Babies Learn the Smell of Mum
Newborn mice use mom’s unique odor, not a pheromone, to begin breastfeeding.
‘Psychopaths’ Have An Impaired Sense of Smell
People with psychopathic tendencies have an impaired sense of smell, which points to inefficient processing in the front part of the brain (orbitofrontal cortex) according to a new study.
Dopamine: A Substance with Many Messages
Researchers recently localised and identified the most important types of nerve cells involved in forming positive and negative memories of a fruit fly. All four nerve cell types they discovered use dopamine to communicate with other nerve cells. Three of the nerve cell types assume various functions in mediating negative stimuli, while the fourth enables the fly to form positive memories.
Smell is a Symphony
Stowers researchers present a new model for how the brain is organized to process odor information. Just like a road atlas faithfully maps real-world locations, our brain maps many aspects of our physical world: Sensory inputs from our fingers are mapped next to each other in the somatosensory cortex; the auditory system is organized by [...]
