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Researchers examine how well category-learning works in a stressful episode

When people have to assess a situation within seconds, it helps them to draw on learned categories. Psychologists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum examined with the help of electroencephalography (EEG) how well category-learning works in a stressful episode.

8 Mar 2018

High-resolution fMRI provides clues about age-related memory differences

As we get older, it's not uncommon to experience "senior moments," in which we forget where we parked our car or call our children by the wrong names. And we may wonder: Are these memory lapses a normal part of aging, or do they signal the early stages of a severe disorder such as Alzheimer's disease? Currently, there's no good way to tell.

8 Mar 2018

New MIT study shows how the brain tracks moving objects

Catching a bouncing ball or hitting a ball with a racket requires estimating when the ball will arrive. Neuroscientists have long thought that the brain does this by calculating the speed of the moving object. However, a new study from MIT shows that the brain's approach is more complex.

6 Mar 2018

TSRI scientists discover new target for treating major depressive disorder

Scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a new target for treating major depressive disorder, a disease that affects more than 16 million American adults.

1 Mar 2018

Specific genes linked to differences in brain anatomy of autistic children

A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge has discovered that specific genes are linked to individual differences in brain anatomy in autistic children.

27 Feb 2018

Premature birth has selective effect on functional networks of a child's brain

Researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Hospital have proven that premature birth has a significant and, at the same time, a very selective effect on the functional networks of a child's brain. The effects can primarily be seen in the frontal lobe, which is significant for cognitive functions.

26 Feb 2018

Impairment of interneuron migration could lead to cortical malformation

A team from the University of Liège has discovered a new crosstalk between the migrating inhibitory interneurons and the stem cells that generate the excitatory neurons.

24 Feb 2018

Study supports benefits of meditation in control of attention and emotions

The study's findings show that mental silence experienced through Sahaja Yoga meditation is associated with the development of neural networks and areas that are crucial for the control of attention and emotions.

24 Feb 2018

Study provides insight into neurobiology of dying

A new Annals of Neurology study provides insight into the neurobiology of dying. For the study, investigators performed continuous patient monitoring following Do Not Resuscitate - Comfort Care orders in patients with devastating brain injury to investigate the mechanisms and timing of events in the brain and the circulation during the dying process.

23 Feb 2018

Zika virus could be alternative for treatment of aggressive brain cancer

Zika virus, feared for causing microcephaly in babies whose mothers were infected during pregnancy by attacking the cells that will give rise to the fetus's cerebral cortex, could be an alternative for treatment of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive kind of malignant brain tumor in adults.

21 Feb 2018

Researcher makes breakthrough discovery in process of fear relapse

Steve Maren, the Claude H. Everett Jr. '47 Chair of Liberal Arts professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University, and his Emotion and Memory Systems Laboratory have made a breakthrough discovery in the process of fear relapse.

14 Feb 2018

MRI scans reveal why people often become aggressive after drinking alcohol

Researchers have used magnetic resonance imaging scans that measure blood flow in the brain to better understand why people often become aggressive and violent after drinking alcohol.

12 Feb 2018

Findings reveal dramatic landscape of genetic changes in the brain in response to visual stimulation

"Nature and nurture is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed.

9 Feb 2018

Research funded by NIH grant aims to discover crucial role of 'invisible' cells

Neurons are the star of the show in brain science, but they don't work alone to process information. In new research funded by a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a team at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory aims to discover the likely crucial role of the supporting cast member with a stellar-sounding name: the astrocyte.

9 Feb 2018

Alzheimer’s study on mice reveals important mechanism behind neural hyperactivity

Alzheimer´s disease is the key cause of dementia in elderly patients. Those affected develop deficiencies in their abilities to learn, think logically, communicate, and to master the challenges of everyday life.

9 Feb 2018

Gene expression is rhythmic in most tissue types

Researchers have mapped primate gene expression throughout the day and discovered that the majority of critical gene activity is time dependent, which may aid the development of new treatments for many diseases.

9 Feb 2018

Researchers receive major boost to explore long-standing paradigm in endocrinology

A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, seeking to upend a long-held theory explaining how hormones freely enter and exit cells, has received a major boost in the form of a $1 million award from the W. M. Keck Foundation.

5 Feb 2018

Verbal short-term memory can be improved by directly stimulating specific brain area, study finds

Tickling the brain with low-intensity electrical stimulation in a specific area can improve verbal short-term memory. Mayo Clinic researchers report their findings in Brain.

30 Jan 2018

Researchers reverse symptoms associated with Rett syndrome in mouse model

It is a parent's nightmare: a child is born apparently healthy, then stops meeting developmental milestones at one year old. Her verbal and motor skills vanish, and irregular breathing, seizures, and a host of other problems appear.

29 Jan 2018

Research provides insights into metacognition of experienced and non-experienced events

Metacognitive judgments on non-experienced events are processed in the frontopolar cortex of the brain, whereas metacognition on experienced events is associated with the dorsal prefrontal cortex, as reported in a study on non-human primates just published in Neuron.

27 Jan 2018