.

They demand of you here that you give them your life
I think everyone here's enduring the same kind of strife
but it's about time for a summer vacation
so I can escape this insane fate-driven nation.

So watch citric acid and three factor crosses wash down the drain
until next September when I resume hell again.