Neocortex News and Research

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Research highlights significance of ultra-rapid brain responses to threat-related visual stimuli

An international team lead by researchers from CTB-UPM shows that the amygdala in the human brain is able to detect possible threats in the visual environment at ultra-fast time scales.

15 Jun 2016

Aging brains work differently than younger brains, say cognitive scientists

Cognitive scientists have found more evidence that aging brains work differently than younger brains when performing the same memory task, pointing to a potentially new direction for age-related cognitive care and exploration.

9 Feb 2016

CMU researchers develop new method to survey learning-related changes in synapse properties

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new approach to broadly survey learning-related changes in synapse properties. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience and featured on the journal's cover, the researchers used machine-learning algorithms to analyze thousands of images from the cerebral cortex. This allowed them to identify synapses from an entire cortical region, revealing unanticipated information about how synaptic properties change during development and learning.

29 Dec 2015

A three-step brain oscillation plays significant role in memory consolidation

Our long-term memory is consolidated when we sleep. Short-term memory traces in the hippocampus, an area deep in the brain, are then relocated to more outer parts of the brain. An international team of neuroscientists, among who Mathilde Bonnefond and Til Ole Bergmann from the Donders Institute at Radboud Universiy, now shows how a three-step brain oscillation plays an important part in that process.

22 Sep 2015

Why do we sleep? An interview with Professor Wisden

It is true that we still do not know why we need to sleep every night. Sleep is essential for health. We have to do it every day. But nobody yet knows why. This fact amazes me.

8 Sep 2015

Researchers develop hPSC-based system for producing connections between neurons in the brain

Human stem cells can be differentiated to produce other cell types, such as organ cells, skin cells, or brain cells. While organ cells, for example, can function in isolation, brain cells require synapses, or connectors, between cells and between regions of the brain. In a new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, researchers report successfully growing multiple brain structures and forming connections between them in vitro, in a single culture vessel, for the first time.

16 Jun 2015

Researchers reconstruct 3D models of neuronal networks for studying cortex organization

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Germany), VU University Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (USA) succeed in reconstructing the neuronal networks that interconnect the elementary units of sensory cortex - cortical columns.

6 May 2015

Ground-breaking study characterizes early-stage Alzheimer's abnormalities in the intact brain

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition that strikes at the heart of what makes us human: the ability to think, to feel, to remember and to communicate with those around us. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that there is currently no cure, no treatment, and no diagnostic method capable of identifying Alzheimer's at its early stages.

6 May 2015

Research shows that hippocampus is dedicated to memory formation, not to spatial skills

In work that reconciles two competing views of brain structures involved in memory and spatial perception, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have conducted experiments that suggest the hippocampus - a small region in the brain's limbic system - is dedicated largely to memory formation and not to spatial skills, such as navigation.

3 Apr 2015

Carnegie Mellon study identifies intermediary neuron system that acts as synaptic cloaking device

Neuroscientists believe that the connectome, a map of each and every connection between the millions of neurons in the brain, will provide a blueprint that will allow them to link brain anatomy to brain function. But a new study from Carnegie Mellon University has found that a specific type of neuron might be thwarting their efforts at mapping the connectome by temporarily cloaking the synapses that link a wide field of neurons.

27 Feb 2015

Study paves way for further research on brain evolution

The neocortex is the part of the brain that enables us to speak, dream, or think. The underlying mechanism that led to the expansion of this brain region during evolution, however, is not yet understood. A research team headed by Wieland Huttner, director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, now reports an important finding that paves the way for further research on brain evolution: The researchers analyzed the gyrencephaly index, indicating the degree of cortical folding, of 100 mammalian brains and identified a threshold value that separates mammalian species into two distinct groups: Those above the threshold have highly folded brains, whereas those below it have only slightly folded or unfolded brains.

2 Dec 2014

NOS1AP gene may help explain biological process of schizophrenia

A gene associated with schizophrenia plays a role in brain development and may help to explain the biological process of the disease, according to new Rutgers research.

24 Nov 2014

New study shows rapid evolution of cerebellum in humans, apes

A new study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 2 could rewrite the story of ape and human brain evolution. While the neocortex of the brain has been called "the crowning achievement of evolution and the biological substrate of human mental prowess," newly reported evolutionary rate comparisons show that the cerebellum expanded up to six times faster than anticipated throughout the evolution of apes, including humans.

3 Oct 2014

Longer looks: Lithium in the water; controlling cancer; recovering from brain injury

There are many kinds of cancer, but treatments have typically combatted them in one way only: by attempting to destroy the cancerous cells. Surgery aims to remove the entire growth from the body; chemotherapy drugs are toxic to the cancer cells; radiation generates toxic molecules that break up the cancer cells' DNA and proteins, causing their demise.

19 Sep 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

Study to explain how brain reorganizes itself as children learn math facts

As children learn basic arithmetic, they gradually switch from solving problems by counting on their fingers to pulling facts from memory. The shift comes more easily for some kids than for others, but no one knows why.

18 Aug 2014

Memory is more dynamic and changeable than previously thought, say researchers

Research presented by Morris Moscovitch, from the Rotman Research Institute at the University of Toronto, shows that memory is more dynamic and changeable than previously thought.

29 May 2014

Characterization of Cajal-Retzius cells during development in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Cajal-Retzius cells are reelin-secreting neurons in the marginal zone of the neocortex and hippocampus.

6 May 2014

Researchers generate high-resolution blueprint for how to build human brain

Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have generated a high-resolution blueprint for how to build a human brain, with a detailed map of where different genes are turned on and off during mid-pregnancy at unprecedented anatomical resolution.

3 Apr 2014

Underlying loss of awareness during partial seizures is same as deep sleep

Epilepsy patients with complex partial seizures have impaired consciousness during seizure episodes and typically have no memory of the event. However, the mechanisms of seizure unconsciousness are unclear.

9 Dec 2013