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·July 30, 2012·2 min read

Brain Development is Delayed in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Researchers found that development of the cortical surface is delayed in frontal brain regions in children with ADHD. The typically developing children attained 50% peak area in the right prefrontal cortex at a mean age of 12.7 years, whereas the ADHD children didn’t reach this peak until 14.6 years of age.

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.

Brain Cancer Featured Neurology

·July 26, 2012·5 min read

Study Pinpoints a Genetic Cause of Most Lethal Brain Tumor and May Lead to New Treatment

Researchers discovered that some cases of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of primary brain cancer, are caused by the fusion of two adjacent genes. The study also found that drugs that target the protein produced by this genetic aberration can dramatically slow the growth of glioblastomas in mice.

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.

Featured Psychology

·July 25, 2012·4 min read

Sum of the Parts? How Our Brains See Men as People and Women as Body Parts

Study finds that both genders process images of men, women differently.

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.