News tagged with visual cortex

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

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Dec 07, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 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 ...

Two molecules affecting brain plasticity

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 25, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (8) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- You wouldn't want a car with no brakes. It turns out that the developing brain needs them, too.

Adult brain can change within seconds

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jul 14, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (25) | 12

(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 ...

Scans show learning 'sculpts' the brain's connections

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Oct 09, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (6) | 1

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, ...

Action video games improve vision

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Mar 29, 2009 | 5 / 5 (7) | 3

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.

Decoding short-term memory with fMRI

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Feb 21, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 0

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 ...

Long-distance brain waves focus attention (w/Video)

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

May 28, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (6) | 1

(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 ...

Scientists reveal secret of girl with 'all seeing eye'

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jul 20, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (59) | 6

(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 ...

Rigorous visual training teaches the brain to see again after stroke (w/Video)

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Mar 31, 2009 | not rated yet | 1

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 ...

Echoes discovered in early visual brain areas play role in working memory

Medicine & Health / Research

Feb 18, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (9) | 0

(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. ...

People who wear rose-colored glasses see more, study shows

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jun 03, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (6) | 4

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 ...

Looming sounds boost visual perception

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Oct 16, 2009 | 5 / 5 (8) | 1

(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 ...

Ants on the brain

Biology /

Feb 25, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (11) | 3

(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 ...

Visual learners convert words to pictures in the brain and vice versa

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Mar 25, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 1

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 ...

Brain processes written words as unique 'objects'

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Apr 29, 2009 | 5 / 5 (7) | 0

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 ...