Neuroinflammation: the doubled edged sword of the brain
April 4, 2023
By Ryan Duffy, 4th Year Neuroscience MSci Inflammation is a biological process that is critical in the defence of an organism and enables repair and recovery from damage to tissues. Inflammation is very common, and it occurs in many different species including humans. Inflammation can occur when we damage part of our body either through …
Dancing to defy Parkinson’s Disease
February 28, 2023
By Argyro Philippidou, 3rd Year Neuroscience BSc As a professional dancer and a soon to be neuroscientist, it would be inevitable that my passion for dance and movement collide with my drive for how the brain works. Moving to a beat, jiving, locking, and grooving on the dancefloor helps heal a person both physically and …
A non-pharmacological approach to treating Alzheimer’s Disease
By Argyro Philippidou, 3rd Year Neuroscience BSc I came across this treatment technique this summer during my internship. It’s called TMS which stands for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. What it does it sends magnetic pulses through a handheld controller which is projected on the designated brain region a scientist would want to stimulate. So how could …
Breathing oxygen may be the new treatment for chronic pain
By Argyro Philippidou, 3rd Year Neuroscience BSc Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) is not a treatment you commonly or routinely hear. It actually has the potential to be an alternative therapy to any disease in which cell regeneration and decrease of inflammation are the therapeutic targets. A close person of mine has undergone HBOT for their …
The highs and lows of opioid use: learning from the north American opioid epidemic
By Ryan Duffy, 4th Year Neuroscience MSci Opioids are a class of drugs that interact with the endogenous opioid system, to either activate or deactivate its impact on bodily sensations or psychological states. Endogenous means that our body must make compounds that activate this system, and indeed they do. Endorphins is one of the major …
Psychedelic Therapy: Unlocking an Alternative Path to Treating Depression
February 15, 2023
By Ryan Duffy, 4th Year Neuroscience MSci Psychedelics are type of illicit drug that known to trigger alter states of consciousness, and the user may experience “trips”. In 1973, psychedelic substances were placed as a schedule 1 substance, meaning that the intriguing nature of psychedelics could not be explored by scientists as they were deemed …
Immunohistochemistry in Neuroscience
April 9, 2021
By Emma Gow, 3rd Year Neuroscience BSc Neuroscience is a complex and ever-growing field of science, requiring constant research to understand how the brain functions. We will never completely understand every aspect of the brain, but there is a great effort from the scientific community to expand our knowledge of such a complex but fascinating subject. …
New research from the School of Life Sciences shows promise in the fight against cognitive decline
February 22, 2021
By Emma Gow, 3rd Year Neuroscience BSc Cognition is the combination of many mental processes that lead to the acquisition of knowledge or understanding. This can include the functions of conceptual understanding, reasoning, written and verbal communication, problem solving, memory, attention, and participation in the community [1]. Cognitive functions are obviously very important in everyday …
How anxiety may impact our future health
January 21, 2021
Written by Emma Gow, 3rd Year Neuroscience BSc Anxiety is a relatively common disorder that normally affects around 5% of people in the UK [1], which appears to have increased due to the introduction of a national lockdown during the current COVID-19 pandemic [2]. These circumstances present us with the challenge of ensuring that we …
Myelin: An unknown saviour for the brain
March 23, 2020
By Sakaorna Jeyanathan During my final year of my degree in neuroscience, I have delved into the function of myelin in a lot of detail1. Myelin is an important membrane structure of the brain which is made from fats and acts as an insulating and protective layer for neurones2. It also increases the speed of …
