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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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. First of all, let’s define “death.” It varies from state to state,…