Researchers Explore How the Brain Perceives Direction and Location
The Who asked “who are you?” but Dartmouth neurobiologist Jeffrey Taube “where are you?” and “where are you going?” Taube is not asking philosophical or theological questions. He is investigating nerve cells in the brain that function in establishing one’s location and direction.
How the Brain Forms Categories
Neurobiologists investigated how the brain is able to group external stimuli into stable categories. They found the answer in the discrete dynamics of neuronal circuits.
First Micro-Structure Atlas of the Human Brain Completed
A European team of scientists have built the first atlas of white-matter microstructure in the human brain.
A Glance at the Brain’s Circuit Diagram
Scientists developed a method for decoding neural circuit diagrams. Using measurements of total neuronal activity, they can determine the probability that two neurons are connected with each other.
Language is Shaped by Brain’s Desire for Clarity and Ease
Using an artificial language in a carefully controlled laboratory experiment, researchers found that many changes to language are simply the brain’s way of ensuring that communication is as precise and concise as possible.
Novel Mechanisms Underlying Major Childhood Neuromuscular Disease Identified
A study suggests that spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic neuromuscular disease in infants and children, results primarily from motor circuit dysfunction, not motor neuron or muscle cell dysfunction, as is commonly thought. In a second study, the researchers identified the molecular pathway in SMA that leads to problems with motor function.
Neuroscientists Launch 5 Year Study of Music Education and Child Brain Development
Researchers at USC Brain and Creativity Institute will explore the effects of intense music training on cognitive development in LA Phil’s YOLA at HOLA program. The five-year research project will offer researchers an opportunity to provide new insights and add data about the role of early music engagement in learning and brain function.
Researchers Create a Universal Map of Vision in the Human Brain
Researchers create a map of vision in the brain based upon an individual’s brain structure, even for people who cannot see. Their result can, among other things, guide efforts to restore vision using a neural prosthesis that stimulates the surface of the brain.
Autistic Adults Have Unreliable Neural Responses, Carnegie Mellon-Led Research Team Finds
Neuroscientists take the first step toward deciphering the connection between general brain function and emergent behavioral patterns in autism. Study shows that autistic adults have unreliable neural sensory responses to visual, auditory and somatosensory, or touch, stimuli.
Human Brains Share a Consistent Genetic Blueprint and Possess Enormous Biochemical Complexity
Scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science reported that human brains share a consistent genetic blueprint and possess enormous biochemical complexity. The findings stem from the first deep and large-scale analysis of the vast data set publicly available in the Allen Human Brain Atlas.
