Cerebellum

Prediction!!! BIG part of human discovery will be found as we investigate that brain at the back of the skull called the CEREBELLUM.
Here is the latest:

Cerebellum
Compared to chimpanzees and rhesus macaques, humans showed greater epigenetic differences in the cerebellum than the prefrontal cortex, highlighting the importance of the cerebellum in human brain evolution. The epigenetic differences were especially apparent on genes involved in brain development, brain inflammation, fat metabolism and synaptic plasticity — the strengthening or weakening of connections between neurons depending on how often they are used.

Life Begins …

Life Begins and Shakes Up Everything – The Kid’s Poem of a Shovel and PailMarch 8, 2013
This poem is from WIS, Writinrgs in Science – sci-fi in progress – see musea.us . Though it’s just a kid’s poem, if you read between the lines you can see it’s a poem about life on planet Earth. Enjoy!
…

MICROBE

Somebody mistakenly
gave a microbe
a shovel and pail
by the beach.

He liked the work.
It became infectious.
others marveled
and got their own.

Soon that beach
was over there,
and this ocean
was over here,

And that landmass
was shoved asunder,
and the weather
topsy-turvy,

And great storms
were disturbed,
and prowled about
as if confused.

Even the planets
in the solar system
took notice of
younger brother.

Earth was jostled.
It tossed the Moon
like a ball
on a string!

All this blather
from a corner stone
and it’s microbe
with a hobby.

A Rose

https://photos.app.goo.gl/18UP8MLQAeccNQUQA

Serotonin

Serotonin, More Questions than Answers

Why do all plants, fungi, and animals from worms and insects up, make serotonin?
Most serotonin is made in the gastrointestinal tract. Why?
Serotonin is made by gut bacteria. Which ones, and how do they make or facilitate making serotonin?
Is the production of serotonin connected to sleep?
Could the main purpose of sleep be to make serotonin; because it is such a key aspect of the continued existence of so many species.
Why is serotonin so important and involved in so many body processes that include, but not limited to:
Sleep, thermal regulation, learning and memory, pain regulation, sex, motor activity, biorhythms, immunity, happiness, hunger, stress defenses, etc.
Serotonin affects every part of the body. How can this one chemical be so important in determining the quality of life?
Could the function of the appendix be to safely store a backup of serotonin, or serotonin making bacteria?
Could the key to it’s importance be because it is a neurotransmitter, that carries messages between nerve cells in both your brain and throughout your body.
Why does the gut made serotonin that is so much more potent that the man made, synthesized version.
Could serotonin be important in that is supports and facilitates all brain functions, much like oil for machinery?
Serotonin has remained a key, stable, and conserved, part of virtually all multi cell living things. Natural selection has chosen to preserve this chemical over millions of years for most of multicellular life.
This should be a key study area for future research.

Sleep cycle and intestines.

Does your body run on 90-120 minute cycles day and night?

Seems there is a 90-120 minute cycle in the digestive tract that keeps coming up and up.
I wonder what significance this can have to health?

Here are some assorted quotes:

The intestines undergo what is called a “cleansing wave” every 90 to 120 minutes when fasting which removes wastes from the small intestine.

It normally takes about 90-120 minutes for the first part of a meal we have eaten to reach the large intestine, and the last portion of the meal may not reach the large intestine for five hours.

Between meals, the intestine shows cycles of activity that repeat about every 90-120 minutes. The cycle consists of a short period of no contractions (Phase I), followed by a long period of unsynchronized contractions that appear similar to the fed pattern (Phase II), and then a burst of strong, regular contractions that move down the intestine in a peristaltic fashion (Phase III). Phase III represents a continuation of the “housekeeper waves” that start in the stomach; its function is to sweep undigested food particles and bacteria out of the small intestine and into the large intestine.

About 70 to 90 minutes after falling asleep, you enter REM sleep, where dreaming occurs.

During sleep, people experience repeated cycles of NREM and REM sleep, beginning with an NREM phase. This cycle lasts approximately 90 to 110 minutes and is repeated four to six times per night.

During sleep the brain in the gut produces ninety minutes of slow muscle contractions followed by short periods of rapid muscle movements, cycles that correspond to the cycles of deep sleep and REM. When the brain is in deep sleep, the gut quiets down (there is ‘decreased small intestinal motility”), whereas REM has “immediate stimulatory effects on colonic motility” like those that occur with arousals and waking.

During sleep, the head’s brain produces 90-minute cycles of slow wave sleep, followed by periods of rapid eye movement (REM) where dreams occur. During the night, when it is empty, the gut’s brain produces 90-minute slow wave muscle contractions, followed by short bursts of rapid muscle movement. These two brains are linked even in sleep.