Neuroscience

The Biology Of Depression- Similarities In Suicide And Other Brains

There is no question depression can have physical effects but it is unclear how much of depression is caused by biology and how much is psychology.  A new study finds there are increased amounts of an unmodified structural protein, called tubulin, in lipid ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2020 - 12:08pm

Are You Anxiety Prone? It May Be SLC6A4 Serotonin Cleanup Proteins

Anxiety-prone people can blame serotonin cleanup proteins gone awry in their amygdala, according to research in marmosets recently published in JNeurosci. Targeting the amygdala with anti-anxiety medication could provide quicker relief. The same event or ...

Article - News Staff - May 11 2020 - 7:19pm

FMRI Images Are Just Pretty Pictures

Ten years ago science journalists talked about functional MRI (fMRI) scans all of the time. Because if a part of the brain lit up when someone did, said, or read something, it went into a paper. Few asked who was doing the interpreting, how legitimate the ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2020 - 3:51pm

Amodal: We Begin Linking Vocal And Facial Emotion At Age 8

Emotions are an integral part of our lives. They influence our behavior, perceptions, and day-to-day decisions. The spontaneous amodal coding of emotions- independent of perceptual modalities like the physical characteristics of faces or voices- is easy f ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 30 2020 - 2:21pm

There Are Detectable Brain Differences Between Musicians And Non-Musicians

Music is in most aspects of our lives we probably don't even notice it- but it can be noticed in our brains. A new study examined the brains of non-musicians, western classical musicians, and eastern classical musicians, as they were exposed to unfami ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2020 - 10:31am

That Music Training Makes Kids Smarter Might Be Spurious Correlation

Music training can make us well-rounded, it may change the way we think, and music is fun, but claims that it makes kids smarter may have hit a sour note. Smart people often play musical instruments as well, so that has led to research trials seeking a cau ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 29 2020 - 12:56pm

The Neuroscience Reason Some Can Identify Smells Precisely And Others Have A Harder Time

When we talk about sight or hearing, the mechanisms that lead us to distinguish two colors or two notes have been well-established and translated into practical use. For example, we know which wavelength will appear red and which frequency will make us hea ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 29 2020 - 1:10pm

UK Transgender Individuals 3X More Likely To Be Autistic

Compared to cisgender people (gender identity corresponds to their sex), an analysis of over 600,000 adults finds transgender and gender-diverse adults are three to six times more likely to be diagnosed as autistic.  The findings are simply exploratory and ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2020 - 12:58pm