Look at That! Ravens Use Gestures, Too
Ravens gesture with their beaks to point out objects to each other Pointing and holding up objects in order to attract attention has so far only been observed in humans and our closest living relatives, the great apes. Simone Pika from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and Thomas Bugnyar from the University of Vienna, [...]
Researchers Design Steady Handed Robot for Brain Surgery
Neurosurgeons may one day get help in operating rooms from a robot with movements 10 times steadier than the human hand to perform delicate brain surgeries, the EU said Monday. The European Commission touted the EU-funded ROBOCAST project as a breakthrough in robotic neurosurgery that could in future help treat tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and [...]
Attention and Awareness Uncoupled
Brain imaging experiments uncouple two apparently intimately connected mental processes In everyday life, attention and awareness appear tightly interwoven. Attending to the scissors on the right side of your desk, you become aware of their attributes, for example the red handles. Vice versa, the red handles could attract your attention to the scissors. However, a [...]
New Test for Consciousness in Comatose Patients
The Coma Science Group (CRCyclotron, University of Liège /Liège University Hospital), led by Dr Steven Laureys, has developed, along with its partners in London, Ontario, (Canada) and Cambridge (England), a portable test which will permit a simpler and less expensive diagnosis of ‘vegetative’ patients who still have consciousness, despite the fact that they do not [...]
Parkinsonian Worms May Hold the Key to Identifying Drugs for Parkinson’s Disease
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have devised a simple test, using dopamine-deficient worms, for identifying drugs that may help people with Parkinson’s disease. The worms are able to evaluate as many as 1,000 potential drugs a year. The researchers have received federal funding that could increase that to one million drug tests [...]
HC: Woman with Amnesia Unable to Hold a Single Face in Short-term Memory … Unless it’s Paris Hilton
Study shows intact memory for familiar information, despite memory deficit A 22-year-old woman known as “HC” with amnesia since birth as a result of developing only half the normal volume of the hippocampus in her brain, has demonstrated to scientists that the ability to hold a single face or word in short-term memory is impaired. [...]
Autism Linked with Excess of Neurons in Prefrontal Cortex
A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence shows that brain overgrowth in boys with autism involves an abnormal, excess number of neurons in areas of the brain associated with social, communication and cognitive development. The scientists discovered a 67 percent excess of cortical cells – a type [...]
Brain Parasite Directly Alters Brain Chemistry – T gondii Affects Dopamine
A research group from the University of Leeds has shown that infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK’s population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain. Their findings are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of [...]
