Remember Craig Bennett's fMRI scanning of a dead salmon and the detection of "brain activity"? If not, here's a refresher: http://www.wired.com/2009/09/fmrisalmon/
There is a new study out that looks at brain activity in mice during locomotion and it finds that not all neural areas that are active increase their blood flow (which is a key measure in fMRI). The reference for the article is: Huo BX, Smith JB, Drew PJ, (2014). Neurovascular coupling and decoupling in the cortex during voluntary locomotion. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(33), 10975-10981. The abstract and the full article (if you have a sub; use your school's) are available here: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/33/10975.abstract I was alerted to this article by a mass media article about it on the "Science News" website, however, this article is behind a paywall ($50 for a sub to access it) and is not yet available through NYU's library (maybe if I were on campus but I digress). You may have better luck than I: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/busy-neurons-don%E2%80%99t-always-draw-blood Here's the funny part: I came across the Science News article this morning and then went to the website for the Journal of Neuroscience but they did not make available the August 13's issue until this afternoon (the link in the Science News article did not work this morning but I assume it works now, that is, the doi url is now enabled). Anyway, the lesson appears to be that one should be using cautious in using blood flow as an indicator of cognitive activity in the brain because neural activity does not apparently always need increased blood flow (at least under these conditions; you are free to speculate on how general this result may be). Also, sometimes one may have to wait to get access to primary sources because they may be embargoed for the general public but available to others (e.g., news reporters); one will not have the primary source available to verify the mass media account. I think this means one should learn to cultivate patience. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=37919 or send a blank email to leave-37919-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
