i'm still alive and it's time to get back to business.
this week's joeLab Journal Club was a brief meeting about what our grad students are up to. although i have yet to decide on a specific research question (which is frustrating but exciting at the same time, since possibilities seem endless), i have become increasingly interested in questions relating to consciousness, embodiment, and how these cortical representations differ among individuals. so i presented an article by Arzy, Thut, Mohr, Michel, and Blanke (2006) on the neural basis of embodiment. they showed differential activations of the extrastriate body area (EBA - which responds selectively to images of bodies and body movement) and tempoparietal junction (TPJ - which is involved in self processing and multimodal integration of body related info). depending on whether subjects were mentalizing about a stimulus from their own body-centered perspective (activating the EBA) or an external, disembodied (TPJ) self location, differences in cortical activation were found. additionally, these activations were modulated based on the subjects' body position; in an upright seated position, stronger bilateral activation of the EBA was demonstrated, which has important implications for interpreting the results of studies that have experimental subjects sitting upright (as is common in MEG and EEG studies) or laying supine (as commonly seen in fMRI studies).
it was also great to hear from samantha, who is a graduate student in the biology department, whose research focuses on attentional mechanisms in relation to desynchronization of circadian rhythms. this has always been an interesting field of research to me, as circadian rhythms are well known to have pervasive effects on mental and physiological processes. she shared a great review paper on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of circadian rhythms, which is a worthwhile summary for any interested readers to check out!
more updates to come!
p.
this week's joeLab Journal Club was a brief meeting about what our grad students are up to. although i have yet to decide on a specific research question (which is frustrating but exciting at the same time, since possibilities seem endless), i have become increasingly interested in questions relating to consciousness, embodiment, and how these cortical representations differ among individuals. so i presented an article by Arzy, Thut, Mohr, Michel, and Blanke (2006) on the neural basis of embodiment. they showed differential activations of the extrastriate body area (EBA - which responds selectively to images of bodies and body movement) and tempoparietal junction (TPJ - which is involved in self processing and multimodal integration of body related info). depending on whether subjects were mentalizing about a stimulus from their own body-centered perspective (activating the EBA) or an external, disembodied (TPJ) self location, differences in cortical activation were found. additionally, these activations were modulated based on the subjects' body position; in an upright seated position, stronger bilateral activation of the EBA was demonstrated, which has important implications for interpreting the results of studies that have experimental subjects sitting upright (as is common in MEG and EEG studies) or laying supine (as commonly seen in fMRI studies).
it was also great to hear from samantha, who is a graduate student in the biology department, whose research focuses on attentional mechanisms in relation to desynchronization of circadian rhythms. this has always been an interesting field of research to me, as circadian rhythms are well known to have pervasive effects on mental and physiological processes. she shared a great review paper on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of circadian rhythms, which is a worthwhile summary for any interested readers to check out!
more updates to come!
p.