Autism and yawning

Children with autism spectrum disorder are not as susceptible to contagious yawning as other children.

(Source: Senju, A., et al., Absence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder, Biology Lett., August 14, 2007 (DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0337).

Egaz Moniz, Antonio

Nobel Prize winner Antonio Egaz Moniz, who introduced the prefrontal lobotomy, was the Portuguese ambassador to Spain in 1917. (Source: Meyers, M.A., Happy Accidents. Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs, New York: Arcade Publishing, 2007.)

He also introduced the technique of cerebral angiography.

Speed of Transmission

Information travels in the nerves at speeds up to 268 miles per hour (429 kilometers/hour).

Sleep, Death and Dreams

1. In Greek mythology Sleep (Hypnos), Death (Thanatos), and Dreams (Oniros) were children of the goddess Night (Nyx)
2. Neglect or Forgetfulness (Lethe) and Pain (Algos) were grandchildren of the Night (Nyx). (Source: Ture et al., The art of alleviating pain in Greek mythology, (Neurosurgery, 56:178-185, 2005.)

Neuro Philately in India

Several countries have issued postage stamps with pictures of famous neuroscientists.

India till date don't have a postage stamp in relation to neuroscience but for a five rupee stamp about Drug addiction.

Missing 1st Spinal nerve

The first cervical dorsal spinal nerve and dorsal root ganglia are missing in 50% of all people. (Source: Schwartz, E.D. and Flanders, A.E., Spinal trauma: imaging, diagnosis, and management, Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007.)

Record for Stay without sleeping

In 1965, Randy Gardner set the world record for staying awake: 264 continuous hours (about 11 days).

In Biopsychology (by J.P.J. Pinel, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000, p. 322), the record for time awake is attributed to Mrs. Maureen Weston. She apparently spent 449 hours (18 days, 17 hours) awake in a rocking chair.

The Guinness Book of World Records [1990] has the record belonging to Robert McDonald who spent 453 hours, 40 min in a rocking chair.

Lyme disease

Lyme disease, or borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia.

Even pets (and wild animals) can get Lyme disease. Dogs, cats, horses, mice, cattle, deer, squirrels, opossum and raccoons can be infected. Many wild animals infected by the bacteria that cause Lyme disease do not show any symptoms. Dogs, however, may develop a fever and have pain in the joints. This can cause them to limp when they walk.

US President George W. Bush was treated for Lyme disease in August, 2006.

Cerebral Cortex

The human cerebral cortex has an area of about 2.5 square feet, has 25 billion neurons, is interconnected by over 100,000 kilometers of axons and receives 300 trillion synapses.

The Edwin Smith surgical papyrus, written about 1,700 B.C., contains the first recorded use of the word "brain."

In 1891, Wilhelm von Waldeyer coined the term "neuron."

Collodion

Collodion is a solution of nitrocellulose in ether or acetone, sometimes with the addition of alcohols. Its generic name is pyroxylin solution. It is highly flammable. As the solvent evaporates, it dries to a celluloid-like film.

It was discovered about 1846 by the French chemist and writer Louis Ménard.

Celloidin is a pure type of pyroxylin used to embed specimens which will be examined under a microscope.

Cytoarchitectonics

Cytoarchitectonics connotes the study of the cellular composition of the body's tissues under the microscope. Applied particularly to the study of the central nervous system, cytoarchitectonics is one of the ways to parse the brain (along with gross anatomy, topography, receptor-binding autoradiography, immunohistochemistry, etc.), by obtaining sections of the brain and staining them with chemical agents that reveal how nerve cell bodies (or neurons) are "stacked" into layers.

The study of the parcellation of nerve fibers (primarily axons) into layers forms the subject of myeloarchitectonics an approach complementary to cytoarchitectonics.

The birth of the cytoarchitectonics of the human cerebral cortex is credited to the Viennese psychiatrist Theodor Meynert (1833-1892), who in 1867 noticed regional variations in the histological structure of different parts of the gray matter in the cerebral hemispheres.

Einstein's brain

Einstein's brain was removed, weighed and preserved by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Einstein. He claimed he hoped that cytoarchitectonics would reveal useful information.

Harvey injected 10% formalin through the internal carotid arteries and afterwards suspended the intact brain in 10% formalin. Harvey photographed the brain from many angles. He then dissected it into roughly 240 blocks (each about 10cm3) and encased the segments in a plastic-like material called celloidin.

Albert Einstein's brain

The brain of the great physicist Albert Einstein weighed 1,230 grams. This is far below the average brain weight of 1,400 grams.

Scientific studies have suggested that regions involved in speech and language are smaller, while regions involved with numerical and spatial processing are larger. Other studies have suggested an increased number of Glial cells in Einstein's brain.