Neuroscience

After the IR camera, I bought a dB meter and a light meter for the laboratory. They were the cheapest ones available (but they are still costly, around 150 euros, knowing money is coming from my own pocket). The dB meter measures noise level. In my office, it measured 62 dB (approximately). According to the Wikipedia article on Decibel, it’s between “Office or restaurant inside” and “Busy traffic at 5 meters”. The problem is that I am exposed to this continuous environmental noise everyday, at least 8 hours a day. Now I can put a number on the reason why I appreciate silence and calm. Fortunately, I only have a few months left, here. ...

Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a “pleasure spot” in the brains of rats that may shed light on how food translates into pleasure for humans. The spot in rats’ brains makes sweet tastes more “liked” than other tastes. So now I know what’s going on when I am eating sweet Indian pastries :-p Reference: Peciña, S. and Berridge, K.C. " Hedonic hot spot in nucleus accumbens shell: where do mu-opioids cause increased hedonic impact of sweetness?" in J. Neurosci., 25: 11777-11786 (2005). On Berridge’s web page, you can also view a cool video illustrating this subject.

Caffeine is currently the most widely used stimulant in the world (it can be found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate, e.g.). For the first time, researchers have directly demonstrated that caffeine modulates short-term working memory. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI), Florian Koppelstatter (Medical University Innsbruck, Austria) and his colleagues determined the effects of caffeine consumption on brain activation in a network of modules subserving short-term memory of healthy adult volunteers during a working memory task (working memory represents brain activity required to remember things for a short period of time). When given caffeine (approximately the amount in two cups of coffee), the volunteers demonstrated a tendency towards improved short-term memory skills and reaction times during the given task. The fMRI showed increased activity in brain regions located in the frontal lobe and the anterior cingulum. This shows that caffeine modulates a higher brain function through its effects on distinct areas of the brain. What is exciting is that by means of fMRI, they were able to see increases in neuronal activity along with changes in behaviour. ...