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Study provides insight into brain mechanisms underlying compulsive drinking

Compulsive drinking may be due to dysfunction in a specific brain pathway that normally helps keep drinking in check. The results are reported in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

18 Dec 2019

Children with higher BMI tend to have thinner cerebral cortex

Published studies have long found a correlation between obesity in children and decreased executive function. New research published in JAMA Pediatrics, based on data mined from a massive national research study, suggests that a change in brain structure - a thinner prefrontal cortex - may help explain that interrelationship.

18 Dec 2019

Recognizing and drawing an object engage the brain in similar ways

Drawing an object and naming it engages the brain in similar ways, according to research recently published in JNeurosci. The finding demonstrates the importance of the visual processing system for producing drawings of an object.

From Society for Neuroscience 18 Dec 2019

Scientists reveal brain mechanisms and functional regions that underlie confirmation bias

An international research team comprising neuroscientists at Virginia Tech, University College London and the University of London revealed brain mechanisms and functional regions that underlie confirmation bias -- a phenomenon where people strongly favor information that reinforces their existing opinions over contradictory ones.

17 Dec 2019

New discovery can allow scientists to tell old and new memories apart

Researchers have discovered signatures in brain activity that allow them to tell old and new memories apart. A team at Japan's RIKEN Center for Brain Science analyzed recordings from mouse brains using a machine-leaning algorithm, which was able to accurately classify memories as recent or remote. They also found robust communication between a frontal brain region and the hippocampus, an area strongly involved in memory formation.

17 Dec 2019

The Acoustics of the Brain: Random-access 3D Microscopy in Neuroscience

Máté Marosi and Zsolt Iván discuss the use of acousto-optic microscopes to study neural networks in the brain, from cell bodies to dendrites, to tiny spines.

From Femtonics Ltd. 17 Dec 2019

Researchers show how collective memory shapes individual memory

In the last century, French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs declared that personal memories are influenced by their social contexts.

16 Dec 2019

Conscious perception of visual location occurs in frontal lobes of the brain, study finds

A Dartmouth study finds that the conscious perception of visual location occurs in the frontal lobes of the brain, rather than in the visual system in the back of the brain. The findings are published in Current Biology.

15 Dec 2019

New techniques could help neuroscientists track brain computations

Since the 1950s at least, researchers have speculated that the brain is a kind of computer in which neurons make up complex circuits that perform untold numbers of calculations every second. Decades later, neuroscientists know that these brain circuits exist, yet technical limitations have kept most details of their computations out of reach.

14 Dec 2019

Study unveils new layers of mystery about visual memory, amblyopia

In decades of studying how neural circuits in the brain's visual cortex adapt to experience, MIT Professor Mark Bear's lab has followed the science wherever it has led, yielding the discovery of cellular mechanisms serving visual recognition memory, in which the brain learns what sights are familiar so it can focus on what's new, and of a potential therapy for amblyopia, a disorder where children born with disrupted vision in one eye can lose visual acuity there permanently without intervention.

14 Dec 2019

Researchers reconstruct words from neural signals using brain-computer interface

A team of Brown University researchers has used a brain-computer interface to reconstruct English words from neural signals recorded in the brains of nonhuman primates.

14 Dec 2019

New review explores relationship between yoga practice and brain health

Scientists have known for decades that aerobic exercise strengthens the brain and contributes to the growth of new neurons, but few studies have examined how yoga affects the brain.

12 Dec 2019

Study could help improve GENUS to become a therapeutic approach for Alzheimer's disease

The sweeping extent to which increasing 40Hz "gamma" rhythm power in the brain can affect the pathology and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mouse models has been surprising, even to the MIT neuroscientists who've pioneered the idea. So surprising, in fact, they can't yet explain why it happens.

11 Dec 2019

Justified and unjustified violence in movies activate different parts of adolescent brain

The gun violence seen in popular PG-13 movies aimed at children and teenagers has more than doubled since the rating was introduced in 1984. The increasing on-screen gun violence has raised concerns that it will encourage imitation, especially when it is portrayed as "justified."

10 Dec 2019

Neurons in the brain's motor cortex light up during speech of words and syllables

Neurons in the brain's motor cortex previously thought of as active mainly during hand and arm movements also light up during speech in a way that is similar to patterns of brain activity linked to these movements, suggest new findings published today in eLife.

10 Dec 2019

New study uncovers the genetic basis of memory

New research has uncovered the genetic basis for different functions of memory.

10 Dec 2019

Penn researchers receive nearly $5 million to reduce opioid cravings

Opioid overdoses take the lives of tens of thousands of Americans annually. Two researchers from Penn State College of Medicine have received nearly $5 million from the National Institutes of Health to study whether an already-approved drug can be used to reduce cravings and prevent relapse in those struggling with opioid addiction.

9 Dec 2019

Cortex News and Research

Study provides insight into brain mechanisms underlying compulsive drinking

Children with higher BMI tend to have thinner cerebral cortex

Recognizing and drawing an object engage the brain in similar ways

Scientists reveal brain mechanisms and functional regions that underlie confirmation bias

New discovery can allow scientists to tell old and new memories apart

The Acoustics of the Brain: Random-access 3D Microscopy in Neuroscience

Researchers show how collective memory shapes individual memory

Conscious perception of visual location occurs in frontal lobes of the brain, study finds

New techniques could help neuroscientists track brain computations

Study unveils new layers of mystery about visual memory, amblyopia

Researchers reconstruct words from neural signals using brain-computer interface

New review explores relationship between yoga practice and brain health

Study could help improve GENUS to become a therapeutic approach for Alzheimer's disease

Justified and unjustified violence in movies activate different parts of adolescent brain

Neurons in the brain's motor cortex light up during speech of words and syllables

New study uncovers the genetic basis of memory

Penn researchers receive nearly $5 million to reduce opioid cravings

Thin hair tends to be stronger than thick hair, study shows

Sight deprivation alters neuronal networks, shifts mice's sensitivity to different frequencies

People can enhance attention by controlling their own alpha brain waves, study shows

Improving healthcare sustainability through carbon data

Managing vibration in IVF laboratories

A New Approach to Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence

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