Neuroscience

'Flexoelectric Motors'- Power Steering For Your Hearing

Utah and Texas researchers have learned how quiet sounds are magnified by bundles of tiny, hair-like tubes atop “hair cells” in the ear: when the tubes dance back and forth, they act as “flexoelectric motors” that amplify sound mechanically. “We are report ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2009 - 11:28pm

The Soundtrack Of Your Brain

Every brain has a soundtrack. Its tempo and tone will vary, depending on mood, frame of mind, and other features of the brain itself. When that soundtrack is recorded and played back-- to an emergency responder, or a firefighter-- it may sharpen their refl ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 24 2009 - 11:42am

Bagpipes, The Sound Of Cheese And What Evolution Can Teach Us About Cowardice

 Deteriorating screws in bridges, fish that listen in the dark, medical devices that use sound to treat disease, the detected comeback of a long-gone whale, the sound of hyenas, cheese, and bagpipes, and what evolution can teach us about cowardice. These ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 24 2009 - 1:57pm

Trick or tweet? Brain tweeting

This guy is the poster child for computer nerd with no social life. Not that I'm making fun- my social life is pretty much nil. I'm also disturbed that technology moves this fast. I still haven't bought into this twitter thing- I don't ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Apr 24 2009 - 5:47pm

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby. Or At Least Research It?

Since you are all inquisitive scientists, it is not a big surprise that sex is   a popular topic of study in the real world.   I attended a talk by Mary Roach, author of  “Bonk: The Curious Coupling Of Science And Sex”, at UC Davis on Monday.  Aside from ...

Article - M G - Apr 25 2009 - 5:22pm

Gamma Oscillations And The Hunt For Human Consciousness

Scientists have studied gamma oscillations, high-frequency brain waves, for over 50 years in the belief that they are crucial to understanding consciousness, attention, learning and memory. Now researchers have found a way to induce these waves by shining ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 26 2009 - 1:39pm

Forget Vaccines- Maybe We Can Lessen Autism By Having Fewer Firstborn Children

Autism is a complex brain disorder that impairs social, communications and behavioral development.  It is often characterized by extreme behavior.   A new study by University of Utah School of Medicine researchers and conducted with Utah children says kids ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2009 - 3:36pm

The Neural Basis Behind Our Ability To Read

Most people are expert readers, but it is something of an enigma how our brain achieved expertise in such a recent cultural invention which requires a cognitive interface between vision and language. The first alphabetic scripts are thought to have been in ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2009 - 3:51pm

Gene Variant May Play Role In 12 Percent To 18 Percent Of Autism Cases

The march toward understanding the etiology of autism took a giant step foward today. In a landmark genome-wide association study, published online today in Nature, researchers found that a variant on chromosome 5 was about 20 percent more common in autist ...

Article - Becky Jungbauer - Mar 31 2010 - 4:43pm

Sex-Typed Personality Traits Develop Differently In Girls And Boys

A new longitudinal study of children's personality traits and interests tells us that sex-typed characteristics develop differently in girls and boys. The study, by researchers at The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 29 2009 - 12:57am