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Study: Eye contact seems to act as an invitation for mimicry

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but how do our brains decide when and who we should copy? Researchers from The University of Nottingham have found that the key may lie in an unspoken invitation communicated through eye contact.

17 Aug 2011

PTSD impairs ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions

Facial expressions convey strong cues for someone's emotional state and the ability to interpret these cues is crucial in social interaction. This ability is known to be compromised in many psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as social anxiety or Korsakoff's syndrome.

17 Aug 2011

Episodic memory depends on the hippocampus

Memory is not a single process but is made up of several sub-processes relying on different areas of the brain. Episodic memory, the ability to remember specific events such as what you did yesterday, is known to be vulnerable to brain damage involving the hippocampus. The question is, what happens when damage to the hippocampus occurs very early in life?

12 Aug 2011

Study tracks development of chimp brain and makes comparison to humans

In both chimpanzees and humans, portions of the brain that are critical for complex cognitive functions, including decision-making, self-awareness and creativity, are immature at birth. But there are important differences, too. Baby chimpanzees don't show the same dramatic increase in the volume of prefrontal white matter in the brain that human infants do.

12 Aug 2011

Link between brain shrinkage, memory loss in Alzheimer's changes across age spectrum

A new study suggests that the relationship between brain shrinkage and memory loss in Alzheimer's disease changes across the age spectrum.

11 Aug 2011

Insight into how neural circuit forms motor plan

The voluntary movements we make must be "prepared" in our brain before they are executed. However, be it perfect timing, a false-start, or a delayed reaction, the neural circuitry underlying movement preparation is not well understood.

11 Aug 2011

Conference to explore new discoveries about origins, diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus

University at Buffalo research showing that a new drug that eliminated tinnitus with a single dose in animal models is among the advances that will be presented at the Fifth Tinnitus Research Initiative Conference, "The Neuroscience of Tinnitus," sponsored by UB's Center for Hearing and Deafness Aug. 19-21 in Grand Island, N.Y.

11 Aug 2011

New findings on human brain's photosensitivity

Valkee, inventor of the world's first bright-light headset, and scientists from the University of Oulu will present new findings on human brain's photosensitivity at the Scandinavian Physiology Society Annual Meeting 2011, August 12-14.

11 Aug 2011

New technique can help scientists rapidly map myelination

Like explorers mapping a new planet, scientists probing the brain need every type of landmark they can get. Each mountain, river or forest helps scientists find their way through the intricacies of the human brain.

10 Aug 2011

Scientists identify reasons behind why we are unable to recognise faces

The research, led by Dr Clea Warburton and Dr Gareth Barker in the University's School of Physiology and Pharmacology and published in the Journal of Neuroscience, has investigated why we can recognise faces much better if we have extra clues as to where or indeed when we encountered them in the first place.

5 Aug 2011

Insight into how brain organizes during development

Scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have taken an important step in identifying how the brain organizes itself during development. The findings, published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology today, describe - in more detail than ever before - the consequences of the loss of a key molecule involved in establishing proper brain architecture during brain development.

3 Aug 2011

Prison research to examine neural circuitry of criminal psychopaths

A leading University of Chicago researcher on empathy is launching a project to understand psychopathy by studying criminals in prisons.

2 Aug 2011

New neurobehavioral model for obesity counseling

Current approaches to dietary counseling for obesity are heavily rooted in the notion of personal choice and will power - the ability to choose healthy foods and portion sizes consistent with weight loss while foregoing sweets and comfort foods.

1 Aug 2011

New software tools for fast, accurate reconstruction of neural networks

The human brain is the most complex of all organs, containing billions of neurons with their corresponding projections, all woven together in a highly complex, three-dimensional web. To date, mapping this vast network posed a practically insurmountable challenge to scientists.

30 Jul 2011

Drug to prevent brain ageing: Study

A new study shows that some chemicals given to rhesus macaques blocked a brain molecule that slows the firing of the brain's nerve cells, or neurons, as they age—prompting those nerve cells to act young again.

28 Jul 2011

New research shows unique nature of human brain aging

Brains shrink in humans, potentially causing a number of health problems and mental illnesses as people age, but do they shrink to the same extent in the closest living relatives to humans--the chimpanzees? New research says no, making the extreme amount of brain shrinkage resulting from normal aging in humans unique.

28 Jul 2011

Deciding what to eat can be influenced by shifting attention towards healthy side of life

You're trying to decide what to eat for dinner. Should it be the chicken and broccoli? The super-sized fast-food burger? Skip it entirely and just get some Rocky Road?

28 Jul 2011

Brain stimulation improves learning in people with schizophrenia

Very mild electrical brain stimulation could be used as a treatment for people with schizophrenia, say researchers.

28 Jul 2011

Changes in attention, Gestalt perception linked to healthy aging

When looking at a picture of many trees, young people will tend to say: "This is a forest". However, the older we get, the more likely we are to notice a single tree before seeing the forest. This suggests that the speed at which the brain processes the bigger picture is slower in older people.

25 Jul 2011

Neuroscience 2011 to explore latest advances in brain research

The Society for Neuroscience's Annual Meeting, Neuroscience 2011, Nov. 12-16 at the Washington Convention Center. The event will include more than 16,000 study abstracts on new discoveries in aging, stress, mental illness, learning, disease, and more.

22 Jul 2011