Neuroscience

New Look At How The Brain Produces Language

MIT neuroscientists writing in the Journal of Neurophysiology have developed a new method to analyze brain imaging data – one that may paint a clearer picture of how our brain produces and understands language. Research with patients who developed specific ...

Article - News Staff - May 13 2010 - 3:17pm

What Makes Musical Notes Sound Good (Or Bad)?

Researchers writing in Current Biology say they may have determined what makes musical notes sound good (or bad) by studying the preferences of more than 250 college students from Minnesota to a variety of musical and nonmusical sounds. ...

Article - News Staff - May 20 2010 - 12:07pm

The love to know; ignorance is not exculpatory

Once upon a time, during my medical carrier, a beloved teacher – that passed away almost two decades ago- told me that if well to know is important, it is more importantto bring out that knowing during the adequate moment and at the adequate circumstances. ...

Blog Post - Arturo Pèrez-Arteaga - May 22 2010 - 9:15pm

Wanted: Pain Engineers

Have a talent and enjoyment for inflicting prescribed doses of pain? Your dream job awaits. (Biology undergraduate required.) Contact: 555-8428   …as seen in classified ads. You are not supposed to be reading this. You’re an ape who never evolved to read, ...

Article - Mark Changizi - May 24 2010 - 10:36am

Pleasure Expectation- How Dopamine Influences Our Decisions

A study in Current Biology has confirmed that the brain chemical dopamine plays a role in decision making by influencing our expectations of the pleasure associated with the outcomes of our choices. Dopamine's role in reward learning and reward-seekin ...

Article - News Staff - May 25 2010 - 3:27pm

Aging And Angelman Syndrome-- Is There A Link?

Is there a link between aging of the brain and the neural defect that underlies Angelman Syndrome?  A new study suggests the answer is yes.   A surprising result that may help the development of new treatments to improve outcomes for children with Angelman ...

Article - Kathy Murphy - May 30 2010 - 2:40pm

Autism- A Matter Of The Brain’s Connections

Mental retardation in autism is known to arise from a plethora of rare de novo mutations of key protein components in the synapse- the basic neuronal connection in the brain’s hardware. In a recent study published in Nature Genetics, Berkel and colleagues ...

Article - Jennifer Wong - Dec 14 2012 - 5:35pm

Harnessed: The Reading Instinct

I recently finished the draft for my upcoming book, Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man (Benbella, 2011). To give you a better idea of it’s aim, here is the current draft of the introduction. The Reading Instinct ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Jun 2 2010 - 3:05pm

Sexsomnia Afflicts 3 Times More Men Than Women- Study

Sexsomnia may be more common than previously believed and is more common in men than women, according to new research presented today at SLEEP 2010.   Their results indicate that 7.6 percent of patients (63 of 832) at a sleep disorders center reported that ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2010 - 7:28am

Quantitative Reasoning In Babies: They Count Long Before They Talk

Babies can grasp information about numbers, space and time before they can speak, and they do so in more complex ways than previously realized, according to new research. In 1890 William James wrote in "The Principles of Psychology" that the baby ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 15 2010 - 4:38pm