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neurobiology

·December 17, 2010·3 min read

The Fearless SM: Woman Missing Amygdala

A woman with bilateral damage relatively restricted to the amygdala is the subject of a case study reported today. SM, as she will be known to the public, seems able to experience emotions such as happiness and sadness normally, but shows no signs of fear.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 14, 2010·4 min read

Feeling Robotic Arms Improves Brain Machine Interfaces

Proprioception feedback of a robotic arm helped improve the performance of monkeys using brain machine interfaces to control a computer cursor. When the monkeys were fit with exoskeletons that provided arm movements synchronized with the cursor movement, control of the cursor improved by 40%.

Featured Neurology

·December 13, 2010·3 min read

Fragile X Tremor Ataxia Syndrome – FXTAS Breakthrough

Fragile X Tremor Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS) research shows that inhibiting histone acetylation could help control expression of toxic mRNA. FXTAS symptoms are mainly caused by overproduction of toxic mRNA, making this research very important for researchers working with FXTAS.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 11, 2010·3 min read

Data on What Colors Flowers Appear to Bees

A database on what colors flowers appear to be viewed as by bees has been collected and is freely searchable. The data is collected in the Floral Refelctance Database also known as FReD.

Featured Neurology

·December 10, 2010·5 min read

World’s First Basic Research Institute for Childhood Neurological Diseases Opens

The world's first basic research institute for childhood neurological diseases opened in Houston, Texas and is part of the Texas Children's Hospital. Some of the research the new research insitute will focus on includes childhood neurological diseases such as autism, epilepsy, Rett syndrome, cerebral palsy, ataxias and Batten disease. More details about the new institute are provided in the press release below.

The image is a diagram showing the formation of beta-amyloid.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·December 9, 2010·5 min read

Beta-amyloid Removal Problems May Underlie Alzheimer’s Disease

The removal of beta-amyloid is not efficient in late-onset Alzheimer's disease sufferers. These new findings could help produce better early diagnostic tests and therapies for Alzheimer's disease and related research.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·December 9, 2010·3 min read

Acetylcholine and SK Channels Involved in Learning and Memory

New research on learning describes the interaction between acetlycholine receptors and SK channels and their involvement in learning and memory. These findings could lead to new research targeting acetylcholine and SK channels to help cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia as well as help understand learning and memory better.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 30, 2010·3 min read

Diabetes Slows Synthesis of Brain Cholesterol

Diabetes research with mice has shown that diabetes can slow down the synthesis of brain cholesterol, important in synapse formation and many other neuronal functions.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·October 26, 2010·3 min read

Blind People Process Touch Faster

Recent visual neuroscience research provides evidence that blind people process the sense of touch faster than people with normal vision. The research also found that each blind person's tactile perception time was nearly equal to their average speed of their finger moving from one Braille character to the next.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·October 25, 2010·5 min read

Computational Neuroscience Suggests Potassium Channels More Involved in MS Than Thought

Computational models of axonal properties suggest that problems associated with MS, and other demyelinating diseases, may be due more to an imbalance between sodium channels and potassium channels that play a role in the leak current in neuronal membranes, than to the currently targeted sodium channels of most MS drugs.

Genetics Neuroscience

·October 18, 2010·2 min read

Neurobiologists Genetically Engineer Mice to Smell Light

Neurobiologists have genetically engineered mice to smell light. This optogenetics research provides a better understanding of the neural basis of...

Electrophysiology Neuroscience

·October 14, 2010·2 min read

Peer Into Living Cells Without Damaging Them – B-CARS

Biologists may be able to better peer into living cells according to new research. Using a new variation on Raman spectroscopy, detailed molecular maps of cellular content can be made without damaging the examined cells.