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visual neuroscience

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·May 2, 2024·6 min read

Brainstem Plays Vital Role in Visual Attention

Researchers highlights the locus coeruleus (LC), a small brainstem region, as critical in enhancing visual sensory processing through its production of norepinephrine. In the study scientists used optogenetics to activate these specific neurons in non-human primates, significantly improving their performance in a visual attention task.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 26, 2024·4 min read

Brain Blood Flow Syncs with Visual Stimuli

Researchers pioneered a new method to monitor blood vessel dynamics in the mouse brain, revealing that visual stimuli can synchronize vasomotion, potentially improving brain function. By exposing mice to a specific pattern of horizontally moving stripes, the team observed that vasomotion matched the stimulus pattern's speed and spread throughout the brain.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 26, 2024·5 min read

Mice Fooled by Optical Illusions: New Insights into Brain Function

Mice are susceptible to a visual phenomenon known as neon color spreading, commonly seen as an optical illusion in humans. The study utilized both electrophysiology and optogenetics to explore how different levels of neurons contribute to the perception of brightness.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 24, 2024·5 min read

How Sensory Experiences Shape Neurons

A new study introduces BARseq—a rapid, cost-effective method for mapping brain cells, revealing new insights into how our brains are structured at a cellular level. Researchers used BARseq to classify millions of neurons across multiple mouse brains, discovering unique 'cellular signatures' that define each brain region.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 23, 2024·6 min read

AI Enhances Early Screening for Dry Eye Disease

Researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) to improve early screening and prognosis of Dry Eye Disease (DED), which affects up to 30% of the global population. The researchers developed an AI-driven approach that leverages images and personal risk factors to diagnose and manage DED effectively.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 22, 2024·4 min read

Pupil Dilation Linked to Working Memory Capacity

Researchers discovered that pupil dilation can indicate levels of working memory. In a study, researchers observed that individuals whose pupils dilated more while performing memory tasks tended to have better working memory.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 19, 2024·5 min read

Eye Tests Predict Parkinson’s Progression

Optical coherence tomography, commonly used in eye exams, can monitor neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease patients by measuring the thickness of the retina. This method has revealed that retinal degeneration often precedes cognitive and motor decline, offering a potential early indicator of disease progression.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 16, 2024·5 min read

Decoding the Rainbow: New Secrets of Color Perception

Researchers made significant progress in understanding color perception by identifying non-cardinal retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the human fovea. These cells may explain complex color perceptions beyond the traditional models established by the cardinal directions of color detection.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·April 15, 2024·4 min read

Ever Wonder Why We Blink So Much?

A new study reveals the critical role of blinking in visual perception. Contrary to the common belief that blinking merely helps keep the eyes moist, the study found that blinking reshapes how visual information is processed by briefly altering the light patterns on the retina.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 5, 2024·5 min read

Sense of Smell Relies on Predictive Coding More Than Vision

Our sense of smell operates on predictive coding more so than vision, challenging previous notions of smell as a primitive sense. Through a series of experiments, including behavioral studies and fMRI brain imaging, the study highlights smell's sophistication in reacting to unexpected stimuli by engaging not just the olfactory but also the visual brain regions.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·March 27, 2024·6 min read

Exploring Aphantasia: The Mind Without a Mental Picture

Researchers reviewed 50 studies to deepen our understanding aphantasia, a phenomenon where individuals can't visualize mentally. The research reveals aphantasia's diverse impact, from reduced autobiographical memory and face recognition to broader implications in music imagination and occupation choices, suggesting a spectrum rather than a binary condition.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·March 26, 2024·5 min read

Unlocking the Brain’s Attention Network

Researchers have utilized depth electrodes in epilepsy patients to study exogenous attention, the involuntary shift of focus triggered by external stimuli. This unique approach, capturing neural activity across 1,400 brain regions, reveals how attention develops from visual processing to action response, involving a continuum of cortical networks.