Neuroscience

We humans spend roughly one-third of our lives asleep but researchers don't know why.  Science magazine listed the function of sleep is one of the 125 greatest unsolved mysteries in science and we've seen theories range from brain 'maintenance', including memory consolidation and pruning, to reversing damage from oxidative stress suffered while awake, to promoting longevity. None of these theories are well established, and many are mutually exclusive.  An analysis by Jerome Siegel, UCLA professor of psychiatry, says that perhaps sleep's primary function is to increase animals'…

Tomorrow, we are attending a mixer called The Science of Fine Wines.  This is a seminar/fundraiser for the Discovery Museum Science&Space Center in Sacramento so we're there to help with the science.  Sure, you can tell by the title the science is not the paramount issue, the wine is, but I'm always going to take the opportunity to get a little smarter and if other people listen, that's great too. Unfortunately, I have discovered that after 2.5 years doing this, my fingers do not work and my thoughts do not coalesce properly in anything other than the Science 2.0 editor (your…

Science fact or urban legend?   If you get lost, you will walk in circles, just like you have seen in too many movies and TV shows to count. Fact, say researchers from the Multisensory Perception and Action Group at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen writing in Current Biology, though there was no scientific evidence to back that up until now. And those circular paths are rarely systematic, the researchers say. The same person may sometimes veer to the left, then again to the right, before ending up back where they started from, which rules out one potential…

It is estimated that at least 10 percent of the population may be tone deaf – unable to sing in tune.  A new finding identifies a particular brain circuit that appears to be absent in these individuals. Nerve fibers in the neural "highway" called the arcuate fasciculus that link perception and motor regions of the brain are disconnected in tone-deaf people, according to new research in The Journal of Neuroscience. The authors used an MRI-based technique called diffusion tensor imaging to examine connections between the right temporal and frontal lobes. The arcuate fasciculus is…

“The recent discovery that the hippocampus is able to generate new neurons throughout a human’s lifespan has changed the way we think about the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and drug addiction,” says Wen Jian and colleagues in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2005. It appears that cannabinoids are able to modulate pain, nausea, vomiting, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, multiple sclerosis, tumors, and many other disorders. Cannabinoids act on two types of receptors, the CB1 receptors (found mainly in the brain) and the CB2 receptors (found mainly…

A new mathematical model  could significantly improve the automatic recognition and processing of spoken language, meaning algorithms which imitate brain mechanisms could help machines to perceive the world around them. Many people will have personal experience at how difficult it is for computers to deal with spoken language - people who "communicate" with automated telephone systems need a great deal of patience because if they speak just a little too quickly or slowly, or pronunciation isn't clear, the system often fails to work properly. The reason is that the computer programs that…

Researchers at the Department of Psychiatry, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, say they have shown that formal education diminishes the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on cognition even if a manifest brain volume loss has already occurred. Dr. Robert Perneczky, Department of Psychiatry at Klinikum rechts der Isar explains, “We know that there is not always a close association between brain damage due to Alzheimer’s disease and the resulting symptoms of dementia. In fact, there are individuals with severe brain pathology with almost no signs of dementia, whereas others…

Acupuncture has been used in East-Asian medicine for thousands of years to treat pain and some people swear by it, but if and how it works at the cellular level is largely unknown. Using brain imaging, a University of Michigan study says they have evidence that traditional Chinese acupuncture affects the brain's long-term ability to regulate pain by activating the body's natural painkillers.  Acupuncture needs a boost due to recent controversy over large studies showing that sham acupuncture is as effective as real acupuncture in reducing chronic pain.  In the study, researchers at…

People who are completely paralyzed due to illness or trauma are getting help communicating with a new technology that connects their brains to a computer, CBS reports on 60 Minutes. In the future, brain computer interface, or BCI, may restore movement to paralyzed people and allow amputees to move bionic limbs. Courtesy: Brown University Take a few minutes to watch the segment; it's fascinating. I tire easily of stories proclaiming the next miracle cure (that is still in cell culture and nowhere near drug trials), so actually watching scientific innovation in action was refreshing. The…

Harboring astonishing genomic variability, human brain cells prefer to have not one, but many DNA scripts. A team, led by Fred Gage, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk's Laboratory of Genetics, found that human brain cells contain an unexpected number of so-called mobile elements. These extraordinary pieces of DNA insert extra copies of themselves throughout the genome using a "copy and paste" mechanism. The findings, to be published in Nature, could help explain brain development and individuality. "This is a potential mechanism to create the neural diversity that makes each person unique,"…