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. A group of Norwegian and American researchers have shown that common variations in genes associated with microcephaly - a neuro-developmental disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced - may explain differences in brain size in healthy individuals as well as in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders. http://www.physorg.com/news180631939.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:33:02 EST news180631939 The research group of Professor Magdalena Gotz of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich (Germany) has made a significant advance in understanding regeneration processes in the brain. The researchers discovered progenitor cells which can form new glutamatergic neurons following injury to the cerebral cortex. http://www.physorg.com/news178899595.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:30:41 EST news178899595 Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activation have found that men and women respond differently to positive and negative stimuli, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). http://www.physorg.com/news178722072.html Medicine & Health Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:30:01 EST news178722072 Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. http://www.physorg.com/news175951284.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:22:24 EST news175951284 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Harvard and University of California, San Diego, researchers report having pinpointed an area of the brain where three essential components of language -- word identification, grammar, and word pronunciation -- are processed. http://www.physorg.com/news175760599.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:23:46 EST news175760599 Prenatal sex-based biological differences extend to genetic expression in cerebral cortices. The differences in question are probably associated with later divergences in how our brains develop. This is shown by a new study by Uppsala University researchers Elena Jazin and Björn Reinius, which has been published in the latest issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry. http://www.physorg.com/news175527913.html Medicine & Health Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:46:41 EST news175527913 For decades, scientists have thought the faulty neural wiring that predisposes individuals to behavioral disorders like autism and psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia must occur during development. Even so, no one has ever shown that a risk gene for the disease actually disrupts brain development. http://www.physorg.com/news174908711.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:20:03 EST news174908711 A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports a significant breakthrough in explaining gaps in scientists' understanding of human brain function. The study - which provides a picture of language processing in the brain with unprecedented clarity - will be published in the October 16 issue of the journal Science. http://www.physorg.com/news174837097.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:52:30 EST news174837097 The cerebral cortex, the largest and most complex component of the brain, is unique to mammals and alone has evolved human specializations. Although at first all stem cells in charge of building the cerebral cortex -the outermost layer of neurons commonly referred to as gray matter -are created equal, soon they irrevocably commit to forming specific cortical regions. But how the stem cells' destiny is determined has remained an open question. http://www.physorg.com/news174665793.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:17:33 EST news174665793 Yale University researchers have found a molecular mechanism that allows the proper mixing of neurons during the formation of columns essential for the operation of the cerebral cortex, they report in the Sept. 16 online issue of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news172325815.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:17:26 EST news172325815 Scientists discovered a gene - called AP2gamma - crucial for the neural development of the visual cortex, in a discovery that can have implications for the therapeutics of neural regeneration as well as provide new clues about how the brain evolved into higher sophistication in mammals. The article will come out in the journal Nature Neuroscience today. http://www.physorg.com/news172139390.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:40:01 EST news172139390 A new understanding of how anesthesia and anesthesia-like states are controlled in the brain opens the door to possible new future treatments of various states of loss of consciousness, such as reversible coma, according to Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news172136363.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:23:12 EST news172136363 (PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who has spent a sleepless night anguishing over a possible job loss has experienced the central finding of a new brain scan study: Uncertainty makes a bad event feel even worse. http://www.physorg.com/news169755202.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:00:02 EST news169755202 (PhysOrg.com) -- The development of the brain proceeds a little like the European settlement of North America. The earliest pioneers settled on the east coast with subsequent waves of settlers forming communities further and further westward. In cortical regions of the developing brain, generations of young neurons undergo a staged migration as well, with the earliest-born cells staying relatively close to their birthplace and subsequent generations traveling further, ultimately stratifying into six neuronal layers in the mature brain. Now, for the first time, imaging studies have identified the `motors` that propel a unique form of cell migration that creates these layers that underlie the formation of synaptic circuitry. http://www.physorg.com/news167581076.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:40:02 EST news167581076 Why are some people smarter than others? In a new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Eduardo Mercado III from the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, describes how certain aspects of brain structure and function help determine how easily we learn new things, and how learning capacity contributes to individual differences in intelligence. http://www.physorg.com/news167048137.html Medicine & Health Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:15:58 EST news167048137 For the first time, researchers have clearly shown regeneration of a critical type of nerve fiber that travels between the brain and the spinal cord and which is required for voluntary movement. The regeneration was accomplished in a brain injury site in rats by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and is described in a study to be published in the April 6th early on-line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news158258501.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:42:36 EST news158258501 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that convulsive seizures in a form of severe epilepsy are generated, not on the brain's surface as expected, but from within the memory-forming hippocampus. The scientists hope that their findings - based on a mouse model of severe epilepsy - may someday pave the way for improved treatments of childhood epilepsy, which affects more than two percent of children worldwide. Their study will be published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) the week of March 16. http://www.physorg.com/news156443277.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:28:24 EST news156443277 New research is unraveling the complex brain mechanisms associated with disabling migraine headaches. The study, published by Cell Press in the March 12th issue of the journal Neuron, reveals that perturbation of the delicate balance between excitation and inhibition may make the brain more vulnerable to migraine attacks. http://www.physorg.com/news156007151.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:20:00 EST news156007151 (Physorg.com) -- We all know the feeling: a golden oldie comes blaring over the radio and suddenly we're transported back - to a memorable high-school dance, or to that perfect afternoon on the beach with friends. But what is it about music that can evoke such vivid memories? http://www.physorg.com/news154683105.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:35:26 EST news154683105 (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 The underlying sense of being in control of our own actions is challenged by new research from UCL (University College London) which demonstrates that the choices we make internally are weak and easily overridden compared to when we are told which choice to make. http://www.physorg.com/news153581911.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:39:06 EST news153581911 For the first time, scientists at Children's National Medical Center have successfully identified a key developmental program for the amygdala -the part of the limbic system that impacts how the brain creates emotional memories and responses. http://www.physorg.com/news151055259.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:47:39 EST news151055259 A new area of the cerebral cortex has evolved to enable man and higher primates to pick up small objects and deftly use tools, according to neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pittsburgh's Veterans Affairs Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news151002730.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:12:10 EST news151002730 We all know the famous saying: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," but is this proverb actually true? http://www.physorg.com/news139068314.html Medicine & Health Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:05:14 EST news139068314