Neuroscience

Are Musical Chills Really Caused By Endogenous Opioids? Examining Goldstein's 1980 Results

I had the following article in the ICMPC 11 proceedings. ABSTRACT An often cited conclusion that musical chills are mediated by endogenous opioids (endorphins) is based on an experiment that showed the opioid antagonist naloxone reduced the chills rate of ...

Article - Mark Riggle - Oct 29 2010 - 10:38am

Electrical Stimulation Can Boost Math Ability For 6 Months, Says Study

Researchers say that by  applying electrical current to the brain they can enhance mathematical performance for up to 6 months- and there is no impact on other cognitive functions. Aside from being a new way for kids to cheat on their SATs, the work may le ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 4 2010 - 11:59am

Women smarter than men: Here is the evidence, well kinda...

Bridges between dendritic spines in the brain makes neurons talk to each other better and makes you smarter. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia have fewer of these bridges. A recent study showed that estrogen can make more of ...

Blog Post - Raghuveer Ramacha... - Nov 18 2010 - 11:34pm

The Biology Of Introspection

A new study reveals that ‘introspection’ (thinking about our own thoughts or behavior) is anchored in a specific part of our brain. The research by scientists from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at Un ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 18 2010 - 11:11am

How do we know what we know?

If you grew up like me you were brought up in a culture based on a dualist metaphysics, one that asserts that there is an objective reality outside of ourselves (whatever “we” are) and that we know about it indirectly through our senses and conscious reas ...

Blog Post - Rafe Furst - Nov 20 2010 - 12:10pm

Chronic Jet Lag And Memory Issues Linked

Chronic jet lag alters the brain in ways that cause memory and learning problems long after returning to a regular 24-hour schedule, according to research by Berkeley psychologists. Twice a week for four weeks, the researchers subjected female Syrian hamst ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 1 2010 - 4:00am

This Holiday Season, Consider The Power Of Sour

This holiday season, starting today when you bite into the cranberry sauce and the tartness smacks your tongue as hard as that snide comment from your sister, consider the power of sour. Neurobiology researchers at the University of Southern California hav ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 25 2010 - 4:07pm

Singularity Science Theater 3000: How Reverse-Engineering Postponed Artificial Intelligence

In the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, we are treated to two aliens and a dude wisecracking their way through terrible old B-movies like Project Moonbase. For example, in their episode watching the 1963 movie, The Slime People: Up fro ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Dec 2 2010 - 11:23pm

3-D Map Of Fly Brain Is Like A Genome For Neuroscience

Researchers have created the first brain-wide wiring map of a fruit fly, a breakthrough that is being compared to the genome for geneticists, and they say it paves the way for a comprehensive analysis of information processing within and between neurons an ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 5 2010 - 4:00am

Proteomics Discovery- Postsynaptic Density Genetic Link To 130 Brain Diseases

Scientists have studied human brain samples to isolate a set of proteins that accounts for over 130 brain diseases and found an intriguing link between such diseases,  the leading cause of medical disability in the developed world, according to the World H ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 20 2010 - 11:10am