Addiction to cigarettes and other drugs may result from abnormal wiring in the brain’s frontal cortex, an area critical for self-control, a new study finds.

An international study has made a major contribution to the ongoing scientific debate about how processes in the human brain support memory and recognition. The study used a rare technique in which data was obtained from within the brain itself, using electrodes placed inside the brains of surgery patients. The study used a rare technique in which data was obtained from within the brain itself, using electrodes placed inside the brains of surgery patients.

Scientists have for the first time visualized the molecular changes in a critical cell death protein that force cells to die. The finding provides important insights into how cell death occurs, and could lead to new classes of medicines that control whether diseased cells live or die.

Differences in the physical connections of the brain are at the root of what make people think and behave differently from one another. Researchers reporting in the February 6 issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron shed new light on the details of this phenomenon, mapping the exact brain regions where individual differences occur. Their findings reveal that individuals’ brain connectivity varies more in areas that relate to integrating information than in areas for initial perception of the world.
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