/r/neuro

Photograph via snooOG

/r/neuro, involving neuroscience: Discussion and news pertaining to neurobiology, cognitive studies, clinical neuroscience, the laboratory, and anything else related.

We're a bit laid back here, you're free to post anything about neuroscience as long as it doesn't break the rules. For more academic discussions of journal articles, /r/neuroscience is a great place.

/r/neuro, involving neuroscience: Discussion and news pertaining to neurobiology, cognitive studies, clinical neuroscience, the laboratory, and anything else related.

We're a bit laid back here, you're free to post anything about neuroscience as long as it doesn't break the rules. For more academic discussions of journal articles, /r/neuroscience is a great place.


Community Rules:

1. No personal or health-related discussion

This especially includes medical advice, clarification, diagnosis, and discussion of symptoms, drugs/supplements, medical procedures, etc. but any post containing personal or health discussion may be removed at moderator discretion.

2. Claims must be cited appropriately.

Posts that assert a positive claim about the brain must include a link to a peer-reviewed or pre-print article to support that claim. This rule doesn't apply to questions, speculative discussion that is properly caveated, or very basic neuroscience facts.

If you reference any study or if you post a link to a news article coverage of a paper, you must submit a comment with a direct link to the paper if the article you post doesn't have one.

3. Content must be related to Neuroscience.

If your post is not related to the brain, this is not the community for your post.

4. Site-wide content rules also apply.

No bullying, brigading, doxxing, illegal content, etc. Be nice; we're all humans here.


Some other subreddits you might be interested in:

See also the full list of Psych/Cog/Neuro subreddits.

/r/neuro

119,000 Subscribers

18

AI can't reach what companies tell us because we don't know enough about the brain?

I work in engineering but always was interested in the neuroscience.

Recently, I had a discussing with my co-workers about AI. I firmly believe that AI will not be able to be truly intelligent. Because, we don't really know that much about how our brain truly works.

If we don't know this we can't develop what they promise (like in Sci-fi).

And the AI we see now is basicaly a search engine extender (yes, it's just that trust me i'm an engineer with a solid programming background). You can even ask it this after many rephrases it just tells you so.

All my co-workers have a bunch of money in stocks going up because of AI so they naturally disagree.

From an article/paper I as a non neuroscientist can understand (2023):

The cellular biology of brains is relatively well-understood, but neuroscientists have not yet generated a theory explaining how brains work. (brains means any brain right? so from pigeons to fish to humans?)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10585277/

So what I want to know from actual experts/students is how much do we know about our brain? Is it enough to make a computer model that can "think and have ideas"? (from my software and math friends the answer is probably no right now)

or is the AI stuff having human brain abilities just an empty promise at this point?

I feel like people are either getting too hyped or too scared about AI. I just want some clarity from myself from the neuroscience peeps :)

If this is the wrong place to ask I'm sorry I don't know where to ask this question (reddit is less friendly than I had hoped).

25 Comments
2025/02/02
15:22 UTC

0

How to Use Both Sides of the Brain?

I know that we use both sides of the brain, but what I mean is: how can I become generally ambidextrous? What are the methods? I have a predominance on the left side and would like to develop full efficiency on the right side as well. In fact, I barely feel my right side—I only feel the left—though I can use it normally, just less effectively.

I have congenital hydrocephalus on the left side, which obviously affects the right side since, from what I’ve researched, the brain has a sort of crisscrossed connection. Because of this, I’m not sure if it would be possible for me to become ambidextrous.

3 Comments
2025/02/02
11:45 UTC

3

Fellow Neuro Redditor, Dr. Patel, Discusses Neurology Risks in American Football

0 Comments
2025/01/30
15:41 UTC

16

Why Do We Feel Much More Tired from Lack of Sleep the Day After Tomorrow?

Usually, when being sleep deprived, the effects aren't felt much the following the day. However, the day after is when the fatigue is usually much stronger. What is the reason for this delay from the neuroscientific viewpoint?

9 Comments
2025/01/30
13:47 UTC

1

Question about axon plasticity

In adults does axonal branching/sprouting occur in the cortex in response to learning or is it only in response to injury/disease?

3 Comments
2025/01/29
11:28 UTC

9

The recreation I crave by the end of the day tends to be as mindless as how hard the day was. Why?

I don't mind cooking or reading a novel at noon. But i'd much prefer playing a video game if my free time comes after 8 PM. The preference for games changes as well. As much as I think Baldur's Gate 3 is a superior, richer experience than doing another run of EU4 (a strategy game), i'd want to play EU4 at the evening cause I don't have to read any story or make any decisions and operation of all mechanics is automatic and mindless.

On periods where i've tried to limit my gaming, I noticed the time I'd spent gaming is spent on browsing instagram or YT reels on topics I don't even care about.

Do we have any knowledge on the underlying neurological pathways and substrates which mediate this interesting phenomenon?

11 Comments
2025/01/29
06:45 UTC

3

Why do we have 2 homunculi in the cerebellum (one in anterior lobe and one in lobule 8)?

Pretty much the title. Can anyone point to a paper explaining the need for 2 homunculi in the cerebellum?

4 Comments
2025/01/29
05:57 UTC

0

What will Neuralink (and Neural implants in general) probably be unable to do?

Neuralink is amazing. So far it has allowed quadripeligics to play video games with their minds. Elon Musk is now looking to do Blindsight; using Neuralink to restore sight to the blind. It will be to be determined whether this will work, but it got me wondering. What are some things (in general) that sci-fi promised us with brain implants that probably won't happen?

I was always hoping for controlling electronics with your mind, improving memory and learning speed, uploading knowledge directly into the brain like The Matrix etc etc, but I concede that some of that stuff may not be realistic.

Is there anything that is probably a hard no?

7 Comments
2025/01/29
03:58 UTC

6

What is it about helium that prevents the brain from receiving oxygen retrieval signals via the medulla

A while back I was reading about helium inhalation and one of the things that was noted was that unlike with other gases, some quality of helium essentially prevents the oxygen signals that we usually get when submerged under water, holding our breath, etc. I tried to find the study I was reading it in, but I have since then lost it.

Thank you in advance

2 Comments
2025/01/28
10:47 UTC

5

is sensing “presence” acknowledged as a sense like vision, auditory etc…?

I’m wondering if it’s scientifically acknowledged as a sense, like the other senses that feels a stimuli. Ik there’s a type of hallucination (extracampine) that’s related to this so in a way it’s a defined “feeling” but is it a clinically defined sense

5 Comments
2025/01/28
10:34 UTC

0

In what direction does the brain primarily grow in?

Does it grow vertically or horizontally more? Are there specific things that cause it to grow horizontally or vertically like for example refining motor skills can cause it to grow horizontally while absorbing information and knowledge causes it to grow vertically. Is there any theories on this or anything. Am just curious I have no background in neuroscience LOL.

4 Comments
2025/01/27
15:39 UTC

26

What are the most used programming language in computational neuroscience or just neuroscience in general?

I heard that matlab and python are the most used. Also heard there's R. Would be cool someone can give tips on how to learn these.

18 Comments
2025/01/26
21:27 UTC

0

is LTP and conditioning the same thing?

3 Comments
2025/01/26
08:27 UTC

2

How hppd works (theory)

I've seen little talk about this disorder and I think it will be a huge point of interest in the near future.

I think it has to work with 4 things:

  1. that because the 5ht2a receptors are blocked for so long the brain creates more, making it hyper sensitive.

  2. I also believe it has to do with an imbalance of gaba and glutamate (more glutamate) causing negative cognitive effects.

  3. dysregulation of default mode network, I believe that hppd has to do with rewiring the brain in a different way than the norm.

  4. increased brain activity, specifically in the visual cortex. with the heavy use of psychedelics the brain "learns" to direct more blood/energy to the visual cortex making it try to perceive extra things it doesn't need to, so it makes them up

Let me know if you find any flaws with this theory and please let me know if your own!

8 Comments
2025/01/26
06:51 UTC

27

Book recommandations for a complete beginner in the field

Hello,

I have always been fascinated by how the brain works but never really bothered going deeper

For the following months I will have a lot of free time and I figured it would be a great opportunity to finally dive into the topic

Any recommandations ?

I do not fear maths or physics nor very complex book that would require more time to comprehend

10 Comments
2025/01/23
11:33 UTC

2

Does there have to be a binocular neuron tuned to every disparity? How does that work?

5 Comments
2025/01/23
04:08 UTC

6

Is a single binocular neuron made to receive input from the same receptive field in both eyes, slightly different receptive fields, or several slightly different receptive fields?

2 Comments
2025/01/22
17:19 UTC

1

Schizophrenia and gamma-proteobacteria

Since dysbiosis is hyped, for good reasons to be honest, comparing dysbiotic phyla down to strains across various chronic disorders, gamma-proteobacteria emerge as an interesting trending class. Was a Chinese March 2024 meta-analysis on it, confirming general trends in GPB (and lactobacillus), some AP studies even show reduced proteobacteria overall, indicating antimicrobial effects which are known.

They produce kynurenine, kynurenic acid, polyamines like agmatine, histamine, all quite relevant since their elevations in the brain are well known, and additionally LPS, which can aggravate AT1 receptor activity, AT1 which can cause massive dopamine spikes in the ventral striatum and has been implicated in studies to play a role, reducing cortical acetylcholine release additionally.

And billions of neurons just going poof with wide-scale DNA mutations is also likewise de facto impossible, not really explaining these abnormities.

Minocycline had some good effects here and there, and it seems to have some effects against gamma-proteobacteria.

Interesting or not?

Maybe a more pragmatic frontier than brain-r@ping chemical weapons that holocaust glia cells?

2 Comments
2025/01/22
15:23 UTC

22

Recommendations on books on cognitive neuroscience of memory

Hey everyone!

I got a PhD position in the lab that does memory research (from a cognitive neuroscience perspective), however I'm not that familiar with the field (I got the position because of my technical and neuroscientific skills).

Do you have any recs for some books or textbooks that would be relevant to get into the field?

I did my master's in cog neurosci so I can deal with more complex terminology, that's not an issue.

I'm just looking for something that would give me an overview of the field. Of course, I will be reading some papers too, but I want the intro first.

I want to get an idea of the field since I don't have a specific project, I will have to think of something during that time. It would probably be more fMRI based if relevant but I want the general overview too.

9 Comments
2025/01/22
12:35 UTC

5

What part of temporal lobe does auditory processing?

Auditory processing occurs in the temporal lobe, what region specifically does audio processing?

8 Comments
2025/01/22
12:31 UTC

23

Is my consciousness (sense of self) the result of a one-of-a-kind brain structure?

Hi everyone,

I’m not an expert in neuroscience or philosophy, but I’ve been thinking a lot about consciousness recently, especially after watching videos on neuroplasticity, split-brain experiments, and personal identity. I wanted to throw out an idea and see what the experts here think.

Here’s my hypothesis, which I’m calling the "Fingerprint Theory of Consciousness":

What if our core consciousness—the you who is experiencing life, the constant sense of self that perceives all of our experiences—is tied to a unique neural structure in the brain? In other words, this fixed sense of self that perceives your thoughts, emotions, and actions might be distinct and unique to you, just like a fingerprint. This is the "you" that’s there from birth, independent of the experiences that shape who you are later on.

This theory suggests that if someone’s neural structure were exactly identical to yours—down to the smallest details—it would produce the same fixed sense of self. In this case, the consciousness that "experiences" life would be the same. But if even the smallest difference existed in their neural structure, could that mean they would have a different consciousness and sense of self—one that’s completely distinct, even though they might have the same memories or personality?

In simpler terms, I’m not talking about your personality, your memories, or the experiences that shape you. I’m talking about the underlying sense of self—the "you" that is aware of everything, the one who experiences life. This fixed consciousness, formed by your neural structure, might be unique to each person. So if your neural structure was duplicated exactly, would that other person be you, or would they have a different core consciousness?

This hypothesis ties into a few ideas:

  • Neuroplasticity: Our brains can change over time, but maybe there’s a core neural pattern that stays fixed, maintaining our sense of self and consciousness.
  • Split-brain experiments: Research on split-brain patients shows how changes in brain structure (like severing the corpus callosum) can alter consciousness. Could these structural differences be the key to what defines a unique self-awareness?

I’m not a scientist, but I’m really curious about this idea. If our core consciousness is tied to the brain’s structure, how much of that structure must remain fixed for our unique sense of self to stay the same? And if two people’s brains are exactly the same, would their consciousness be the same?

I’m excited to hear your thoughts! Is there any research that might align with this theory, or has this been explored already in some way? I’d love to learn more from those of you who have expertise in neuroscience or consciousness studies.

Thanks!

10 Comments
2025/01/22
04:48 UTC

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