News tagged with nature neuroscience

Seeing the brain hear reveals surprises about how sound is processed

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Feb 01, 2010 | 5 / 5 (6) | 3 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research shows our brains are a lot more chaotic than previously thought, and that this might be a good thing. Neurobiologists at the University of Maryland have discovered information ...

Dead neuron clean-up crew in peripheral nervous system found

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jan 29, 2010 | 4.4 / 5 (5) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Death is messy, especially in the developing nervous system. During embryonic development, more nerve cells (neurons) are produced than we will ever need or use. About half of those unnecessary ...

Research adds to evidence that autism is a brain 'connectivity' disorder

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jan 10, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 0 |

Studying a rare disorder known as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), researchers at Children's Hospital Boston add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that autism spectrum disorders, which affect 25 to 50 percent of TSC ...

Got smell? Research shows that accurate taste perception relies on a functioning olfactory system

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 22, 2009 | 2 / 5 (1) | 0

As anyone suffering through a head cold knows, food tastes wrong when the nose is clogged, an experience that leads many to conclude that the sense of taste operates normally only when the olfactory system is also in good ...

Rain or Shine? Computer Models How Brain Cells Reach a Decision

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 14, 2009 | 3.3 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Yale University researchers have devised a computer model to explain how the brain makes decisions based on statistical probabilities-as, for instance, when a doctor makes a diagnosis based on several conflicting ...

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

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 07, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (7) | 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 ...

New source discovered for the generation of nerve cells in the brain

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 01, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (6) | 0

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 ...

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.

Study reveals second pathway to feeling your heartbeat

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (5) | 0

A new study suggests that the inner sense of our cardiovascular state, our "interoceptive awareness" of the heart pounding, relies on two independent pathways, contrary to what had been asserted by prominent researchers.

Changes in brain chemicals mark shifts in infant learning

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 26, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

When do you first leave the nest? Early in development infants of many species experience important transitions—such as learning when to leave the protective presence of their mother to start exploring the wider world. Neuroscientists ...

Master regulator found for regenerating nerve fibers in live animals

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 25, 2009 | 5 / 5 (11) | 0

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston report that an enzyme known as Mst3b, previously identified in their lab, is essential for regenerating damaged axons (nerve fibers) in a live animal model, in both the peripheral ...

Genetics of patterning the cerebral cortex

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 13, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

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 ...

Nerve cells live double lives

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 06, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (7) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (part of the Novartis Research Foundation) have identified a new neural circuit in the retina responsible for the detection ...

New study pinpoints gene controlling number of brain cells (w/ Video)

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 04, 2009 | 5 / 5 (10) | 2

In populating the growing brain, neural stem cells must strike a delicate balance between two key processes - proliferation, in which the cells multiply to provide plenty of starting materials - and differentiation, in which ...

Scientists make paralyzed rats walk again after spinal-cord injury

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Sep 20, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (23) | 3

UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again while supporting their full weight on a treadmill.