#sciart Working on inking in this #drawing on the #brain and its internal #gps, the #hippocampus! #science #neuroscience #art #newyork #brainart

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Early morning #brain #painting in progress. #sciart #neuroscience #science #art

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Beginning to ink in my #brain and #autism #drawing. #sciart #neuroscience #science

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Working on a #drawing on the #brain and #lying :) Honestly, I am. #science #sciart #neuroscience #art

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OUCH! #Brainfreeze Can be a Real Pain | New #Painting

It's the middle of Summer folks. What do you consume to cool down? Ice cold water, ice cream, cold beer, gelato, etc.

Ever get that painful feeling by your forehead, lasting less than a minute, when you consume these treats too fast? Yes, brain freeze can be painful.

I represented that in my latest Brain Series painting with icicles going into ones forehead. The culprit, ice cream...chocolate ice cream with sprinkles arranged as an image of the brain.

This guy was craving the ice cream, took one big bite, then OUCH! The bite even took out the front part of the brain sprinkles.

[View some pictures of this painting in progress below]

There is a medical term for this phenomenon, sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, don't ask me to pronounce that.


What's going in my head?


Well brain freeze is triggered when something of an extreme temperature touches the roof of your mouth. So with something cold, your body's immediate reaction is to want to warm that area up.

In that effort of blood vessels dilating to warm things back up, it causes inflammation and triggers pain receptors which sends signals through the Trigeminal Nerve to the brain. The Trigeminal Nerve is in charge of the sensations we feel in the face and when doing motions like biting and chewing. The Trigeminal Nerve has branches that go to many parts of the face. Since it is a multipurpose (or multi-use) nerve, the brain mistakenly registers the pain as coming from the forehead instead of the roof of your mouth. Hence, your reaction to experiencing brain freeze which could be grabbing your forehead and wincing in pain.

How to I avoid brain freeze?

Take your time when eating cold things. In case you do get that brain freeze sensation, quick relief would be to warm the roof of your mouth with your tongue.

...now I'm craving ice cream. So I'll leave you with some in progress photos of the painting!

Regards,
Michelle Hunter
Contemporary Artist
Tel: (646) 504-5034
www.hunterart.com
info@hunterart.com

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Get a FREE handwritten postcard from me! Join my mailing list here:http://bit.ly/HunterArtList 
Contact me to commission a painting or drawing (info@hunterart.com / 646-504-5034) 
The Brain Series of Paintings, so far: http://hunterart.blogspot.com/p/brain-paintings.html
Purchase prints to fit your space here: http://www.hunterart.imagekind.com 
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Sources:
1: http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingsworkfaqs/f/how-brain-freeze-works.htm
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeminal_nerve

#brain #painting in progress at the home studio space #sciart #art

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Is Your #Brain Being #Honest?

When was the last time you told a lie (small or big)? While you may have had your reasons for doing so, your brain has to put effort in to produce that lie. 

To reflect the ease of being honest, in my brain drawing I simply have the brain, floating. Nothing is going on within it, no specific areas are highlighted or activated, it just is. This is our brain when we're being honest. It is what it is.

However, when telling a lie there are various parts of the brain that need to get to work. Also imagine the effort needed to sustain the lie! Details on that when I do an upcoming drawing on that. BTW, there is a National Tell a Lie Day held on April 4. I'll celebrate honesty over telling a lie any day though.

Regards,
Michelle Hunter
Contemporary Artist
Tel: (646) 504-5034
www.hunterart.com
info@hunterart.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get a FREE handwritten postcard from me! Join my mailing list here: http://bit.ly/HunterArtList 
Contact me to commission a painting or drawing (info@hunterart.com / 646-504-5034) 
The Brain Series of Paintings, so far: http://hunterart.blogspot.com/p/brain-paintings.html
Purchase prints to fit your space here: http://www.hunterart.imagekind.com 
Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hunterart 
Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artcoholic 
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Finished my #brain #freeze #painting!! Will unveil soon. #science #sciart #art #neuroscience

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#drawing, #drawing, #drawing :) #art #brain #sciart

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Give your #brain a #hug for National Hug a Friend Day

Hi everyone,

I hope you consider your brain a friend of yours. If so, give it a big hug as my illustration below does.

 

Do you give your friends and/or family a hug when you see them? Well National Hug a Friend Day is an unofficial holiday held on April 26th to celebrate such embraces. In my research so far, I haven’t found out how Hug a Friend Day came in to existence but leave a comment below if you know or if I find something out, I’ll update this post.


The sense of touch can generate two reactions. One is experiencing the touch itself recognizing whether it is rough or smooth, cold, warm, slow, fast, bumpy, etc. The second aspect is the feeling we get from who is touching us. In other words, the feeling one would get from hugging a friend is different than when hugging a crush or someone you don’t like. Have you experienced that difference?


On the surface of our brain is an area known as the Somatosensory Cortex (colored in orange in the above illustration)[1]. Here, the brain maps to all parts of our body which is also visually referred to as a Homunculus[2]. The Somatosensory Cortex, located on the surface of our brain, not only gives us a physical assessment of what is going on (i.e. I feel my fingers touching smooth plastic keyboard keys) but also an emotional component.


There was a study done at the California Institute of Technology exploring the emotional component of touch[3]. Another layer is the feeling of (dis)comfort we feel when we are being touched. While it had been known that the Somatosensory Cortex assesses the physical, it also attaches meaning to the touch. In the study, self-identified heterosexual men were subject to a staff person caressing their leg. However, the men didn’t see who was actually touching their leg as they were in a fMRI machine where two videos were shown. One video was of an attractive woman shown to reach down to touch the male volunteer's leg and the other video was of a man who reached down to touch their leg. The Somatosensory Cortex became active when anticipating the touch.

Hope you won't be creeped out when I reach out to hug you!!!


Regards,


Michelle Hunter
Contemporary Artist
Tel: (646) 504-5034
www.hunterart.com
info@hunterart.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get a FREE handwritten postcard from me! Join my mailing list here: http://bit.ly/HunterArtList
Contact me to commission a painting or drawing (info@hunterart.com / 646-504-5034)
The Brain Series of Paintings, so far: http://hunterart.blogspot.com/p/brain-paintings.html
Purchase prints to fit your space here: http://www.hunterart.imagekind.com
Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hunterart
Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artcoholic
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sources:
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatosensory_system
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_homunculus
3: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120604155709.htm

Scientific American Image of the week!

Thank you Thank you Thank you to Scientific American contributors Glendon Mellow and Editor Bora Zivkovic for selecting my painting Past, Present, Future or Dreaming as "Image of the Week"!!!!! I'm so excited by the honor!

Check out this post on Scientific American here:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/image-of-the-week/2013/07/02/rubiks-cube-of-the-mind/

Learn more about this particular painting through this blog post which includes in progress pictures:
http://hunterart.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-painting-which-image-matches-your.html  

Regards,

Michelle Hunter
Contemporary Artist
Tel: (646) 504-5034
www.hunterart.com
info@hunterart.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get a FREE handwritten postcard from me! Join my mailing list here: http://bit.ly/HunterArtList
Contact me to commission a painting or drawing (info@hunterart.com  / 646-504-5034)
The Brain Series of Paintings, so far: http://hunterart.blogspot.com/p/brain-paintings.html
Purchase prints to fit your space here: http://www.hunterart.imagekind.com
Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hunterart
Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artcoholic
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