Neuroscience Blog

Brain - Neuroscience Research Team.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Neuroscience Desktop Wallpapers

Posted by brain - research neuroscience group

These days we've been working on some Neurology, Neuroscience, Brain theme wallpapers. Also we've made a little application for you to find your desktop (monitor) dimensions. Get the right image size for your monitor!




Click on the "0" in the application to get your monitor height and width. The wallpapers are in 2 dimensions formats: usual screen and wide screen. For example, if your monitor is 1024X768, it is best for you to choose the wallpaper in the 1600 X 1200 category. If your monitor is wide - 1360 X 768, it is best for you to choose the 1440 X 900 wallpaper category.

Click on the image---> then left click on your mouse----> "save image as", and choose the folder where you want to save the image. Then set up it as a desktop background. There are many ways to set up an image as wallpaper (desktop background). If you are not sure how to do it, I found on the net a clear tutorial here . Here is another very good tutorial.

Tehnical aspects (you may not need this details) : images for the wide screen are created to fit without distorsion on your wide monitor, keeping an 1:1 pixel aspect ration. So they simply have more pixels on the "X" axis. :), instead to be created with a different pixel aspect ratio. Our images are at 1:1 pixels aspect ratio. To find more about computer display go here (wikipedia). More on screens here

Finally, our team, proudly presents :) Claudiu's wallpapers

1600 X 1200 (or less) neuroscience, neurology wallpapers:neurology wallpaperneuroscience wallaper1440 X 900 (or less) Neurology, neuroscience, brain research wallpapers

neurology brain desktop wallpaperbrain research wallpaperCopyright: you can use these images for personal purposes. You are not allowed to sell, modify or use these images or parts of them in commercial purposes. You can redistribute these images or use them in public display as long as you keep the logos on the images. Link back to this post.

more 3D images and graphic design
or on 3D art graphic design portofolio

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Spinal Cord Injury, Dendritic Spines and Rac 1

Posted by brain - research neuroscience group


Spinal cord injury (SCI) could determine dendritic spines remodeling and can contribute to neuronal hyperexcitability and neuropathic pain through synaptic changes. Synaptic plasticity induced by SCI may appear in the spinal cord dorsal horn and may contribute to pain maintenance [1,2]. SCI increases Rac1 mRNA expression, which remains elevated for up to 3 months [3]. A role of Rac1, in neuropathic pain after SCI is not studied enough. Rac1 can modulate dendritic spine morphology and function [4, 5]. Andrew M. Tan et al (2008) applied the Rac1-speci­fic inhibitor NSC23766 in order to study the effect of synaptic remodeling in neuropathic pain after SCI. Rac1-speci­fic inhibitor NSC23766 blocks guanine exchange factors (GEFs), Trio and Tiam1. Inhibition of the Rac1 signaling cascade ameliorated the development of abnormal spine morphologies, reduced neuronal excitability, and normalized nociceptive thresholds. [6] PSD-95 expression is a marker of sites of synapse plasticity. Expression of PSD-95 is increased signifi­cantly in injured spinal cord tissue compared with uninjured controls [6]. NSC23766 treatment reduces PSD-95 levels below that of uninjured levels . Cortactin levels did not signifi­cantly change after NSC23766 treatment compared with intact animals. Dendritic spine density increases after SCI. In SCI plus veh animals (0.9% saline), the density of spines signifi­cantly shift toward the cell body compared with the spine density distribution in intact animals. An increase in spine density and redistribution of spine location relative to the cell body, and increases in spine length and head diameter after SCI occurs after SCI in dorsal horn neurons.

1 .Woolf CJ, Shortland P, Coggeshall RE (1992) Peripheral nerve injury triggers central sprouting of myelinated afferents. Nature 355:75–78.
2. Kim BG, Dai HN, McAtee M, Vicini S, Bregman BS (2006) Remodeling of synaptic structures in the motor cortex following spinal cord injury. Exp Neurol 198:401– 415.
3. Erschbamer MK, Hofstetter CP, Olson L (2005) RhoA, RhoB, RhoC, Rac1, Cdc42, and Tc10 mRNA levels in spinal cord, sensory ganglia, and corticospinal tract neurons and long lasting specific changes following spinal cord injury. J Comp Neurol 484:224 –233.
4. Nakayama AY, Harms MB, Luo L (2000) Small GTPases Rac
and Rho in the maintenance of dendritic spines and branches in hippocampal pyramidal neurons. J Neurosci 20:5329–5338.
5. Wiens KM, Lin H, Liao D (2005) Rac1 induces the clustering of AMPA receptors during spinogenesis. J Neurosci 25:10627–10636.
6. Andrew M. Tan, Severine Stamboulian, Yu-Wen Chang, Peng Zhao, Avis B. Hains,2 Stephen G. Waxman, and Bryan C. Hains, Neuropathic Pain Memory Is Maintained by Rac1-Regulated Dendritic Spine Remodeling after Spinal Cord Injury, The Journal of Neuroscience, 28(49):13173–13183 13173


For more about the relation between

Spinal cord injury and Rac1 ,

Dendritic Spines and PSD ,

Rho family of GTPases,

Actin Regulatory Pathways,

Dorsal Horn Neuronal Network and

Medication in SCI see the flash presentation bellow.

For a proper display you need FLASH PLAYER 8 or HIGHER !!!














Download the content of the presentation as A4 multipage PDF
or as A0 (high resolution) poster in PDF format Design 1
Design 2 or Design 3

You can also find Spinal Cord Injury and Dendritic Spines on Scribd as A4 multipage PDF
or download (if you have an account) Dendritic Spines Medical Print Design in A0 PDF format