Happy Anniversary Encephalon!

Double congrats go to Mo the Neurophilosopher. Not only has the Encephalon neuroscience blogging carnival seen it’s first year anniversary, Encephalon masterbrain Mo has been welcomed aboard the scienceblogs.com network! His scienceblog can be found here.

It’s been nearly 3 months since I last wrote anything here and I should probably give a few updates. I was recently in Chicago for every brain imager’s annual favorite, the Organization for Human Brain Mapping conference. All in all, I really enjoyed the conference and the city. A few highlights:

- Marcus Gray from University College London had an interesting poster entitled ‘A cortical potential for cardiac function’ (now in PNAS). From the abstract:

Emotional trauma and psychological stress can precipitate cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death through arrhythmogenic effects of efferent sympathetic drive. Patients with preexisting heart disease are particularly at risk. Moreover, generation of proarrhythmic activity patterns within cerebral autonomic centers may be amplified by afferent feedback from a dysfunctional myocardium. An electrocortical potential reflecting afferent cardiac information has been described, reflecting individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity (awareness of one’s own heartbeats). To inform our understanding of mechanisms underlying arrhythmogenesis, we extended this approach, identifying electrocortical potentials corresponding to the cortical expression of afferent information about the integrity of myocardial function during stress. We measured changes in cardiac response simultaneously with electroencephalography in patients with established ventricular dysfunction.

- Gray’s work is somewhat representative of a general emphasis on biomarkers and predictive imaging at this year’s conference.

- This year, diffusion tensor imaging, (DTI), dynamic causal modelling (DCM), multi-modal imaging, as well as lie-detection were in vogue. I remember resting-state fMRI being the cat’s meow at the 2005 conference in Toronto. Oh the times, they are a changin’…

- I think everyone’s favorite memory from the conference program was that of a video involving monkeys and robots. Enough said.

- On other studies, Dr. Nicholas Schiff had a very interesting talk on limited states of consciousness in the clinic. You may remember Dr. Schiff’s name splashed in the headlines last summer on a very interesting case of a man who ‘woke up’ after being in a minimally conscious state. Yes, DTI pops up here too. Dr. Schiff recently talked at a workshop on neuroethics and limited states of consciousness as part of ongoing work at Stanford’s Neuroethics unit.

There are many more highlights but I should leave off now. What I will leave off with is a note that the 27th edition of Encephalon will be hosted right here in two weeks time. That’s Monday, July 16th. If you’d like to contribute, don’t be shy, send in any post you may have that’s neuro-related!

Send an email to: encephalon[dot]host[at]gmail[dot]com.

Things that I would be particularly interested in reading relate to blogging and funding. If you have an opinion as to how science blogging could be a tool (or not) for raising awareness about the need for funding, or have some interesting statistics, please send it in! The debate over stem cell research is certainly important, but I’d be interested in something that looks at the issue more broadly (many of you out there can sympathize with the penny pinching scientists are forced to endure, or end up finding financial pressures destructive). Another issue that caught my attention at the OHBM town hall meeting involved a debate about whether or not the conference should consider holding a future meeting in Cuba. Posts related to conferences and political pressures would also be well received. i.e. Should scientists be concerned about conferences being held in countries with conflicting political ideals? Could scientific conferences be held in more developing countries to bring attention to overlooked research programs?

And now for some brainial stimulation of the broab:

another excerpt from ‘a picture is worth 1000 words, but which 1000?’

it’s about time i started to put some excerpts from the neuroethics book edited by judy illes.  here’s another wonderful ditty from chapter 11:  a picture is worth 1000 words, but which 1000? 

italics are mine.

…from ch. 11 in Neuroethics…

What constitutes a ‘significantly greater’ activation than another, is in a way, in the eye of the beholder… lowering the threshold will create more regions that are statistically significant, whereas raising the threshold will reduce the number of significant regions. The choice of the threshold is largely determined by convention among researchers, rather than absolute standards. Reporting brain activation patterns is therefore primarily a statistical interpretation of a very complex dataset, and may be interpreted differently by different researchers. (Canli and Amin 2002)

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

While group averages are vital for achieving acceptable signal-to-noise ratios, individual differences, from both anatomical and functional variability may become diluted and overshadowed (Beaulieu 2001; President’s Council on Bioethics 2004). When dealing with single-subject data, as is the case for presurgical planning, it is often desirable to minimize false-negative voxels in order to avoid erroneously excising potentially healthy tissue (M. P. Kirschen et al., under review). Outside the clinical setting, we can easily extend these considerations to any analytic objective set to pinpoint activation areas for function in individuals:

…the image of an activation pattern from a poorly designed study is visually indistinguishable from one based on an exemplary study. It takes a skilled practitioner to appreciate the difference. Therefore, one great danger lies in the abuse of neuroimaging data for presentations to untrained audiences such as courtroom juries. What can be easily forgotten when looking at these images is that they represent statistical inferences, rather than absolute truths. (Canli and Amin 2002)

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Lastly, the interpretability of fMRI activation maps is dependent on how the data are displayed. The colour-coded statistical maps are usually overlaid on high-resolution anatomical MR images to highlight the brain anatomy. There are several media for displaying these composite images. The most rigorous is to overlay the functional data onto single anatomical slices in any imaging plane. While this is the most comprehensive means of examining the data, it is often difficult to localize the activations to a particular region, given a particular scan plane, and researchers are limited in the number of slices they can include in a publication or lecture. Alternatively, the activation maps can be presented on a three-dimensional rendered brain. While this technique gives good visualization of prominent external brain structures, internal regions like the hippocampus or basal ganglia are not well characterized on these models. Researchers often use both of these techniques to examine data, but ultimately choose the one that best highlights the main results of the study for presentation.

Since basic research is usually done to infer characteristics bearing on populations, the extension to individual applications is challenged by a scarcity of normative data that can support, for example, conclusions of abnormal activation (Rosen and Gur 2002). There are risks that measures will vary between individuals or that the meaning of data compared with normal individuals will be difficult to establish. Abnormality and predictive validity could even be more problematic in the context of real-world behaviours, especially those that are potentially value laden or culturally determined (Illes et al., 2003).

synapse13

is a neuroscience carnival devoted to all areas of neuroscience, including neurobiology, psychology, psychiatry, and neural systems — healthy brains to perverse minds — neurotransmitters to theories of mind.

To kick off the final installment of The Synapse before the new year, Corpus Callosum gets a little Popperian on the falsification of hypotheses and the connection between antidepressants and suicide. In the same vein, the Neurocritic bites into an antidepressant study and outlines why some of the claims being made are hard to swallow.

Bearing in mind Corpus Callosum’s reiteration that ‘correlation does not imply causation’, we turn to Vaughan’s submission of an fMRI study related to psychopathy at Mind Hacks.  Non Causa Pro Causa has interesting implications for the old nature/nurture debate and makes neuroimaging studies all the more nuanced. For more on psychopathy, I’d recommend Inside the Mind of a Psychopath on CBC’s Quirks & Quarks.

On Autism, Dr. Deborah Serani, host of the previous Synapse, highlights a paper on genetic mutation and its link to the risk of Autism.

Musings on Neurology and Lenitives In Simplistic Art outlines his top 5 strategic areas for research in neuroscience. Is the NIH accepting grant proposals in blog format? While quite broad in scope, there are some sympathies on this end to neuroinformatics and making conversion between file formats easier or potentially adopting a more standard format (imaging people, I know you sympathize. Oh, to be back in the DICOM days). Hat tip on Neuroethics, look north.

On touching brains in a bad way, the Neurophilosopher elaborates on every neuroscientist’s perennial favourite:  Phineas Gage.  A lot seems to fall out of rod-shaped objects piercing one’s head, although tamping irons may not be that common these days.  What, you ask, might be?  Chopsticks of course!

Could a young man like this (and his chopsticks) be a key contributor to stem cell research? Shelley at Retrospectacle says yes! 

On touching brains in a good way, Jake at Pure Pedantry looks at brain stimulation and the therapeutic value of brain stimulation for Parkinsonism.  For coverage of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), including a talk by a Parkinson’s patient, check out the Dana Centre’s webcast on DBS during the 2006 Brain Awareness Week at the Science Museum in London.

Transcranial direct current stimuliation (tDCS) is another good touch, albeit less invasive.  The Fibromyalgia Research Blog reviews a paper on tDCS as a treatment for fibromyalgia pain.

For a more magnetic touch, consider the Neurocritic’s post on repetative transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS.

Alvaro at SharpBrains interviews Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg on brain fitness and cognitive training and looks at what successful traders and students have in common. I concur on the point of bloated textbooks here in North America. That said, if you’d really like to know what Penfield or Newton thought, read them! Don’t just read a synopsis in a textbook! It’s unfortunate that there are not more programs like St. John’s Great Books program out there.

Outside of print, I Am A Scientist! caught up with Dr. Mary Harrington from Smith College at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference in Atlanta this past October.  Listen to a discussion on the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience live online, Sunday, December 10th at Noon (GMT -0600) on CKUW 95.9 FM.  Unable to listen?  The show will be archived on the show website.  In the meantime, lend your ears to another discussion at SfN, this time with Dr. Gladys Maestre from the University of Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela on neuroscience and developing countries.  Part 1 / Part 2 (MP3).

And heck, I’ll be hosting The Motel 6 later this morning (sigh, it’s late) live on CKUW 95.9 FM and ckuw.ca starting at 10AM (GMT -0600) on Sunday. Tune in!

Should you listen to the interview with Dr. Harrington, circadian rhythms will likely be on your mind. A Blog Around The Clock points to the refinement of questions in circadian rhythm research.

And, speaking of the molecular level, PZ Myers gives a near textbook explanation of the notch receptor.

While Sandy at The Mouse Trap makes his conjectures on the evolutionary trajectory of colour vision, Pete at Brain Hammer brings us back to philosophy and reminds us that a scientific theory, necessarily being falsifiable, is only as good as the predictive power it holds.

And it looks like that’s a wrap folks. Thanks for stopping by, see you in the new year, and in the words of the infamous Ivan Hrvatska, See you at party!

Weeee!

UPDATE
Synapse and Encephalon are consolidating! Regular and potential contributors to The Synapse are encouraged to submit posts here or by emailing encephalon.host at gmail.com. The next Encephalon will be held at Neurotopia on December 18th.

clive wearing

parts:
1a 1b full
2a 2b 2c 2d

The Observer The Telegraph Sixty Minutes Spiegel

Neuroimaging Poses Ethical Dilemmas

An excellent video on neuroimaging and neuroethics. I saw some of those slides during your talk at HBM, Dr. Raichle! Oh well, they’re worth recycling. Dig the iceberg.

In May 2005, the Library of Congress, the Dana Foundation, Columbia University, and the National Institute of Mental Health gathered leaders in neuroscience and ethics to discuss the rights and wrongs of using or not using new therapies and enhancements. By defining the most advanced and promising research findings, the conference sought to dispel public confusion about what brain science today can and cannot do.

Link to Neuroimaging Poses Ethical Dilemmas Webcast

MIT

I’m sitting in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences building at MIT right now, looking over railroad tracks. I picked up a biography of A. J. Ayer at Harvard Square earlier and just finished looking through the photos–oh Freddie. I arrived in Boston last night, by train, from Washington. A grandma sat next to me after leaving Penn Station in NYC, was in the city to collect books for a library she’s making for her grandchildren. What a great idea! A dentist from Boston sat next to me for the remainder of the trip.

I was on the MIT website before leaving Winnipeg and saw a seminar on Nuclear and Particle Physics listed for today. I’ll be attending that as well, but I just discovered that there is a ‘Brain Lunch’ right next to the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, a seminar on modeling and methods for electrophysiologcal data. Seeing as I’ve never been involved in electrophysiology work before, everything will likely be over my head. I will absolutely die if Nancy Kanwisher walks in though *academic crush*.

I do have my digital camera in my pocket and will take some shots of the campus shortly. Interestingly enough, the Gehry building, the crazy one (well, they’re all crazy), is right next door. Too weird seeing it on powerpoint at SFN and now sitting right next to it. A lot of photos of this building coming up too!

**Update**

Well, well, well. Turns out the electrophysiology talk was understandable. The physics talk, not so much. Granted my background in particle physics is only one introductory 4th year course, but this was nuts! The talk was on Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and the level of discussion, or rather grilling, was something I had never seen before. So many people at conferences nod their heads and mutter words like ‘of course!’ and ‘yes!’. These guys did too, but you knew they meant it. The lecture was supposedly open to the general public, although it was far from a generalists grasp in physics, let alone a generalist from the public. Still, very interesting to see.

Without further ado, pictures from MIT:

The view from the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Building.

Brain Mirror

This is too cool

Sneak a peek at Minksy!

Marvin Minsky’s new book, ‘The Emotion Machine’, is available in draft format from his homepage. 

Sections 1-9:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

From Publishers Weekly
Twenty years after The Society of Mind, where he introduced the concept that “minds are what brains do,” Minsky probes deeper into the question of natural intelligence. Don’t look for simple explanations: he believes “we need to find more complicated ways to explain our most familiar mental events”; we need to break our thought processes down into the most precise steps possible. In fact, in order to truly understand the human mind, Minsky suggests, we’ll probably need to reverse-engineer a machine that can replicate those functions so we can study it. Thus, he rejects the idea of consciousness as a unitary “Self” in favor of “a decentralized cloud” of more than 20 distinct mental processes. In this view, emotional states like love and shame are not the opposite of rational cogitation; both, Minsky says, are ways of thinking. This is not a book to be read casually; Minsky builds his argument with constant reference to earlier and later sections, imagining objections from a variety of philosophical positions and refuting them. A steady stream of diagrams helps clarify matters, but readers will be forced to dig for the “aha!” moments: they’re worth the effort. 100 b&w illus. (Nov. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beyond Heschl’s Gyrus

I can’t even imagine what it would be like to work in a lab with David Hubel, Michael Gazzaniga, and Sir George Martin on the Advisory.

And the link dump ensues…

The Neurophilosopher found a video clip of Dr. Mark Tramo of the Institute for Music and Brain.

Some lecture notes to a course at MIT taught in part by Mark Tramo on Music Perception and Cognition.

A video of Aniruddh Patel from the Neurosciences Institute on Music and the Mind.

A nice summary on neuroscience and music from the Annals of the NYAS including snippets of ‘Rice Krispies’ and ‘My Dog’ by a boy with Williams Syndrome.

And hey, while we’re at it, check out The Devil and Daniel Johnston. I heard Daniel Johnston on Yo La Tengo’s ‘Genius+Love=Yo La Tengo’ and a few of his really early recordings before the show. Still, I caught the flick at Cinematheque this past spring and was blown away by it. Daniel is a bipolar musical genius. It was a late showing and rainy that night. I took a long walk afterwards. My guess is, if you see the film, you will too.

This field is too interesting to me. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears on high alert at the SFN conference. I’ll have to do some literature search, but off the bat, I reckon scanner noise has got to be the shittiest confound to worry about in a musical fMRI experiment.

Please let me know if you come across recordings of Dr. Mark Tramo’s compositions. I’ve been unable to find any.

The Mechanization of Cognition

bigger

The cog was put back in cognition (at least in theory) this past May at IBM’s Almaden Research Center which holds an annual series of talks.

// The Almaden Institute is held annually at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. The Institute brings together eminent, innovative thinkers from academia, government, industry, research labs and the media for an intellectually charged, stimulating and vigorous dialogue that addresses fundamental challenges at the very edge of science and technology.

Some pretty big names made the short list, namely: Toby Berger (Cornell), Gerald Edelman (The Neurosciences Institute), Joaquin Fuster (UCLA), Jeff Hawkins (Palm/Numenta), Robert Hecht-Nielsen (UCSD), Christof Koch (CalTech), Henry Markram (EPFL/BlueBrain), V. S. Ramachandran (UCSD), John Searle (UC Berkeley) and Leslie Valiant (Harvard).

Videos and powerpoints are freely available from the Almaden Institute site, as are bigger videos from google video. Things that look particularly interesting: Searle’s talk ‘Beyond Dualism’, Ramachandran’s ‘The uniqueness of the human brain’, and the panel discussion ‘How the brain works, what it computes and how/when we might build intelligent machines’.