Cortex News and Research

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Effects of brain exercise depend on opponent

Playing games against a computer activates different brain areas from those activated when playing against a human opponent.

3 Feb 2009

Brain perceives optical illusions as real motion

Ever get a little motion sick from an illusion graphic designed to look like it's moving?

2 Feb 2009

New insights into growth factor's role in brain development

New research sheds light on a neural growth factor called proBDNF, finding that it is present and potentially active during the perinatal period when the brain's circuitry and memory-encoding regions are being refined.

2 Feb 2009

Stress disrupts human thinking, but the brain can bounce back

A new neuroimaging study on stressed-out students suggests that male humans, like male rats, don't do their most agile thinking under stress.

29 Jan 2009

Imaging study shows how memories become permanent

A new brain imaging study illustrates what happens to memories as time goes by.

29 Jan 2009

New method for projecting future kidney function in transplants

The older the kidney, the worse it works - though exactly how much worse isn't known.

27 Jan 2009

Researchers learn some of nicotine's secrets

Duke University Medical System researchers have discovered there are differing taste pathways for nicotine, which could provide a new approach for future smoking-cessation products.

23 Jan 2009

When less attention improves behavior

A new study conducted at the Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna, and published by Elsevier in the February 2009 issue of Cortex shows that, in confabulating patients, memory accuracy improves when attentional resources are reduced.

21 Jan 2009

New findings on schizophrenia

Schizophrenia may blur the boundary between internal and external realities by overactivating a brain system that is involved in self-reflection, and thus causing an exaggerated focus on self, a new MIT and Harvard brain imaging study has found.

21 Jan 2009

Mild brain stimulation may enhance motor skills in traumatic brain injury, stroke

People who received a mild electrical current to a motor control area of the brain were significantly better able to learn and perform a complex motor task than those in control groups.

19 Jan 2009

Altered brain activity in schizophrenia may direct focus on self

19 Jan 2009

Scientists uncover key developmental mechanisms of the amygdala

For the first time, scientists at Children's National Medical Center have successfully identified a key developmental program for the amygdala-the part of the limbic system that impacts how the brain creates emotional memories and responses.

13 Jan 2009

Exposure to lead brings cognitive problems later in life

Both the developing brain and the aging brain can suffer from lead exposure.

12 Jan 2009

Understanding human smell at the neural level

A new Rice University study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that socioemotional meanings, including sexual ones, are conveyed in human sweat.

9 Jan 2009

A novel glioblastoma mouse model developed

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a versatile mouse model of glioblastoma-the most common and deadly brain cancer in humans-that closely resembles the development and progression of human brain tumors that arise naturally.

5 Jan 2009