Our pediatric grand rounds topic last week was MELAS syndrome, a mitochondrial genetic disorder characterized by neurological and muscular symptoms like ataxia and fatigue, respectively. MELAS is an acronym for: mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, stroke-like symptoms. As with typical mitochondrial inheritance patterns, MELAS is passed maternally (from mother to children), although rare cases of new mitochondrial mutations have been documented. Read more  

As part of a Baylor Med neuroscience study assessing the relationship between empathy and memory, I got paid $35 to answer some questions and receive a brain MRI this afternoon. I exported the sequence of images (192 in total) as a video. Read more  

Delirium is a neuropsychiatric condition characterized by an acute, fluctuating course, and changes in one’s arousal and attention span. In other words, a patient may seem fine in the morning, have virtually no attention span during afternoon rounds, and be back to normal by dinner time. Conditions like Alzheimer’s are more chronic and gradual, so they’re not categorized as “delirium”, per se, although a decrease in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine has been implicated in both cases.  Read more  

If you’re even remotely interested in the human brain, please take ten minutes to watch this fantastic lecture by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran on “mirror neurons.”

We’ve all heard stories of seniors showcasing incredible feats of detailed memory recall from their childhood after receiving electroshock therapy. How about savants like Kim Peek who effortlessly digest volumes of information with inconceivable retention, even over extended periods of time. How exactly do we learn, store, and recall things as we move through life? Read more  

I’m pretty sure no one has ever been this excited to start head and neck anatomy, but I am. However nerdy it sounds, I’ve been looking forward to block 4 (head/neck, pathology, immunology, and pharmacology) since, well, the beginning of block 1. As you would imagine, it’s the extensive study of the brain which I’m anticipating more than anything else. Read more  

Probably the world’s most famous savant, Kim Peek, a confounding mixture of brilliance and disability, has sadly passed away at age 58. Most of us have either heard about him with respect to the hit movie Rain Man or in one of his exhibitions of jaw-dropping knowledge retention and recall (as shown below). His story, along with the handful of others with “savant syndrome”, was one of the factors motivating me to study the brain. It’s remarkable how much three pounds of biology can accomplish. Rest in peace, Kim Peek.

With all due respect to his family, I wonder if/how Kim’s brain will be studied post-mortem. It would be an incredible contribution to science indeed.

I know I’ll get bashed for this, but before beginning the next block (head and neck), I’d like to take a moment to write about why I think the brain is the singlemost important organ in the body. Read more