Neuroscience

Imagine that you’re a young rat. You’re in the woods, doing rat things among the dead foliage. Suddenly, off to your left, you hear a sound that you've never heard before. It’s loud, it’s strange, and it’s… rattley. ...

Article - David Sloan - Feb 20 2013 - 8:15pm

Alzheimer's Disease Modeled Using IPSCs

Researchers have successfully modeled using both familial and sporadic patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and revealed stress phenotypes and differential drug responsiveness associated with intracellular amyloid beta oligomers in Alzh ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2013 - 11:00am

Did Language Evolve From Singing?

In "The Descent of Man" (1871), while contemplating how humans learned to speak, Charles Darwin speculated that language might have had its origins in singing, which "might have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions.&qu ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2013 - 1:41pm

Can Ultrasound Predict Autism Risk At Birth?

A new paper in the Journal of Pediatrics says low-birth-weight babies with a particular brain abnormality are at greater risk for autism, and it could provide a signpost for early detection of the poorly understood disorder. The authors found that low-bir ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 25 2013 - 6:02pm

Forerunners Of Inner-Ear Cells That Enable Hearing Identified

A group of progenitor cells in the inner ear that can become the sensory hair cells and adjacent supporting cells that enable hearing have been identified, a potential breakthrough for people suffering from hearing loss due to damaged or impaired sensory ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 26 2013 - 9:52am

Anything At All Concerning About Brain Mapping?

In President Obama's most recent State of the Union address, he mentioned neuroscience three times. One was a stated commitment to ensure top-quality mental healthcare for returning soldiers. One was the reference to the effect of early education on c ...

Article - David Sloan - Mar 8 2013 - 2:41pm

Consciousness: How The Brain Loses And Regains It

Doctors have used drugs to induce general anesthesia in patients undergoing surgery since a medical doctor became a legitimate profession in the mid-1800s. But little has been known about how these drugs create such a profound loss of consciousness. We d ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2013 - 8:00pm

GRIN3A And The Hunt For A Genetic Cause Of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is thought to have a substantial genetic background which is also, to some extent, population-specific. Genome-wide searches have revealed many numerous genomic variants with weak effects, but the remaining 'missing heritability' ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 14 2013 - 10:14am

Elite Athletes Are Cognitive Elites Too

The term 'elites' gets a bad rap in modern culture, mostly because political pundits use it to mean 'me and people I like'- elitism- rather than understanding what elite means. Yet in sports we still recognize that there are elites. Do ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2013 - 4:09pm

Enlightening Frightening Memories And Anxiety In The Brain’s Memory Centre

It is well established that the hippocampus is central for learning and memory, encoding mnemonic data about past experiences and connections. However, the role of the hippocampus in emotional processes is less clear, although there have been inklings of ...

Article - Jennifer Wong - Mar 26 2013 - 5:16pm