Podcast Review: Nature Neuropod Oct 28th 2009

In the 28th October edition of the Nature Neuropod, Kerri Smith interviews researchers who have published recent interesting research in the field of neuroscience. In one of the interviews Smith talks with researcher Ted Abel who has identified a cyclic AMP signalling pathway that is modified in the hippocampus during sleep deprivation such that the levels of phosphdiesterase-4, which degrades cAMP are increased. Further when this pathway was blocked, sleep deprivation-related memory impairment was reversed. There may be therapeutic implications pending further research. There is also an interview with Professor Pasko Rakic who has been looking at the evolution of the central nervous system in mammals. There is  a fascinating interview with Eve Marder about individual differences in the central nervous systems of crabs, moving away from the paradigm of averaging group properties. This question of the difference between individual and group properties is an important one which is relevant to many different areas of research in the life sciences including clinical sciences (see for instance the paper reviewed in this article). There is also a look at research on place cells – which code for spatial locations. The slow pace and clearly enunciation work well for the complex material that is carefully explained for the listeners.

 

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