Encephalon #13

Welcome to Encephalon # 13!!!! Unlucky though it may be, we're up and running (and better late than never). I have to apologize to Encephalon readers, I've been trying to deal with my position being on the chopping block out of the blue. Yes, Virginia, the government doesn't offer job security either.

The next edition will be on 15th January at Mixing Memory, and not on New Year's Day as previously scheduled.

So let's get down to bidness!

We'll kick off with a post on FAK and Control of Axon Guidance, where Migrations comments on a relatively recent paper in Nature Neuroscience by Robles and Gomez, which brought together the related topics of growth cone guidance, cell-ECM adhesions, lamellipodia and filopodia stabilization/turnover, and focal adhesion kinase.

Conservation Finance brings us a post about the Borna Disease Virus, which can elicit depression and bipolar disorder in those it infects.

Fibromyalgia Research Blog presents Chronic Back Pain Linked To Changes In The Brain posted at The Fibromyalgia Research Blog.

From Gene Expression we get synaptic joy and bliss, particularly relating to PSD95-Spines posted at Gene Expression.

Architect of Encephalon, the Neurophilosopher, has a couple posts as well. One is The Quantum Mechanics of Smell, and has some provocative implications. The other addresses sexual overdrive after head injury, and raises a provocative issue of a different sort (ignore the puns).

Ouroboros tells us about prion diseases and implications for neurodegenerative disease.

Caroline Latham presents New Brain Fitness Guide posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution and Two Feet of Free Therapy posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution.

Peripersonal Space tells us about post-surgical recovery of motion perception and long-term memory for pictures.

Jake Young presents Background to Sen. Tim Johnson's Condition posted at Pure Pedantry and Presynaptic Vesicles are Hemifused posted at Pure Pedantry.

The Neurophilosopher has another post to go along with Jake's post on presynaptic vesicles here.

Next on The Mouse Trap, Sandy G brings up Moral Intuitions
and introduces a new type of moral dilemma problem (the airplane problem) and discusses how our intuitions regarding the solution may be reflective of the moral reasoning that we employ to arrive at ethical decisions.

The Neurocritic brings up Oxytocin and Mind Reading and then tells us why we should learn to trust our own eyes

Sunil of Musings On Neurology And Lenitives In Simplistic Art
submits a post on ethical dilemmas.

And to top it off, Bora of A Blog Around the Clock submits a post on a new circadian pacemaker in the brain.

That's all she wrote, folks! Have a great holiday and travel safely!