Neuroscience

If you've ever wondered why the man in your life can't recall your discussion of organic squash from 20 minutes ago but he can vividly recall the time 11 years ago when you insulted his "Captain Planet ad the Planeteers" figurines, there is a science answer; women let things go and men don't. Or...men have better memories.  Research undertaken by University of Montreal researchers at Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital showed a woman's memory of an experience is less likely to be accurate than a man's if it was unpleasant and emotionally provocative. Participants were shown a variety of images…

A neuro-imaging study found that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered money to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold. Sacred values - those 'sell your soul' issues - prompted greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits, where selling out can be rationalized. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the brain responses of 32 U.S. adults during key…

The number of people with one or more of the adverse complications of obesity, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease is rapidly increasing. Drugs designed to treat obesity have shown limited efficacy and have been associated with serious side effects, largely because we have limited understanding of the effects of obesity on our natural mechanisms of body weight control. For example, while great strides have been made in our understanding of how the brain controls our desire to feed, as well as the processes underlying the balancing of energy intake and expenditure, little is known…

Babies love to communicate and they're great listeners, even early on.   New research shows that during the first year of life, when babies spend so much time listening to language, they're actually tracking word patterns that will support their process of word- learning that occurs between the ages of about 18 months and two years. "Babies are constantly looking for language clues in context and sound," says Jill Lany, assistant professor of psychology and director of University of Notre Dame's baby lab, where she conducts studies on how babies acquire language. "My research suggests…

The controversy over whether or not violent video games are potentially harmful to players has been debated for many years, even making it to the Supreme Court in 2010. There has been little scientific evidence demonstrating that the games have a prolonged negative neurological effect but sustained changes in the region of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control were found in young adult men after one week of playing violent video games, according to study results presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. For the study, 28 healthy…

People who meditate seem to be able 'switch off' areas of the brain associated with daydreaming as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a new brain imaging study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Meditation's ability to help people stay focused on the moment has been associated with increased happiness levels, said Judson A. Brewer, assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study. To find out more, the team conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging scans on both experienced and novice meditators…

A computer that can learn?  There hasn't been meaningful improvement in robotics in 40 years and no AI improvements in 25, just faster chips doing things the old way, but researchers may have gotten a little closer with a a computer chip that mimics how the brain's neurons adapt in response to new information. This plasticity underlies many brain functions, including learning and memory. With about 400 transistors, the silicon chip can simulate the activity of a single brain synapse — the gap between two neurons (known as the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons) that allows information…

Researchers from the University of Minho in Portugal have discovered that rats exposed before birth to glucocorticoids (GC) not only show several brain abnormalities similar to those found in addicts, but become themselves susceptible to addiction (the glucorticoids, which are stress hormones, were used to mimic pre-natal stress).  But even more remarkable, Ana João Rodrigues, Nuno Sousa and colleagues were able to reverse all the abnormalities  (including the addictive behavior) by giving the animals dopamine (a neurotransmitter/ brain chemical).  The study has several…

The phylogeny of the nervous system has been very well understood by evolutionary neuroscience. Since the first self-defense reactions (irritability) of the unicelular organisms, going through the procceses of centralization, cephalization, and tele-encephalization, the goal of the system is to survive by catching the changes of energy of the enviroment (stimulus) and give and adequate suvirval response to it. The evolutive instruction of the nervous system is to survive and the diversity of responses increases with the incorporation of new structures. The last portion in the evolutive order…

'Lucid' dreamers are people who claim they are aware that they are dreaming and can deliberately control their actions in dreams. When people dream that they are performing a particular action, a portion of the brain involved in the planning and execution of movement lights up with activity.  This learned skill presents an opportunity for researchers who are studying the neural underpinnings of our dreams and their findings in Current Biology, made by scanning the brains of lucid dreamers while they slept, give us a glimpse into non-waking consciousness and perhaps create a waypoint…