Month: October 2016

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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Heading a football can significantly affect a player’s brain function and memory for 24 hours, a study has found.

Researchers have successfully transplanted embryonic neurons into damaged neural networks, a new study reports.

Scientists have identified for the first time the region in the brain responsible for the “placebo effect” in pain relief.

Results from a new clinical study conducted suggest that curtailing sleep alters the abundance of bacterial gut species that have previously been linked to compromised human metabolic health.

A new imaging technique that creates 3-D video of serotonin transport could aid antidepressant development.

Researchers have identified the cause of chronic, and currently untreatable, pain in those with amputations and severe nerve damage, as well as a potential treatment which relies on engineering instead of drugs.

A new study could explain why the ‘one size fits all’ approach to treating depression has been ineffective.

Using optogenetics to activate dopamine receptors in the ventral tegmental area could help people regain consciousness following general anesthesia, researchers report.

We all know that as we age, our skin loses its firmness and elasticity. However, researchers have now discovered our brains may also lose its elasticity as we age.

Researchers have identified a common culprit that may cause damage in stoke, brain injury and neurodegenerative disease.

Finally this week, A new study provides the first empirical evidence that self-serving lies gradually escalate and reveals how this happens in our brains.

 

 

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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A new study reports researchers were able to predict with 80 percent accuracy whether antidepressants would help patients by analyzing their brain function and personal history.

A neuroscientist studying how the brain uses perception of the environment to guide action has a new understanding of the neural circuits responsible for transforming sensation into movement.

Exercise may be associated with a small benefit for elderly people who already have memory and thinking problems, according to new research published in Neurology.

Researchers have developed a new machine learning tool capable of detecting certain speech-related diagnostic criteria in patients being evaluated for depression. Known as SimSensei, the tool listens to patient’s voices during diagnostic interviews for reductions in vowel expression characteristic of psychological and neurological disorders that may not be sufficiently clear to human interviewers.

Most people remember where they were when the twin towers collapsed in New York – now  new research reveals why that may be the case.

Communication between different areas of our brain increases when we are faced with a difficult task. Understanding these fluctuating patterns could reveal why some people learn new tasks more quickly.

Researchers have discovered a neural circuit that processes evaluations and have identified its sources.

Stimulating the brain via electricity or other means may help to ease the symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders, with the method already being used to treat conditions from epilepsy to depression.

A new paper looks at why some of us are extreme thrill seekers, and others don’t even enjoy a gentle roller coaster ride.

Engineers are leading a research team that is developing a new type of nanodevice for computer microprocessors that can mimic the functioning of a biological synapse—the place where a signal passes from one nerve cell to another in the body. The work is featured in the advance online publication of Nature Materials.

Researchers report proteins produced by gut bacteria may cause protein misfolding in the brain and cerebral inflammation.

Taking a pill that prevents the accumulation of toxic molecules in the brain might someday help prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.

A new tool is allowing researchers to interactively explore the hierarchical processes that happen in the brain when it is resting or performing tasks.

Finally this week, researchers have identified genetics mutations involved in a rare and unnamed neurological disorder.

 

 

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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Researchers explore how memory consolidation occurs during sleep.

Fetal brains use a special amplifier in order to transmit signals, according to research published in the journal eLife.

Scanning ultrasound appears to slow down ageing in healthy brains, a new study reports.

Two interconnected brain areas – the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex – help us to know where we are and to remember it later. By studying these brain areas, researchers have uncovered new information about how dysfunction of this circuit may contribute to memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease. Their results appear in Cell Reports.

A new tool is allowing researchers to interactively explore the hierarchical processes that happen in the brain when it is resting or performing tasks.

Researchers have identified a set of heat sensing neurons that prompt both nervous system and behavioral changes that help cool the body.

As estrogen levels rise in women, the volume of the hippocampus increases, a new study reports.

A new study reports on how the perceptual mechanisms in a person’s brain adapt in response to images of one’s own or other people’s bodies that have been manipulated to look thinner or fatter than they really are

Researchers have found evidence that challenges the intuitive division between a ‘deciding’ and a ‘responding’ stage in decision making.

Finally this week, a new method for inducing, modelling and measuring visual hallucinations in healthy individuals suggests these complex experiences share a common underlying mechanism with normal visual perception.

 

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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bubbly-cold-drink-thirst-sensation-public-neurosciencenews.jpgA new study reports the oral perception of coldness and carbonation can help to reduce thirst.

Metabolic syndrome, a cluster of cardio metabolic conditions, may be a biological mechanism linking post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to structural brain abnormalities, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry.

How do we decide if something is worth the effort? A team of researchers has been finding out.

According to a new study, our ability to track and understand speech in both noisy and quite environments deteriorates due to speech processing declines in the midbrain of older adults.

Researchers have discovered a neural circuit that processes processes evaluations, with implications for understanding depression.

A new mathematical model that describes the molecular events associated with the beginning stage of learning and memory formation in the human brain has been developed.

Understanding fluctuations in brain networks may reveal how some people are able to learn new tasks more quickly.

Finally this week, researchers have developed an ‘epigenetic clock’ that calculates the biological age of a person from a blood sample and can estimate the person’s life span.