Neuroscience

Alzheimer’s Prevention Role Discovered For Prions

A role for prion proteins, the much debated agents of mad cow disease and vCJD, has been identified. It appears that the normal prions produced by the body help to prevent the plaques that build up in the brain to cause Alzheimer’s disease. The possible fu ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2007 - 10:24am

Exercise Stimulates The Formation Of New Brain Cells

Exercise has a similar effect to antidepressants on depression. This has been shown by previous research. Now Astrid Bjørnebekk at Karolinska Institutet has explained how this can happen: exercise stimulates the production of new brain cells. In a series o ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 28 2007 - 11:57pm

Understanding Smooth Eye Pursuit

Researchers have come a step closer to understanding the incredible targeting system of human vision, namely how the brain and eye team up to spot an object in motion and follow it, a classic question of human motor control. The study shows that two distin ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 2 2007 - 11:55am

Even Color Is Subjective, Researchers Say

In some regions of Central Europe, salad dressing is made with pumpkin seed oil, which has a strong characteristic nutty flavor and striking color properties- in the bottle it appears red, but it looks green in a salad dressing. Samo and Marko Kreft's ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2007 - 10:03am

Why Your Mom Seemed To Have Eyes In The Back Of Her Head

Salk Institute neurobiologists are beginning to tease apart the complex brain networks that enable humans and other higher mammals to fix our gaze on one object while independently directing attention to others- that pesky method mom used to always know yo ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2007 - 1:47am

Eye Test Causes Severe Lethargy In Infants

New research suggests that an eyedrop used to diagnose a rare syndrome in infants can cause severe lethargy lasting up to 10 hours and requiring hospital admission and oxygen administration. In the article “Adverse Effects of Apraclonidine Used in the Diag ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 16 2007 - 11:50am

Nerve Cell Communication Breakthrough May Rewrite 60 Years Of Brain Studies

The classic model of how brain cells communicate was put forth in 1943 by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, at the time the first digital computers were being envisaged, and the McCulloch-Pitts model suggested that brain cells communicate in a binary fash ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2007 - 1:25am

Booze Means Bad Behavior? Not So, Says Study

The link between alcohol and aggression is well known. What’s not so clear is just why drunks get belligerent. What is it about the brain-on-alcohol that makes fighting seem like a good idea" And do all intoxicated people get more aggressive" Or ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2007 - 9:51am

Nucleus Accumbens And The Placebo Effect

Jon-Kar Zubieta and colleagues have pinpointed a brain region central to the machinery of the placebo effect—the often controversial phenomenon in which a person’s belief in the efficacy of a treatment such as a painkilling drug influences its effect. The ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2007 - 1:58pm

Success Of Citalopram For Depression Predicted By Gene Variation

A variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found. The increased ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2007 - 1:36pm