Neuroscience

Magnetosensory Perception? Why Powerlines Confuse Animal Migration

Over the last half century, it has been established that fish and migratory birds use the planet's magnetic field to help find their way, an interesting zoological mystery. Researchers have now identified cells with internal compass needles for the pe ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 10 2012 - 5:11pm

Psychic Science? Scientists Read Monkeys' Inner Thoughts

Brain activity is a complex cipher but researchers were recently able to 'decode' monkey thoughts and determine how the little primates  were planning to approach the same task- before they moved a muscle. Watching large groups of neurons doesn&# ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2012 - 1:06pm

A Treatment For Neurodegenerative Machado-Joseph Disease?

Researchers have moved a step closer to find a treatment for the fatal neurodegenerative disorder  Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) after a Portuguese team from the Centre for Neurosciences at the University of Coimbra was able to halt the brain degeneration ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - Jul 23 2012 - 9:45am

Learning New Tasks Is Good For You- But Difficult

The brain is like a muscle; it can get into a routine.  But mixing up the workout a little is healthy in both cases.  In the brain, however, it isn't without difficulties. Learning a new task when rules change can be a surprisingly difficult process a ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2012 - 3:00pm

Oxytocin: A Mindreading Hormone?

The hormone oxytocin is well-known as the “bliss hormone” because it is secreted upon stimulation by touch and is known to result in a feeling of calm and physical relaxation. But odder claims are that is is a “mindreading” hormone and recent research set ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 2 2012 - 1:49pm

Flavanols: Daily Cocoa Consumption Linked To Improved Cognitive Function In Older Adults

A joint study conducted by researchers from the University of L'Aquila in Italy and Mars, Incorporated says that the regular consumption of dietary cocoa flavanols may improve cognitive function in elderly subjects with early memory decline. The stud ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 15 2012 - 5:00am

Too Much Brain Activity Implicated In Alzheimer's Disease

The latest literature suggests that brain activity patterns change at an early stage in Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, there is reason to believe that, instead of being the consequence of structural damage, they might be the cause. ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 16 2012 - 5:54pm

Seeing Is Believing? No, Saying Is Perceiving

Can robots learn language?  Is understanding a language depending on how we see the world and does a Spanish speaker see the world in the same way as an English one? Linguistic and cognitive experts are going to argue those issues when they arrive at North ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 21 2012 - 5:00pm

New Clues On How Parkinson´s Can Affect Memory

The recent discoveries that α-Synuclein (α-Syn), a central player  in Parkinson´s disease (PD) brain destruction, can not only pass from one neuron to another but also exist outside neuronal cells, has led to a rethink of the disease. A study investigatin ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - Aug 22 2012 - 1:43pm

Man, Know Thyself: Thousands Of Years Later, Self-Awareness Eludes Us

"Man, know thyself" was the challenge of ancient Greek philosophers and it has been the goal of mankind since. Thousands of years later, neuroscientists are trying to decipher how the human brain constructs our sense of self, with mixed results. ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 22 2012 - 7:39pm