Neuroscience

Brains Of Patients In A Vegetative State React To Photographs Of People They Know

Patients in a vegetative state are awake, breathe on their own, and seem to go in and out of sleep, but they don't respond to what is happening around them and exhibit no signs of conscious awareness. Do they even know if friends and family are even ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2013 - 3:04pm

Pruning Brain Connections May Explain Why Girls Seem To Mature Faster

As we age, our brains undergo a major reorganization, a 'pruning' which streamlines the connections in the brain- except the long-distance ones that are crucial for integrating information.  Studying people up to the age of 40, authors of a pape ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 19 2013 - 11:45am

Can Brains Be Binary? Due To Context, Even Or Odd Is No Easy Feat For Our Minds

Like computers, our brains work on inductance. A switch is open or closed, a signal is passed. Brains follow rules, like computers.  But if the brain is like a computer, why do brains make mistakes that computers don't? Psychologist Gary Lupyan at th ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 23 2013 - 5:31am

Excitability Of Motor Neurons Predicts Working Memory

A new paper studied if the excitability of the motor cortex correlates with working memory performance – and results were positive.  By measuring the motor excitability, conclusions can be drawn as to general cortical excitability – as well as to cognitive ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 26 2013 - 11:37am

Autophagy Is Reduced In The Brains Of Schizophrenic Patients

When it comes to the brain, there is very little science. fMRI imaging is subjective and pop psychology concepts even more so. Even when it comes to medical conditions, like schizophrenia, little is known. Its causes are unknown, there there is no objecti ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 30 2013 - 5:30pm

Do Those Brain Training Games And Websites Work? Sort Of

You've seen advertisements on television for websites like Lumosity and claims that games that will 'train' your brain to be better. Well, they sort of work, it's not total snake oil, though they work mostly at teaching your brain to s ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 6 2016 - 11:40pm

Good Stories Don't Just Change Your Life, They Change Your Brain

Many people can recall reading a cherished story that they say changed their life and now researchers have detected what may be biological traces related to this feeling: Actual changes in the brain that linger after reading a novel. Essentially, reading ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 3 2014 - 4:28pm

In Vivo Study Finds Alpha2/Delta-1 Is A Biological Underpinning Of Obesity

An in vivo study reveals how a protein in the brain, alpha2/delta-1, helps regulate food intake and body weight and may help explain why medications that are prescribed for epilepsy and other conditions that interfere with this protein, such as gabapentin ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 8 2014 - 8:06pm

Why Some People Are More Sensitive To Pain: Brain Structure

The problem with diagnosing and treating pain is that it's so subjective. But a new paper in Pain says that brain structure may hold some answers.  Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center say that the amount of grey matter in certain region ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 14 2014 - 12:03pm

Metabolism And Brain Activity Linked

A new study by shows a direct link between metabolism in brain cells and their ability to signal information. The research may explain why the seizures of many epilepsy patients can be controlled by a specially formulated diet. The findings in Nature Comm ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 1 2014 - 1:10pm