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Brain disturbances in chronic pain

People with unrelenting pain don't only suffer from the non-stop sensation of throbbing pain.

7 Feb 2008

Brain study suggests way to measure, treat autism

Researchers have pinpointed subtle deficits in the brains of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that they say could aid more precise diagnoses and perhaps improve treatment of ASD.

7 Feb 2008

People with manic depression have a distinct chemical signature in their brains

People with manic depression have a distinct chemical signature in their brains, according to a new study. The research, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, may also indicate how the mood stabilisers used to treat the disorder counteract the changes in the brain that it appears to cause.

5 Feb 2008

Brain stimulation to improve cognitive function

A Columbia University Medical Center research team has uncovered how stimulation of a particular brain region can help stave off the deficits in working memory, associated with an extended sleep deprivation.

5 Feb 2008

Video games activate reward regions of brain in men more than women

Allan Reiss, MD, and his colleagues have a pretty good idea why your husband or boyfriend can't put down the Halo 3. In a first-of-its-kind imaging study, the Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown that the part of the brain that generates rewarding feelings is more activated in men than women during video-game play.

4 Feb 2008

Why is scratching so nice?

In the first study to use imaging technology to see what goes on in the brain when we scratch, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving - and why it can be hard to stop. The work is reported online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and will appear in a future print issue.

31 Jan 2008

New understanding of sound representations in the auditory cortex

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have reported new findings about how the mammalian brain interprets and fashions representations of sound that may help explain how we are able to focus on one particular sound among many in noisy environments such as offices or cocktail parties.

30 Jan 2008

Deafness and seizures result when glutamate protein deleted in mice

Scientists have discovered that mice genetically engineered to lack a particular protein in the brain have profound deafness and seizures.

25 Jan 2008

Computer vision may not be as good as thought

For years, scientists have been trying to teach computers how to see like humans, and recent research has seemed to show computers making progress in recognizing visual objects.

25 Jan 2008

Researchers identify brain's 'eureka' circuitry

Researchers have found the brain region that controls the decision to halt your midnight exploration of the refrigerator and commence enjoyment of that leftover chicken leg.

24 Jan 2008

Researchers find neurological basis of depression following sports concussion

Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University have identified the neurological basis of depression in male athletes with persisting post-concussion symptoms.

21 Jan 2008

How exactly does aging affect judgment and decision-making abilities?

We often read or hear stories about older adults being conned out of their life savings, but are older individuals really more susceptible to fraud than younger adults?

15 Jan 2008

New auditory cortex research may bring better hearing aids and more effective speech recognition systems

Recognising people, objects or animals by the sound they make is an important survival skill and something most of us take for granted.

15 Jan 2008

Expensive wine tastes better....doesn't it?

According to a study by Californian researchers the more wine costs, the more people enjoy it despite how it tastes.

15 Jan 2008

Auditory neurons in humans far more sensitive to fine sound frequencies than most mammals

The human ear is exquisitely tuned to discern different sound frequencies, whether such tones are high or low, near or far.

11 Jan 2008

Brain response differences found in way women with irritable bowel syndrome deal with pain

UCLA researchers found that women with IBS cannot effectively turn-off a pain modulation mechanism in the brain, which causes them to be more sensitive to abdominal pain, compared to women without IBS.

9 Jan 2008

Novel mechanism for long-term learning identified

Practice makes perfect - or at least that's what we're told as we struggle through endless rounds of multiplication tables, goal kicks and piano scales - and it seems, based on the personal experience of many, to be true.

4 Jan 2008

Carnegie Mellon study identifies where thoughts of familiar objects occur inside the human brain

A team of Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists and cognitive neuroscientists, combining methods of machine learning and brain imaging, have found a way to identify where people's thoughts and perceptions of familiar objects originate in the brain by identifying the patterns of brain activity associated with the objects.

4 Jan 2008