Neuroscience

Caffeine May Prevent Memory Loss In Diabetes

Badly controlled diabetes are known to affect the brain, causing memory and learning problems and even increased incidence of dementia. How this occurs is not clear but a study in mice with type 2 diabetes has discovered how diabetes affects the hippocamp ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - May 6 2012 - 4:44pm

Psychic Healers May Simply Have Synesthesia

People who claim to see the 'aura' of others- and subsequently claim they can modify them- may actually have synesthesia, according to new research. Synesthesia is believed to occur due to cross-wiring in the brain; synesthetes have more synaptic ...

Article - News Staff - May 11 2012 - 9:34am

What Robots Can Tell Us About Brain Cells

Understanding neurons- their shape, patterns of electrical activity even a profile of which genes are turned on at a given moment- remains as much art as science due to the complexity of research. But that could soon change: Researchers at MIT and the Geor ...

Article - News Staff - May 15 2012 - 10:25am

Laugh While You Can, Monkey Brains

The anterior insular cortex is a small region of the brain, but it plays a big role in human self-awareness and in neuropsychiatric disorders. A unique cell type, the von Economo neuron (VEN), is located there.   For a long time, the VEN was assumed to be ...

Article - News Staff - May 21 2012 - 9:38pm

Don't Hate- Voters Were Born That Way, Say Psychiatrists

We tend to associate with people we like and that like us because they are like us- so it's no surprise I hang out with wickedly smart, outrageously attractive people. Long-term relationships, even non-sexual ones with women as ridiculously awesome as ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 24 2012 - 11:09am

This Is What Your Brain Looks Like When You Lose Control

Self-control is a finite commodity.  Neuroscientists recently took a look at what happens  when a person runs out of patience and loses self-control. This self-control, they say, is limited and once the supply has dwindled, we're less likely to keep o ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 18 2012 - 5:00pm

Social Intervention And Prx6 Protein Helps Bees Reverse Brain Aging

Older honey bees halt and even reverse the effects of brain aging when they are given roles typically handled by younger bees. This has led researchers to suggest that that social interventions may be as valuable as drugs for dealing with age-related demen ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 3 2012 - 12:36pm

Magnetosensory Perception? Why Powerlines Confuse Animal Migration

Over the last half century, it has been established that fish and migratory birds use the planet's magnetic field to help find their way, an interesting zoological mystery. Researchers have now identified cells with internal compass needles for the pe ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 10 2012 - 5:11pm

Psychic Science? Scientists Read Monkeys' Inner Thoughts

Brain activity is a complex cipher but researchers were recently able to 'decode' monkey thoughts and determine how the little primates  were planning to approach the same task- before they moved a muscle. Watching large groups of neurons doesn&# ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2012 - 1:06pm

A Treatment For Neurodegenerative Machado-Joseph Disease?

Researchers have moved a step closer to find a treatment for the fatal neurodegenerative disorder  Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) after a Portuguese team from the Centre for Neurosciences at the University of Coimbra was able to halt the brain degeneration ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - Jul 23 2012 - 9:45am