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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 11, 2024·5 min read

Age Alters How We Navigate New Environments

Middle-aged adults explore new environments less thoroughly than younger individuals, prioritizing key locations over overall layout. Using virtual reality, the study observed significant differences in exploration and navigation behaviors between age groups.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 20, 2024·4 min read

VR Unveils Brain’s GPS Response to Illusions

Researchers successfully induced illusions of self-location in participants using multi-sensory virtual reality (VR). They observed corresponding changes in the brain's grid cells, which are responsible for spatial navigation. This study is the first to demonstrate that purely cognitive changes in self-location, without physical movement or visual cues, can trigger activity in grid cells.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 6, 2024·3 min read

Researchers Uncover Brain’s Internal Compass

Researchers identified a pattern of brain activity that acts like an internal compass, helping humans navigate through their environment. They used mobile EEG devices and motion capture to track this activity, overcoming the challenge of measuring neural activity in motion.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·February 29, 2024·5 min read

Impaired Spatial Navigation May Signal Early Alzheimer’s

Researchers have pioneered a study using virtual reality (VR) to identify early signs of Alzheimer’s disease through impaired spatial navigation in asymptomatic adults at risk. By testing 100 middle-aged adults with genetic, familial, or lifestyle risk factors for Alzheimer's, the study discovered that spatial navigation difficulties in VR environments precede traditional cognitive decline symptoms.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 29, 2024·5 min read

Endocannabinoids Play Role in Spatial Navigation

Researchers made a new discovery about how we navigate our environments, pinpointing a brain cell mechanism crucial for spatial orientation. This research reveals that place cells in the hippocampus, essential for creating mental maps of our surroundings, activate and release endocannabinoids to communicate position information.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 23, 2024·5 min read

Neural Decoding Unveils Secrets of Navigation

A new study combines deep learning with neural activity data from mice to unlock the mystery of how they navigate their environment. By analyzing the firing patterns of "head direction" neurons and "grid cells," researchers can now accurately predict a mouse's location and orientation, shedding light on the complex brain functions involved in navigation.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 12, 2024·5 min read

Brain Network Steering Left and Right Movements Discovered

Scientists have identified a new group of neurons that plays a crucial role in controlling left-right movements in walking, bridging a critical gap in our understanding of brainstem and basal ganglia interaction. This discovery provides insights into the brain's complex navigation system previously linked to the 'brain's steering wheel.'

Featured Neuroscience

·February 8, 2024·7 min read

Neural Pathways of Navigation Identified

A new study illuminated how fruit flies navigate by revealing the communication between their internal compass and steering brain regions. This study shows that three distinct neuron groups translate directional signals into corrective actions, allowing fruit flies to adjust their course effectively.

This shows a woman and swirly brain lines.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 14, 2023·2 min read

Deciphering Multisensory Brain Integration in Navigation

Researchers embark on a study, leveraging the fruit fly's complex behaviors, to understand brain-based navigation. With a $6.5 million grant from the NIH, they aim to decode how multisensory info from the fly's antenna, eyes, and balancing organs are integrated, especially during sensor conflicts.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 8, 2023·5 min read

Brainless Robots Navigate Mazes

Researchers designed a "brainless" soft robot that can autonomously navigate through complex environments using physical intelligence. Unlike their previous model, which could only turn upon encountering obstacles, this robot can turn on its own.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 7, 2023·8 min read

Could Neurogenesis and Navigating Change Be Key to Cognitive Flexibility?

Researchers are closing in on the relationship between cognitive adaptability and adult neurogenesis. They developed a novel animal model to test cognitive flexibility by adding layers of complexity to a maze challenge.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 17, 2023·5 min read

A Brain Model Learns to Drive

A new AI model that mimics the neural architecture and connections of the hippocampus is able to alter its synaptic connections as it moves a car-like virtual robot.