The Global Syndicator - neurobiology

When a light goes on during thought processes

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:35:29 +0000

Thought processes made visible: An international team of scientists headed by Mazahir Hasan of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in optically detecting individual action potentials in the brains of living animals.

The ’satellite navigation’ in our brains

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:26:15 +0000

Our brains contain their own navigation system much like satellite navigation (”sat-nav”), with in-built maps, grids and compasses, neuroscientist Dr Hugo Spiers told the BA Festival of Science at the University of Liverpool today.

How memories are made, and recalled

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:12:41 +0000

What makes a memory? Single cells in the brain, for one thing. For the first time, scientists at UCLA and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have recorded individual brain cells in the act of

Learning Suffers If Brain Transcript Isn’t Transported Far Out To End Of Neurons

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:47:07 +0000

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have solved a mystery that lies at the heart of human learning, and they say the solution may help explain some forms of mental retardation as well as provide clues to overall brain functioning.

Killer carbs: scientist finds the key to overeating as we age

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:03:20 +0000

A Monash University scientist has discovered key appetite control cells in the human brain degenerate over time, causing increased hunger and potentially weight-gain as we grow older. The research by Dr Zane Andrews, a neuroendocrinologist with Monash University’s Department of Physiology, has been published in Nature.

Coatings to help medical implants connect with neurons

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 02:59:05 +0000

Plastic coatings could someday help neural implants treat conditions as diverse as Parkinson’s disease and macular degeneration. The coatings encourage neurons in the body to grow and connect with the electrodes that provide treatment.

Relearning process not always a ‘free lunch’

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:47:12 +0000

Researchers at Sheffield University and the University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom, have helped determine why relearning a few pieces of information may or may not easily cause a recollection of other associated, previously learned information.

Brain’s reaction to self-administered cocaine differs

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:10:03 +0000

New research has uncovered a fundamental cellular mechanism that may drive pathological drug-seeking behavior. The study, published by Cell Press in the July 31 issue of the journal Neuron, examines the brain’s reward circuitry and details strikingly distinct influences of self-administered cocaine compared to natural rewards or passive cocaine injection.

When neurons fire up: Study sheds light on rhythms of the brain

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:08:02 +0000

In our brains, groups of neurons fire up simultaneously for just milliseconds at a time, in random rhythms, similar to twinkling lightning bugs in our backyards. New research from neuroscientists at Indiana University and the University of Montreal provides a model — a rhyme and reason — for this random synchronization.

Groups of neurons in the brain rewire by changing images

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:56:18 +0000

Neuroscientists studying the mind’s ability to process images have completed the first empirical study to demonstrate, using animal models, how populations of nerve cells in visual cortex adapt to changing images.

Fascinating split brain behavioral experiments

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:16:24 +0000

To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway.

What gives us fingertip dexterity?

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:40:39 +0000

In a novel experiment, a USC biomedical engineer examines the intricate circuitry between hand manipulation skills and specialized neural circuits in the brain Quickly moving your fingertips to tap or press a surface is essential for everyday life to, say, pick up small objects, use a BlackBerry or an iPhone.

Creative and noncreative problem solvers exhibit different patterns of brain activity

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:19:08 +0000

Why do some people solve problems more creatively than others? Are people who think creatively somehow different from those who tend to think in a more methodical fashion? These questions are part of a long-standing debate, with some researchers arguing that what we call “creative thought” and “noncreative thought” are not basically different.

New MIT tool probes brain circuits

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:21:21 +0000

Researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT report in the Jan. 24 online edition of Science that they have created a way to see, for the first time, the effect of blocking and unblocking a single neural circuit in a living animal.

Scientists restore walking after spinal cord injury

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:15:10 +0000

Spinal cord damage blocks the routes that the brain uses to send messages to the nerve cells that control walking. Until now, doctors believed that the only way for injured patients to walk again was to re-grow the long nerve highways that link the brain and base of the spinal cord.