http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/components/com_jd-wp Wang lab musings Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:08:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Below are some suggestions for efficient use of Adobe Illustrator which I've compiled over the years. May be handy at poster time. If anyone has any other tips please add them in the comments! (on Mac, replace all "Control" with "Command (Apple) key") control-X “cut” cuts a selection out of ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=570 Never get lost in the woods again! An article in Wired describes how some Neuroscientists are trying to tap into our common senses to let us perceive uncommon things. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=545 Wei Chen's group has published a Neuron Techinques paper on their method to load small groups of neurons in vivo with dextran-conjugated fluorescent calcium indicators. As seen at SfN 2006. Link to article html or pdf Also see Thomas Nevian and Fritjof Helmchen's paper on cell electroporation here. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=567 Here is a link to a very beautiful movie The Inner Life of a Cell. Those who has a degree in Molecular Biology will enjoy it a lot. Before downloading 24 Mb you may want to check some screen shots http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=566 A new combined modeling and physiology study from Santamaria, Tripp, and Bower offers a satisfying explanation for the decades-long failure to observe beam-like activation of Purkinje cells along parallel fibers in response to physiologically realistic granule cell activation. In rat Crus IIa, they find that beamlike patterns of Purkinje ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=565 A nice paper by Pijpers et al. showing the anatomical convergence of Mossy Fiber (MF) and Climbing Fiber (CF) inputs in the same zonal location. PDF. Using small injections of cholera b toxin this paper demonstrates that mossy fiber collaterals terminate in the granule cell layer directly below labeled axon collaterals ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=564 A song about us ? Maybe! http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=563 A new paper out by the infamous duo of Jorntell and Ekerot. This paper argues that granule cells (GC) are threshold detectors en lieu of sparse coders. In vivo patch clamp recordings of GC in this article also suggest that these cells receive inputs on their 3-5 dendrites from the same ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=562 The Allen Brain Atlas is an interactive, genome-wide image database of gene expression in the mouse brain. A combination of RNA in situ hybridization data, detailed Reference Atlases and informatics analysis tools are integrated to provide a searchable digital atlas of gene expression. Together, these resources present a comprehensive online ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=561 Wikipedia has now a Neuroscience Portal. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=560 The full German edition of this work can be downloaded as a searchable PDF from Google books. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=559 EM tells you that the distance between two cells is in the range of 20 nm in fixed tissue. Thorne & Nicholson, however, find a much wider gap of 38-64 nm by looking at dye diffusion in vivo. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=557 From the Callaway lab: Selective and Quickly Reversible Inactivation of Mammalian Neurons In Vivo Using the Drosophila Allatostatin Receptor. [html][pdf] The insect allatostatin receptor (AlstR) is a G protein-coupled inward-rectifying K+ (GIRK) channel, that when binding its ligand can silence the neurons in which it is expressed. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=556 Zeiss added several very helpful paged to its web portal. Click on 'New: Filter sets & Objectives'. You can find there e.g. transmittance curves of objectives or spectra of dyes. A direct link can be found here. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=555 There has been broad news coverage of this paper. The paper proposes that pain sensitivity increases more in mice that are visually exposed to their cage mates being presented noxious stimuli (acetic acid injections creating thermal hyperalgesia) than if these mice were exposed to unfamiliar animals. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=554 David Linden's group shows that long-term depression can be elicited at mossy fiber-deep cerebellar nucleus synapses with high-frequency burst stimulation, or through pairing with postsynaptic depolarization. Postsynaptic origin of this type of plasticity is supported by lack of changes to the paired pulse ratio and block of expression with a ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=553 Institute for Advanced Study/Rita Allen Foundation symposium. Wednesday and Thursday. The speakers are Rita Allen Scholars, including me. Much of the focus of the other talks is cancer. For a schedule click here. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=551 The Public Library of Science is introducing a new journal this year, PLoS ONE, www.plosone.org. It's another example of experimentation with the standard publication model. The idea is to select papers of high technical quality, but not judge them one the basis of novelty or how interesting the work is. ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=550 Gayle's learning rule paper. The CA3-CA1 synaptic learning rule paper is out at last! [Abstract] [PDF] I am excited about this paper because I feel that we have built bridges among three different approaches to understanding hippocampal plasticity: (1) spike-timing-dependent plasticity, which has been a contentious subject at this, the ... http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=549 A new Progress in Neurobiology review by Masao Ito has just become available online. It's quite comprehensive, with some nice history. http://synapse.princeton.edu/joomla2/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52&p=548