Week 7: Neuroscience & Art

           As a psychology major, this week’s topic of neuroscience and art was particularly interesting as the lectures and videos covering topics discussed in my psychology classes. In my psychology class last quarter, we learned about the different animals and organisms that humans share genes with. We share about 98% of our genes with chimpanzees, and about 60% with bananas, and during this week’s lecture, we learned that humans share 70% of our genes with sea sponges. 

        A researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara found that sea sponges have synapses, a very important part of the nervous system. Synapses are the cross section between nerve cells that allow these cells to pass information to eachother (Yong). Though sea sponges are immoble and almost lifeless, they can help neuroscientists understand the nervous system within humans and other organisms and its origins. 

        Another example of neuroscience bridging the gap between art and science is through Brainbow. Brainbow has been developed and used to identify and study specific cells . This technology uses red, green, and blue fluorescent proteins to create a wide variety of colored neurons. The colors show up in each cell differently as a unique ratio is applied so no cell will be the same color (Weissman). The pictures of Brainbow highlight just how amazing this technology really is and how neuroscientists are using art and color to help them advance in science.

Works Cited

“A Swiriling Vortex is no match for this deep sea sponge.” New York Times , 2021, 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/science/sea-sponge-skeleton.html 

“Brainbow.” Cell Press, https://www.cell.com/pictureshow/brainbow. 

Livet, J., Weissman, T., Kang, H. et al. Transgenic strategies for combinatorial expression of 

fluorescent proteins in the nervous system. Nature 450, 56–62 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06293

O’Dower, Andy. “Humans Share genes with chimps flies and grapes.” Medium, 

https://medium.com/@odower/humans-share-genes-with-chimps-flies-and-grapes-97af91dcf5ed 

University of Queensland. "Humans and sponges share gene regulation." ScienceDaily. 

ScienceDaily, 11 April 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170411104532.htm>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture 1 Consciousness/Memory.” Vimeo, 2022. 

Weissman, Tamily A, and Y Albert Pan. “Brainbow: new resources and emerging 

biological applications for multicolor genetic labeling and analysis.” Genetics 

vol. 199,2 (2015): 293-306. doi:10.1534/genetics.114.172510

Yong, Ed. “Simple sponges provide clues to origin of nervous system.” National Geographic. 

Apr 2009, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/simple-

sponges-provide-clues-to-origin-of-nervous-system.