#claustrum

[opdrie]

[near-ing]

vintage DRKSHDW jeans

[equatorjournal]

[the-dragons-knight]

“Ser Aymeric De-borel, Lord Commander of Ishgard, and my Knight in Azure Armor. On this day, our hearts become as one, and our lives forever intertwined.”

The 28th of October was Katsum and Aymeric’s wedding day! It was so amazing and so much fun to watch the love story come true! I’ll not soon forget it! <3

[incompletepuppets]

the pons

[aoitori-ffxiv]

For our monthly event, the fc hosted The Price Is Right and these cuties stole the show. ♡ The winner took home a full kitchen set amongst other things. Unfortunately, I didnt get any pictures of all the cool items that were featured. Want to join us for future events? Apply for Claustrum 《Key》 on Lamia server. We do weekly pony/birb/doggo farms, as well as end game content, Gold Saucer Saturdays, Discord night, and a load of other stuff.

[brain-garden-blog]

A Giant Neuron Has Been Found Wrapped Around the Entire Circumference of the Brain

For the first time, scientists have detected a giant neuron wrapped around the entire circumference of a mouse's brain, and it's so densely connected across both hemispheres, it could finally explain the origins of consciousness.

Using a new imaging technique, the team detected the giant neuron emanating from one of the best-connected regions in the brain, and say it could be coordinating signals from different areas to create conscious thought.

This recently discovered neuron is one of three that have been detected for the first time in a mammal's brain, and the new imaging technique could help us figure out if similar structures have gone undetected in our own brains for centuries.

At a recent meeting of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative in Maryland, a team from the Allen Institute for Brain Science described how all three neurons stretch across both hemispheres of the brain, but the largest one wraps around the organ's circumference like a "crown of thorns".

You can see them highlighted in the image at the top of the page.

Lead researcher Christof Koch told Sara Reardon at Nature that they've never seen neurons extend so far across both regions of the brain before.

Oddly enough, all three giant neurons happen to emanate from a part of the brain that's shown intriguing connections to human consciousness in the past - the claustrum, a thin sheet of grey matter that could be the most connected structure in the entire brain, based on volume.

This relatively small region is hidden between the inner surface of the neocortex in the centre of the brain, and communicates with almost all regions of cortex to achieve many higher cognitive functions such as language, long-term planning, and advanced sensory tasks such as seeing and hearing.

"Advanced brain-imaging techniques that look at the white matter fibres coursing to and from the claustrum reveal that it is a neural Grand Central Station," Koch wrote for Scientific American back in 2014. "Almost every region of the cortex sends fibres to the claustrum."

The claustrum is so densely connected to several crucial areas in the brain that Francis Crick of DNA double helix fame referred to it a "conductor of consciousness" in a 2005 paper co-written with Koch.

They suggested that it connects all of our external and internal perceptions together into a single unifying experience, like a conductor synchronises an orchestra, and strange medical cases in the past few years have only made their case stronger.

Back in 2014, a 54-year-old woman checked into the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates in Washington, DC, for epilepsy treatment.

This involved gently probing various regions of her brain with electrodes to narrow down the potential source of her epileptic seizures, but when the team started stimulating the woman's claustrum, they found they could effectively 'switch' her consciousness off and on again.

Helen Thomson reported for New Scientist at the time:

"When the team zapped the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman lost consciousness. She stopped reading and stared blankly into space, she didn't respond to auditory or visual commands and her breathing slowed.

As soon as the stimulation stopped, she immediately regained consciousness with no memory of the event. The same thing happened every time the area was stimulated during two days of experiments."

According to Koch, who was not involved in the study, this kind of abrupt and specific 'stopping and starting' of consciousness had never been seen before.

Another experiment in 2015 examined the effects of claustrum lesions on the consciousness of 171 combat veterans with traumatic brain injuries.

They found that claustrum damage was associated with the duration, but not frequency, of loss of consciousness, suggesting that it could play an important role in the switching on and off of conscious thought, but another region could be involved in maintaining it.

And now Koch and his team have discovered extensive neurons in mouse brains emanating from this mysterious region.

In order to map neurons, researchers usually have to inject individual nerve cells with a dye, cut the brain into thin sections, and then trace the neuron's path by hand.

It's a surprisingly rudimentary technique for a neuroscientist to have to perform, and given that they have to destroy the brain in the process, it's not one that can be done regularly on human organs.

Koch and his team wanted to come up with a technique that was less invasive, and engineered mice that could have specific genes in their claustrum neurons activated by a specific drug.

"When the researchers fed the mice a small amount of the drug, only a handful of neurons received enough of it to switch on these genes," Reardon reports forNature.

"That resulted in production of a green fluorescent protein that spread throughout the entire neuron. The team then took 10,000 cross-sectional images of the mouse brain, and used a computer program to create a 3D reconstruction of just three glowing cells."

We should keep in mind that just because these new giant neurons are connected to the claustrum doesn't mean that Koch's hypothesis about consciousness is correct - we're a long way from proving that yet.

It's also important to note that these neurons have only been detected in mice so far, and the research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, so we need to wait for further confirmation before we can really delve into what this discovery could mean for humans.

But the discovery is an intriguing piece of the puzzle that could help up make sense of this crucial, but enigmatic region of the brain, and how it could relate to the human experience of conscious thought.

The research was presented at the 15 February meeting of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative in Bethesda, Maryland.

[the-dragons-knight]

Katsum Almor - The Dragonsong

NAME: Katsum Aurora Almor

ALIAS:  Kat, Dragon, Lady Almor

AGE: 22 years

NAME DAY: 6th Sun of the 6th Astral Moon

SPECIES:  Half Hyur(Midlander), half Miqo’te(Seeker Of the Sun)

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good

GENDER: Female

ORIENTATION: Heterosexual

MARITAL STATUS: Single(Spoken for ;3)

Physical Appearance ––– –

HAIR: Light blonde hair with a few red highlights, shoulder length, often kept in a half braid in the back

EYES: Icy Light Blue

HEIGHT: 5′1″

BUILD: Petite with some muscle and some flexibility

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Miqo’te stripes on her forehead, under her eyes and shading on her nose

COMMON ACCESSORIES: A golden necklace with a small golden dragon holding a ruby red “gem”, earrings and bracelets with the House Fortemps family crest

Personal ––– –

PROFESSION: Paladin, Dragon Rider, Knight of Ishgard, Ambassador of the Dravanians(Paladin main, but also Dragoon and Bard)

RESIDENCE: Holy See of Ishagrd, Shirogane

BIRTHPLACE: Insulam de Claris, the Kingdom of Draic

PATRON DEITY: Azeyma, the Warden

FEARS: The past, her secrets being revealed, losing those close to her again, forgetting those who sacrificed everything for her, being forgotten  

Relationships ––– -

Parents: Father and Mother - Lavena Almor(mother) & Raja’ooh Tia(Rune Almor)(father) - Missing, presumed deceased

Siblings: None

Spouse: None(plan in place :3)

Children: None

Lovers:  None

Enemies: Ghosts of her past, the Garlean Empire, the Ascians

Traits ––– -

extroverted / introverted / in between

disorganised / organised / in between

close minded / open-minded / in between

calm / anxious / in between

disagreeable / agreeable / in between

cautious / reckless / in between

patient / impatient / in between

outspoken / reserved / in between

leader / follower / in between

empathetic / unempathetic / in between

optimistic / pessimistic / in between

traditional / modern / in between

hard-working / lazy / in between

cultured / un-cultured / in between

loyal / disloyal / in between

faithful / unfaithful / in between

Additional Information ––– –

ABILITIES

Strategy: Her father was a well established commander her taught her much about the battlefield, both on land and at sea. It is for that reason that she is well versed in the ways of war and the placement of armies.

Ancient Language: She has the strange ability to understand the language of dragons, both in writing and speech. She is very cautious of when she shows this knowledge, especially when she first when she first set foot in Ishgard.

Navigation: She has always been skilled in reading maps and understanding where she is compared to where she is headed.

HOBBIES

Reading & Writing: When she has the time, she enjoys reading the histories of ancient times and the stories of lore and legends. She has also begun to write down her own story and keep a record of her past and the events that take place. She keeps this fact secret though as she doesn’t wish to share her story with just anyone. Not yet...not for a long while.

Art: As a child, she was skilled in drawing and painting and spend years learning to perfect her skills. Of course, that was before her sixteenth year...She also does a bit of sewing.

Exploring: She has always yearned to see the world, to see all the sights she can find hidden in the lost parts of history and nature alike. In that sense, it is no surprise that she can often be found exploring on days when she has naught else calling for her time.

Riding & Flying: This goes along with her love for exploring as the skies are yet another realm she must needs explore. There is almost nothing she loves more than soaring through the skies on the back of a dragon.

LIKES

Colors: Red, Black, Gold, White

Smells: Apples, roses, the forest, the sea, the pages of books, fire

Textures: Dragon scales, fur, feathers,  polished armor, the pages of a book

Drinks: Tea of many variaties(no surprise that Ishgardian Tea is her favorite :3), nothing alcholic

Tagged by no one but wanted to get some of Katsum’s stats and info up here just in case I should ever need it. :3

Repost if you’d like to use it too rather than reblog. :3