dwaynegodwin

[dwaynegodwin]

OUT OF YOUR MIND, My new book with Jorge Cham (“PhD Comics”) is now available for preorders on Amazon! Here’s the trailer:

https://lnkd.in/e8tSWmtx

Review:

“…This is no dry text book, nor a comic book. It is a fun-filled trip, with clear and easy to read explanations, humor and wit, entertaining illustrations, and good storytelling to boot.”—Alan Lightman, author of The Transcendent Brain

[dwaynegodwin]

The ALS ice bucket challenge has raised millions for ALS research. ALS is a devastating disease with no known cure. With this comic, we sketched out what was known at the time about ALS, including some of the proposed mechanisms and the history of why it is sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

People who follow us may notice that our comics outlining diseases don’t include many attempts at humor. Gehrig was such a compelling individual that we just let his life tell the story. Please spread this comic to spread awareness - and support the fight against ALS - but also urge your representatives in congress to support NIH sponsored research to fight all brain diseases.

#icebucketchallenge

[dwaynegodwin]

Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini was a pioneer in the study of neurodevelopment. Working in the laboratory of Viktor Hamburger at Washington University in St. Louis in 1952, she isolated nerve growth factor (NGF) from observations of certain cancerous tissues that cause rapid growth of nerve cells. For this work, she won the Nobel prize in 1986. In later years she was named “Senator for Life” and served for many years in the Italian parliament. The non-profit foundation that bears her name supports the education of young African women at all levels. 

Rita Levi-Montalcini lived a long and full life. She reached the age of 103 years, becoming the longest-living Nobel Laureate.

The full sized comic can be found here.

[dwaynegodwin]

Vision: More than meets the eye. The primary visual pathway converts photons to perception. The retina encodes visual signals into patterns of action potentials. This coded signal is transmitted to higher visual centers where the code is interpreted. High resolution comic here.

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Discover how this rapidly spreading scourge affects the brain. Full sized comic here.

[dwaynegodwin]

Lincoln’s Misfortune: Could it be that Abraham Lincoln’s melancholy made him exactly the President we needed during the Civil War? In an America that was divided against itself, perhaps the nation needed a President who was strengthened by overcoming the struggles within his own mind. (Read more)

[dwaynegodwin]

Adapted from Scientific American Mind: Mind in Pictures, July/August 2016 - http://www.scientificamerican.com/mind/ Illustrated by Jorge Cham Narrated by Suelika Chial Thanks to Christi Keller, Kristi Ozelli, Aaron Shattuck and Mariette DiChristina

[dwaynegodwin]

Neuroprosthetics are electronic or electromechanical devices that interface in some way with the central nervous system. Among the earliest neuroprostheses are cochlear implants, which transduce sound into electrical pulses that are used to stimulate the auditory nerve, producing the sensation of sound. This comic presents many of a growing number of these devices, some of which are clinically used but others that are still experimental. Oh, and happy birthday Leonardo DaVinci. See the full resolution comic here.

[dwaynegodwin]

The Neuroscience of Daredevil.

In the comics, Daredevil’s sonar compensates for his lost sight. To understand how this can happen, we need to look to one of the brain’s superpowers: neuroplasticity.

[dwaynegodwin]

Why is the brain wrinkled? The appearance of the body’s organs often reflects their function. The heart resembles a pump, and the kidneys and liver look a bit like filters. But at first blush, the appearance of the brain bears little relationship to what it actually does. Embedded in the gyri (the bumps) and sulci (the grooves) is a developmental marvel that is the product of millions of years of adaptation, with an expansion in recent human evolution creating these wrinkles that are common in human brains but are by no means exclusive to us. Understanding why the brain looks like it does and how it came to be that way is important in understanding disorders that affect the brain’s development (read more)

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Migrating animals use many cues to find their way - sometimes across vast distances. Perhaps none are so intriguing as how some animals use the magnetic field of the earth to determine North/South directions. Full resolution here.

[dwaynegodwin]

Zika: Ten Things You Should Know

The Zika virus has created a global health emergency. Despite renewed urgency because of the evidence suggesting that Zika causes birth defects, science has known of the virus for some time. It’s a deadly and debilitating virus for some newborns, so it’s important to have an accurate picture of the science behind it and the risks of infection. (read more)

[dwaynegodwin]

Addiction is a complex process that begins when the initial abuse of a drug leads to repeated abuse. Many brain systems are affected, but one that seems particularly important involves the mesolimbic dopamine system. Dopamine is often called a “pleasure drug”, but this hides the fact that dopamine has many roles in the brain, including underlying normal movements of the body (Parkinson’s disease is in part a loss of dopamine neurons in circuits of the brain involved in movement). In addiction, the mesolimbic circuitry involved in brain reward is changed by some drugs of abuse, altering the tone of dopamine transmission in a way that leads to cravings for the drug. A full resolution comic can be found here.

[dwaynegodwin]

How do drugs like Viagra(tm) work? Male arousal is a deceptively complex phenomenon, and represents an interesting interaction between the brain and vascular system. The erectile response depends on the right stimulus, which initiates a biochemical cascade that both increases blood flow into the penis, while at the same time reducing the flow of blood out. The main target of drugs like Viagra is PDE5, which is highly expressed in the penis. During an erection, cavernosal nerves from the spinal cord cause an increase in the gaseous neurotransmitter nitric oxide, which stimulates an increase in cyclic GMP. cGMP dilates the penile tissues by relaxing the endothelial cells. PDE5 normally terminates this process, so Viagra’s inhibition of PDE5 prolongs the erectile response - and Bob’s your uncle.  Full size comic here. 

[dwaynegodwin]

Heads in the Cloud.  Transhumanism has come a long way from science fiction to a discussion about endpoints and necessary technical requirements that are based (more or less) on knowledge gained by studying the brain. Skepticism is warranted, but it’s possible to consider whether uploading your brain is achievable, the barriers that remain and whether the hype ultimately matches the promise.

Would you upload your brain to the cloud?

[dwaynegodwin]

Remembering the Future. We have senses for sight and hearing, but where is the brain’s sense of time? Numerous studies point to the brain’s GPS, the hippocampus, which may process the experience of time - and might even let us mentally travel through it to the end of the universe.

[dwaynegodwin]

Humor is one of the most subtle and complex of human behaviors. Where does it originate? Humor appears to engage a network of collaborating regions to perceive an event as humorous, and to act on that through an expression of humor, such as laughing. Because of its role in social bonding and real physiological benefits, it truly is good medicine. The full resolution comic can be found here.