by way of media_psyche

Study in Flies Allows Researchers to Visualize Formation of a Memory

In the new study, Ronald L. Davis, Ph.D and colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston developed fruit flies with special genes that caused the flies neuronal connections to become fluorescent during nerve signaling (synaptic transmission). They then exposed the flies to brief puffs of an odor while they received a shock. This caused them to learn a new association between the odor and the shock – a type of learning called classical conditioning.

Using a high-powered microscope to watch the fluorescent signals in flies brains with as they learned, the researchers discovered that a specific set of neurons, called projection neurons, had a greater number of active connections with other neurons after the conditioning experiment. These newly active connections appeared within 3 minutes after the experiment, suggesting that the synapses which became active after the learning took place were already formed but remained "silent" until they were needed to represent the new memory. The new synaptic activity disappeared by 7 minutes after the experiment, but the flies continued to avoid the odor they associated with the shock.

This is the first time that optical imaging has been used to visualize a memory trace, Dr. Davis says. "Its phenomenally powerful, like a movie appearing in front of you," he adds. The study suggests that the earliest representation of a new memory occurs by rapid changes – "like flipping a switch" – in the number of neuronal connections that respond to the odor, rather than by formation of new connections or by an increase in the number of neurons that represent an odor, he adds.

(no subject)

I benefited supremely from Brown v. Board of Education. My parents did, too (being as they were only 4 when the decision was handed down).

In my home township, I learned as I was growing up, the school district was split up into six different districts. I ended up less than a mile away from the Lincoln school district (which today is majority black) but was bussed 45 minutes out of my way to the Airport school district, which is majority white. I can only speculate how my life would have ended up if the district lines had been drawn just a bit differently.

Though my sister and brother also attended Airport, I was the only one of my family to attend college. I know we have family in the South who've graduated from college, so I'm not the first in that respect. But without the education I got at Airport, I don't think I would have been put on the college track. And I honestly think the quality of the education at Lincoln or Belleville falls short of what's offered in Carleton, Michigan.

So thank God for politics. Brown v. Board had a direct effect on my life even before I was born, and I can't adequately express my appreciation.

by way of jeremyrichards

Film Shows Pattern of Brain Maturation

The brain's center of reasoning and problem-solving is among the last to mature, according to a new study. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging and time-lapse technology to study brain development, compressing 15 years of human brain maturation into seconds. Scientists say the sequence of maturation also roughly parallels the evolution of the mammalian brain.