[Neuro] possible target brain structures for tdcs induced wakefulness

[Anthony Di Franco]

Can anyone recommend reading on sleep/wakefulness that focuses on the role
of the thalamus?
On Dec 15, 2012 5:08 PM, "Jonathan Toomim" <jtoomim at jtoomim.org> wrote:

> Note: I didn't read the article.
>
> The areas of the brain that are most strongly causally related to
> wakefulness (e.g. reticular formation, locus ceruleus; suprachiasmatic
> nucleus of the hypothalamus) are all brainstem or midbrain nuclei. As such,
> they're far from the scalp and not readily targeted with tDCS.
>
>
> On 12/14/2012 12:30 PM, Sarah Tappon wrote:
>
>> FWIW, that paper sets off my sketch alarms because:
>> a) it is published in a journal that isn't even a brain imaging or
>> neuroscience journal, much less a reputable one
>> b) the article name-drops the authors' commercial product spin-off
>> c) the article and abstract are written as though nothing is known
>> about the neurobiology of sleep deprivation and it's breaking new
>> ground, and the study seems exploratory and doesn't mention any
>> hypotheses, which is weird since people have been doing fMRI studies
>> of sleep dep for like a decade now
>> d) they don't relate the brain changes to either self-reported
>> sleepiness or performance on their task (or if they did, they must not
>> have found much, since it isn't in the abstract and it's the obvious
>> thing you'd want to look at).
>>
>> Of course it's hard to say for sure without reading the full study,
>> but given the high proportion of mediocre-to-terrible fMRI work that
>> exists in the world, I recommend always erring on the side of
>> skepticism in these matters.
>>
>> That being said, I think we should try targeting parietal cortex for
>> sure, as it is heavily involved in visual working memory and
>> attention, which interrelate with abstract reasoning and fluid
>> intelligence in all sorts of interesting ways.
>>
>> We can't target thalamus or anterior cingulate because they aren't on
>> the surface of the brain.
>>
>> Tangentially: anterior cingulate is active in basically every fMRI
>> study of every cognitive process ever, so if you ever read any fMRI
>> paper talking about how "ACC activity is associated with blah blah
>> blah!" be aware that that is not telling you much. (See:
>> http://www.sacklerinstitute.**org/cornell/summer_institute/**
>> ARCHIVE/2006/papers/Poldrack/**Poldrack.inpress.trends.pdf<http://www.sacklerinstitute.org/cornell/summer_institute/ARCHIVE/2006/papers/Poldrack/Poldrack.inpress.trends.pdf>
>> which is great and everyone should read!)
>>
>> Sarah
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 3:37 AM, LinkReincarnate
>> <linkreincarnate at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> http://www.medicalnewstoday.**com/releases/253842.php<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/253842.php>
>>>
>>> If we stimulate those sections of the brain would we have a more
>>> noticeable
>>> affect on thought processes?  Is it possible to mitigate the downsides
>>> of a
>>> lack of sleep?
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________**_________________
>>> Neuro mailing list
>>> Neuro at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/**mailman/listinfo/neuro<https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/neuro>
>>>
>>>  ______________________________**_________________
>> Neuro mailing list
>> Neuro at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/**mailman/listinfo/neuro<https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/neuro>
>>
>>
> ______________________________**_________________
> Neuro mailing list
> Neuro at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/**mailman/listinfo/neuro<https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/neuro>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.noisebridge.net/pipermail/neuro/attachments/20121215/e606b79f/attachment-0003.html>