The Nerve, 2014-2015, Vol 6, Issue 1

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/2144/50670

Full Issue: The Nerve, 2014-2015, Vol 6, Issue 1

Editors-In-Chief: Kameron Clayton, Benjamin Lawson, Olivia Nguyen
Editors:Elizabeth Tingley, Sam Calderazzo, Anna Opperman, James Thaney
Writers:Elizabeth Tingley, Sydney Crotts, Lillian Whelan, Jacob Nazarian, Erin Ferguson, Kameron Clayton, Cindy Liu, Nikita Jain, Sam Calderazzo, Sara Simpson, James Thaney, Anna Opperman, Devika Nadkarni, Ben Lawson
Artists: Morgan Bush, Natalie Cherry

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    Book review "Still Alice" novel by Lisa Genova
    (2014) Casarella, Amy
    Recently, I picked up Still Alice by Lisa Genova and didn’t put it down until I was finished. The story follows Alice Howland, a Harvard psychology professor in her fifties, as she begins to experience lapses in memory. At first, she forgets little things such as board meetings and where she left her keys, which she attributes to stress and menopause. But one day, as she’s out on a run in Harvard Square, she becomes completely disoriented and does not know where she is or how to get home. When she finally goes to see a neurologist, she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects a large area of the brain, specifically the hippocampus, a region of the brain responsible for memory. So called plaques and tangles—a build-up of cellular debris and protein—disrupt the activity of cells in the hippocampus and surrounding cerebral cortex, damaging them.
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    Risk factors and consequences of enlarged virchow robin spaces in brain MRI scans
    (2014) Jain, Nikita; Seshadri, Sudha; Romero, Jose Rafael; DeCarli, Charles; Beiser, Alexa
    Virchow Robin spaces (VRS) are small areas of interstitial fluid that surround arteries and vessels in the brain parenchyma, according to MRI scans. It is hypothesized that enlarged VRS could result from vascular factors such as elevated blood pressure, or presence or absence of diabetes and in turn may be correlated with poorer cognitive function.
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    Neurogenesis in the adult brain
    (2014) Calderazzo, Sam
    Humans are unique compared to other mamals because of their highly developed brains and the trememdous plasticity these brains afford. Plasticity is advantageous as it allows us to adapt to challenges in our environment by reworking synaptic connections. Neurogenesis, the generation of new neurons, is largely completed at the end of development. This is followed by “pruning” of synapeses as the young brain destroys unnecessary connections from an overload of neurons to form the adult brain. Studies over the last two decades have confirmed that neurogenesis continues in the adult brain but mainly in two areas: the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampal formation of the temporal lobe and the subventricalular zone (SVZ) and adjacent olfactory stystem. Most interestingly, evidence suggests that these adult generated neurons may be critical to continued neuroplasticity of the adult brain.
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    Changing the tune: how melodic intonation therapy disrupted speech therapy and revolutionized conceptions of language and the brain
    (2014) Simpson, Sara
    I think we can all agree that there is something very special about music, something relaxing, something magical, something therapeutic. Indeed, music has long been valued as a therapy for brain damage and disease. Still, it took until the 1970s for music to be formally incorporated into speech therapy. Developed in a Boston Veteran’s Administration Hospital in 1973 by Martin Albert, Robert Sparks, and Nancy Helm, Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) is a type of speech therapy that incorporates musical elements to rehabilitate patients with “non-fluent” aphasia (patients who have lost the ability to express, but not comprehend, speech – usually due to stroke). Developed from observations that singing is intact in patients with non-fluent aphasias, MIT uses the natural prosodic/melodic nature of speech to rehabilitate patients with Broca’s Aphasia. Patients intone (sing) at two different pitches, singing a higher pitch for naturally stressed syllables and a lower pitch for unstressed syllables in simple sentences. Simultaneously, they tap a rhythmic pulse with their left hand to activate the motor system in rehabilitation. The therapy has three levels, progressing from simple phrases like “thank you” enunciated at one syllable per second (or slower) to complete sentences spoken more fluently and rapidly. Eventually, the melodic aspect is removed and patients are challenged to engage in simple conversations.
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    Dissociative identity
    (2014) Lawson, Ben
    Two diseases documented in the Diagnostics Statistical Manual, the general protocol for diagnosing mental illness, that have repeatedly been reclassified and renamed are borderline personality disorder (BPD) and dissociative identity disorder (DID). The two have a history of being confused as the same disease or the development of one being dependent on the other. This is because the two diseases are caused by similar environmental factors and exhibit similar psychological symptoms. These are in fact two distinct diseases that can occur independently, albeit similar origins and psychological symptoms. Due to this, the two diseases have co-evolved, or rather, developed because of the same reasons but in different fashions. As a metaphor, these two diseases share a ‘common ancestor’ such that they are more closely related than other diseases, while still maintaining individual independence. Accordingly, treatment for one can be expanded to both, but only when both are present.
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    Beyond the petri dish
    (2014) Opperman, Anna
    The creation of bioengineered organs has slowly made its way to the forefront of medical research. With the ability to construct fully functional organs will come the ability to decrease the current risk of mortality due to the scarce number of viable, obtainable organs. Through various mechanisms, engineers and doctors around the world have joined forces, creating artificial kidneys, arterial grafts, blood pumps, and even artificial hearts. However, despite the large demand for artificial cardiovascular apparatuses, the possibility of regenerating anything remotely related to neuroscience has long seemed unattainable. That was, until a few months ago, when scientists at Tufts University were able to regenerate brain tissue that was strikingly similar to functional brain matter, a feat thought to be impossible.
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    Neural networks and sleep
    (2014) Nadkarni, Devika
    Artificial neural networks are computing systems inspired by the processing connections of neurons in the mammalian cerebral cortex. Regular computers process serially, in single step by step sequences, with various approximations such as normality and linearity. Neural networks differ from the traditional computing architecture in that they process information in parallel through multiple, interconnected simple units. In the human brain, these elementary units are neurons, and number in about 87 billion. The connections between these billions of neurons form the basis of our unique processing abilities. In networks, each unit may receive input and send output to multiple other neurons rather than just one. This creates a branched network capable of processing information in parallel - that is, multiple sequences of information processing can be created rather than a single sequence. In comparison to traditional computing systems, networks modeled after the brain tend to be slower and less precise. However, what they lack in speed is compensated by their ability to process complex information. Neural networks have value in being able to discern nonlinear, dynamic relationships, unlike serial networks.
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    The God spot
    (2014) Thaney, James
    Speculation regarding the temporal lobe’s role in religiosity has garnered considerable media attention, particularly from atheist and skeptical audiences, but the degree to which the temporal lobe influences mystical experiences is still being investigated. Efforts to understand these theories are muddied by poorly orchestrated scientific studies conducted by researchers whose enthusiasm outweighs their accuracy in collecting empirical data.
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    The Nerve, 2014-2015, Vol 6, Issue 1
    (2014) Thaney, James; Nadkarni, Devika; Opperman, Anna; Lawson, Ben; Simpson, Sara; Calderazzo, Sam; Jain, Nikita; Caserella, Amy