The Half Decent Pharmaceutical Chemistry Blog

Association areas are a distinctive characteristic of human brain. Many animals have motor and sensory cortex which are similar to ours.
What happens in these association regions of our brain is a complex interpretation of inner and outer information, which basically results in our own behaviour.

In particular, the temporal association cortex plays a key role in the identification and recognition of complicated stimuli.
This is not a surprise, considering that here is also located the so-called ventral stream, where our brain processes shape and colour of what the eyes see. In particular, the temporal lobe is the site of V3 and V4 areas.

As for most of the other regions of human brain, the function of the temporal association lobe has been understood with the help of patients who present specific issues in this part.
Prosopagnosis has been crucial, in this very case. This condition consists in the inability to recognize people, even very familiar to us, such as parents and relatives, and it's frequently a consequence of damages in the right inferior temporal lobe.

A milestone in the study of prosopagnosis is the article "CAN WE LOSE MEMORIES OF FACES - CONTENT SPECIFICITY AND AWARENESS IN A PROSOPAGNOSIC", ETCOFF NL; FREEMAN R; CAVE KR, JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE 3 (1): 25-41.
Here is described the case of patient, L.H., who developed prosopagnosis as a consequence of a severe head injury. He could recognize common objects, whether someone was a friend or not and, according to. voice, way of walking, posture, etc., he could even recognize someone's identity. However, when he had to use his visual memory only, he was at a loss.

Studies on monkeys have revealed that in the inferior temporal lobe there are groups of neurons whose frequency of action potentials is hugely increased when another monkey's face is shown.
These cells have the organization of those, simpler, present in the visual primary cortex (V1) for detecting the orientation of objects. Both types describes functional columns. It's easy to understand that, while the columns in V1 are innate, those which deal with faces develop according to our experiences (which, here, means life).
Each column, for example, have cells which are sensitive to the orientation of the face.

Interestingly, the studies with rhesus have shown that these cells won't increase their activity if we show the monkey an image containing parts of a real face and others, taken from, say, tools, in order to create a fake.

What is still unknown is how our brain actually recognize the different faces, but it's possible that different groups of neurons react varying their potential, according to the differences of shapes of our visage.

Boring Saturday night: staying home, watching the football match on TV (Italy v. Ukraine, I think) and trying to kill my headache.

Journalists are on strike here, so, the match is broadcasted without anyone telling exactly what you are seeing or giving you priceless information about players' nicknames.
This afternoon I studied how our auditory system works.
I find interesting the difference between sound wave and sound. Our brain detects the former, while sound should be defined as the perception of amplitude, frequency and  complexity of the wave.
To sum up, there is no sound without a centrel nervous system interpreting it. No music, no word, nothing.

Basically, the auditory system can be divided in three parts: ear, auditory nerve pathway and central auditory system.
Ear is composed by outer, middle and inner ear. Pinna and ear canal help sound waves to reach the inner parts. Then, these waves of pressure become liquid wave: the tympanum vibrates and, thanks to malleus, incus, and stapes, the stimulus is amplified.
Another membrane, called the oval window, allow the mechanical vibration to reach the cochlea, which is located in the labyrinth. Here is situated the organ of Corti: on top of it, there is a membrane, whose vibration moves hair cells.

These hair cells present mechanically gated ion channels: when they move, more potassium and calcium ions enter, resulting in a depolarization. This increases the quantity of neurotransmitters released, which react with the receptors on the membrane of primary sensory neurons (the ratio is 1:1).

Now, the mechanical stimulus has been converted into potential energy, which is carried by the vestibulocochlear nerve, until the left cochlear nucleus. Next step is the superior olive: from now on, the information goes to both brains (left and right, which has led to two theories that try to explain how we can understand where the sound came from).
Then, the message reaches the right inferior colliculus and, subsequently, medial geniculate nucleus.
The final step of this pathway is the temporal lobe, where, in the superior temporal gyrus, the primary auditory cortex is.

Frequency is determined by the position of the activated receptors: the closer to the oval window, the higher the frequency.
Amplitude by the amount of neurotransmitters. Complexity is analyzed by some of the cells of the primary auditory cortex, which have solely this task.

Oh, well, I've just realised, once again, I haven't talked about chemistry, but looking at the latest Nobel prize for chemistry...I'm probably on the right track for a successful career, eh?

A little bit about me: I love cycling. It makes me feel free and it's extremely useful if your university is in the centre of the town.
When I arrived in Amsterdam, last July, I immediately bought a half decent city bike. It was nice because I didn't opt for a stolen one: I managed to buy a used bike, legally and, maybe more surprisingly, on Sunday.
I can't tell how much I paid for it since it's still there and a friend of mine, who works at the VU medical centre, is trying to sell it.
Here is the bike. Isn't it a beauty?

My friend has approximately ten months during which she will try to sell it to anyone (I suggested students there for interships). Well, I think she hasn't moved it yet: in fact, I left it locked in a very good position.
Amazingly, this means that, if you go to Amsterdam, you can actually visit it. And there's more.

This is the building in which I worked, during my stage, this summer. And (I know what you're thinking!) it's not ANY red and blue building. This is a masterpiece. It was designed by the famous MVRDV group.
Ok, I didn't know them either, and, I'm sure, if I hadn't had a friend studying architecture, I would have never ever said that building was cool. At first sight it looked like a box of shoes, but we should all be glad that science can be done in such a posh place.

Unfortunately, I left in Amsterdam the template I created for this web site too. This means, since my account on that computer has already been deleted, I'll have to design a new one, de novo-style. Considering my lack of time, at the moment, well, you'd better get used to this grey-sh nightmare...

Where you read and see things no one tells or shows you

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first issue of The Half Decent Pharmaceutical Chemistry Blog.

Some of you may have followed the development of this blog throughout the summer, when a beta-testing phase was going on.

Now, the time for tests is over and I'll start with the tough, real, hot and cool stuff.

I'd like to thank Mitch, supremo of ChemicalForums.com, for giving me a place where I can show what my life is all about. With his help, I'll try in the next few days to smart up this place.

For the moment, thank you for visiting my blog and see you soon.

Now, in this very first post I should talk about myself, my life, my interests, the reason(s) that made me decide to begin blogging.

However, everybody does it and this would make this a very boring blog: too common, too organized...too logic.

This is my second blog. Yes, I began blogging many years ago, when I was a (nerd) teenager. That was a very crazy blog.

However, the point is that it was one of the first blog ever. I mean, the word blog was still unknown!

So, given that I'm not a newbie, I hope to write something interesting here.

You, reader, may think I'll solely write about chemistry. Well, you are wrong. But don't worry: you don't know me. Yet.

Chemistry will obviously be a central theme here, but it will often be a starting point for discussing things that seem to have nothing to do with (pharmaceutical) chemistry.

That's it for what concerns the introduction. I hope you'll enjoy my blog.