Neuroscience

Yes, I have that twisted nerve too- I sneeze when I shouldn't

Okay, I am coming out for the interest of Science. I read today this article, which does not really say anything new to me, but for some reason triggered my wish to speak up about the condition. The article explains clearly that some people have a twisted ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Aug 26 2012 - 2:31pm

Shock And Awe

Well this is objectively awesome. In a report published earlier last week in Science, Berényi et al. demonstrate that carefully controlled electrical stimulation of the rat skull can quickly and drastically diminish abnormal brain activity associated with ...

Article - Clayton Aldern - Aug 27 2012 - 4:24pm

Short Term Memories Created- In Lab Brain Tissue

Researchers have discovered how to store diverse forms of artificial short-term memories- in isolated brain tissue. Memories are often grouped into two categories: declarative memory, the short and long-term storage of facts like names, places and events; ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 10 2012 - 1:44pm

Is There Common Biology In Emotion?

Emotions tag our experiences and act as waypoints in how we steer our behavior, but they seem to be subjective. Avoiding danger and pursuing rewards is essential for successful navigation through a complex environment, and thus for survival, but why are so ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 17 2012 - 10:14am

Neurofeedback: Brain Monitoring During Study Boosts Learning

You have heard of biofeedback, controlling bodily responses using audio or visual cues to map performance.  It may be possible to do that with learning, a kind of neurofeedback, according to research at Sandia National Laboratories. They show that it' ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 19 2012 - 9:38am

Loss Of Npas4 In Mice Mirrors Schizophrenia In Humans

The human brain is made up of billions of neurons, specialized cells which form vast, intricate networks among themselves to process and sort through the barrage of sensory and internal stimuli we are constantly bombarded with and mediate the appropriate r ...

Article - Eve Hardy - Oct 1 2012 - 5:06am

How Bumblebees Solve The Traveling Salesman Problem

Scientists have tracked bumblebees to see how they select the optimal route to collect nectar from multiple flowers and return to their nest. They were able to use radar tracking to show how bumblebees discover flowers, learn their location and use trial a ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 1 2012 - 8:30pm

Logarithm Versus Linear Thinking: Why In Our Brains The Midpoint Of 1 And 9 Might Be 3

If you ask an adult for the midpoint between 1 and 9 they say 5. Mentally, they put 9 points on a ine and add 1 and then split that in half. But if you ask a child or someone from a culture not trained in maths, the answer could be different; perhaps 3. It ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 5 2012 - 1:07pm

Fish Version Of Oxytocin Drives Their Social Behavior, Says Study

Researchers say that a form of oxytocin — the hormone correlated with human love — has a similar effect on fish, suggesting it is a key regulator of social behavior that has evolved and endured since ancient times. The findings may help answer an evolution ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 10 2012 - 12:30pm

Amygdala Modulation- Why Fingernails On Blackboards Make Us Crazy

Recently, some people subjected themselves to perhaps the most annoying study of 2012; they had to sample and pick the most irritating noises in the world, and they did it for science.  Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to exami ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 19 2012 - 11:14pm