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visual cortex

·March 5, 2020·5 min read

Understanding how the brain predicts could make treating autism easier

Understanding how the brain decides what it should pay attention to is key to understanding how prediction plays a tole in autism.

This shows a brain scan of a 27 day old baby

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·March 2, 2020·5 min read

Earliest look at newborns’ visual cortex reveals the minds babies start with

A newborn's brain is more adult-like than previously assumed. Neuroimaging revealed much of the visual cortex scaffolding is in place, along with patterns of brain activity at 27 days of age, although it is not quite as strong as seen in adult brains.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 30, 2020·2 min read

Patterns in the brain shed new light on how we function

The way neurons are structured, and the patterns they make can be used to explain how they behave and function. The findings have implications for creating intelligent robots.

Autism Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·January 27, 2020·7 min read

Prescription drug improves symptoms of autism by targeting brain’s chemical messengers

A drug commonly prescribed for edema improves the symptoms for young children on the autism spectrum with no significant side effects. The drug, bumetanide, decreases the ratio of GABA to glutamate in the brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 2, 2020·4 min read

Some learning is a whole-brain affair

Motor learning induces widespread cortical synaptic potentiation by increasing the trafficking of AMPAR into dendritic spines.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 5, 2019·6 min read

Controlling attention with brain waves

Attention can be boosted by using neurofeedback to increase alpha brainwaves.

This shows an EEG readout from the study

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·November 19, 2019·4 min read

Ayahuasca DMT compound changes brainwaves to vivid ‘waking-dream’ state

DMT alters electrical activity in the brain. The compound significantly decreases alpha wave activity, the dominant rhythm associated with wakefulness, and increases theta waves, associated with dreaming. Overall brain activity becomes more chaotic and less predictable. The findings advance the understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of immersive states of consciousness.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 21, 2019·4 min read

Immune cells rewire and repair the brain while we sleep

Microglia play a critical role in reorganizing neural connections, fighting infections, and repairing damage to neurons while we sleep.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·October 7, 2019·5 min read

Brain tunes itself to criticality, maximizing information processing

Criticality in the brain was linked to inhibitory neurons imposing and organizing the computational dynamics.

This is a brain slice scan from the study

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·September 24, 2019·4 min read

Do children’s brains really get thinner?

A new study questions whether a child's brain thins as they get older. Researchers say the cortex does not thin during childhood, but instead becomes more myelinated.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 23, 2019·2 min read

Critical role of brain circuits in improving learning and memory revealed

A newly identified neural network in the hippocampal formation plays a critical role in memory and object-location learning. The findings are highly relevant to learning and memory disorders, including Alzheimer's disease.