Origin Of Sighing Reflex In The Brain Pinpointed

Contrary to the words immortalized by the piano singer in “Casablanca,” a sigh is far more than a sigh. Heaving an unconscious sigh is a life-sustaining reflex that helps preserve lung function. A new study by researchers from UCLA and Stanford has pinpointed two tiny clusters of neurons in the brain stem that are responsible…

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Can Medical Marijuana Calm Kids’ Epileptic Seizures?

Desperate for relief, parents are taking unusual steps to help children plagued with seizures. The relief, however, comes in a most unlikely form: marijuana. As many as 30 percent of people with epilepsy— or about one million Americans— still have seizures while on Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatments. It’s left many who suffer from…

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What Is The Gut Microbiota And How Does It Affect Mind And Body?

The human gastrointestinal tract harbours trillions of microorganisms, consisting of up to 1,000 or so different bacterial species. These bacteria, known collectively as the gut microbiota, perform a number of vital functions in our body. They defend against pathogens, aid in digestion and nutrient absorption, produce vitamins (K and B), and boost our immune system.…

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Sustained Aerobic Exercise Increases Adult Neurogenesis In The Brain

It may be possible to increase the neuron reserve of the hippocampus – and thus improve preconditions for learning – by promoting neurogenesis via sustained aerobic exercise such as running. Aerobic exercise, such as running, has positive effects on brain structure and function, for example, the generation of neurons (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus, a brain…

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The Nerve Cells That Detect Motion By Light Changes

The ability to see the direction in which something is moving is vital for survival. Only in this way is it possible to avoid predators, capture prey or, as humans in a modern world, cross a road safely. However, the direction of motion is not explicitly represented at the level of the photoreceptors but rather…

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Goal-Directed Decision Making With Spiking Neurons

Our decisions may provide immediate gratification, but they can also have far-reaching consequences, which in turn depend on several other actions we have already made or will make in the future. The trouble that most of us have is how to take the potential long-term effects of a particular decision into account, so that we…

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Language Influences Music Harmony Perception

Reading and listening to music at the same time affects how you hear the music, say language scientists and neuroscientists from Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Says lead author Richard Kunert: “The neural pathways for language and music share a crossroads. This has been shown in previous research, but these studies…

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Aggression Causes The Brain To Generate New Nerve Cells

Aggression has an influence on the production of new nerve cells in the brain, according to experiments by a group of neurobiologists from Russia and the USA, including Dmitry Smagin, Tatyana Michurina, and Grigori Enikolopov from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). Researchers studied the changes that occurred in the brains of mice demonstrating…

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Early Poverty Disrupts Link Between Hunger and Eating

How much you eat when you’re not really hungry may depend on how well off your family was when you were a child, according to new research published in Psychological Science. Explains psychological scientist Sarah Hill of Texas Christian University: “Our research shows that growing up poor promotes eating in the absence of hunger in…

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