Neuroscience

DARPA on the Brain

We've highlighted in the past some interesting activity from  DARPA  (read more  via Neuron News from Dynamic Patterns Research) with its involvement in neurological research and technology developments. ...

Blog Post - Matthew T. Dearing - Dec 3 2013 - 12:05am

Lower Test Scores Linked To Non-Concussion Head Impacts In Contact Sports

The stereotype is that athletes are often less smart than their non-athletic peers and a new paper says it may not be that athletes go into more physical pursuits but that the sports themselves may lead to lower test scores. Two groups of Dartmouth athlet ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 12 2013 - 12:55am

Brain Waves Are Time And Voltage

In a Neuron paper, Institute of Science and Technology Austria post-doctoral fellow Alejandro Pernía-Andrade and Professor Peter Jonas outline the synaptic mechanisms underlying oscillations at the dentate gyrus, the main entrance of the hippocampus). Bui ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 17 2013 - 7:30am

Brains Of Patients In A Vegetative State React To Photographs Of People They Know

Patients in a vegetative state are awake, breathe on their own, and seem to go in and out of sleep, but they don't respond to what is happening around them and exhibit no signs of conscious awareness. Do they even know if friends and family are even ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2013 - 3:04pm

Pruning Brain Connections May Explain Why Girls Seem To Mature Faster

As we age, our brains undergo a major reorganization, a 'pruning' which streamlines the connections in the brain- except the long-distance ones that are crucial for integrating information.  Studying people up to the age of 40, authors of a pape ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 19 2013 - 11:45am

Can Brains Be Binary? Due To Context, Even Or Odd Is No Easy Feat For Our Minds

Like computers, our brains work on inductance. A switch is open or closed, a signal is passed. Brains follow rules, like computers.  But if the brain is like a computer, why do brains make mistakes that computers don't? Psychologist Gary Lupyan at th ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 23 2013 - 5:31am

Excitability Of Motor Neurons Predicts Working Memory

A new paper studied if the excitability of the motor cortex correlates with working memory performance – and results were positive.  By measuring the motor excitability, conclusions can be drawn as to general cortical excitability – as well as to cognitive ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 26 2013 - 11:37am

Autophagy Is Reduced In The Brains Of Schizophrenic Patients

When it comes to the brain, there is very little science. fMRI imaging is subjective and pop psychology concepts even more so. Even when it comes to medical conditions, like schizophrenia, little is known. Its causes are unknown, there there is no objecti ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 30 2013 - 5:30pm

Do Those Brain Training Games And Websites Work? Sort Of

You've seen advertisements on television for websites like Lumosity and claims that games that will 'train' your brain to be better. Well, they sort of work, it's not total snake oil, though they work mostly at teaching your brain to s ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 6 2016 - 11:40pm

Good Stories Don't Just Change Your Life, They Change Your Brain

Many people can recall reading a cherished story that they say changed their life and now researchers have detected what may be biological traces related to this feeling: Actual changes in the brain that linger after reading a novel. Essentially, reading ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 3 2014 - 4:28pm