Technique for Letting Brain Talk to Computers Now Tunes in Speech
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have adapted brain-computer interfaces to listen to regions of the brain that control speech.
Freeway Air Bad for Mouse Brain
Study finds brain damage typical of aging and memory loss after short-term exposure to vehicle pollution If mice commuted, their brains might find it progressively harder to navigate the maze of Los Angeles freeways. A new study reveals that after short-term exposure to vehicle pollution, mice showed significant brain damage — including signs associated with [...]
The Self-Made Eye: Formation of Optic Cup from Embryonic Stem Cells
Developmental processes are increasingly well-characterized at the molecular and cell biological levels, but how more complex tissues and organs involving the coordinated action of multiple cell types in three dimensions is achieved remains something of a black box. One question of particular interest and importance is whether signaling interactions between neighboring tissues are essential to [...]
Scientists Develop New Technology for Stroke Rehabilitation
Devices which could be used to rehabilitate the arms and hands of people who have experienced a stroke have been developed by researchers at the University of Southampton. In a paper to be presented this week (6 April) at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Assisted Living Conference, Dr Geoff Merrett, a lecturer in [...]
Neurobehavioral Anatomy, Third Edition – Neuroscience Book Review
This is a Neuroscience News book review of Neurobehavioral Anatomy, Third Edition by Christopher M. Filley. Lately, neuroscience anatomy books tend to focus on visually stunning images of the brain and colorful drawings of various nervous system components while sacrificing important textual information. Neurobehavioral Anatomy, Third Edition by Christopher M. Filley does not follow this [...]
World Autism Awareness Day – Share the Facts About Autism Spectrum Disorders
World Autism Awareness Day is here. April 2, 2011 marks the fourth annual World Autism Awareness Day. To help build awareness, NeuroscienceNews.com provides some useful information to become informed about what most know simply as “autism”. We have provided information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because we feel it is extremely trustworthy and [...]
What the Brain Saw
The moment we open our eyes, we perceive the world with apparent ease. But the question of how neurons in the retina encode what we “see” has been a tricky one. A key obstacle to understanding how our brain functions is that its components—neurons—respond in highly nonlinear ways to complex stimuli, making stimulus-response relationships extremely [...]
Skywalker Ensures Optimal Communication Between Neurons
Communication errors between brain cells may lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Patrik Verstreken (VIB/K.U.Leuven) has discovered the mechanism that ensures neurons can continue to send the right signals for long consecutive periods – a process that is disrupted in neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s. Verstreken and his colleagues discovered that an enzyme called [...]
New Insight Into “Aha!” Memories
When we suddenly get the answer to a riddle or understand the solution to a problem, we can practically feel the light bulb click on in our head. But what happens after the “Aha!” moment? Why do the things we learn through sudden insight tend to stick in our memory? “Much of memory research involves [...]
The Brain Against Words in the Mirror
Most people can read texts reflected in a mirror slowly and with some effort, but a team of scientists from the Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) has shown for the first time that we can mentally turn these images around and understand them automatically and unconsciously, at least for a few instants. [...]
