The GUIDE: What's Next?

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The planned topics for The Lab Rats' Guide to the Brain are beginning to wind down.  Over the course of a year, I have blogged sections of the Guide that were already written, or have been planned and written on-the-spot for the Guide.

Currently, the only disease/disorder section still planned for the Guide is on Fibromyalgia.  As for additional sections that I thought would be of interest to readers, I have:

    * Blindness, Deafness and modern prosthetics

    * Bionics

So, to continue this blog after these topics are complete, I am open to suggestions for content.  If I have content of interest to readers, I will continue to expand the original intent of The Guide.  Suggestions that I received last week on Facebook include:

    * Mirror Neurons - a very interesting topic, and I will do some research and add this to the list.

    * Travis S. Taylor's theories of the quantum-computer mind - This will be interesting, because I disagree with Dr. Taylor, but I think there is some validity to some of his concepts.  I will pick up a copy of his "The Science Behind the Secret" and treat this as a combination book review and Guide entry on the ideas.  I would love to debate Travis on the topic at some future time, and this may be a good way to introduce the topic.

    * Multiple Personality - not being a psychologist, this is a difficult subject, but one approach for me would be to talk about the neurophysiological evidence for "personality" in general and to examine the differing physiological signs that have been reported in clinical cases of personality disorder.

    * Up and coming psychoactive drugs - actually a very interesting topic, and it will be good for me to research as well as to distill down to basics for this audience.  I will have to alter the premise a bit, though, and focus on what is known and future directions for drugs as therapies and the risks of abuse.

    * Following up on the idea of personalities, a look at how writers can create personalities without taking on characteristics of those personalities.

    * Savant abilities and the "neurotypical" brain - do certain exceptional abilities in math, language, science require departures from the median type of socialization, personality and intelligence? 

These are all great suggestions, and I will try to incorporate them in the coming weeks.  Please send more!  I will also try to keep up with some more book reviews, convention reports and commentary on science in the news.

Thank you, my friends, and stay thirsty for knowledge!