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That Thing In Your Head: Interesting Articles on Pharmacology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, and Biochemistry

SunriseChampion

SunriseChampion

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So, when I was in university it came to a point where I couldn't afford my books and ended up not attending classes and instead reading books on chemistry and pharmacology that I'd get at Carleton University's library.

This stuff still interests me and I've started trying to teach myself chemistry to a point where I can go back to school and take it to the next level.

I thought some of you may find interest in what I read about on a daily basis.

The Meaning of Life According to Neuroscience
 
This is super interesting and a pretty serious example of the as-yet-unknown limits of the brain's plasticity, which is the ability of neurons in the brain to grow new connections. There are studies into neuroplasticity caused by trauma, due to learning and memory function, and psychopharmalogical influences.

This particular study though kinda blows my mind.

How The Brain Still Works When Half Of It Is Missing
 
Northern Light said:
Your brain is an interesting place!
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The human brain is the most interesting place ever semi-discovered!

It contains all the cosmos or nothing at all. It's beholden to electrical impulses and chemical signals.
It can regrow itself after trauma or become useless through chemical sabotage.
 
The Link Between Tumour Suppression Genes And Autism


In a new study published in JAMA Network Open, a team of researchers led by Charis Eng, MD, PhD, of Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute’s Genomic Medicine Institute, discovered that copy number variations (CNVs) may act as genomic modifiers that influence the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or developmental delay (DD) versus cancer risk in individuals with PTEN mutations.
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lenaitch said:
I'm not sure if you meant the brain in general is an interesting place or that of @SunriseChampion specifically. Either way, form my relatively short time on here, I think both are true.
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Everyone's brain is the same multiverse in a can/box?...rock? (deffo for some people :p). Some people are just more familiar with its intricacies, secret corners, and hidden treasures. ;)
 
This is an interesting little article.

The Meaning Of Life According To A Psychologist


What do you think? Do you tend to think of existence in a more materialistic way? That is to say in a way that distils everything down to its chemical and physical essence and leaves no room for any sort of mystical experience of it. Or are you more of a spiritualist with room for explaining away the unexplainable?

Personally, I feel a bit schizoid in regards to this topic as I have had very powerful mystical experiences but am a very rational and logical mind and can see how everything is really just a bunch of chemicals glued together by chance. I can't seem to reconcile the two. They just co-exist in my head like the two hemispheres of my brain or Bosnian Serbs and Muslims: different yet stuck together.
 
SunriseChampion said:
So, when I was in university it came to a point where I couldn't afford my books and ended up not attending classes and instead reading books on chemistry and pharmacology that I'd get at Carleton University's library.
Click to expand...
I went to Carleton from 1991 to 95. I remember the library very well. My degree was in Poly Sci/International Relations with a history minor so in those pre-internet days I would spend ages in the stacks reading up on middle east history, etc. Whenever I had to bring a ton of books home to residence I'd call the Foot Patrol and their golf cart to drive me through the tunnels back to Rez. I lived in Rez for all four years, working at the Abstentions shop and other places on campus. My favourite was Mike's Place pub where they had Double Diamond on tap. I remember the residence formal dance at Parliament Hill, I still have the engraved wine glass and the girl.
 
Admiral Beez said:
I went to Carleton from 1991 to 95. I remember the library very well. My degree was in Poly Sci/International Relations with a history minor so in those pre-internet days I would spend ages in the stacks reading up on middle east history, etc. Whenever I had to bring a ton of books home to residence I'd call the Foot Patrol and their golf cart to drive me through the tunnels back to Rez. I lived in Rez for all four years, working at the Abstentions shop and other places on campus. My favourite was Mike's Place pub where they had Double Diamond on tap. I remember the residence formal dance at Parliament Hill, I still have the engraved wine glass and the girl.
Click to expand...

Nice one!

Yeah, the library was super fun. I'd find a hidden quite desk to read my stack of chem books at...or do research related to my formal studies.
Mike's Place was still there. It was the graduate students' pub during my time (2003-05). I remember being introduced to it by the older girl who picked me up in the res computer lab and then I'd go there with my Russian buddy who lived on my floor and studied physics.

I also studied poli sci! and languages (linguistics, German, French, English, both lit and history of)...and then chemistry, pharmacology, and psychopharmacology ;).
I wish I hadn't had dropped out for lack of books money. I was too proud to ask my parents for help paying for my books like a dumbass and dropped out because I couldn't do my courses without books. That single decision changed my life over the next decade and a half in ways I would have rather avoided.

Anyway.....I lived in res the whole time I was there as well. Single room! It was awesome. The caf was buffet style, with different food areas. I ate like a champ...which I needed to because of my time spent in the gym and pool.

I loved it there. Best time of my life. It all went to shit afterwards for the most part and was pretty shit before it. ?
 
This is interesting because Parkinson's was before thought of as being a disruption of the dopimanergic system in the brain through trauma or genetics but again the link between gut health and mental health shows its pretty little head.

Parkinson's: It's All In Your Head...Unless It Isn't

Does Parkinson’s disease (PD) start in the brain or the gut? In a new contribution published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, scientists hypothesize that PD can be divided into two subtypes: gut-first, originating in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) of the gut and spreading to the brain; and brain-first, originating in the brain, or entering the brain via the olfactory system, and spreading to the brainstem and peripheral nervous system.
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Everyone's favourite receptor subtype!!!! ;)

5-HT2A is the serotonin receptor subtype that was classically associated with the effects of various psychotropics, chiefly tryptamines (ie, DMT, LSD, Psilocin) and phenethylamines (ie, MDMA, DOB, 2-CB). A lot of these psychotropics are still known to primarily function through interaction and binding with this receptor subtype, though we now know that there are other seretonin receptors that have higher binding affinities with a lot, if not most, of these.

In any case, 5-HT2A is the classic "friend" of "good drugs"*.


How To Get To The Moon If You Can't Afford A Spaceship or Why Am I Hungry?


The 5-HT2A receptor belongs to a family known as GPCRs or G protein-coupled receptors.4 GPCRs are membrane proteins that are responsible for mediating most of the cellular responses to hormones and neurotransmitters. They are also involved in vision, smell, and taste.
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*--This would refer mostly to the tryptamines which overwhelmingly have good safety profiles (and have been shown to have positive psychological effects). Phenethylamines include such nasty little bastards as meth and NBOMe, both of which are examples of drugs that have bad safety profiles (like alcohol!!!)....which reminds me....this thread is overdue for an article on the dangers of everyone's favourite legal drug!
 
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