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neuroscience research

Neuroscience research articles are grouped together. All science articles tagged as neuroscience research are shown.

What is neuroscience? Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Neuroscience research often involves research from fields such as brain science, chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics, artificial intelligence, robotics, neurology, medicine, philosophy, physics, and psychology.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 27, 2012·2 min read

Connectomics: Mapping the Neural Network Governing Male Roundworm Mating

Researchers determined how the neurons and muscles are connected in a decision-making neural network important for mating in C. elegans. The team also accurately measured the weights of those connections, i.e., an estimate of the strength with which one neuron or muscle communicates with another.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 27, 2012·3 min read

The Seat of Meta-Consciousness in the Brain

Studies of lucid dreamers visualise which centers of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves. Studies demonstrate that a specific cortical network consisting of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus is activated when this lucid consciousness is attained.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroethics

·July 26, 2012·2 min read

Controlling Monkey Brains and Behavior With Light

Researchers can control the behavior of monkeys by using pulses of blue light to very specifically activate particular brain cells. The findings represent a key advance for optogenetics, a state-of-the-art method for making causal connections between brain activity and behavior. Researchers say that similar light-based mind control could likely also be made to work in humans for therapeutic ends.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·July 26, 2012·2 min read

Ion Selectivity in Neuronal Signaling Channels Evolved Twice in Animals

Scientists have now revealed that voltage-gated sodium channels, which are responsible for neuronal signaling in the nerves of animals, evolved twice in higher and lower animals.

Electrophysiology Featured

·July 25, 2012·2 min read

Cylindrical Cell Structure Parts May Aid in Targeting Diseases Such as Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

The model of microtubule assembly that most people accept shows the individual subunits, dimers of the protein tubulin, just adding to the grow cylinder. But another model indicates that tubulin dimmers first form an open sheet structure that later closes into the cylinder. Xing and his team concluded that their computational study of the models indicate that the second model should be seriously considered for further testing.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·July 25, 2012·4 min read

Chemical Makes Blind Mice See

A team of University of California, Berkeley, scientists in collaboration with researchers at the University of Munich and University of Washington, in Seattle, has discovered a chemical that temporarily restores some vision to blind mice, and is working on an improved compound that may someday allow people with degenerative blindness to see again.

Brain Cancer Featured Neurology

·July 24, 2012·3 min read

New Probe Provides Vital Assist in Brain Cancer Surgery

A new probe developed uses an innovative fluorescence-reading technology to help brain surgeons distinguish cancerous tissue from normal tissue. The probe tool, now already in use at the Cancer Center for brain surgery, may one day be used for surgeries for a variety of cancers.

Featured Neurology

·July 24, 2012·4 min read

New Research Determines How a Single Brain Trauma May Lead to Alzheimer’s Disease

A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer’s. The paper, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, identifies the complex mechanisms that result in a rapid and robust post-injury elevation of the enzyme, BACE1, in the brain. These results may lead to the development of a drug treatment that targets this mechanism to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 24, 2012·5 min read

Virtual Reality Allows One to Feel Own Arm is Three to Four Times the Length of Real Arm

A study shows that using virtual reality, an arm up to three or possibly even four times the length of a person’s real arm can be felt as if it was the person’s own arm, even if it incorporates strong asymmetries in the body shape.

Brain Cancer Featured Neurology

·July 23, 2012·5 min read

Genetic Mutations that Cause Common Childhood Brain Tumors Identified

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital have identified several gene mutations responsible for the most common childhood brain tumor, called medulloblastoma, adding evidence to the theory that the diagnosis is a group of genetically distinct cancers with different prognoses. These and accompanying findings are likely to lead to less toxic, better targeted treatment approaches over the next two years, the researchers said.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·July 23, 2012·3 min read

Synthetic Stimulants Called Bath Salts Act in the Brain Like Cocaine

Results of a new study offer compelling evidence for the first time that mephedrone, like cocaine, does have potential for abuse and addiction. “The effects of mephedrone on the brain’s reward circuits are comparable to similar doses of cocaine,” Dr. Malanga, a professor of neurology, pediatrics and psychology at UNC School of Medicine said. “As expected our research shows that mephedrone likely has significant abuse liability.”

Neurology Neuroscience Business

·July 19, 2012·2 min read

Anti-Tau Drug Improves Cognition, Decreases Tau Tangles in Alzheimer’s Disease Models

Penn Medicine research presented today at the 2012 Alzheimer's Association International Conference shows that an anti-tau treatment called epithilone D (EpoD) was effective in preventing and intervening the progress of Alzheimer's disease in animal models, improving neuron function and cognition, as well as decreasing tau pathology.