Category Archives: Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Recovering from a stroke and preventing another at the free 2020 Neuroscience Expo – Norton Healthcare

As you or a loved one recover from stroke, changing needs can present new challenges or require adjustments in the care plan, especially since patients whove had a stroke are at higher risk for another. The 2020 Neuroscience Expo will offer an afternoon of exclusively online sessions for those who have had a stroke or care for someone who has.

This free event allows individuals living with a neurological condition, family or caregivers, support care providers and others a way to connect with speakers from Norton Neuroscience Institute and other stroke-related specialties for live presentations.

This years track for life after stroke features the following sessions:

Youll hear uplifting messages as two stroke survivors share their experiences of life after stroke.

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1 to 5 p.m.Neuroscience Expo will be livestreamed, but space is limited.

Register Today

A stroke specialist will discuss what you can do to prevent another stroke.

Jeanette Lanoire, DPT, NCS

Neuroplasticity and Rehabilitation After Stroke

The recovery process relies on the ability of the brain to heal itself. Learn about neuroplasticity, as well as the importance and benefits of rehabilitation

Colin Hulls, DPT, NCS

Keegan Humphrey, MSOT, OTR/L, CDI, CLVT, DPAM

A neurologist will discuss the benefits of Botox injections for post-stroke spasticity muscle stiffness or tightness.

Mohammad S. Alsorogi, M.D.

After a stroke, survivors often experience emotional and behavioral changes. A mental health therapist will share strategies to manage your feelings.

Cheryl L. Young, MAMFT, MSCS

Eating well after a stroke is key to recovery. A registered dietitian will discuss diet changes and healthy food options.

Sarah Frederickson, R.D., L.D.

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Recovering from a stroke and preventing another at the free 2020 Neuroscience Expo - Norton Healthcare

Neuroscience

Middlebury Welcomes 33 New Faculty – Middlebury College News and Events

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Middlebury College welcomes 33 new faculty members this fall, including 13 in tenure-track positions. The new teachers and researchers participated in orientation sessions that were conducted weekly throughout August via Zoom. As a group, they represent 19 academic disciplines.

Middlebury is fortunate to be able to hire some of the best faculty emerging in their fields, said Sujata Moorti, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. They come from a wide array of institutions and offer expertise in research topics ranging from ethnic violence in India to pain processing in the spinal cord.

We are excited to welcome them to Middlebury, said Moorti.

The following will join Middlebury this fall as tenure-track faculty members, with the exception of Alexis Mychajliw, who will join in the spring.

Kathryn Crawford, assistant professor of environmental studies, comes to Middlebury from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where she was a postdoctoral research associate in epidemiology. Crawford earned her PhD in environmental health at Boston University, and an MS in natural resources and a BS in environmental science at the University of Vermont.

Jennifer Crodelle, assistant professor of mathematics, was most recently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Crodelle earned her PhD in mathematics and her MS in applied mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and her BS from Marist College. Her research interests include the dynamics of neuronal networks during development and mechanisms underlying pain processing in the spinal cord.

John Foley, assistant professor of computer science, earned his PhD and MS in computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his BS in computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Before teaching at Middlebury, he was a visiting assistant professor at Smith.

Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe, assistant professor of economics, earned her PhD and MA in economics at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and her BA in economics at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario.

Kara Karpman, assistant professor of mathematics, earned her PhD and MS in applied mathematics at Cornell and her BS in mathematics at Duke University.

Niwaeli Kimambo, assistant professor of geography, was previously a GIS teaching fellow at Middlebury beginning in 2019. She earned her PhD and MS in geography from the University of WisconsinMadison. She also holds a BA in geologic sciences and history from Brown.

Alexis Mychajliw, assistant professor of biology and environmental studies, will join the faculty this spring. She is a postdoctoral research fellow at Hokkaido University in Japan. Mychajliw earned her PhD in biology at Stanford and her BS in biological sciences at Cornell. Her areas of interest include the study of genomes, bones, and sediments to determine how organisms responded to anthropogenic and climatic changes in the past.

Gregory Pask, assistant professor of biology, comes to Middlebury from Bucknell University, where he was an assistant professor of biology. He earned his PhD in biological sciences at Vanderbilt University and his BS in biochemistry at Muhlenberg College. His area of research includes the powerful sense of smell insects use to locate food, find mates, and communicate with others.

Olga Sanchez-Saltveit, assistant professor of theatre, earned her PhD in theatre arts from the University of Oregon, her MA in human and bicultural development from Pacific Oaks College, and her BA in theatre at Hunter College. Most recently she was a visiting assistant professor of theatre at Franklin and Marshall College. Virginia Thomas, assistant professor of psychology, arrived at Middlebury from Wilmington College, where she held the same position. She earned her PhD in developmental psychology with an emphasis on feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz; MA in depth psychology at Sonoma State University; and BS in psychology at the University of Evansville.

Ajay Verghese, assistant professor of political science, served in the same role at the University of California, Riverside, prior to coming to Middlebury. He earned his PhD in political science at George Washington University and BA in political science and French at Temple University. His first book, The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India, was published in 2016 by Stanford University Press.

Zu Wei Zhai 07, assistant professor of neuroscience, joined the Middlebury faculty as a visiting assistant professor of psychology in 2017. He received his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Pittsburgh and his BA in neuroscience from Middlebury.

Gyula Zsombok, assistant professor of French and Francophone studies, earned his PhD and MA in French linguistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his BA in French philology atEtvs Lornd Tudomnyegyetem in Budapest.

Middlebury is also pleased to welcome the following visiting faculty, professors of the practice, instructors, lecturers, and teaching assistants:

Visiting Assistant Professors

Cole Dovey 06, PhD, University of California, San Francisco, visiting assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry

Alla Fil, PhD, Georgetown University, visiting assistant professor of Luso-Hispanic studies

Michael French, PhD, Northwestern University, visiting assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry

Alena Giesche 11, PhD, University of Cambridge, UK, visiting assistant professor of geology

Robert Izsak, PhD, Cardiff University, visiting assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry

Allison Jacobel, PhD, Columbia University, visiting assistant professor of geology

Joshua Nelson, PhD, Fordham University, visiting assistant professor of psychology

Shelly Pottorf, MArch, Rice University, visiting assistant professor of architecture

Roger Russi, PhD, University of North Carolina, visiting assistant professor of first-year seminar

Tessa Wegener, PhD, Georgetown University, visiting assistant professor of German

Roger White, MFA, Columbia University, visiting assistant professor of studio art

Visiting Instructors

Tina Donaldson, MA, University at AlbanyState University of New York, visiting instructor in psychology

Mon Zabala, BA, University of Puerto Rico, visiting instructor in Luso-Hispanic studies

Lecturers and Teaching PositionsCatherine Canavan, MA, Castleton State College, lecturer in education studies, will join the faculty in the spring.

Carolyn Dash, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, visiting assistant laboratory professor

Daniel Fram, PhD, Michigan State University, postdoctoral fellow in political science

Emily French 19, assistant in instruction, geography

James Gallagher, PhD, Princeton University, visiting assistant laboratory professor, chemistry and biochemistry

Emily Malcolm-White, MS, University of Victoria, lecturer in mathematics

Ori Tzuriel, BA, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, lecturer in modern Hebrew

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Middlebury Welcomes 33 New Faculty - Middlebury College News and Events

Neuroscience

Instinct and Training Both Count When Responding to Infant Cries, Says Mouse Study – Technology Networks

Caregivers learn to decipher differences in newborn cries through a combination of hard-wired instincts and on-the-job experience, a new study in rodents shows.

Understanding the specific meaning of a baby's vocal expressions is critical in childcare for humans and other animals, experts say. However, every infant has its own unique set of cries, so the most successful parents must quickly learn to recognize subtle variations of distress and other kinds of calls.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study showed that female mice instinctively hurried to fetch crying infants, even if they'd never had pups of their own before. In addition, certain nerve cells in the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sound, became active when the mice heard the wails.

The study, published online Oct. 7 inNature, also showed that experienced "babysitter" mice recognized more variations of cries that were calls for attention than mice with little caregiving experience. The latter group only responded to a narrow range of cries.

As the unexperienced animals spent more time living with a veteran caregiver, however, they were able to recognize a wider variety of cries and would quickly retrieve the babies.

"Our findings show that while some parenting skills are innate, there is a significant learning curve," says study lead author Jennifer Schiavo, a predoctoral fellow in the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone Health. "For mother mice, and possibly for humans too, hard-earned experience matters."

The investigation also affirmed the role of the hormone oxytocin in learning parenting behavior. Extra amounts of the chemical, best known for its role in breastfeeding and parent-infant bonding, was previously shown by the team to improve recognition of barely audible pup distress calls. In the new study, when the researchers instead blocked oxytocin, experienced babysitters only retrieved crying pups as little as 40 percent of the time, compared with well over 80 percent when the hormone levels were left alone.

Similarly, without oxytocin, cells in the auditory cortex did not respond to a broader range of distress calls, even after the mice observed more experienced mothers parenting. According to Schiavo, this suggests that oxytocin helps rewire the brain and prepare it to learn new skills more easily.

For the study, the investigators measured the average number of syllables in the "come get me" cries of dozens of mouse pups to determine the standard version of the call. Then, the team sped up or slowed down recordings of the cries to create alterations that fell outside the typical range. These modified audio clips were dubbed over the pups' natural cries.

The study authors only compared expert and inexperienced caregivers, neither groups having had their own pups, in order to tease apart instinctive versus learned elements of parenting, without pregnancy complicating the matter.

They found that seasoned babysitters' brain cells became active in response to normal calls, and those mice accordingly retrieved the pups over 80 percent of the time. Meanwhile, the new babysitters' brain cells did not respond to normal calls, and these mice only picked up the pups about 33 percent of the time.

The study also showed that novices could learn to recognize altered calls over time, with pup retrieval rates as much as 75 percent. By comparison, experienced babysitters who heard the altered calls for the first time had a retrieval rate of just 14 percent.

"Our study provides new insight into how the brain learns new skills," says senior study author Robert Froemke, PhD, an associate professor in the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone. "There is a built-in understanding that serves as a foundation for developing more complex behaviors in rodents."

He adds that next, the research team plans to investigate whether the inexperienced mice learn by passively observing mothers or if they are actively trained to respond to unusual calls. Froemke also serves as an associate professor in the departments of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU Langone.

Reference: Schiavo JK, Valtcheva S, Bair-Marshall CJ, Song SC, Martin KA, Froemke RC. Innate and plastic mechanisms for maternal behaviour in auditory cortex. Nature. Published online October 7, 2020:1-6. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2807-6

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Instinct and Training Both Count When Responding to Infant Cries, Says Mouse Study - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

Traveling Brain Waves Reveal Hard-To-See Objects – Technology Networks

Imagine that you're late for work and desperately searching for your car keys. You've looked all over the house but cannot seem to find them anywhere. All of a sudden you realize your keys have been sitting right in front of you the entire time. Why didn't you see them until now?

Now, a team of Salk Institute scientists led by Professor John Reynolds has uncovered details of the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of objects. They found that patterns of neural signals, called traveling brain waves, exist in the visual system of the awake brain and are organized to allow the brain to perceive objects that are faint or otherwise difficult to see. The findings were published inNatureon October 7, 2020.

"We've discovered that faint objects are much more likely to be seen if visualizing the object is timed with the traveling brain waves. The waves actually facilitate perceptual sensitivity, so there are moments in time when you can see things that you otherwise could not," says Reynolds, senior author of the paper and holder of the Fiona and Sanjay Jha Chair in Neuroscience. "It turns out that these traveling brain waves are an information-gathering process leading to the perception of an object."

Scientists have studied traveling brain waves during anesthesia but dismissed the waves as an artifact of the anesthesia. Reynolds' team, however, wondered if these waves exist in the visual part of the brain while awake and if they play a role in perception. They combined recordings in the visual cortex with cutting-edge computational techniques that enabled them to detect and track traveling brain waves.

"In order to understand the neural mechanisms of perception, we needed to develop new computational techniques to track neuronal activity in the visual cortex moment by moment," says co-first author Lyle Muller, BrainsCAN-funded assistant professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University in Ontario, Canada, and previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Sejnowski lab at Salk. "We then used these computational methods to uncover what change was occurring in the nervous system to suddenly allow for object recognition."

The scientists recorded the activity of the neurons from an area of the brain that contained a complete map of the visual world. They then tracked the trajectories of the traveling brain waves during a visual perception task. The scientists held an onscreen target at the threshold of visibility, so that observers could only detect the object 50 percent of the time, and recorded when the target was spotted. Since the target was not changing, the researchers reasoned that the observer's ability to perceive the object only half of the time had to be due to some change in the neural signals inside the brain.

They found that the brain's ability to recognize targets was directly related to when and where the traveling brain waves occurred in the visual system: when the traveling waves aligned with the stimulus, the observer could detect the target more easily. These traveling brain waves, which occurred several times per second, were similar to a stadium of sports fans successively standing up and raising their arms, then lowering them and sitting down again. It appears that the visual system is actively sensing the external environment, according to the team.

"There is a spontaneous level of activity in the brain that appears to be regulated by these traveling waves," says Salk Professor Terrence Sejnowski, an author of the paper and holder of the Francis Crick Chair. "We think the waves are the product of the activity that is propagating around the brain, driven by local neurons firing."

"We go about our everyday lives thinking that we are accurately seeing the world, but, in fact, our brains are filling in details that are difficult to see," says Zac Davis, co-first and corresponding author of the paper and a Salk postdoctoral fellow in the Reynolds lab. "Now, we have discovered how the brain weaves together hard-to-see information to perceive an object."

In the future, the scientists plan to examine whether these brain waves are coordinated across different brain regions devoted to vision. The researchers theorize that the brain waves could serve as a gate between the sensory processing and conscious perception that emerges from the brain as a whole.

Reference:Davis ZW, Muller L, Martinez-Trujillo J, Sejnowski T, Reynolds JH. Spontaneous travelling cortical waves gate perception in behaving primates. Nature. Published online October 7, 2020:1-5. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2802-y

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Traveling Brain Waves Reveal Hard-To-See Objects - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

The brilliant mind of Oliver Sacks – Ockham’s Razor – ABC News

Who was Oliver Sacks?

He's best known as the author of case histories on neurology among them the tale of the man who mistook his wife for a hat.

But how did he get the nickname Dr Squats? What was his relation to the Fern Society? And why did he remain celibate for more than 30 years?

Neuroscience PhD student Samuel Mills reflects and shares a few stories about the brilliant neurologist and author at Melbourne's Laborastory.

This program first aired on April 22, 2018.

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The brilliant mind of Oliver Sacks - Ockham's Razor - ABC News

Neuroscience

The Clever Combination of Neuroscience and Ancient Wisdom That Is Re-Writing the Rule Book on Success and Happiness – Press Release – Digital Journal

Passion and purpose coach Andrew Low teaches tools to create harmony between your conscious and unconscious mind so you can live your life on purpose.

Life can suck for us at times! We face stressors that take their toll on our wellbeing. Uncertainty in the world around us can trigger anxiety and even depression. We find ourselves disempowered and reacting to the world around us. We lash out, our relationships suffer. We suffer!

What can we learn from the ancient wisdom of ages past? Could the latest developments in neuroscience unlock secrets to personal transformation lost to the ages?

After toiling and struggling in a corporate job of more than 16-hour workdays, Low had been working nights and weekends when one day, he fell asleep behind the wheel and crashed his car. His accident made him realize that things had to change. He has been on a journey ever since, and now, his mission is to help you uncover your life's passion and purpose.

Low describes his pioneering approach to transformation:

"Combining ancient wisdom with the latest in neuroscience and coaching to help us let go of the past so we can live in the present with passion and purpose this is the secret to earning a great income from doing what we love. Many personal development gurus tell us what we need to do - let go, find our passions, live our purpose. But how do we do them? There are proven tools that create harmony between your conscious and unconscious minds that give you deep, cathartic and sustainable results."

Engaging with Low allows a client access to a collection of three courses that gives the formula for achieving the trifecta of success, love, and happiness. It is an immersive, practical, and experiential program that gives the whys, whats, and how-tos of the eight principles of success, love, and happiness.

According to Low, this approach empowers you to imagine the full experience of mental, emotional, and tangible breakthroughs to discover answers that are in line with your passion and purpose. If youve always dreamed of living a full, enriched, and joyful life, while earning income from doing what you love; this training can be a journey of transformation like nothing else youve ever experienced.

Low also trains individuals interested in becoming life coaches themselves. The key to serving others is first to work on yourself to heal your own past. This way, you become a shining example to others. Then, get certified in the processes to help others on a deep level, and learn and apply a blueprint to transition to full-time coaching.

For more information, visithttps://andrewlow.coach.

About Andrew Low Coaching and Training

Andrew Low is a transformation coach and trainer who focuses on helping others live their passion and purpose. Andrew is internationally certified as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) trainer, Archetypal Coaching trainer for Passion and Purpose Coaching, Masculine and Feminine Coaching and Matrix Therapies Coaching. He holds a Diploma in Life Coaching. He has over 20 years experience in training, mentoring, and coaching in both private and public sectors and is known for his fun and effective workshop facilitation skills. He specializes in helping entrepreneurs, business professionals and everyday people discover their passions and purpose, earn a good income from it, while having fun and laughter on their journeys.

Media ContactCompany Name: Andrew Low Coaching and TrainingContact Person: Andrew Ee-Kuan LowEmail: Send EmailPhone: +61-413-885339Country: AustraliaWebsite: https://andrewlow.coach/

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The Clever Combination of Neuroscience and Ancient Wisdom That Is Re-Writing the Rule Book on Success and Happiness - Press Release - Digital Journal

Neuroscience

This Alzheimer’s-Linked Gene Disrupts a Key Cell Process – But Another Risk Gene Could Help – Technology Networks

In a new study, a team of scientists based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research reveals evidence showing that the most prominent Alzheimer's disease risk gene may disrupt a fundamental process in a key type of brain cell. Moreover, in a sign of how important it is to delve into the complex ways that genes intersect in disease, they found that increasing the expression of another Alzheimer's-associated gene in those cells could help alleviate the problem.

About 25 percent of people have the APOE4 variant of the APOE gene, which puts them at substantially greater risk for Alzheimer's disease than those with the more common APOE3 version. Scientists have been working for decades to understand why this is so. The new study in Cell Reports finds that in astrocytes, which are the most common non-neuron cell in the brain, the variant hampers the process of endocytosis, which is a major way that cells bring materials in from outside. That functional deficit could undermine several of the vital roles that astrocytes play in the brain, the researchers noted, including how they facilitate communication among neurons or maintain the blood-brain barrier, which stringently filters what circulates into or out of the brain.

"We have identified that APOE4 imposes an endocytosis deficiency in astrocytes," said Priyanka Narayan, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health who co-led the work while a postdoc in the labs of the late Susan Lindquist, member of the Whitehead Institute, and of Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience and the study's corresponding author. "This effect could have a number of downstream consequences such as impaired communication with other cell types, poor clearance of extracellular material, or poor maintenance of metabolic homeostasis."

The research began in the lab of Lindquist, who was also a Professor of Biology at MIT. Lindquist and Tsai, were close collaborators. After Lindquist died, the research team completed the work in the Tsai lab at MIT. The study's co-lead author is Grzegorz Sienski of the Whitehead Institute.

As part of their work, the team also found that in APOE4-carrying astrocytes increasing expression of an Alzheimer's associated gene called PICALM reversed the endocytosis defects.

"Both APOE and PICALM are Alzheimer's risk genes," said Tsai, a founding director of MIT's Aging Brain Initiative. "It is really interesting that the two genes converge on endocytosis. This indicates that faulty endocytosis plays a key role in the etiology of Alzheimer's."

Reduction and rescue

For at least a decade, studies have suggested connections among Alzheimer's, APOE4 and errant endocytosis, but have not pinpointed specific mechanisms. The team sought them out--and also looked for ways to remediate the deficits--through a series of lab experiments in cultures of stem cell-derived human astrocytes and genetically engineered yeast. Tsai's team focused on astrocytes because they produce the most ApoE protein in the brain.

By comparing astrocytes that were identical except in whether they had the APOE4 or APOE3 variants, the researchers found several signs of disrupted endocytosis, specifically in the early stage of the process when key proteins were notably reduced in the APOE4 carrying cells. They were able to directly observe that the afflicted astrocytes were less capable of bringing in materials from the outside. When they knocked out the APOE gene they no longer saw a defect in early endocytosis, affirming that the problem related to having the APOE4 variant.

By engineering human APOE3 and APOE4 into yeast cells, Tsai's team was able to replicate clear signs of APOE4's early endocytic disruption. This is possible because the function is so fundamental to how cells work, it is similar, or "conserved," in yeast and people. Once they knew they could use yeast as a model, they could then set out to look for endocytosis proteins that, if manipulated, could rescue the observed defect. They found one: a yeast protein called Yap1802p. When they made the yeast cells express extra Yap1802p, early endocytosis proteins were produced at normal levels, endocytosis function operated better and APOE4 cells, which had failed to grow as healthfully as APOE3 cells did, exhibited better growth.

Importantly, the gene that encodes Yap1802p has a human counterpart: PICALM. Studies have shown PICALM to have a complex but significant role in affecting Alzheimer's disease risk.

With their promising results in yeast, the researcher team returned to their human astrocyte cultures. Overexpressing PICALM in APOE4 astrocytes repaired early endocytosis function, as measured by the increased intake of test proteins. But they also saw that overexpressing PICALM in APOE3 astrocytes caused an endocytosis defect, illustrating that the effects of PICALM varies markedly in astrocytes based on APOE variant.

Although, it is difficult to find drugs that specifically increase endocytosis, this study could help scientists and clinicians better understand patients' risk, Narayan said.

"In our study, we see that in the context of an APOE4 genotype, increasing PICALM can alleviate deficiencies in early endocytosis," she said. "Given that APOE4 carriers represent a significant proportion of AD patients, this functional interaction between APOE4 and PICALM could be relevant to assessing their level of disease risk. It also gives an example of how the genetic background of an individual can interact and potentially modulate the detrimental effects of the APOE4 genotype."

Moreover, the team's method of going back and forth between human cell cultures and yeast, provides a way of identifying how AD risk genes impact cellular biology, and how other genes can modulate these effects.

Reference: Narayan P, Sienski G, Bonner JM, et al.PICALM Rescues Endocytic Defects Caused by the Alzheimers Disease Risk Factor APOE4. Cell, 2020;33(1). doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108224

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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This Alzheimer's-Linked Gene Disrupts a Key Cell Process - But Another Risk Gene Could Help - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

Q&A with Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David Linden, on the science of human individuality and his book ‘Unique’ – – Baltimore Fishbowl

As of this writing, there are give or take 7,815,637,687 human beings living on planet Earth. This staggeringly large number is made even more unfathomable by the fact that each one of us is unique in the particular combination of features that make us, well, us.

How we become the individuals we become is the fascinating question that Johns Hopkins Neuroscience professor David J. Linden explores in his latest book Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality. It is a big question, and Linden tackles not only the roles that genetics and experience play in shaping who we are, but also the varieties of human experiences found in traits ranging from food and sexual preference to gender and race and more.

Though covering this vast topic in 256 pages may seem daunting, Linden is an experienced communicator of complex science having previously authored three highly successful books on neuroscience for a general audience (Touch,The Accidental Mind, andThe Compass of Pleasure) and edited a book of essays written by fellow neuroscientists (Think Tank). (He also teaches a course at Johns Hopkins University on writing about the brain that I took as a graduate student.)

Unique emphatically pushes beyond outdated notions of individuality as being the simple byproduct of nature vs nurture and instead offers a vision that is both more complex and awe-inspiring.

Were actually a collection of thirty-seven trillion cells, each with a somewhat different genome. Thats pretty hard to imagine, he writes. Its not just that it takes a village to raise a child. Each child is a villageor rather, a huge metropolisof related but genetically unique individual cells. But it gets even more complicated.

By deftly weaving in historical vignettes and anecdotes from his own life with clear explanations of scientific findings and research methodologies, Linden writes about our current understanding of individuality in a way thats both personal and universal perfectly reflecting our experience of being an individual.

BFB: Why did you decide to write about human individuality?

David J. Linden: I got the idea to write about human individuality when I found myself single five years ago and started online dating. So, there I am on OkCupid. And, you know, reading all these profiles of these various women and theyre basically lists of traits. When people are trying to describe themselves, theyre listing traits. Theyre saying things like I tend to wake up early in the morning. I like white chocolate, I like hoppy beer, and I have perfect pitch.

So if youre a nerd like me, you begin to wonder well, whats the deal? How do these traits come to pass? And can we really think about it in terms of the classic formulation of nature versus nurture?

BFB: I love your extended rant [in the book] about the expression nature versus nurture. Whats so wrong about that phrase? And why do you think its really stuck in the popular imagination?

DJL: I think its stuck because its cute to say. It rhymes and has a good beat you can dance to it. Its like if the gloves dont fit, you must acquit. Its one of the things that sticks in your mind.

A minor thing is you say nature to mean heredity. Well, alright, Ill go along with that, whatever. And then the problem is all the things that are not heredity are then nurture, but nurture means how your parents and your community raised you. And of course, those are important factors, but theyre far from the whole deal. Not only are there very many other social experiences, other than in the family or community, but theres all these experiences that arent social at all, like whether your mother was fighting off influenza while she was pregnant with you, what food she ate, and the day length and the latitude where you grew up in the first two years of your life.

And theres versus. Versus is stupid because it makes you think you got heredity and you got experience, [and] you can either have more of one or the other. And in truth, they interact enormously. Like, if youre fortunate enough to be born fast and coordinated, then youll probably like sports and then youll probably practice sports and play sports a lot and get better at sports.

And the final thing is that theres a huge bit missing to all this. When genetically identical twins are born, they basically got the same DNA. And they have more or less the same experience in the womb up to that point side by side. And theyre born and theyre not really identical, either in appearance, or the volume of their organs or temperament? One can be mellow and the other fuss. It happens all the time.

BFB: What was the most surprising thing youve learned about human individuality while researching the book? Because you have so many tidbits in there.

DJL: I think the thing that was the most surprising and counterintuitive to me has to do with the effects of birth order in the family. I had always sort of bought into this idea that firstborn children, because of their role in the family, tend to be leaders, innovators, risk-takers, while your middle borns are more negotiators, andyour later borns are kind of clever, avoid-the-police types used to avoiding parents who at that point are really distracted. And remarkably, this turns out to be true only within the dynamic of the family. Its absolutely true. Firstborns really do dominate their younger siblings, and the middle kids really do negotiate. And the youngest kids really, really do try to be clever and sneak around. But when they go out into the world, that all falls apart. And in a way, it makes total sense. Because you may be the firstborn, you may be the big fish in the pond in your family, but on the playground, youre almost certainly not. Kids are very good at matching the situation.

So that was a big shock to me that birth order really doesnt predict personality other than within the dynamics of the family.

BFB: What would you say is the takeaway for the readers of this book?

DJL: I would say one of them is to revise the nature versus nurture formulation. But another one, I think, has to do with personal agency.

A lot of people say, Well, if Im admitting that theres heritable contributions to behavioral traits, that turns me into a robot. Im a slave of my genes.

And thats not true.

That said, way more of what we do in an average day is habitual than we realize. Adrian Haith, at Hopkins famously said, were a big pile of habit with a thin veneer of decision-making on top of it, and I think hes right.

But whats also interesting is that it doesnt feel that way, right? It feels like we are driving the bus, each of us are in charge: I can go here, I go there, I can change my mind, I can do this, I can do that. What is he mean Im a big pile of habit? So to me, an interesting question that comes out of this is then, why is it useful?

Why should people feel like they have more of a sense of agency than they really do? I dont really know the answer. But my speculation is that you need that to not be stymied when you need to make rapid decisions. You know, if the tiger is chasing you dont have to go, Oh, can I really trust my senses here? What should I do? Am I really in charge? I think you have to have enough of a sense of personal agency to act rapidly.

***

The virtual launch of Unique features Baltimore Fishbowl columnist Marion Winik in conversation with David Linden, sponsored by the Ivy Bookshop, Sunday, October 11, 6:30 pm. To register to attend the event, go to the Ivys event page.

Richard Sima is a science writer based in Baltimore, Md. He covers the environmental and life sciences and has written for Scientific American, Discover, New Scientist, and elsewhere. He has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree in neurobiology from Harvard College.

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Q&A with Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David Linden, on the science of human individuality and his book 'Unique' - - Baltimore Fishbowl

Neuroscience

The Antibody Revolution in Neuroscience – Technology Networks

From cancer immunotherapy to fighting viruses, the adaptation of the bodys immune system to serve science has been a huge source of innovation across biology.

The use of immune molecules called antibodies in neuroscience research is another example of this revolution in action.

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The Antibody Revolution in Neuroscience - Technology Networks