so today we continued our grad student discussion on our respective lines of research and ideas we'd like to explore in our projects. mike presented a cool paper by montreal neurological institute giant robert zattore, who reviews cellular and molecular changes in the brain with learning. imaging studies of white and grey matter can be just as indicative of plasticity in the brain as examinations of changes and patterns of BOLD activation.
speaking of BOLD signals, what are they really, aside from pretty blobs in research papers? practically, they are the measure of inconsistency (or inhomogeneity if you wanna talk all fancy) of the magnetic field within an fMRI scanner due to changes in blood oxygen level. these changes are brought on by neural activity, which just like any muscle in your body, need oxygen and nutrient rich blood to fuel their electrical activity. that's why more activity (as a result of a given cognitive process) requires more blood, and will show a higher BOLD response in a functional scan. a great summary in the form of lecture slides are available via kerstin preuschoff at the university of zurich.
gaby also presented a paper on differences in cortical activation between expert high jumpers and novice high jumpers (6 weeks of training), when asked to visualize themselves performing this complex sequence of movements. similar to the great work done by our lab on examining cortical activity in expert ballet dancers and non-experts, it appears as though individuals with a high level of physical training can literally change the way their brains' process visualization of behaviour. consequently, this is mediated by the same processes and brain regions that allow us to consciously perceive our own bodies, and embody visually learned behaviour.
this relationship between physical training and expertise is one that i am also interested in... if only i could figure out a doctoral research question that hasn't already been answered... maybe i need to boogie to get some inspiration...
p.
speaking of BOLD signals, what are they really, aside from pretty blobs in research papers? practically, they are the measure of inconsistency (or inhomogeneity if you wanna talk all fancy) of the magnetic field within an fMRI scanner due to changes in blood oxygen level. these changes are brought on by neural activity, which just like any muscle in your body, need oxygen and nutrient rich blood to fuel their electrical activity. that's why more activity (as a result of a given cognitive process) requires more blood, and will show a higher BOLD response in a functional scan. a great summary in the form of lecture slides are available via kerstin preuschoff at the university of zurich.
gaby also presented a paper on differences in cortical activation between expert high jumpers and novice high jumpers (6 weeks of training), when asked to visualize themselves performing this complex sequence of movements. similar to the great work done by our lab on examining cortical activity in expert ballet dancers and non-experts, it appears as though individuals with a high level of physical training can literally change the way their brains' process visualization of behaviour. consequently, this is mediated by the same processes and brain regions that allow us to consciously perceive our own bodies, and embody visually learned behaviour.
this relationship between physical training and expertise is one that i am also interested in... if only i could figure out a doctoral research question that hasn't already been answered... maybe i need to boogie to get some inspiration...
p.