I am hoping that you play my game and try to read the text above. Go ahead and try before you read the answer below. How’d you do? I am betting that you did just fine. Maybe you had some problems with neocortex, or maybe not. Here is the un-substituted text: How did you read the scramble? Are you aware of how you […]
Let’s talk about our memory experiment. There were many features of memory that were of interest when I designed this experiment and I will touch on all of them. But this is a long, actually very long post. So, I will start with the points that I think are the most interesting. The most interesting of all is that, when push comes to shove, we preferentially […]
A friend sent me a link to this video in which one tortoise rights another tortoise that is on its back. Watching this video, I sensed that the helping tortoise really wanted to help the upside down tortoise. I was rooting for the helping tortoise to succeed and wholly relieved when s/he successfully rolled the other tortoise onto its feet. I say “s/he” […]
When I first heard the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, I was instantly captivated. An accomplished and cosmopolitan editor of a French fashion magazine struck down by a pontine stroke blinks out a memoir which is published only 2 days before his death. I was struck by the dichotomy of Bauby’s profound loss accompanied in the most unlikely fashion by unparalleled […]
I just finished reading an astounding book, The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn’t He Help? by Bibb Latané and John M Darley (Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1970). Latané and Darley set out to understand what makes the modern bystander so apparently apathetic and callous, watching but not helping as others are hurt, maimed and even die. They ask whether urbanization has created such […]
I just started my annual teaching of Medical Neurobiology to University of Chicago Pritzker medical students. In the first day-overview, I wanted to drive home the point that body and brain work together to produce emotion and affect. Pointing to the picture above, I said, “Clearly, my nephew cannot be depressed in this moment; nor is he likely to solve […]
Last week, out of the blue, I received the above video from Oxford Scientific Films. Well, maybe not entirely out of the blue but certainly long after I’d given the footage any thought. Let me explain. In spring of 2013, a producer from Oxford Scientific Films contacted me about filming our empathic rats for use in a documentary to be aired on BBC. I have a great deal of respect for BBC and despite the fact that rats are reluctant “movie stars,” I agreed. I knew that the production would be well done and I wanted our rats to gain the exposure that a BBC show could afford them. So on Sunday, July 7th, 2013, I met a crew at my laboratory. Filming went well. Victoria Huang and Amisha Gandhi, two University of Chicago undergraduates in my laboratory, had patiently worked with the rats. The rats were so mellow that they were completely non-plussed by the cameras and strangers. They were stars as you can see for yourself. The day was long but quite enjoyable. And we were even able to crowd together and listen to Andy Murray win Wimbledon. Our British visitors were happy and proud. The show was designed to highlight relationships between individuals from different species. Our work was included because the empathic feeling that links two rats is likely to be related to the feeling that connects two from different species. Originally, we heard that the show […]
I am fairly certain that writing this short post is a displacement activity. A displacement activity is when your entire thoughts and feelings and motivation are directed toward one objective and instead you go do something “unrelated”. Cats do this all the time. There is a toy or a small rodent or a bug flying around and the cat is […]
Jeune pêcheur à la coquille by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Musée du Louvre, Paris (photo by me) Yesterday, we filmed the hearing and communication unit for my Coursera course on Understanding the Brain. The short version of this post is that as I was explaining the tensor tympani reflex, I realized that my explanation did not make sense. This is a beautiful […]
My cousin recently sent me a link to a report that the nutritional content of milk provided to male and female offspring differs. Very interesting and definitely a “cool” result but to paraphrase Janet Mock, we are born as babies. On the first day of life, it seems to me that the needs of a baby have little to do […]
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The brain is sooooo cool! 