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New study measures neurodevelopment in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is generally considered to be a disorder of brain development and it shares many risk factors, both genetic and environmental, with other neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and intellectual disability.

15 Sep 2014

Brain structure 'significantly predictive' of individual risk attitudes

There is a link between our brain structure and our tolerance of risk, new research suggests.

15 Sep 2014

Different regions of brain help to visually locate objects relative to one's own body

Serena Williams won her third consecutive US Open title a few days ago, thanks to reasons including obvious ones like physical strength and endurance. But how much did her brain and its egocentric and allocentric functions help the American tennis star retain the cup?

11 Sep 2014

People with multiple sclerosis lose myelin in gray matter

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) lose myelin in the gray matter of their brains and the loss is closely correlated with the severity of the disease, according to a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study.

10 Sep 2014

New way to preserve flexibility and resilience of the brain

As Alzheimer's disease progresses, it kills brain cells mainly in the hippocampus and cortex, leading to impairments in "neuroplasticity," the mechanism that affects learning, memory, and thinking.

10 Sep 2014

Sex hormone that helps protect females from stroke may also reduce risk of autism, say scientists

The same sex hormone that helps protect females from stroke may also reduce their risk of autism, scientists say.

10 Sep 2014

Researchers reveal how distinct areas of frontal lobes are critical for person's ability to learn

Until the last few decades, the frontal lobes of the brain were shrouded in mystery and erroneously thought of as nonessential for normal function-hence the frequent use of lobotomies in the early 20th century to treat psychiatric disorders.

30 Aug 2014

Aberrant reward processing likely to precede bipolar symptom onset

Healthy children who have a parent with bipolar disorder show altered brain activation during reward processing, research shows.

28 Aug 2014

Findings could lead to improved treatments for stroke, other brain injuries

Learning a new skill is easier when it is related to ability that we already possess. For example, a trained pianist might learn a new melody more easily than learning how to hit a tennis serve.

28 Aug 2014

Brain's motor cortex can directly turn down hearing

When we want to listen carefully to someone, the first thing we do is stop talking. The second thing we do is stop moving altogether. This strategy helps us hear better by preventing unwanted sounds generated by our own movements.

28 Aug 2014

Study provides neural explanation for why some skills are easier to learn than others

Learning is easier when it only requires nerve cells to rearrange existing patterns of activity than when the nerve cells have to generate new patterns, a study of monkeys has found. The scientists explored the brain's capacity to learn through recordings of electrical activity of brain cell networks.

27 Aug 2014

Unusual neural links between brainstem and injured cingulums following aneurysmal SAH

The cingulum is an important pathway for cholinergic innervation for the cerebral cortex. Many studies have reported connections between the cholinergic nuclei, especially between the cholinergic nuclei in the basal forebrain and those in the brainstem via the fornix and thalamus.

27 Aug 2014

Researchers show how neurons respond to sequences of familiar objects

The world grows increasingly more chaotic year after year, and our brains are constantly bombarded with images.

26 Aug 2014

Researchers endow mice with greater touch sensitivity by striking brain rhythm

By striking up the right rhythm in the right brain region at the right time, Brown University neuroscientists report in Nature Neuroscience that they managed to endow mice with greater touch sensitivity than other mice, making hard-to-perceive vibrations suddenly more vivid to them.

25 Aug 2014

Subcortical brain regions play key role in memorization process during sleep

According to researchers at the University of Montreal, the regions of the brain below the cortex play an important role as we train our bodies' movements and, critically, they interact more effectively after a night of sleep.

22 Aug 2014

People with ADHD often find difficult to make optimal decisions

Which shirt do we put on in the morning? Do we drive to work or take the train? From which takeaway joint do we want to buy lunch? We make hundreds of different decisions every day.

22 Aug 2014

Children and adolescents with autism have surplus of synapses in brain

Children and adolescents with autism have a surplus of synapses in the brain, and this excess is due to a slowdown in a normal brain "pruning" process during development, according to a study by neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC).

22 Aug 2014

Amygdala stimulates stress responses in adults, say researchers

In contrast to evidence that the amygdala stimulates stress responses in adults, researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University have found that the amygdala has an inhibitory effect on stress hormones during the early development of nonhuman primates.

21 Aug 2014

Shuganjieyu capsule effectively reverses depressive by increasing neurotrophic factor

Shuganjieyu capsule has been approved for clinical treatment by the State Food and Drug Administration of China since 2008. In the clinic, Shuganjieyu capsule is often used to treat mild to moderate depression.

21 Aug 2014

Higher-fit children have more compact white-matter tracts in the brain than lower-fit peers

A new study of 9- and 10-year-olds finds that those who are more aerobically fit have more fibrous and compact white-matter tracts in the brain than their peers who are less fit. "White matter" describes the bundles of axons that carry nerve signals from one brain region to another. More compact white matter is associated with faster and more efficient nerve activity.

19 Aug 2014