A new study from the University of Rochester finds that there is no single advanced area of the human brain that gives it language capabilities above and beyond those of any other animal species.
Brain
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Low vitamin D levels may be associated with more advanced physical disability and cognitive impairment in persons with multiple sclerosis, studies conducted by neurologists at the University at Buffalo have shown.
Their results, reported at the American Academy of Neurology meeting, held earlier this month, indicated that:
COLUMBUS, Ohio - - Researchers have developed a way to enhance how brain tumors appear in MRI scans and during surgery, making the tumors easier for surgeons to identify and remove.
Scientists at Ohio State University are experimenting with different nanoparticles that they hope may one day be injected into the blood of patients and help surgeons remove lethal brain tumors known as glioblastomas.
When your mind wanders, you're not paying attention to what's going in front of you. A new study suggests that it's not just the mind, it's the body, too; when subjects' minds wandered, they blinked more, setting up a tiny physical barrier between themselves and the outside world.
Montreal, April 30, 2010 – Researchers have identified the genetic cause of mirror movements, where affected people are unable to move one side of the body without moving the other. For example, when trying to open and close their right hand, their left hand will unintentionally copy the movement. While mirror movements can be observed in fingers, hands, forearms, toes and feet of young children, persistence beyond the age of 10 is unusual.
Troy, N.Y. – Changing the hue of hospital gowns and bed sheets to match a patient's skin color could greatly enhance a physician's ability to detect cyanosis and other health-related skin color changes, according to a new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The neuropeptide oxytocin makes it easier to feel for other people, says a new study.
in the University of Bonn experiment, 48 healthy males participated and half received an oxytocin nose spray at the start of the experiment, while the other half received a placebo. The researchers then showed their test subjects photos of emotionally charged situations in the form of a crying child, a girl hugging her cat, and a grieving man. The test subjects were then invited to express the depth of feeling they experienced for the persons shown.
Pioneering a novel microscopy method, neuroscientist Arthur Konnerth and colleagues from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have shown that individual neurons carry out significant aspects of sensory processing: specifically, in this case, determining which direction an object in the field of view is moving. Their method makes it possible for the first time to observe individual synapses, nerve contact sites that are just one micrometer in size, on a single neuron in a living mammalian brain.
Researchers at Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF, a Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona-affiliated centre) shed new light on the evolution of brain size in birds. Scientists have known for some time that migratory birds have smaller brains than their resident relatives.
LOS ANGELES (April 28, 2010) – By developing a collaborative team mentored approach to learning through the Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC), a committee of experienced medical education researchers created a new model that makes it possible to conduct the scientific studies needed to assess the effectiveness of medical teaching methods, Wendy Coates, MD, a Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) principal investigator writes in a study published today in Academic Medicine.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Scientists have long known that the brain's frontal cortex supports concrete rule learning. Less clear is how the brain processes more complex and unfamiliar knowledge. In a paper published today (Wednesday, April 28, 2010) in the journal Neuron, a team of researchers at Brown University and the University of California–Berkeley tested whether the frontal lobe has the ability to process more abstract knowledge and how this ability could help navigate new situations and stimuli.
New research uncovers some surprising information about how sex hormones control masculinization of the brain during development and drive gender related behaviors in adult males. The study, published by Cell Press in the April 29 issue of the journal Neuron, demonstrates that direct action of testosterone, the prototypical male hormone, is unnecessary for masculinizing the brain and behavior.
A new study provides intriguing insight into the way that humans approach novel situations. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 29 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals neural mechanisms that underlie our remarkable ability to discover abstract cognitive relationships when dealing with new problems.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Muscle degeneration and confinement to a wheelchair are the hallmarks of Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's, muscular dystrophy and other neurodegenerative diseases. One of the silent, and most serious, symptoms of these diseases is losing the ability to swallow. Swallowing impairment, or dysphagia, affects about 500,000 people annually in the U.S., but little is known about the disorder and only a few temporary, behavioral treatments are available.
Whether different odors can be quickly distinguished depends on certain synapses in the brain that inhibit nerve stimulation. The researchers in Professor Dr. Thomas Kuner's team at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Heidelberg University Medical School and Dr. Andreas Schäfer at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research have shown that mice in which a certain receptor in the olfactory center is missing can distinguish similar smells more quickly than mice without genetic manipulation. This behavior was directly attributed to inhibitor loops between adjacent nerve cells.