http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are distributed throughout the brain are known as "body maps" and there are some significant differences in these maps between left- and right-handed people. For example, in left-handed people, there is an equal amount of brain area devoted to the left and right arms in both hemispheres. However, for right-handed people, there is more cortical area associated with right arm than the left. http://www.physorg.com/news176571474.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:38:32 EST news176571474 An observer feels more empathy for someone in pain when that person is in the same social group, according to new research in the July 1 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The study shows that perceiving others in pain activates a part of the brain associated with empathy and emotion more if the observer and the observed are the same race. The findings may show that unconscious prejudices against outside groups exist at a basic level. http://www.physorg.com/news165600656.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:11:13 EST news165600656 A front portion of the brain that handles tasks like decision-making also helps decipher different phonetic sounds, according to new Brown University research. http://www.physorg.com/news165584101.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:35:30 EST news165584101 Experimental devices that read brain signals have helped paralyzed people use computers and may let amputees control bionic limbs. But existing devices use tiny electrodes that poke into the brain. Now, a University of Utah study shows that brain signals controlling arm movements can be detected accurately using new microelectrodes that sit on the brain but don't penetrate it. http://www.physorg.com/news165475255.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:21:22 EST news165475255 New research from Vanderbilt University indicates the way our brain handles how we move through space -- including being able to imagine literally stepping into someone else's shoes -- may be related to how and why we experience empathy toward others. http://www.physorg.com/news164972802.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:47:03 EST news164972802 Theta oscillations are a type of prominent brain rhythm that orchestrates neuronal activity in the hippocampus, a brain area critical for the formation of new memories. For several decades these oscillations were believed to be "in sync" across the hippocampus, timing the firing of neurons like a sort of central pacemaker. A new study conducted by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) argues that this long-held assumption needs to be revised. In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, the researchers showed that instead of being in sync, theta oscillations actually sweep along the length of the hippocampus as traveling waves. http://www.physorg.com/news162822140.html Medicine & Health Fri, 29 May 2009 13:22:58 EST news162822140 By observing the pattern of activity in the brain, scientists have discovered they can "read" whether a person just heard words spoken in anger, joy, relief, or sadness. The discovery, reported online on May 14th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, is the first to show that emotional information is represented by distinct spatial signatures in the brain that can be generalized across speakers. http://www.physorg.com/news161528185.html Medicine & Health Thu, 14 May 2009 13:57:01 EST news161528185 A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news161280990.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 17:16:51 EST news161280990 Toddlers with autism appear more likely to have an enlarged amygdala, a brain area associated with numerous functions, including the processing of faces and emotion, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, this brain abnormality appears to be associated with the ability to share attention with others, a fundamental ability thought to predict later social and language function in children with autism. http://www.physorg.com/news160675501.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 May 2009 17:05:24 EST news160675501 Ben W. Strowbridge, Ph.D, associate professor of Neuroscience and Physiology/Biophysics, and Yuan Gao, a Ph.D. student in the neurosciences program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, are the first to discover a form of synaptic memory in the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that processes the sense of smell. http://www.physorg.com/news160592963.html Medicine & Health Sun, 03 May 2009 18:09:42 EST news160592963 (PhysOrg.com) -- The pulsing of a single neuron can switch a brain`s waves from the equivalent of a big ocean swell to ripples on a pond, according to new research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Yang Dan of the University of California, Berkeley. http://www.physorg.com/news160407260.html Medicine & Health Fri, 01 May 2009 14:34:46 EST news160407260 A new study provides direct experimental evidence that a brain region important for reading and word recognition contains neurons that are highly selective for individual real words. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 30th issue of the journal Neuron, provides important insight into brain mechanisms associated with reading and may lead to a better understanding of reading disabilities. http://www.physorg.com/news160229278.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:08:32 EST news160229278 By doing a set of vigorous visual exercises on a computer every day for several months, patients who had gone partially blind as a result of suffering a stroke were able to regain some vision, according to scientists who published their results in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. http://www.physorg.com/news157739842.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:38:17 EST news157739842 An interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed a new analytical tool to answer the question of how our brain cells record outside stimuli and react to them. http://www.physorg.com/news157720415.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:17:25 EST news157720415 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Notre Dame biologist Sunny Boyd's research is a little like "Match.com" for amphibians. Say you're a female tree frog looking for a mate--how do you choose among a number of potential suitors? http://www.physorg.com/news157138053.html Biology Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:28:52 EST news157138053 A new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers is the first to pinpoint damage inside the brains of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome - a finding that links the illness to chemical exposures and may lead to diagnostic tests and treatments. http://www.physorg.com/news157018337.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:12:43 EST news157018337 Researchers trying to uncover the mechanisms that cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder have found an abnormality in the brains of adolescent boys suffering from the conditions, but not where they expected to find it. http://www.physorg.com/news156519731.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:43:04 EST news156519731 New research reveals a sophisticated brain mechanism that is critical for filtering out irrelevant signals during demanding cognitive tasks. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 26 issue of the journal Neuron, also provides some insight into how disruption of key inhibitory pathways may contribute to schizophrenia. http://www.physorg.com/news154787315.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:29:21 EST news154787315 (PhysOrg.com) -- Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that early visual areas, long believed to play no role in higher cognitive functions such as memory, retain information previously hidden from brain studies. The researchers made the discovery using a new technique for decoding data from functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. The findings are a significant step forward in understanding how we perceive, process and remember visual information. http://www.physorg.com/news154186809.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:41:06 EST news154186809 For the brain to achieve its intricate functions such as perception, action, attention and decision making, neural regions have to work together yet still retain their specialized roles. Excess or lack of timely coordination between brain areas lies at the core of a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson's disease, sleep disorders and depression. How the brain is coordinated is a complex and difficult problem in need of new theoretical insights as well as new methods of investigation. http://www.physorg.com/news151761355.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:56:29 EST news151761355 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. http://www.physorg.com/news140336390.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:19:50 EST news140336390 Cambridge researchers have discovered that measuring activity in a region of the brain could help to identify people at risk of developing obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). http://www.physorg.com/news135522748.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:12:28 EST news135522748