Tobacco has a long and storied history but its effects on the modern world cannot be ignored. It was hailed as a cure to many ailments for years but as we understand more - we understand that its REALLY bad for you. Something like 80-90% of lung cancer cases are related to smoking along with a plethora of other diseases. 

Curious? Want to learn more about the receptors and brain areas affected by nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes? Come and take a listen!

Also if you have the means/desire to financially support this podcast - please go to https://www.buymeacoffee.com/neuroscience
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Citations and relevant papers are below! 
1907 - Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico, Part I; Frederick Webb Hodge. Internet Archives; Bureau of American Ethnology. Published online January 21, 2019. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/hornbeck_ind_3/3/

Baron JA. Beneficial effects of nicotine and cigarette smoking: the real, the possible and the spurious. British medical bulletin. 1996;52(1):58-73. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a011533

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Effects of Smoking and Tobacco Use. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published February 9, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/health_effects/index.htm#:~:text=Smoking%20causes%20cancer%2C%20heart%20disease

Psychopharmacology 3e Web Box 13.1 - Pharmacology in Action: Why Do Tobacco Plants Make Nicotine? learninglink.oup.com. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://learninglink.oup.com/access/content/psychopharmacology-3e-student-resources/psychopharmacology-3e-web-box-13-1-pharmacology-in-action-why-do-tobacco-plants-make-nicotine

PubChem. Nicotine. Nih.gov. Published 2019. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/nicotine

Holz RW, Fisher SK. Synaptic Transmission. Basic Neurochemistry: Molecular, Cellular and Medical Aspects 6th edition. Published online 1999. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK27911/

Hogg RC, Raggenbass M, Bertrand D. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: from structure to brain function. Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology. 2003;147:1-46. doi:10.1007/s10254-003-0005-1

Taly A, Corringer PJ, Guedin D, Lestage P, Changeux JP. Nicotinic receptors: allosteric transitions and therapeutic targets in the nervous system. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 2009;8(9):733-750. doi:10.1038/nrd2927

Abuse NI on D. How does tobacco deliver its effects? National Institute on Drug Abuse. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/tobacco-nicotine-e-cigarettes/how-does-tobacco-deliver-its-effects

Chen X, Stacy A, Zheng H, et al. Sensations from initial exposure to nicotine predicting adolescent smoking in China: A potential measure of vulnerability to nicotine. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2003;5(4):455-463. doi:10.1080/14622200307239

Laviolette SR, van der Kooy D. The neurobiology of nicotine addiction: bridging the gap from molecules to behaviour. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2004;5(1):55-65. doi:10.1038/nrn1298

Marshall AM, Heffernan T. Smoking harms not just your physical health, but your mental health too. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/smoking-harms-not-just-your-physical-health-but-your-mental-health-too-69021#:~:text=Long%2Dterm%20smokin

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So this week’s episode is all about speech production. Speech is a fundamental way of communicating our needs, desires, threats, resources, etc to our conspecifics. But do you know about the circuits and muscles and brain regions responsible for our ability to physically produce speech?

Curious? Come and take a listen!

Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.

Citations and relevant papers below:

Birds Raised In Complete Isolation Evolve “Normal” Species Song Over Generations. ScienceDaily. Accessed June 6, 2022. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090503132617.htm

Human language may have evolved to help our ancestors make tools. www.science.org. https://www.science.org/content/article/human-language-may-have-evolved-help-our-ancestors-make-tools

Ludlow CL. Central nervous system control of the laryngeal muscles in humans. Respiratory physiology & neurobiology. 2005;147(2-3):205-222. doi:10.1016/j.resp.2005.04.015

Petko B, Tadi P. Neuroanatomy, Nucleus Ambiguus. PubMed. Published 2022. Accessed June 6, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547744/#:~:text=The%20nucleus%20ambiguus%20is%20the

Guy-Evans O. Motor Cortex Function and Location | Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org. Published September 8, 2021. https://www.simplypsychology.org/motor-cortex.html#:~:text=The%20motor%20cortex%20is%20an

Simonyan K. The Laryngeal Motor Cortex: Its Organization and Connectivity. Current opinion in neurobiology. 2014;0:15-21. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2014.05.006

Kearney E, Guenther FH. Articulating: the neural mechanisms of speech production. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. 2019;34(9):1214-1229. doi:10.1080/23273798.2019.1589541

@neurochallenged. Know Your Brain: Broca’s Area. @neurochallenged. https://neuroscientificallychallenged.com/posts/know-your-brain-brocas-area

University of California San Francisco. Speech & Language. Memory and Aging Center. Published 2019. https://memory.ucsf.edu/symptoms/speech-language

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Social media is omnipresent. Mindless scrolling through TikTok and Instagram reels is just a part of our daily lives now. Whether it's cat videos, funny dances, or cool outfits, online content fills our excess time, entertains us, and keeps us connected with our friends and the people we look up to. As my housemate says, sometimes, we’re living in the REEL world, not the REAL world. 

But it's also no secret that too much social media is not very good for our psyche and our brains. Curious why? Come and listen to learn a little bit more about the neuroscience of spending tooooooo much time on InstaSnapTok.

Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.

Citations below:

Börchers S. Your Brain on Instagram, TikTok, & Co – The Neuroscience of Social Media. Published June 29, 2020. https://biologista.org/2020/06/29/your-brain-on-instagram-tiktok-co-the-neuroscience-of-social-media/

Montag C, Markowetz A, Blaszkiewicz K, et al. Facebook usage on smartphones and gray matter volume of the nucleus accumbens. Behavioral Brain Research. 2017;329:221-228. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2017.04.035

Arias-Carrión O, Stamelou M, Murillo-Rodríguez E, Menéndez-González M, Pöppel E. Dopaminergic reward system: a short integrative review. International Archives of Medicine. 2010;3(1):24. doi:10.1186/1755-7682-3-24

Jan M, Soomro S, Ahmad N. Impact of social media on self-esteem. Ssrn.com. Published August 31, 2017. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3030048

Pittman M, Reich B. Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be worth more than a thousand Twitter words. Computers in Human Behavior. 2016;62:155-167. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.084

Will GJ, Rutledge RB, Moutoussis M, Dolan RJ. Neural and computational processes underlying dynamic changes in self-esteem. FeldmanHall O, ed. eLife. 2017;6:e28098. doi:10.7554/eLife.28098

Cacioppo JT, Cacioppo S. The growing problem of loneliness. The Lancet. 2018;391(10119):426. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30142-9

Chunliang Feng, Li Wang, Ting Li, Pengfei Xu, Connectome-based individualized prediction of loneliness, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Volume 14, Issue 4, April 2019, Pages 353–365, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsz020

Alkozei A, Smith R, Pisner DA, et al. Exposure to Blue Light Increases Subsequent Functional Activation of the Prefrontal Cortex During Performance of a Working Memory Task. Sleep. 2016;39(9):1671-1680. doi:10.5665/sleep.6090

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So today's episode is a journal club! Come and listen to get a little taste of what it's like to be in an academic lab!

I will be presenting a paper: Joint coding of visual input and eye/head position in V1 of freely moving mice. It's linked here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.478733v1

This episode is structured so that I chat through the paper, citing specific figures and discussing them in detail. Come and listen if you're interested in learning a little bit more about how positional information (where your head and eyes are) is integrated with visual processing in V1 in a freely moving animal. 

Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.

When I was a kid, I thought two things were going to be much bigger problems in my life than they actually are - quicksand and mad cow disease.

Turns out that they aren't but mad cow disease is still the stuff of science-fiction nightmares. Mad cow disease is caused by the spread of prions, proteins that weaponize our own cells against us and cause proteins to misfold and aggregate, slowly killing neurons throughout the brain. The disease is characterized by rapid and fatal neurodegeneration.

Want to get the shit scared out of you by learning about the truth behind mad cow disease? Come and listen!

Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.

Citations below:

About BSE BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/prions/bse/about.html

Legname G. Elucidating the function of the prion protein. True HL, ed. PLOS Pathogens. 2017;13(8):e1006458. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006458

Jung MJ, Pistolesi D, Panà A. Prions, prion diseases and decontamination. Igiene E Sanita Pubblica. 2003;59(5):331-344. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14981553/

Lanska DJ. The mad cow problem in the UK: risk perceptions, risk management, and health policy development. Journal of Public Health Policy. 1998;19(2):160-183. Accessed April 11, 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9670700/

MRI used to detect vCJD. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2000;163(3):324. Accessed April 11, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC80326/

Macfarlane RG, Wroe SJ, Collinge J, Yousry TA, Jäger HR. Neuroimaging findings in human prion disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 2007;78(7):664-670. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.094821

NHS Choices. Overview - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. NHS. Published 2019. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/

‌Mead S, Khalili-Shirazi A, Potter C, et al. Prion protein monoclonal antibody (PRN100) therapy for Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease: evaluation of a first-in-human treatment programme. The Lancet Neurology. 2022;21(4):342-354. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(22)00082-5

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For the low, low price of $15.95 on Amazon, you can purchase a little spray bottle of pheromones that supposedly will trigger "animal attraction" in your partner. But is it true???

Pheromones are a well-known system of communicating territory, alarms, and sexual needs to other animals but is this system present in humans? We know that smell is an important component of sexual attraction and arousal but human beings seem to lack both the organ and brain region needed to process pheromone information. But maybe???

If you're curious, come and listen to learn a little bit more about what's happening upstairs!

Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.

Citations below:

Jimenez J, Hughes K, Alaks G, Graham L, Lacy R. An experimental study of inbreeding depression in a natural habitat. Science. 1994;266(5183):271-273. doi:10.1126/science.7939661

Keverne EB. The Vomeronasal Organ. Science. 1999;286(5440):716-720. doi:10.1126/science.286.5440.716

Kang N, Baum MJ, Cherry JA. Different Profiles of Main and Accessory Olfactory Bulb Mitral/Tufted Cell Projections Revealed in Mice Using an Anterograde Tracer and a Whole-Mount, Flattened Cortex Preparation. Chemical Senses. 2010;36(3):251-260. doi:10.1093/chemse/bjq120

Wang L, Zhang Z, Chen J, et al. Cell-Type-Specific Whole-Brain Direct Inputs to the Anterior and Posterior Piriform Cortex. Frontiers in Neural Circuits. 2020;14. doi:10.3389/fncir.2020.00004

‌Wedekind, C., Seebeck, T., Bettens, F. and Paepke, A. J. MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. 1995: 260: 245-249

Meredith M. Human Vomeronasal Organ Function: A Critical Review of Best and Worst Cases. Chemical Senses. 2001;26(4):433-445. doi:10.1093/chemse/26.4.433

D’Aniello B, Semin GR, Scandurra A, Pinelli C. The Vomeronasal Organ: A Neglected Organ. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. 2017;11. doi:10.3389/fnana.2017.00070

Rodriguez I, Greer CA, Mok MY, Mombaerts P. A putative pheromone receptor gene expressed in human olfactory mucosa. Nature Genetics. 2000;26(1):18-19. doi:10.1038/79124

Verhaeghe J, Gheysen R, Enzlin P. Pheromones and their effect on women’s mood and sexuality. Facts, Views & Vision in ObGyn. 2013;5(3):189-195. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3987372/

Miller SL, Maner JK. Scent of a Woman. Psychological Science. 2009;21(2):276-283. doi:10.1177/0956797609357733

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Migraines are PAINFUL! And neuroscience speaking - super cool and complicated.  It involves your blood vessels constricting and dilating and your brain going haywire and spreading a wave of neuron depression across your entire cortex.

Sound interesting? Come and take a listen to learn a little bit more about what happens in your brain!

Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.

Citations below:

Headache disorders. www.who.int. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/headache-disorders#:~:text=Half%20to%20three%20quarters%20of

Migraine Headaches: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment & Prevention. Cleveland Clinic. Published March 3, 2021. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/5005-migraine-headaches

Ruthirago D, Julayanont P, Kim J. Translational Correlation. Conn’s Translational Neuroscience. Published online 2017:159-165. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-802381-5.00013-0

Mason BN, Russo AF. Vascular Contributions to Migraine: Time to Revisit? Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. 2018;12. doi:10.3389/fncel.2018.00233

Wikipedia Contributors. Aristides Leão. Wikipedia. Published January 9, 2022. Accessed March 22, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_Le%C3%A3o

Lauritzen M. Pathophysiology of the migraine aura. Brain. 1994;117(1):199-210. doi:10.1093/brain/117.1.199

Schain AJ, Melo-Carrillo A, Stratton J, Strassman AM, Burstein R. CSD-Induced Arterial Dilatation and Plasma Protein Extravasation Are Unaffected by Fremanezumab: Implications for CGRP’s Role in Migraine with Aura. The Journal of Neuroscience. 2019;39(30):6001-6011. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0232-19.2019

Charles A, Brennan K. Cortical Spreading Depression—New Insights and Persistent Questions. Cephalalgia. 2009;29(10):1115-1124. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2982.2009.01983.x

Pietrobon D, Striessnig J. Neurobiology of migraine. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2003;4(5):386-398. doi:10.1038/nrn1102

Eisenstein M. Closing the gender gap in migraine research. Nature. 2020;586(7829):S16-S17. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02867-4

Sutherland HG, Albury CL, Griffiths LR. Advances in genetics of migraine. The Journal of Headache and Pain. 2019;20(1). doi:10.1186/s10194-019-1017-9

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