brain

Science Confirms What We’ve Always Suspected: Potato Chips are Irresistible

Posted on by Terri Sundquist

RatI love potato chips. There’s something very satisfying about the crunch of a good chip. The problem with chips, other than the obvious effect they have on my waistline, is that I can’t eat just one. Neither can my husband, who loves to open a bag of potato chips while I’m preparing dinner! To explain the disappearance of the potato chips, we joke that the chip-eating culprit in our house is not my husband but a giant mouse that has developed a taste for salty snacks.

Recent research presented by Tobias Hoch at a meeting of the American Chemical Society shows that not only do rodents love potato chips but that this attraction may not be due solely to the high ratio of fats and carbohydrates, which is one proposed explanation for the “bet you can’t eat just one” phenomenon. There is something else that makes potato chips irresistible. Continue reading “Science Confirms What We’ve Always Suspected: Potato Chips are Irresistible”

Your Brain on Drugs: Decision or Disease?

Posted on by Karen Reece

If you were around in the 1980s, you remember Nancy Regan telling us to “just say no” to drugs. That campaign focused specifically on the effect crack had on the community.  In the 1990s and 2000s, we saw and increase in reports of methamphetamine and heroin overdoses. Though they are perfectly legal, nicotine and even more so, alcohol can be just as damaging on one’s life when used in excess. The War on Drugs launched in the 1970s along with the Just Say No campaign brought tougher sentences related to drug possession, however, this has done little to deter individuals from using drugs. If you have ever had a loved one (friend, family member, or significant other) addicted to drugs or alcohol, you know how devastating it can be to watch their lives spiral out of control. Though society shuns addicts for making such decrepit choices, you wonder, “how could a person possibly choose to live like this?” Continue reading “Your Brain on Drugs: Decision or Disease?”

How Exercise Can Grow Your Brain

Posted on by Halina Zakowicz

Image courtesy National Institutes of Aging, NIH.
I used to work in a physics lab where I was in charge of regularly transferring liquid helium from a tank to a susceptometer (an instrument often used for superconductivity studies). One day, the helium transfer line that I was holding sprung a leak and I froze a good portion of my finger before I was able to stop that leak. Over the days that followed, I could not feel my finger at all and assumed that the nerve damage was permanent. However, as those days turned into weeks and my previously frozen finger healed, I started regaining sensation. After a month had passed, my finger looked and felt just like it had before the helium freeze.

Neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) is widely accepted as fact for the peripheral nervous system; for example, the nerves in my finger grew back even though I had lost them to frostbite. However, there is the widespread belief that neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) are static and do not multiply after adulthood. The evidence for such belief is everywhere, from spinal cord injuries that result in permanent lifelong paralysis to neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis. However, like many widespread beliefs that are simply assumed to be true, nature always finds a way to foil our best laid plans. Continue reading “How Exercise Can Grow Your Brain”