Fishy Treatment for M.S.?

I ran upon a NYT article about M.S. and a possible treatment to ease the symptoms. Some doctors believe that the symptoms of M.S. are caused by the narrowing of veins in the neck and that the opening of these veins (called 'liberation procedure') can be a treatment for the disease. On the last page of the article another doctor found that 19 of 20 patients with M.S. had narrowed veins in the neck and/or chest. Hmm... is it a coincidence or can M.S. also be a vascular disease?

New York Times Article -

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/health/29vein.html?pagewanted=1

A little about optical illusion

Optical illusions occur mainly because the brain interprets the data received from the eyes. In class we discussed a bit about optical illusions and how when a black and white edge are placed close to one another we perceive a grey area in between. Here's a link for an article on why we see optical illusions. On a side, the same site has a cool video of nyc subway lines making sounds.

optical - http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2011/01/getting_accurate_about_my_brai.php

subway - http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2011/02/subway_lines_as_cello_strings.php

AMNH Brain Exhibit

Hey guys,

I attached a link to a the videos section of the American Museum of Natural History's Brain exhibit. It's a temporary exhibit, so I recommend that you go there to see it. I went and it was really really interesting.

Unfortunately the exhibit page really doesn't do it justice-- the exhibit itself is incredibly interesting for anyone even remotely curious about the brain. I particularly liked the language section, which actually has one of the videos attached on the site. They talk about the different regions of the brain and how they are activated during particular activities like language processing, etc. They also talk about what we discussed in class sort of as a digression when Professor Tandon was explaining her past work in the retina and optic nerve. They talk about the possibilities of creating devices that can replace body parts by interpreting and sending the right electrical signals.

I highly recommend all of you to go... or perhaps as a secondary class trip =D? If anyone has gone, did you have a favorite section?

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/brain/videos.php

KvLQT1

Hey guys,

I stumbled upon this piece as I was searching the web for some references for one of the homework questions.

KvLQT1 is a protein that controls the delayed rectifier for potassium ions, which controls repolarization of the cell. If a mutation causes this protein to be defective, repolarization of the cardiac cells may occur or too late, which can essentially make the heart irritable and cause it to function in arrhythmia. (repolarization happens to be the most vulnerable stage for the heart, so based on that knowledge alone, this seems like it has the potential to do some serious damage!)

Blind Spot

http://www.mdsupport.org/map/map.html

Here is a post for a test to see where your blind spots are, just as we spoke about in class. Follow the instructions closely. The blind spot on my right eye is in the center right and has a radius of about 2cm. It was really difficult to get the results for my left eye since I can only wink with my left eye . . . So I was holding my right eye closed, but then I move my glasses in the process and can't seem to find my blind spot on my left eye.

Where do you guys have your blind spot?

Heads or tails: Cells' electricity decides what to regenerate

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110205144133.htm

This article more or less describes what Professor Tandon was talking about the first day of class with the cells which grew into a mass of heart cells and would beat together, but with flatworms instead.

Electricity and the Heart

Here's a timeline of historical events in electrophysiology. You can click on each decade to see many more events that occurred in that decade.

http://www.hrsonline.org/News/ep-history/timeline/index.cfm