Category: Neuroscience

Gestures and words are partly linked in our brains, according to a new study by SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste. Scientists are divided on the connection between linguistic and the motor systems. Some neuroscientists believe the two are highly tied together. In their view, for instance, in order to understand the…

Fast eye movements known as saccades, that allow us to scan a visual scene appear to act as a pacemaker for driving information about a scene into memory, say researchers at Emory University. In Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center, scientists have noticed that in monkeys looking at images, the start of a saccade…

Neuroscientists at MIT have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice. False memory is something that has been well-documented. There have been many court cases where defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the…

Scientists from the Blue Brain Project at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, are using a complex computer model as a new tool to solve the mystery of how billions of interconnected neurons work together to produce brain waves. The brain has many different types of neurons, all carrying electrical signals. Exactly what is…

Silk designed to release adenosine when implanted in the brain of lab rats may help stop the progression of epilepsy, a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation says. Epilepsies are a cluster of neurological disorders associated with recurring seizures which have a propensity for becoming more frequent and severe over time. Adenosine…

If you suspect that women respond to stress more resiliently than men you are right, and researchers at University at Buffalo have now found out why. In rats exposed to repeated stress episodes, females respond better than males because of the protective effects of estrogen. Before I go any further, I should mention that there…

Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s are all diseases that devastate the brain’s neurons, leaving entire areas to become weak and die. These neurodegenerative diseases are frequently associated with the buildup of toxic proteins that lead to neuronal death. As it turns out, it’s more complex than that. Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes have now discovered that…

Norepinephrine (NE), also referred to as noradrenaline (NA) or noradrenalin, is an organic chemical in the catecholamine family that functions in the human brain and body as a hormone and neurotransmitter. The name “noradrenaline,” derived from Latin roots meaning “at/alongside the kidneys,” is more commonly used in the United Kingdom; in the United States, “norepinephrine,”…

The substantia nigra is a brain structure located in the midbrain that plays an important role in reward, addiction, and movement. Substantia nigra is Latin for “black substance”, reflecting the fact that parts of the substantia nigra appear darker than neighboring areas due to high levels of neuromelanin in dopaminergic neurons. It was discovered in…