Neuroscience

A news release from Heidelberg, In Search of the Origin of Our Brain, treats us to these two pictures: What are these two little critters?  On the left is Nematostella vectensis, the Starlet Sea Anemone, and on the right is an embryo of the same treated with fluorescent antibodies.  The anemone is effectively a cylindrical creature, with neither right nor left, and no back-and-front.  But in the embryo, the green is concentrated on the “top” side and the magenta on the “bottom”.  The news release tells us:    [[[[ While searching for the…

Lost memories can be restored, which offers some hope for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The belief has been that memories are stored at the synapses -- the connections between brain cells, or neurons -- which are destroyed by Alzheimer's disease. The new study provides evidence contradicting the idea that long-term memory is stored at synapses. "Long-term memory is not stored at the synapse," said David Glanzman, a senior author of the study, and a UCLA professor of integrative biology and physiology and of neurobiology. "That's a radical idea, but that's where the…

It's no secret that some people are better at navigating than others, but it has been unclear why. In order to successfully navigate to a destination, you need to know which direction you are currently facing and which direction to travel in. For example, 'I am facing north and want to head east'. It is already known that mammals have brain cells that signal the direction that they are currently facing, a discovery that formed part of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Professor John O'Keefe. A new study reveals that the part of the brain that signals which direction you are…

Young children with type 1 diabetes have slower brain growth compared to children without diabetes, finds a new study in Diabetes. The authors suggest that continued exposure to hyperglycemia, or high blood sugars, may be detrimental to the developing brain. They studied brain development in children ages four to nine years old with type 1 diabetes using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cognitive tests to determine if abnormal blood glucose levels impact brain structure and function at a young age. Children with type 1 diabetes also underwent blood sugar monitoring using…

Migraine headaches have been linked to double the risk of a nervous system condition that causes facial paralysis, called Bell's palsy, according to a new study published in the December 17, 2014, online issue of Neurology.  Bell's palsy affects between 11 and 40 per 100,000 people each year. Most people with Bell's palsy recover completely.  Headaches are the most common disorder of the nervous system, affecting about 12 percent of the US population.  "This is a very new association between migraine and Bell's palsy," said study author Shuu-Jiun Wang, MD, with National Yang-…

Your brain is still you. Andrew Mason, CC BY By Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Duke University Imagine that Brian promises to drive you to the airport but never shows up, and you miss your flight. When you confront Brian, he tells you that he remembered his promise but decided to watch a movie instead. Would you be angry? You betcha! But then suppose Brian pleads, “Don’t be angry at me. My brain made me do it. I wanted to watch the movie, and my desires are lodged in my brain. Moreover, I don’t care that much about you, but that is only because my neurons do not fire very fast when I think of you…

All the better for hearing you with. Boris Roessler/EPA By Victoria Ratcliffe, University of Sussex and David Reby, University of Sussex Sometimes it may seem like your dog doesn’t want to listen. But in our study, however, we’ve found that he may understand more than he lets on. Human speech is complex, communicating not only words but also tone, as well as information about the speaker such as their gender and identity. To what extent can a dog pick up on these different cues? It’s well established that in humans the left hemisphere of the brain processes meaningful verbal content, as…

There are too many factors and combinations of genetic traits to have any definitive cause of autism today, along with a wide range of diagnoses that add to the pool, but a new analysis has found that the autopsied brains of people who had autism share a pattern of ramped-up immune responses. The causes of autism, also known as autistic spectrum disorder, remain largely unknown and are a frequent research topic for geneticists and neuroscientists. The authors of a new paper note that for autism, studies of whether and how much genes were being used - known as gene expression - had thus far…

A study has found that elite Kenyan athletes have greater brain oxygenation during periods of maximum physical effort, which contributes to their success in long-distance races. Dr. Jordan Santos-Concejero, of the Department of Physical Education and Sport at the University of the Basque Country carried out the research to analyze the response of cerebral oxygenation at maximum and progressive rhythms amongst elite Kenyan runners from the Kalenjin tribe.  The trials were undertaken at the laboratories of the Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine in Cape Town University…

The chemical messenger dopamine, colloquially called the 'happiness hormone', is important outside social psychology articles on Valentine's Day also; it has been linked to motivation and motor skills and may help neurons with difficult cognitive tasks.  Researchers have found how dopamine influences brain cells while processing rules. The effects of dopamine become very clear when the brain gets too little of it, as is the case with Parkinson’s disease. A dopamine imbalance leads to varied neurological disruptions – particularly movement – but also mental abilities. Our key cognitive…