Fun neuroplasticity story: In my biomedical engineering seminar we had a professor in who was involved with the development of a laser vision correction system. Their first human tests were safety and basic efficacy studies done in people who were 'brain-blind', meaning that their eyes were fully functional but they had some kind of damage to the visual centers in their brains that left them totally without sight. Oddly enough, following the treatment to their eyes, a number of them regained some proportion of their vision. The explanation? As best as anyone could tell, although they understood when they gave consent that the treatment wouldn't help them, they still unconsciously believed that something had been done... and their brains went along with it, remapping the input from their eyes.
Diappointingly, none of these links actually included any sort of reference to the scientific literature. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find one: "Oscillations in NF-kappaB signaling control the dynamics of gene expression", Science. 2004 Oct 22;306(5696):704-8. You can find the abstract on pubmed, and if you or your institution happens to have a subscription to Science you can read it online. Looking at the abstract, it seems like the morse code analogy is not very accurate: gene transcription is dependent on oscillation frequency of a transcription factor, but there doesn't seem to be any encoding in the signal in the manner of morse code.
Slashdot Mirror
Whaddaya mean, what's next?
Please don't be offended at the subject, it is intended in the best spirit of Wicked Witch of the West broom-riding cackling.
Fun neuroplasticity story: In my biomedical engineering seminar we had a professor in who was involved with the development of a laser vision correction system. Their first human tests were safety and basic efficacy studies done in people who were 'brain-blind', meaning that their eyes were fully functional but they had some kind of damage to the visual centers in their brains that left them totally without sight. Oddly enough, following the treatment to their eyes, a number of them regained some proportion of their vision. The explanation? As best as anyone could tell, although they understood when they gave consent that the treatment wouldn't help them, they still unconsciously believed that something had been done... and their brains went along with it, remapping the input from their eyes.
Diappointingly, none of these links actually included any sort of reference to the scientific literature. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find one: "Oscillations in NF-kappaB signaling control the dynamics of gene expression", Science. 2004 Oct 22;306(5696):704-8. You can find the abstract on pubmed, and if you or your institution happens to have a subscription to Science you can read it online. Looking at the abstract, it seems like the morse code analogy is not very accurate: gene transcription is dependent on oscillation frequency of a transcription factor, but there doesn't seem to be any encoding in the signal in the manner of morse code.