CEREBRART - Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Many studies have provided evidence that social conflicts can generate activation in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex is the frontal part of the Cingulate Cortex, that resembles a collar around the brain corpus callosum.

This CEREBRART work  illustrates the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex that is  involved in the distressing experience of social exclusion and might represent a circuit that underpins sadness.  So, this partially isolated brain illustrates not only an increased activity in the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex but also as an abstract idea of the experience of distress following social rejection/isolation associated with greater activity in the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex.

CEREBRART - Basket Cell

Despite more than 100 years of scientific research, the causes of schizophrenia are still unknown. Neural oscillations are a fundamental mechanism for enabling coordinated activity of brain cells.

Recent evidence from electrophysiological, physiological and anatomical studies suggests that abnormalities in the oscillatory activity of brain cells may have a central role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. There is evidence towards cortical hyperexcitability in schizophrenics - “Glutamate Chaos” because of a lack of inhibition. 

Dysfunctional oscillations may arise owing to anomalies in the brain’s rhythm-generating networks of GABA-interneurons.

Of the GABA-interneurons types, the cortical Basket Cells are very characteristic in that their axons, when viewed under the microscope, terminate on somata and proximal dendrites of Pyramidal Cells. Therefore, Basket Cells, whose axon terminals surround principal cell somata and proximal dendrites, have a privileged and influential position for regulating the firing of Pyramidal Cells.

The strategic location of Basket Cells axons has long suggested that they subserve inhibitory
mechanisms on the somata of Pyramidal Cells possibly preventing and limiting chaotic processes - “Glutamate Chaos” - in the network of Pyramidal Cells. Thus, altered perisomatic inhibition of Pyramidal Cells by Basket Cells could provide a plausible mechanistic basis for the gamma-oscillation impairments and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. In the future, this hypothesis may provide a powerful research tool to gain new insights on ways to limit chaotic processes and restore gamma oscillations in schizophrenia.

This CEREBRART work illustrates these ideas artistically.

CEREBRART - MONDRIAN AMACRINE

This CEREBRART work is a mondrianesque transformation of my original painting of the retina approximately symbolising  the cellular transformation that accompany the transmission
of light signals.  I have retained the basic organization of the original painting.

As you probably know, +Piet Mondrian was a sophisticated intellectual and Mondrian’s artistic genius focussed on his search for an underlying structure of nature lay in his unique arrangement of the pattern elements, one that causes a profound aesthetic order to emerge triumphantly from stark simplicity.

This CEREBRART work consists of just three basic colors (approximately symbolising three kinds of retina cone photoreceptors cells), a few black lines (as an artistic scaffold approximately symbolising the glial scaffold of retina) and an otherwise uneventful background of plain white (approximately symbolising the white light to be transformed by the retina). Only one amacrine cell is still left to be presented rather realistically. Amacrine cells provide a mechanism for lateral signal communication between retinal cells, including providing a feedback loop to bipolar cells. They are assumed to play an important role in object segregation including perception of +Mondrian’s paintings.

CEREBRART - REFLECTING THE ACTIONS

The real (non-chaotic) perception of time by the human brain is the consciousness of the succession of physical actions (oriented to success or oriented to reaching understanding) and cognitive reflections on a sequence of one’s actions that have already taken place, upon the consequences of those actions and feelings of pain or pleasure in response. Already in 1871 Darwin wrote in his “The descent of man” that moral beings must be capable of reflecting over and evaluating their actions. Ideally, all human actions should be evaluated by reflecting upon specific principles, using this reflective process to rationally deduce a specific judgment and to improve the person’s capacity for subsequent performances. But in reality the filters that our brain applies are rather chaotic and highly influenced by multiple external factors. Therefore, when our brain creates anything, it also creates chaotically other things which are not what we intended. Only time will tell if our reflections are valid or not as it will become clear what has and has not worked. There is, of course, no way of asking non-human beings to reflect of their actions, but humans can be asked. CORRECTION: It seems that corvids, carrion crows (Corvus corone corone) and ravens (Corvus corax) could reflect as well.Photo Joachim S. Müller's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/joachim_s_mueller/ And now it is clear that the medial frontal cortex of the human brain is crucially involved in self-generated action and post-actional self-reflection but it remains to be shown why it is that self-reflection depends on mechanisms on the medial frontal surface and which other parts of the brain are involved in post-actional self-reflection. This CEREBRART work illustrates these ideas.

CEREBRART - INFORMATIONAL CHAOS

 

This CEREBRART work illustrates informational chaos in the brain. No motivation. No intention. No volition. No action. No reflection. No integration. Nothing else here, just pure information, chaotic, harsh and uncompromising.

CEREBRART - My February Tribute to Boris Pasternak

Boris Pasternak (born on 10 February 1890 and died of lung cancer on 30 May 1960 filled with pain and suffering) is widely regarded as the greatest of the Russian philosophical lyric poets. During my school years I was deeply influenced and inspired by his poetic world laden with profound and complex imagery and I have even attempted to create a portrait of Boris Pasternak on the glass plate.

This CEREBRART work attempts to illustrate some of his philosophical thoughts. An approximate translation of just one great excerpt would sound like:

…But older age is Rome, demanding
From actors not a gaudy blend
Of props and reading, but in earnest
A tragedy, with tragic end.

A slave is sent to the arena
When feeling has produced a line.
Then breathing soil and fate take over
And art has done and must resign.

CEREBRART - Nucleus Accumbens

The nucleus accumbens (there are two symmetrical nuclei accumbentes in the human brain) which has been described as an interface between limbic and motor brain systems is the "pleasure center" of the brain selectively activated during the perception of pleasant, emotionally arousing pictures (like this one) and during mental imagery of nice people, laughter and pleasant, emotional scenes. Through still poorly understood mechanisms dopaminergic input from the ventral tegmental area regulates the activity of neurons within the nucleus accumbens. The output neurons of the nucleus accumbens send axon projections to the ventral pallidum which, in turn, projects to the thalamus, which projects to the brain cortex. This CEREBRART work illustrates the neural basis of pleasure and perhaps the visitors of my CEREBRART blog will have the additional pleasure of enjoying this picture and activating their own nuclei accumbentes.