Fundamentals of Neuroscience by Prof. David Cox - 2

Ayooo, it's me it's me. I'm back with the second part of this sharing. In lesson 2, we study about the Passive Membrane Properties. These properties is very similar to those concepts in Physics, so with a decent physic-related knowledge, you would have no difficulty in understanding the ideas of membrane resistance, axial resistance and membrane capacitance. These act according to the Ohm's law, which means that by decreasing the resistance, it would be easier for the current to go along an axon. We also learn about the length constant and time constant, which indicate the length a current can go before falling off to about 37% of its initial value and the time it takes for a piece of membrane to charge up to 63% of its final value. Quite complicated, huh? Join the course and you will sure to find intelligible explanations there hihi, put it simply, the length constant is the distance a current can go before falling down to a certain value, and the time constant is the time it takes to charge up the membrane potential to a certain value (since the membrane is made up of bilayers of lipids so it acts as a capacitance -> buffers the changes in voltage in the membrane, in other words, when we put electrical signal to a neuron, it does not suddenly shoot up but rather gradually increase). There are numerous ways to alter the resistance or capacitance of a neuron, and nature has a clever way to turn this to its advantage, which I will explain in details later.

About the field trip, we are given the chance to gain an insight into the incidence of Phineas Gage, you can search for this online, and the professor takes us to the Warren anatomical museum to show us the samples there. I have known about his incidence before, thanks to my extra class with Mrs. Alix Alicia (maybe I have used the wrong format for her title but let's call it that way). She taught us about his incidence and it's astonishing how the brain could survive such lethal damage. There would be changes to Gage's personality of course, he changed from a violent person to an artistic kind of person, and even his wife could not recognise that was him. Granted extraordinary artistic talents, works of Gage does not show happiness or pleasure in life, but rather, in my perspectives, it conveys distress signal, it gives out a siren that haunts its spectators. Geniuses come at the expense of sufferings. It's such a bad thing that humans cannot enjoy everything they have, everything has its own cost. However, I do believe in the future of mankind, where brain trauma may not come with deaths and sufferings (albeit improbable). His incidence is still a mystery waiting to be discovered, and who would accompany me in my journey?