Podcast Review: UCLA GrandRounds Presentation on Genetics and Late-Life Depression
The podcast reviewed here is another in the University of California in Los Angelos grandround podcasts. This could more properly be called a videocast. This episode focuses on the genetics of late life depression and is presented by Associate Professor Warren Taylor. The audio and video quality are both of a high standard and I found it easy to focus on the content of the presentation. Taylor looks at a number of the risk factors for and associations with late life depression. He then focuses in particular on the genetic associations suggesting along the way that these might be indirect, mediated through vascular pathways for example. Taylor then discusses some of his own unpublished research going through some of the primary outcome data as well as the exploratory analysis. I thought this was a useful overview of an expanding area of research. I’ve been impressed by the UCLA grandround podcasts and like the Maudsley debates which are also available in podcast format this seems to offer a very useful model for psychiatry departments to communicate information about some of their activities. This opens up a number of other possibilities that range from seeing what people in the field are doing through to gaining overviews of a more specialised area of interest. It will be interesting to see if this podcasting approach expands into other departments. This episode is another interesting addition to the series.
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Podcast
You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast).
Responses
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Disclaimer
The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.
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.
You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link
Podcast
You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast).
Responses
If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk
Disclaimer
The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.
