Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Neuroscience

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  • Archive 1 (from December 2005 to March 2006)

Contents

[edit] Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery - Tourette's Syndrome

>>Tourette syndrome Deep brain stimulation has been used experimentally in treating a a few patients with severe Tourette's. In the treatment of Tourette syndrome, it is regarded as an experimental and dangerous procedure, and is unlikely to become widespread. (TSA Statement) There may be serious short- and long-term risks associated with DBS in persons with head and neck tics; the procedure is expensive and requires long-term expert care; benefits for severe Tourette's are not conclusive considering less robust effects of this surgery seen in the Netherlands; Tourette's is more common in pediatric populations and tends to remit in adulthood, so this would not be a recommended procedure to use on children; and how to use this procedure in Tourette's syndrome patients, is less clear than its usage in Parkinson's disease.<<

What proof is there of serious short or long term risks associated with persons who have the head and neck tics? Any surgery carries with it the possibility of risk, both short and long term. My husband is Jeff Matovic, the first successfull Tourette's Syndrome patient to undergo DBS and I can assure everyone out there that he has no major problems with his tics since the surgery and the turning on of his batteries on March 4th, 2004. As for the "long term expert care". He only has to go in to see his doctors on a as needed basis. The surgeries that took place in the Netherlands were not as successfull due to the different part of the brain that was attempted with those patients. There is currently a FDA trial taking place at University Hospitals of Cleveland for DBS when used on TS patients. Whoever wrote this article needs to get ALL their facts straight!

Anyone with any questions on how Jeff is doing now may contact us at Pyewak1@aol.com.

Hi, I would suggest you alter the article as you see fit and see what happens to it! We were just talking in clinic the other day about DBS for a TS patient so it's obviously not considered that outlandish...--PaulWicks 08:57, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Although one successful outcome is hardly proof of anything. Especially since this was only 2 years ago and it is hard to say what the long-term benefits will be. I think it is OK to leave the statement, particularily the bits that have a source (TSA, etc.). Nrets 13:12, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Semi

Sorry everyone... I'm rather prone to spending too much time on the internet. Having spent time away to study for my quals I've realized how much more I can get done when I'm not checking WP 20 times a day. I was kind of hoping to sneak away silently since I've not been on much for the last several weeks. Now that I've passed my quals I've got a lot of research to do; between that and a lot of things going on in my personal life I felt that it was time to move on. Good luck. I may lurk around and make a few edits here or there. :) --Semi 03:53, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Basal Ganglia and Thalamus

An editor has recently been editing extensively the articles Basal Ganglia and Thalamus. While it is clear this editor is spending a lot of time editing the articles, some of these edits are perhaps too detailed and poorly written, making the articles impenetrable. While some of these edits have been reverted, I think it would be better to incorporate these into the article but to clean them up significantly. I just wanted to bring this to light here, in case anybody felt up to the task of cleaning these articles up, as I am too busy at the moment to take a serious stab at it. cheers, Nrets 18:48, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

An update on the situation -- many of the edits are coming from User:Gerard.percheron/ 134.157.202.66/ 134.157.202.109/ 134.157.202.82/ 134.157.202.14, who is apparently is Doctor Gérard Percheron, editor of The Basal Ganglia IV: New Ideas and Data on Structure and Function, and president of the International Basal Ganglia Society. He is very persistent at editing Basal ganglia and Thalamus, and he is struggling with the culture here. I've offered on his talk page to help mentor him, but it looks like this will not be a short term project, and if anyone else could help out, I would appreciate it. --Arcadian 12:48, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Human brain" article could do with defining a few terms...

Just read the article ... as a non-specialist I found it informative, but I think a few terms could do with defining by someone able to do so.

Chief among them is "modulation", used several times without definition. Elsewhere in Wikipedia it's defined as "the process of varying a carrier signal in order to use that signal to convey information". Is this what it means when describing brain function, e.g. in "emotional pathways can modulate spontaneous emotive expression"? If so it doesn't make any sense to me.

Other words I had to look up are "anteriormost", "sagittal" and "cortex".

Your definition of modulation refers more to something like a radio signal (eg. as in amplitude modulated (AM) radio signals). In the case of neural signals, modulation refers to one pathway altering the activity of another, so for example, certain neurotransmitters can modulate the way the brain processes sensory information, or expresses a certain behavior. "Cortex", refers to the cerebral cortex, and the other terms you ask about are both anatomical terms of location. Nrets 01:54, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Neuroanatomy

The anatomy project needs help from anyone willing to assist with anatomy articles, especially CNS articles. If anyone is familiar with Terminologia Anatomica, your help indexing existing and should-be-existing articles (on the 'Articles' subpage of the anatomy project) would be greatly appreciated. --Mauvila 09:05, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] hippocampus things

Hey all. I'm an on again, off again contributor and I've recently started doing a little work on hippocampus (esp. the Cornu ammonis page, see Talk:Hippocampus) and on Place cell (see Talk:Place cell). I don't want to step on anyone's toes so I just wanted to point out my posts on those two talk pages to make sure everyone is ok with the rather minor things I'm proposing. Note: the hippocampus is one of the main areas I work with, so that's why I'm starting there: I already know the literature moderately well. Thanks! Digfarenough 23:30, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gustatory system

Hi, guys. I was politely asked by Benji64 to take a look at his work on Gustatory system and the article in general, but i had to redirect his request as i'm currently working on a search tool for Wikipedia:WikiProject_Chemicals and Wikipedia:WikiProject_Drugs. -- Boris 18:56, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categorization of Category:Neuroscience

Hi all. What do people think about the appropriateness of categorizing neuroscience as neurology while still having Category:Neurology listed as a subcategory of Category:Neuroscience? It seems a bit circular to me. I also disagree with the statement (paraphrasing somewhat) that neurology is neuroscience with a disease bent. Granted, there's overlap between them, but I would consider the two to be quite distinct entities (clinical vs. research). Personally, I would suggest keeping Category:Neurology as a subcategory (it's convenient to lead readers to related articles). I would further remove the categorization of neuroscience as neurology since it's circular and, thus, wikipedia won't display Category:Neuroscience as a subcategory of Category:Neurology anyway. Finally, I propose either removing the line "Category:Neurology literally means neuroscience, but specializes in disease" or changing it to read something like, "Readers interested in the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system diseases are referred to Category:Neurology" as that seems more correct.

Anyway, I wanted to raise this issue here to see what input others might have. Thanks --Dpryan 20:01, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

With a few exceptions, I think most neurology articles are about pathology. Perhaps before any merjer occurs, that should be made clear. Brewhaha@edmc.net 20:47, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

I believe neuroscience is a broad term under which Neurology (which is the study of diseases of nervous system) should be. Neuroscience the scientific study of nervous system - which should include both physiological states and pathological ones. Shushruth 06:13, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Neurowiki

I'd like to let you all know about NeuroWiki. Unlike Wikipedia or Psychology Wiki, NeuroWiki is not an encyclopaedia or textbook containing settled knowledge, but is rather a wiki discussion forum about neuroscience research, especially systems, theoretical, and cognitive neuroscience. NeuroWiki will provide short, collaboratively written summaries of current research trends and ideas, with links to related papers and researchers – this will aid neuroscientists in keeping up with areas outside their specialty, and will allow researchers to learn about things related to their work that they would not have heard of otherwise. However, the best part of NeuroWiki will be the discussions spawned by these topics. Bayle Shanks 21:35, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] neuroscience portal page

I am setting up the Neuroscience portal page. Please have a look at it and improve it as you deem fit. Shushruth 07:52, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contributors' names

Does anyone have an objection to me moving the 'list of contributors' section to the bottom? It keeps getting longer and one needs to scroll a lot to see what is below it. Also, it is preferable that a new contributor signs up after reading the whole list, isn't it? Shushruth 06:38, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Good idea. Nrets 01:00, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
I second, or third, or *whatever* I am doing here... Edhubbard 06:55, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mikhail Lebedev

This page seems to have been largely made by Lebedev himself. I don't know whether his work is considered notable in neuroscience or not. Can someone check it out – see if it's notable, perhaps make it a little less Mikhail-centric? Thanks. --Eliyak T·C 08:28, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Based on what I could find, he's a senior researcher in a well-known neurobiology laboratory (Miguel Nicolelis, see [here] and click on "people"), however, he does not appear to head an independent research laboratory on his own. Many people work in Nicolelis' laboratory or are alumni from there and are far more notable than this person. Thus, if you nominate this article for deletion based on non-notability I would support the nomination to delete. Nrets 21:28, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
Your information about Nicolelis is outdated. He heads a networks of institutes around the world (USA, Brazil, Switzerland). The people who work with him are not as small players as you appear to believe. —GoOdCoNtEnT 13:20, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
Nevertheless, it is difficult to establish his contributions as an independent researcher. For example, a search of CRISP the NIH database of grants shows that he holds no independent grants of his own (his own CV also reflects this). Nrets 14:23, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
OK. I think I will nominate it, in that case. Thanks for the input. --Eliyak T·C 21:33, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
AFD page: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mikhail Lebedev --Eliyak T·C 21:47, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Caffeine among the featured articles

The article on Caffeine is listed among the featured articles of the neuroscience project, yet it's not in the neuroscience category, and most of it is not about neuroscience. Is it pertinent to keep it linked? Rto 08:37, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it does not really belong here, is there a Wikiproject:Pharmacology? Or Wikiproject:Drugs? Nrets 13:27, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
The sole reason caffine is interesting is because of its neuropharmacological actions. The effects section is nearly all neurophysiological. So I feel that it should be kept. Shushruth \talk\contribs 15:55, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why this inactivity!?!

Of all the cutting edge sciences on Wikipedia, i think Neuroscience has the most below par organization. We only have 12 featured articles - and many of them solely due to significatant contribution by wikipedians without neuroscience as their primary interest. And WE purport to study the most complex object in the universe! Anyway, I feel that we need some new ideas to galvanize us all. Can we at least start a Collaboration of the Week so that we can channel our energies in one direction and improve our dicipline's content? Any takers? Also, does anyone else think that we need to archive the upper half of this page as it contains no currently relevent content? Shushruth \talk\contribs 21:16, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

I like the collaboration of the week idea. But I would suggest maybe something like collaboration of the month, which is more like the time required to get an article to featured status (after peer reviews, etc.). How about we start with Neuron? Nrets 00:13, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Good point about the time length Nrets. We can definately start with Neuron. Decent content which can be built upon. Also, how about combining both suggestions? We can work on one article to bring it to featured status and also have a collaboration of the week to work on a stub length/unreferenced/unorganized article and improve it over the week too? We can cycle through various neuroscience categories in picking up this weekly collaboration. Shushruth \talk\contribs 16:06, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Would another good idea be to set up a formal request for feedback process for neuroscience articles? I've recently visited the military history wikiproject (don't ask why) and was impressed by their review process.--Saganaki- 03:45, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
There don't seem to be enough active neuroscience editors around. So no organized process seems possible. Shushruth \talk page \ contribs 06:52, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
That could stymie things. BTW I've put Brain-computer interface up for good article status if anyone has time to take a look. Cheers --Saganaki- 03:13, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Category Project Neuroscience Contributors

I've noted that some of the other wikiprojects (eg, wikiproject Japan) have user categories. If there isn't one already, would Neuroscience Project editors support creating a Wikiproject Neuroscience participants category? One benefit would be automatic generation of editor lists so that user feedback could be canvassed and support mobilised for major work such as the excellent Neuroscience portal. --Saganaki- 04:09, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Collaborations

I have set up Collaborations for the WikiProject. I have unilaterally chosen the topics for the first week just to get the ball rolling. If anyone can improve this please do so. I have set up a centralized place for both simulataneous collaborations HERE with instructions as to how to effect changes in the whole process. Please take the initiative to radically improve it if needed. Shushruth \talk page \ contribs 09:16, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 23:38, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Amusia

A while ago I came across the improperly formatted disambig page Amusia (which looked much as it does now) and cleaned it up, judging that the definition the editor placed at top was adequately described by the Tone deafness article (in the third paragraph.) However, an anon recently reverted it. Do they know better then I do? Should Amusia be refactored as its own (stub) page with a brief note on the spider genus? An expert opinion would be appreciated. -Seventh Holy Scripture 18:00, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Neural pruning

Hi everyone! There is absolutely no article on neural pruning that I could find, not even a broken disambig line from pruning. I might give it a shot (I have to look into pruning in autism as a tangent for my master's thesis in cognitive psychology, which is about structural language impairments in autism), but since I've had nothing to do with pruning before, it'd be helpful if someone else with more expertise could jump in. Cheers, prezzey 16:08, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

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