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brain plasticity

This shows kids celebrating a victory at a video game

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·September 22, 2020·4 min read

Playing Video Games as a Child Can Improve Working Memory Years Later

People who were avid gamers during childhood performed better at working memory tasks, even if they no longer played than their non-gaming peers.

This shows the location of the orbitofrontal cortex

Featured Neuroscience

·September 16, 2020·4 min read

Reprogramming Brain Cells Enables Flexible Decision-Making

Study identifies neurons in command of guiding adaptive behaviors.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 10, 2020·4 min read

Individual Differences in the Brain

Distinct personality traits emerge and manifest via both behavior and neural activity.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 21, 2020·5 min read

Scientists Observe Learning Processes Online in the Brain

Repeatedly administered tactile simulation over a sustained period of time alters neural processing of the hand area in the brain. The observable changes over time illustrate neuroplasticity and shed new light on the process of learning.

Featured Neurology

·July 20, 2020·4 min read

Oxytocin Could Be Used to Treat Cognitive Disorders Like Alzheimer’s

Oxytocin, the so-called "love hormone," could help to treat cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Researchers demonstrated oxytocin reversed the effects of amyloid-beta on hippocampal LTP in mice. The findings suggest oxytocin could be used as a therapeutic for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 6, 2020·6 min read

To Let Neurons Talk, Immune Cells Clear Paths Through Brain’s ‘Scaffolding’

Dropping the level of the IL-33 immune molecule increased the number of synapses in the brain. In older mice, ramping up IL-33 helped push the number of new synapses toward a more youthful state.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 5, 2020·5 min read

Chemical messenger in brain could point to better treatments for anxiety

Corticotropin-releasing factor and neuropeptide Y work in synchronized opposition to each other to remodel and rewire neurons in the amygdala as a response to stress. The process, researchers say, can be manually reversed to help relieve anxiety.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 4, 2020·3 min read

Adult neurogenesis essential for sleep-induced memory consolidation

Adult born neurons are essential for synaptic structural remodeling and memory consolidation during REM sleep, a new mouse study found.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·May 4, 2020·4 min read

Exercise boosts motor skill learning via changes in brain’s transmitters

Neurons in the caudal pedunculopontine nucleus, an area of the brain that regulates motor coordination, switch neurotransmitters from acetylcholine to GABA as a result of exercise. The switch appears to provide feedback control that regulates motor coordination and skill learning.

This shows the brain scans of a person who had a hemispherectomy

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·November 19, 2019·4 min read

Brain scans reveal how the human brain compensates when one hemisphere is removed

The brains of adults who received hemispherectomies as children had unusually strong connections between functional brain networks in the remaining hemisphere, which help the body to function as if the brain were intact.