Background noise is more annoying to some people than to others, because the brain treats noise in different ways. Photo: Colourbox Noise sensitive persons can blame their brain Some people are more sensitive to background noise than others. This ...
Read More »Using Virtual Reality to Identify Brain Areas Involved in Memory
UC Davis neuroscientists are using virtual reality to investigate how memories are organized. Graduate student Halle Dimsdale-Zucker showed subjects movies created with virtual sketching software and asked them questions about objects inside the houses. She was able to show that ...
Read More »Nature or Nurture? Innate Social Behaviors in the Mouse Brain
The brain circuitry that controls innate, or instinctive, behaviors such as mating and fighting was thought to be genetically hardwired. New findings from the Anderson laboratory suggest that this is not the case. Credit: Caltech Nature or Nurture? Innate ...
Read More »Why our brain needs sleep, and what happens if we don’t get enough of it
Sleep is the time for our brain to reboot. Hernan Sanchez/Unsplash, CC BY-SA Why our brain needs sleep, and what happens if we don’t get enough of it Many of us have experienced the effects of sleep deprivation: feeling ...
Read More »Gut Bacteria May Play Role in Onset of Multiple Sclerosis
An artist’s rendering of gut bacteria. Credit: Caltech Gut Bacteria May Play Role in Onset of Multiple Sclerosis The presence of “good-guy” and “bad-guy” microbes increases or decreases disease symptoms in mice New research conducted at Caltech and UC ...
Read More »Getting Therapeutic Sound Waves Through Thick Skulls
A version of the ceramic skull implant developed by a UC Riverside-led team of researchers. David Baillot, UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering Getting Therapeutic Sound Waves Through Thick Skulls Ceramic implant material developed at UC Riverside will expand the ...
Read More »Brainiacs Win Big
Brainiacs Win Big UCSB Brain Initiative wins Hearst Foundation award to amplify interdisciplinary effort By Shelly Leachman One of life’s biggest mysteries is right inside our heads. It’s the brain, and its biggest secret — how the brain gives ...
Read More »Novel Viral Vectors Deliver Useful Cargo to Neurons Throughout the Brain and Body
The researchers used the engineered viral vector AAV-PHP.S to label neurons lining the digestive tract with a cocktail of three distinct fluorescent proteins. Due to the stochastic uptake of viruses encoding either a blue, green or red fluorescent protein, cells ...
Read More »Lights Out: The Neural Relationship Between Light and Sleep
Overexpression of the neuropeptide prokineticin 2 (Prok2) results in an increase in expression of the sleep-promoting neuropeptide galanin (shown in white) when zebrafish are kept in the light, but not when they are kept in the dark, compared to wild ...
Read More »Cracking the Code of Facial Recognition
Gif In order to note how minor changes in face shape are registered in the brain, the Tsao laboratory developed a system of 50 points (shown as white dots) to measure those small changes. Credit: Tsao laboratory Cracking the ...
Read More »Shining Light Deep into the Brain
Researchers in the laboratory of Michael Roukes have created a new type of optical brain probe for studying and mapping animal brains in vivo. The ultrathin silicon-based probes are shown here next to a penny for scale. Credit: Roukes Lab/Caltech ...
Read More »Bare Bones: Making Bones Transparent
A mouse tibia that has been rendered transparent with Bone CLARITY. Stem cells appear distributed throughout the bone in red. The ability to see bone stem cell behavior is crucial for testing new osteoporosis treatments. Credit: Science Translational Medicine, Greenbaum, ...
Read More »Melding mind and machine: How close are we?
A noninvasive brain-computer interface based on EEG recordings from the scalp. Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE), Photo by Mark Stone, CC BY-ND Click for a full size image Melding mind and machine: How close are we? Just as ...
Read More »How our species got smarter: through a rush of blood to the head
Hominin skull casts (L-R) Australopithecus afarensis, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis. Roger Seymour/South Australian Museum, Author provided Click for a full size image How our species got smarter: through a rush of blood to the head ...
Read More »Small but Mighty: Fruit Fly Muscles
The fruit fly flight simulator. Credit: Caltech Click for a full size image Small but Mighty: Fruit Fly Muscles Fruit flies are capable of impressive aerial maneuvers, as is grudgingly acknowledged by anyone who has unsuccessfully tried to swat ...
Read More »Observing Fear in Others May Change Brain
Negative emotional experience leaves a trace in the brain, which makes us more vulnerable, said Alexei Morozov, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. Credit: David Hungate/Virginia Tech Click for a full size image Observing Fear ...
Read More »Does my brain really freeze when I eat ice cream?
Zenobia Ahmed / The Conversation, CC BY-ND Click for a full size image Does my brain really freeze when I eat ice cream? It’s a long, hot summer’s day and you’re looking forward to an ice cream. But within ...
Read More »Parkinson’s Disease Linked to Microbiome
Artist’s concept depicting microbes in the gut instigating changes in the brain that can lead to Parkinson’s disease. People with Parkinson’s harbor distinct gut bacteria that influence the disease’s severity. Credit: Caltech Click for a full size image Parkinson’s Disease ...
Read More »Brain waves : Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time, Stanford researchers find
Stanford postdoctoral fellow Tatiana Engel works with a graduate student in the Boahen Lab. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero) Click for a full size image Brain waves Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time, Stanford ...
Read More »Neuroscience hasn’t been weaponized – it’s been a tool of war from the start
A discipline neither good nor evil. Saturday Evening Post/Harris A. Ewing Click for a full size image Neuroscience hasn’t been weaponized – it’s been a tool of war from the start What could once only be imagined in science fiction ...
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