Your brain is more responsive to friends than to strangers, even if the stranger has more in common, says a study in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers examined a brain region known to be involved in processing social information, and the results suggest that social alliances outweigh shared interests. The study, led by graduate student…
Category: Neuroscience
What Is The Motor Cortex?
The motor cortex is the region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary movements. Classically the motor cortex is an area of the frontal lobe located in the dorsal precentral gyrus immediately anterior to the central sulcus. n 1870 Eduard Hitzig and Gustav Fritsch demonstrated that electrical stimulation of…
What Is Substance P?
Substance P (SP) is a neuropeptide that functions as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator affecting the neurokinin receptors. It has most closely been associated with nociception (pain perception), but seems to have a wide range of effects including an important role in nausea, emesis (vomiting), the rewarding effects of opiates, and likely in regulating stress responses…
What Is The Hypothalamus?
The hypothalamus is a portion of the brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions. One of the most important functions of the hypothalamus is to link the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus is located below the thalamus and is part of the…
What is the Amygdala?
The amygdalae (singular: amygdala; /əˈmɪɡdələ/; also corpus amygdaloideum; Latin, from Greek ἀμυγδαλή, amygdalē, ‘almond’, ’tonsil’), listed in the Gray’s Anatomy textbook as the nucleus amygdalæ, are two almond-shaped groups of nuclei located deep and medially within the temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role…
Vasopressin
Vasopressin, also known as antidiuretic hormone (ADH), is a neurohypophysial hormone found in most mammals. In most species it contains arginine and is thus also called arginine vasopressin (AVP) or argipressin. Its two primary functions are to retain water in the body and to constrict blood vessels. Vasopressin regulates the body’s retention of water by…
What is Synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a condition in which a sensory stimulus presented in one modality evokes a sensation in a different modality. In the 19th century Francis Galton observed that a certain proportion of the general population who were otherwise normal had a hereditary condition he dubbed “synesthesia”; a sensory stimulus presented through one modality spontaneously evoked…
Psychopaths’ Brains Wired To Seek Rewards At Any Cost
The brains of psychopaths seem to be wired to continually seek a reward at any cost, new Vanderbilt University research finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy and opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals. Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes…
What is Optogenetics?
Optogenetics (from Greek optos, meaning “visible”) uses light to control neurons which have been genetically sensitised to light. It is a neuromodulation technique employed in neuroscience that uses a combination of techniques from optics and genetics to control and monitor the activities of individual neurons in living tissue—even within freely-moving animals—and to precisely measure the…