Neuroscience

Cocktail Party Problem, Robotic Frogs And How Two Wrong Calls Can Make A Right

A 'rather bizarre' result using a robotic frog and recorded mating call may provide insight into how complex traits evolve by hooking together much simpler traits. Researchers have discovered that two wrong mating calls can make a right for fema ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 15 2013 - 10:55am

Fear Factor: Missing Brain Enzyme MAO A/B Leads To Abnormal Levels Of Fear In Mice

Learned fear is a good thing. It keeps us from making risky, stupid decisions or falling over and over again into the same trap.  New research found that a missing brain protein may be the culprit in cases of severe over-worry, where the fear perseveres e ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 16 2013 - 11:09am

What's So Tricky About Tickling?

It's a bizarre feeling, yet it’s one that we’ve all probably experienced, at one time or another.   Whether it’s the brush of a feather-duster, or a friend’s fingers under your chin, a great many of us are ticklish. There are a number of spots on the ...

Article - Sarah Harrison - Jul 20 2013 - 10:46am

Ultrasound Waves Alter Subjects' Moods

Maybe some day, depression and anxiety could benefit from good vibrations. University of Arizona researchers have found in a recent study that ultrasound waves applied to specific areas of the brain appear able to alter patients' moods. The discovery ...

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

What Do Sea Slugs Tell Us About Learning?

Aplysia californica is a curious beast indeed. The California sea hare is a species of sea slug; a hermaphroditic gastropod mollusc that feeds on seaweed and occasionally squirts ink if you piss it off. Charming little chap, really. ...

Blog Post - Sarah Harrison - Jul 20 2013 - 2:37pm

Oxytocin, You Are So Two-Faced

Oxytocin, the warm, fuzzy miracle hormone that promotes feelings of love, social bonding and well-being, isn't quite as simple as those miracle-cure-of-the-week newspaper stories want you to believe. It turns out that correlation is not causation, wh ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2013 - 1:18pm

Walking To School Boosts Cognitive Performance In Girls

Walking helps people in lots of ways but a paper in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (now JAMA Pediatrics) has a new benefit; adolescent girls who walk to school show a cognitive boost compared to girls who travel by bus or car. But di ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 24 2013 - 9:21am

The Origin Of Brain Waves?

For almost a century, science has been engaged in a quest to study brain waves and learn about mental health and the way we think. It hasn't been easy. The way billions of interconnected neurons work together to produce brain waves remains unknown. R ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 24 2013 - 1:01pm

Can't Sleep During A Full Moon? You're Not A Werewolf, It Happens To A Lot Of People

If you don't sleep well during a full moon, it is not because you have epigenetically become a werewolf after watching "Twilight" too many times, lunar cycles and human sleep behavior are connected, according to results of a study on endoge ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2015 - 5:41pm

Why Homing Pigeons Find Home

Homing pigeons fly off from an unknown place in unfamiliar territory and still manage to find their way home. This ability has always been fascinating to humans and nothing would ever happen in "Game of Thrones" if birds couldn't deliver me ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 25 2013 - 1:32pm