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UC Berkeley

·January 6, 2020·5 min read

Ooh là là! Music evokes 13 key emotions. Scientists have mapped them

Researchers discover how people from the US and China respond to different genres of music and translate the data into an interactive audio map. Findings suggest there are 13 overall categories of experience preserved across cultures that correspond with specific feelings.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·December 29, 2019·7 min read

Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

Older mice given anti-inflammatory medication were better able to learn new tasks and became almost as adept at learning as mice half their age.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·December 4, 2019·6 min read

Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

A synthesized small-molecule drug blocks the TGF-beta receptor in astrocytes and traverses the blood-brain barrier in mice. When administered, the drug lowered receptor activity to that seen in younger mice and reduced inflammation. The aged mice were able to navigate mazes and learn spatial tasks as well as younger mice.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·November 25, 2019·5 min read

Babies in the womb may see more than we thought

Light sensitive cells in the fetal retina communicate as part of an interconnected network, giving the retina more light sensitivity during development that previously believed.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 4, 2019·4 min read

Stressed to the max? Deep sleep can rewire the anxious brain

Deep sleep restores the medial prefrontal cortex mechanisms that restore emotion. This lowers emotional and physiological reactivity, preventing the escalation of stress and anxiety.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 27, 2019·5 min read

Prenatal pesticide exposure linked to changes in teen’s brain activity

An advanced neuroimaging study reveals how organophosphate exposure in the womb leads to altered brain activity in teens.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 19, 2019·5 min read

A map of the brain can tell what you’re reading

fMRI brain scans reveal semantic tuning during both reading and listening to words are highly correlated in selective areas of the cerebral cortex. The new brain maps enabled researchers to accurately predict which words would active specific regions of the cortex.

This shows a brain with tau deposits marked

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·June 27, 2019·8 min read

Disrupted sleep in one’s 50s, 60s raises risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Sleep disruptions during middle age may be a potential biomarker for developing Alzheimer's disease later in life. Researchers found those who experienced sleep problems in their 40s and 50s had more amyloid beta accumulation in their brains later in life. Those whose sleep problems started in their 50s and 60s had increased levels of tau. Additionally, higher levels of tau were discovered in the brains of those who lacked synchronized brain waves associated with a good night's sleep.

This shows SNL personality Kate McKinnon and Elizabeth Warren

Featured Neuroscience Neuroscience Videos

·June 22, 2019·5 min read

Researchers use facial quirks to unmask ‘deepfakes’

Facial tics might be the key to distinguishing real videos of people from deepfakes, researchers say.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 21, 2019·5 min read

Bats’ brains sync when they socialize

Robust correlations in brain activity were recorded in bats during social interaction. The findings reveal synchronized brain activity is not just specific to humans.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 19, 2019·5 min read

Information addiction: How information is like snacks, money, and drugs to your brain

Obtaining new information may be addictive. Study finds information acquisition shares the same dopamine producing reward system pathway as food, financial rewards and drugs.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 23, 2019·4 min read

What we think we know, but might not, pushes us to learn more

Learning is best predicted by both curiosity and an objective measure of knowledge. Researchers suggest it is uncertainty, or when you think you know something then discover you don't, that leads to curiosity and learning outcomes.