Day 3: Conscious visual perception is not continuous. The state of the brain fluctuates periodically and these fluctuations influence visual perception at any given time, making it more or less likely that a stimulus “breaks through”. In other words, we don’t necessarily perceive the world continuously, but more in a chunk-like manner determined by the frequency of these fluctuations.

#ShyButSharing365 #NeuroFactoid #neuroscience #science #perception #consciousness #vision #alpha #brain

Day 2: The classical, textbook view is that information from the senses gets processed in dedicated areas of the brain and only then gets integrated somewhere upstream. But that’s not quite accurate.

The primary visual cortex, for example, also processes information from other senses, from the motor system, and even from motivational systems. Although less studied, other primary cortices also appear to process multiple types of information.

As someone who loves order, it’s a bit disappointing that the segregation between modalities is not so neat after all. But it’s also pretty cool to think about the brain as a network where information is constantly integrated from the very early stages of perception, and to consider how prior experience could shape it at such a low level.

#ShyButSharing365 #neuroscience #perception #network #integration #science

I usually don’t share anything online unless I’ve ruminated on it over and over and over again until words lose their shape. But it’s occurred to me that it’s not the healthiest attitude. (What a shocker, right?)

I’d like to grow out of it, and what better way to make sure I stick to it than a public commitment? So I hereby challenge myself to share one random neuro factoid a day for 365 days. That seems like a good number.

No polishing, no checking and re-checking and digging through 20 papers until I’m sure that’s the consensus. And most importantly, finding a way to get rid of that pressure in my chest that makes me think my whole life will collapse if I’m *whispers* wrong.

So here goes nothing.

Day 1: synapses don’t just go in the direction axon -> dendrite, but they can also be between dendrite -> soma, dendrite -> dendrite, and even axon -> axon, among others. Might seem trivial, but I remember casually mentioning this in a conversation with a physicist and it completely blew their mind. *small nod to domain expertise*

And because community activities are usually more fun, if anyone else wants to do a similar sharing challenge, feel free to use the hashtag #ShyButSharing365

#NeuroFactoid #neuroscience #introvert #facts