In this week’s SCIENCE–researchers at Iowa and USC find that individuals with focal stroke injuries to the insula suddenly lose all interest in their smoking addictions. I haven’t seen the actual article yet, just the news reports (I link to the NY Times article), but I’m always cautious about such discoveries which purport to link a part of the brain to some salient aspect of human mental experience (e.g. the pleasure center). Nora Volkow, director of NIDA at NIH calls the discovery “mind-boggling”.

Jim

I commend to you the very interesting debate going on in the blogosphere between neuroscience doctoral student Sam Harris (author of The End of Faith) and Andrew Sullivan (famed of The New Republic). Click on the link at the top for the latest from Sullivan.

Jim

I had the pleasure of walking through the new Krasnow expansion today on a tour with one of our faculty-position finalists. It was incredible to see all the wonderful new space for research!

And our finalists themselves so far are so very impressive! Three new PI’s will join Krasnow in the Fall!

Jim

This afternoon, snow is finally falling here in Washington. Tomorrow the Spring semester officially begins at George Mason University where I work. It’ll be nice to see the students back, although I must say the traffic situation around campus this past month has been delightful. As the new term begins, I am reminded of how as an undergrad at Amherst College, I loved flying from Los Angeles, back across the United States into the snowy winter of western Massachusetts because of the promise of a new beginning and the excitement of learning new things.

Here at Krasnow, we’re looking forward to the new term and the promise of learning new things also.

Jim

I have long been interested in the science of biologicals (organic chemicals that occur naturally in biological systems) as therapeutic agents. Over the years there have been many such stories–probably the strongest evidence is found in the fish oil story within the context of cardiovascular disease. But here (click on the link above) is a new/old wrinkle: turmeric (think mustard and Indian food) as a preventative for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Jim

Today we commence the Krasnow interview portion of the simultaneous searches that are underway for junior-level faculty neuroscience positions at George Mason. I’m really looking forward to spending some time with the first of our candidates.

There are also some potential opportunities for more senior investigators here given the new expansion space and I’d informally urge individuals who may be interested to contact me directly.

Jim

The Chronicle flames the new US government grants portal. Lots of good points in my opinion.

Jim

The picture is of the Layne Kalbfleisch’s talk–the last scientific talk of Day 2.

We ended the first day of the retreat with a lively discussion about
the definition of “mind”. What’s difficult of course is to approach
something that is so clearly ultimately dependent upon introspection
(we’re really only sure that we ourselves have a mind) with a data-
driven, hypothesis testing approach. I brought up the notion that
practically we need to consider mind operationally: what it will take
to build machines that can pass the Turing Test. Or to be more
specific: what will be inside those machines that will allow them to
manifest mind.

This morning, we are beginning with a talk on the study of Stroke
using brain imaging methodologies and crucially computational
approaches to modeling blood flow non-invasively. This is a very
exciting project that is an on-going collaboration between Inova
Fairfax Hospital and our own Juan Cebral. We’ll go till about noon
today with a series of talks and then go into a session with just the
PI’s to discuss the Krasnow scientific program writ large.

Jim

I’m live blogging from the 3rd Annual Krasnow Scientific Retreat. As with previous years, this is the time during the year when the entire Krasnow scientific family (PI’s, trainees and staff) gather off-site to hear short talks on all of the Institute’s scientific programs. This year the theme is “mind” ( as preparation for our upcoming Decade of the Mind Symposium), but frankly we’re beginning at the level of origin of life work funded by the NSF and over the next two days will be working our way towards higher cognition.

I find this retreat incredibly useful because it not only informs me about each research group’s latest research findings, but also because it enables me to see overall where the actual scientific intersections in the Institute’s overall science portfolio.

But if I find the retreat useful, I think it’s even more useful for our scientific staff because it provides the seed corn for future collaborations.

Jim

Kudos to Jane Wendelin for being named Mason Employee of the Month for January. Jane runs our business operations and we’re all very very proud of her accomplishments.

The gentleman giving her the award is George Mason President Alan G. Merten.

Jim