Neuroscience news

What is 'Real'? How Our Brain Differentiates Between Reality and Fantasy

Mar 23, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (22) | 24

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people can easily tell the difference between reality and fantasy. We know that characters in novels and movies are fictitious, and we also understand that historical figures - even if ...

Why newborn babies can't walk

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

16 hours ago | 4.2 / 5 (6) | 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first steps of an infant is a real milestone in the development of all mammals including humans, but little is known about why some animals can walk soon after birth, while others need ...

People who 'see' numbers have better memories for dates

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 15, 2009 | 5 / 5 (6) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new research project has shown that people who perceive numbers visually, and who see sequences of numbers as visual patterns, have better memories for dates and events in the past than ...

The thalamus, middleman of the brain, becomes a sensory conductor

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 07, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (6) | 1

Two new studies show that the thalamus--the small central brain structure often characterized as a mere pit-stop for sensory information on its way to the cortex--is heavily involved in sensory processing, and is an important ...

How to read brain activity?

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 04, 2009 | 4 / 5 (6) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the very first time, scientists show what EEG can really tell us about how the brain functions.

Music and speech based on human biology (w/ Video)

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 03, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (10) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A pair of studies by Duke University neuroscientists shows powerful new evidence of a deep biological link between human music and speech.

Study shows new brain connections form rapidly during motor learning

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 29, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (7) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- New connections begin to form between brain cells almost immediately as animals learn a new task, according to a study published this week in Nature. Led by researchers at the University of Cal ...

Waking up memories while you sleep

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (9) | 2

They were in a deep sleep, yet sounds, such as a teakettle whistle and a cat's meow, somehow penetrated their slumber. The 25 sounds presented during the nap were reminders of earlier spatial learning, though the Northwestern ...

New study shows brain's ability to reorganize

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 18, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (11) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Visually impaired people appear to be fearless, navigating busy sidewalks and crosswalks, safely finding their way using nothing more than a cane as a guide. The reason they can do this, researchers suggest, ...

Dopamine enhances expectation of pleasure in humans

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 12, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (10) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology.

Dreams may have an important physiological function

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 12, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (27) | 12

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dreams have long been assumed to have psychological functions such as consolidating emotional memories and processing experiences or problems, but according to a Harvard psychiatrist and sleep ...

Early life stress has effects at the molecular level

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 12, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (12) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of mice suggests that stress and trauma in early life can have an impact on the genes and result in behavioral problems later in life.

Words, gestures are translated by same brain regions, says new research

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 09, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

Your ability to make sense of Groucho's words and Harpo's pantomimes in an old Marx Brothers movie takes place in the same regions of your brain, says new research funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication ...

Use of cannabinoids could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 04, 2009 | 5 / 5 (7) | 1

Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a recent study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department ...

Regeneration can be achieved after chronic spinal cord injury

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 28, 2009 | 5 / 5 (6) | 4

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that regeneration of central nervous system axons can be achieved in rats even when treatment delayed is more than a year after the original ...