Beauty & Brains: The Best of the Art of Neuroscience
1. Music From Your Brain
Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, first captured the elegant beauty of branching neurons in his simple ink drawings 100 years ago. These entries for the 2012 Art of Neuroscience competition in the Netherlands use modern imaging techniques to show how far our view into the brain has come.
The competition’s winning entry was a video that used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize brain function and anatomy. Also keep an ear on the soundtrack, which was composed by assigning each brain activity pattern to an instrument. The instrument’s pitch varies with intensity of brain activity—raw thought translated into music.
2. Psychedelic Neurons
This brain slice from a human autopsy has taken on vivid color in the hands of a neuroscientist: green from infection by a lentivirus, red for neurons, blue for the nuclei of brain cells. Red and blue were introduced with a technique called immunohistochemistry, which uses antibodies that bind to specific proteins in order to highlight certain cells or parts of cells.
3. Inspired by Rothko
Neurons in the prefrontal cortex are naturally organized in layers, which are highlighted by these Rothko-esque blobs of color. The neurons are stained with a chemical called biocytin.
4. From Dead Brain to Living Color
These astrocytes and neurons grew out of stem cells that originally came from a dead human brain. The different types of resulting brain cells were then stained in the fluorescent colors seen here.
“Consumer-driven healthcare doesn’t work because people don’t want health care,” he said.
The three main factors that drive consumers to make a choice: price, quality and desire, said Cohen. When it comes to health care, however, price doesn’t correspond with quality, so going to a more expensive doctor doesn’t guarantee better treatment.
It’s also difficult to judge quality when it comes to health care, he said.
He gives the example of his own father getting a recommendation about a doctor not from his physician son, but from a nice guy in the lobby of the hospital.
“The guy sold doughnuts,” said Cohen.
People like to use service to judge quality, such as whether the doctor’s office calls back quickly, holds evening hours or has parking, rather than the more important measures like judgment and experience, he says. Patients have to do a lot more digging to get the more vital information and don’t know how to get the information or whom to ask.
Finally, desire is critical to being a critical consumer.
“It’s amazing what people will do when they really want something,” said Cohen, and in many cases, people don’t have such motivation when it comes to quality health care. For example, people with high-deductible plans or health savings plans tend not to spend money to get basic care, he says.
