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science

·January 15, 2013·2 min read

Major Step Toward an Alzheimer’s Vaccine

Researchers discovered a way to stimulate the brain's natural defense mechanisms in mice with Alzheimer's disease symptoms. This major breakthrough opens the door to the development of a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and a vaccine to prevent the illness.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·December 10, 2012·4 min read

Secrets of Gentle Touch Revealed

Scientists at UCSF uncover the molecular basis of gentle touch, one of the most fundamental, but least well understood of our senses.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 26, 2012·2 min read

Stimulating Brain Cells with Light

The work will be conducted on laboratory rats modelling Parkinson’s disease. The transplanted cells will be derived from skin from an adult human and will have been “reprogrammed” as nerve cells. The light-sensitive protein is obtained from a bacterium, which uses light to gain energy.

Featured Neurology

·October 25, 2012·3 min read

Sensory Neurons Identified as Critical to Sense of Touch

The findings in fruit fly larvae demonstrate the first known function for the sensory neurons and provide insights that could broaden the understanding of chronic pain syndromes in humans.

Featured Psychology

·October 25, 2012·2 min read

Loneliness? It’s All a State of Mind

Researchers from UCL have found that lonely people have less grey matter in a part of the brain associated with decoding eye gaze and other social cues.

Wine from a wine bottle is being poured into a glass.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 24, 2012·2 min read

Researchers Say Daily Drinking Can Be Risky

Drinking a couple of glasses of wine each day has generally been considered a good way to promote cardiovascular and brain health. A new study indicates there is a fine line between moderate and binge drinking - a risky behavior that can decrease the making of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent.

Featured Psychology

·October 24, 2012·3 min read

Brainwave Training Boosts Network for Cognitive Control and Predicts Mind Wandering

Using several neuroimaging methods, a team of researchers working at the University of Western Ontario have now uncovered that functional changes within a key brain network occur directly after a 30-minute session of noninvasive, neural-based training.

Neurons are shown. Caption describes it well.

Brain Cancer Featured Neurology

·October 22, 2012·3 min read

Aggressive Brain Tumors Can Originate from a Range of Nervous System Cells

Scientists have long believed that glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of primary brain tumor, begins in glial cells that make up supportive tissue in the brain or in neural stem cells. Researchers found that the tumors can originate from other types of differentiated cells in the nervous system, including cortical neurons.

Featured Neurology

·October 21, 2012·5 min read

Natural Process Activating Brain’s Immune Cells Could Point Way to Repairing Damaged Brain

The brain’s key “breeder” cells secrete substances that boost the numbers and strength of critical brain-based immune cells believed to play a vital role in brain health. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of how resident stem cells and stem cell transplants may improve brain function.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 20, 2012·3 min read

Researchers Clarify Process Controlling Night Vision

New research reveals the key chemical process that corrects for potential visual errors in low-light conditions. Understanding this fundamental step could lead to new treatments for visual deficits, or might one day boost normal night vision to new levels.

A robot head is shown from the Roboy AI.

Featured

·October 19, 2012·4 min read

Robots that Perceive the World Like Humans

Researchers attempt to improve robot behavior by means of perception models closer to those of humans. One of the experiments involves a robot simulation in which an agent has to discriminate between what we could call an acne pimple and a bite or lump on the skin.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 19, 2012·2 min read

How the Brain Forms Categories

Neurobiologists investigated how the brain is able to group external stimuli into stable categories. They found the answer in the discrete dynamics of neuronal circuits.