Geminid Meteor Shower

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for the alleviation of pain

Pain is essential for all complex organisms as it minimises tissue and cellular damage, and hence prolongs survival. There are a large amount of people in the world who suffer from pain, in most cases the pain is acute, and can be managed by bed-rest and administration of analgesics such as non-steroid-anti-inflammatory drugs. The pain produced may be inconvenient, but it is incredibly important as it protects the body from any potential or further tissue damage. Pain is extremely subjective; it is thought to be shaped by interactions between expectations and incoming sensory information. It is difficult to treat because the degree of pain that is felt by each individual depends largely on their pain threshold and their sensitivity to pain. There has been extensive research into the pathology and treatment of pain.

A potential therapy for people who suffer from chronic pain is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. This technique has amazing prospects, as it is able to pinpoint specific areas in the cortex for stimulation, thus allowing for the manipulation of certain brain regions. TMS is a non-invasive neurostimulatory and neuromodulatory technique that was initially developed as a diagnostic tool. It has now been shown that repetitive TMS can transiently disrupt neuronal activity, and can modulate cortical excitability (either increasing or decreasing it).

During the TMS procedure, there is a stimulating (round or figure of eight) coil that is held over the subject’s head, thus, producing an electric current via electromagnetic induction. The precise mechanisms are unknown. However, it has been postulated that the electric current, depolarises the neurons causing physiological and behavioural effects depending on the area of brain that is targeted. Subsequent studies have shown that the peak discharge current needs to be several thousand amperes to depolarise the neurons in the brain.

A vast amount of studies have been carried out, using TMS to assess its affect on chronic pain. There has been profound evidence on its ability to cause short term analgesia, however scientists are dubious about the long term effects. Studies have shown that double pulse stimulation of the medial frontal cortex by TMS alleviates pain. Thus, this may be a potential stimulatory target for the relief of pain in patients suffering from chronic pain. Subsequent studies have shown that stimulation of the parietal cortex produced the greatest analgesic effect, and lessened the symptoms in subjects suffering from major depression disorders. Lefaucheur et al. showed that a single session of 10Hz TMS significantly reduced chronic pain for up to 8 days. It has been postulated that carrying out TMS on successive days may result in sustained pain relief and that TMS produces cumulative plastic changes when applied over consecutive days.

TMS seems to have promising results in some circumstances. It may be used as a future tool in alleviating chronic pain, and has been shown to have effects in individuals, who are suffering from depression, severe migraine or even autism.

Theodore Roszak

“Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope.”

Anatomically correct heart illustration

The Colour Wheel of Emotion

The pitfalls of depression have now been labelled with its own colour; the shade of grey to be exact. This to us screams connotations of extreme gloominess and misery, and it seems people who suffer from anxiety or depression agree, as when asked to pick a colour out of several, their first inclination was to choose grey. Colours are often used metaphorically in literature to convey emotion, such as the classic ‘I was feeling a bit blue’. However, there is now scientific interest linked to our colour preferences. Recent research suggests that colours can provide an insight into how we see ourselves, while allowing us to express our emotions more effectively than we would with verbal communication.

Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology Peter Whorwell of the University Hospital in South Manchester says that ‘colours are frequently used to describe emotions such as being green with envy and in the blues’. Whorwell and a team of researchers created a colour wheel of eight colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and brown and then broke them down into four shades of each. They then added black, white and four shades of grey.

Next they recruited 105 healthy adults, 110 anxious adults and 108 depressed adult. The wheel was produced to indicate people’s preferred pigment in accordance to their relative state of mind. The participants were then asked to pick their favourite colour, the colour they were most “drawn to,” and the colour that described their day-to-day mood based over the last several months.  Whether depressed, anxious or healthy, people’s favourite colour was blue and they were most drawn to yellow. However when it came to mood, the groups diverged. The group of people, who were neither anxious nor depressed, clinically speaking, picked yellow to represent their mood; while the anxious/depressed among them preferred grey. According to the researchers, the colour grey implies "a dark state of mind, and a colourless monotonous disinterest in life." However yellow is associated with "happiness, cheerfulness and a positive emotional state."

Whorwell and others are hoping that the colour wheel can be used in the medical field to assess health status/mood and to diagnose depression. The technique may be beneficial in circumstances where the participants cannot effectively communicate verbally, such as withdrawn children, people with communication problems or those of whom English is not their first language.

Robert M. Sapolsky

“I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it.”

Retinal Ganglion Cells

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are neurons that relay signals from therods and cones in the eye to several regions of the brain. This image is of a mouse retina, here the RGCs  “point” to a single direction producing this beautiful image. 

David Attenborough: What A Wonderful World

Okay, so...I have a very unhealthy obsession with Sir David Attenborough... 

David + Wonderful World = very happy me! <3