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. An experimental device that uses the tongue instead of the eyes to "see" could be on the market next year, and a blind Fresno, Calif., teen hopes to be among the first to take one home. http://www.physorg.com/news180125418.html Technology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:51:11 EST news180125418 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 conductor of the brain's complex orchestra. http://www.physorg.com/news179422808.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:41:31 EST news179422808 (PhysOrg.com) -- You wouldn't want a car with no brakes. It turns out that the developing brain needs them, too. http://www.physorg.com/news178374711.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:35:23 EST news178374711 Although we assume we can see everything in our field of vision, the brain actually picks and chooses the stimuli that come into our consciousness. A new study in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's Journal of Vision reveals that our brains can be trained to consciously see stimuli that would normally be invisible. http://www.physorg.com/news175364478.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:40:01 EST news175364478 (PhysOrg.com) -- Whether it`s the sound of a speeding car approaching from out of the blue, or the faint echo of footsteps following you along a dark street, such looming sounds not only make our ears prick up - but help us see better too. http://www.physorg.com/news174917281.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:09:48 EST news174917281 Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be "white noise" measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chieti, Italy, have shown. http://www.physorg.com/news174302671.html Medicine & Health Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:25:17 EST news174302671 Do infants only start to crawl once they are physically able to see danger coming? Or is it that because they are more mobile, they develop the ability to sense looming danger? According to Ruud van der Weel and Audrey van der Meer, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, infants' ability to see whether an object is approaching on a direct collision course, and when it is likely to collide, develops around the time they become more mobile. Their findings have just been published online in the Springer journal Naturwissenschaften. http://www.physorg.com/news173003137.html Medicine & Health Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:26:38 EST news173003137 Researchers have long known of the brain's ability to learn based on visual motion input, and a recent study has uncovered more insight into where the learning occurs. http://www.physorg.com/news172757360.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:15:00 EST news172757360 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 study finds a surprising similarity in the way neural circuits linked to vision process information in both sighted individuals and those who have been blind since birth. The research, published by Cell Press in the August 13th issue of the journal Neuron, reveals that category-specific localized activation of a critical part of the visual cortex does not require any prior visual experience and provides fascinating and valuable insight into the evolutionary history of the human brain. http://www.physorg.com/news169299229.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:20:02 EST news169299229 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered how a 10-year-old girl born with half a brain is able to see normally through one eye. The youngster, from Germany, has both fields of vision in one eye and is the only known case of its kind in the world. http://www.physorg.com/news167324813.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:08:02 EST news167324813 (PhysOrg.com) -- The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity. http://www.physorg.com/news166811731.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:36:01 EST news166811731 After a review of 284 cases, specialists at the Brain Tumor Center at the University of Cincinnati (UC) Neuroscience Institute have concluded that performing a stereotactic needle biopsy in an area of the brain associated with language or other important functions carries no greater risk than a similar biopsy in a less critical area of the brain. http://www.physorg.com/news163268266.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:18:27 EST news163268266 A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor. http://www.physorg.com/news163244296.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:38:59 EST news163244296 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just as our world buzzes with distractions -- from phone calls to e-mails to tweets -- the neurons in our brain are bombarded with messages. Research has shown that when we pay attention, some of these neurons begin firing in unison, like a chorus rising above the noise. Now, a study in the May 29 issue of Science reveals the likely brain center that serves as the conductor of this neural chorus. http://www.physorg.com/news162739756.html Medicine & Health Thu, 28 May 2009 14:29:38 EST news162739756 Studying the way a person's brain 'sings' could improve our understanding of conditions such as epilepsy and schizophrenia and help develop better treatments, scientists at Cardiff University have discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news161950816.html Medicine & Health Tue, 19 May 2009 11:20:45 EST news161950816 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 As we look at the world around us, images flicker into our brains like so many disparate pixels on a computer screen that change every time our eyes move, which is several times a second. Yet we don't perceive the world as a constantly flashing computer display. Why not? http://www.physorg.com/news157906808.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:01:41 EST news157906808 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 Video games that involve high levels of action, such as first-person-shooter games, increase a player's real-world vision, according to research in today's Nature Neuroscience. http://www.physorg.com/news157558426.html Medicine & Health Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:14:25 EST news157558426 A University of Pennsylvania psychology study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to scan the brain, reveals that people who consider themselves visual learners, as opposed to verbal learners, have a tendency to convert linguistically presented information into a visual mental representation. The more strongly an individual identified with the visual cognitive style, the more that individual activated the visual cortex when reading words. http://www.physorg.com/news157202233.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:25:05 EST news157202233 In macular degeneration, the most common form of adult blindness, patients progressively lose vision in the center of their visual field, thereby depriving the corresponding part of the visual cortex of input. Previously, researchers discovered that the deprived neurons begin responding to visual input from another spot on the retina - evidence of plasticity in the adult cortex. http://www.physorg.com/news155323109.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:19:28 EST news155323109 (PhysOrg.com) -- Colonies of social insects such as ants and bees could collectively make decisions using mechanisms similar to those used in primate brains, according to new research from the University of Bristol. http://www.physorg.com/news154795756.html Biology Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:50:36 EST news154795756 People voluntarily pick what information they store in short-term memory. Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers can see just what information people are holding in memory based only on patterns of activity in the brain. http://www.physorg.com/news154466439.html Medicine & Health Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:21:20 EST news154466439 Working memory (also known as short term memory) is our ability to keep a small amount of information active in our mind. This is useful for information we need to know on-the-fly, such as a phone number or the few items we need to pick up from the grocery store. We hang on to the information for a brief period of time, just long enough to make a phone call or get through the checkout line, and then we forget it forever. http://www.physorg.com/news154349817.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:57:22 EST news154349817 (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 If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she's right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why. http://www.physorg.com/news153578717.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:45:56 EST news153578717 Ever get a little motion sick from an illusion graphic designed to look like it's moving? A new study suggests that these illusions do more than trick the eye; they may also convince the brain that the graphic is actually moving. http://www.physorg.com/news152816091.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:55:49 EST news152816091 Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that people can successfully navigate an obstacle course even after brain damage has left them with no awareness of the ability to see and no activity in the visual cortex, a region of the brain's cortex that is primarily responsible for processing visual inputs. The findings published in the December 23rd issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveal the importance of alternative routes in the brain, which are active in both those who have suffered severe brain damage to the visual cortex and in all of our everyday lives, according to the researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news149180564.html Biology Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:02:44 EST news149180564 A new study from Georgia Tech shows that when patients with macular degeneration focus on using another part of their retina to compensate for their loss of central vision, their brain seems to compensate by reorganizing its neural connections. Age -related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. The study appears in the December edition of the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. http://www.physorg.com/news146409395.html Medicine & Health Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:16:35 EST news146409395