Neuroscience News

Chickadees Have Unique Neural Barcodes for Episodic Memories, Researchers Say

Chettih et al. propose that animals recall episodic memories by reactivating hippocampal barcodes. Image credit: Chettih et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.032.
Apr 2, 2024 by News Staff

Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), small North American passerine birds that live in deciduous and mixed forests, have extraordinary memories that can recall the locations of thousands of morsels of food to help them survive the winter. Now, scientists at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute have discovered how the chickadees can remember so many details: they memorize each food location using brain cell activity...

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GluK2 KO mice are defective in cold sensing. Image credit: Cai et al., 10.1038/s41593-024-01585-8.

Neuroscientists Identify Cold-Sensing Receptor in Mice

Mar 12, 2024 by News Staff

Neuroscientists at the University of Michigan have identified a thermoreceptor that mediates cold sensing in somatosensory neurons. GluK2 KO mice are defective...

The accumulation of metabolic waste is a leading cause of numerous neurological disorders, yet we still have only limited knowledge of how the brain performs self-cleansing. Jiang-Xie et al. demonstrate that neural networks synchronize individual action potentials to create large-amplitude, rhythmic and self-perpetuating ionic waves in the interstitial fluid of the brain. Image credit: Jiang-Xie et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07108-6.

Brain Waves Help Flush Waste Out of Brain During Sleep, Say Neuroscientists

Mar 4, 2024 by News Staff

Individual neurons coordinate to produce rhythmic waves that propel fluid through dense brain tissue, washing the tissue in the process, according to new...

These images show adult sea lampreys (top and left) and a developing sea lamprey embryo. Image credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

Study: Sea Lamprey’s Brain Development is Remarkably Similar to That of Humans

Feb 21, 2024 by News Staff

The hindbrain of both sea lampreys and humans is built using an extraordinarily similar molecular and genetic toolkit, according to new research led by...

Ghosh et al. suggest that retroviral endogenization played a prominent role in the emergence of vertebrate myelin. Image credit: Ghosh et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.011.

Study: Ancient Retroviruses Shaped Vertebrate Brains

Feb 19, 2024 by News Staff

Biologists from Altos Labs-Cambridge Institute of Science, the University of Cambridge and elsewhere have found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element...

DeSilva et al. suggest that patterns of human brain evolution were influenced by collective intelligence, a convergent characteristic of diverse group-living animals. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Scientists Identify Mechanism that Governs Interaction between Perceptual and Memory Neural Systems

Jan 2, 2024 by News Staff

The classic understanding of brain organization is that perceptual regions of the brain represent the world ‘as it is,’ with the brain’s visual cortex...

The colored plots illustrate neural activity recorded in mouse visual cortex (V1); each row of tick marks represents the spikes of a different neuron; researchers can predict the target side from the neural activity with near perfect accuracy, animal subjects get many masked trials wrong due to how brain regions downstream of V1 process this information. Image credit: Gale et al.

New Animal Study Sheds Light on ‘Visual Masking’ Phenomenon

Dec 28, 2023 by News Staff

A strange phenomenon called visual masking can reveal the timescale of perception, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. The colored plots...

Transcriptomic cell-type taxonomy of the whole mouse brain. Image credit: Yao et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06812-z.

Researchers Create Comprehensive Map of Mouse Brain

Dec 18, 2023 by News Staff

The mouse is the most commonly used vertebrate experimental model in neuroscience research, and the new atlas paves the way for a greater understanding...

Mendieta et al. used fMRI to measure brain activity in fans of rival soccer teams during match play. This image shows the contrast of winning and losing in the ‘good fanatic brain.’ It shows in warm colors the activity related to a significant victory. The blue scale represents the activation related to a significant loss; this pattern is congruent with the Mentalization Network, which suggests a rationalization process of the pain evoked by the losing scenario. Image credit: Mendieta et al.

Neuroscientists Use Brain Scans of Soccer Fans to Study Fanaticism

Nov 22, 2023 by News Staff

Soccer is an excellent social affiliation model, promoting inclusivity, teamwork, community spirit, social change, and personal achievement. Still, the...

Fernandez-Velasco et al. show that left-handedness is not associated with either a benefit or a deficit in spatial ability. Image credit: Adrian.

Left-Handedness is Not Linked to Better Spatial Skills: Study

Nov 10, 2023 by News Staff

There is an active debate concerning the association of handedness and spatial ability. Past studies used small sample sizes. Determining the effect of...

Lai et al. developed a novel system combining virtual reality and a brain-machine interface to probe the rat’s inner thoughts.

Rats Have Imagination, New Study Reveals

Nov 6, 2023 by News Staff

The hippocampus holds a model of the environment that can be mentally traversed during recall or simulation. It is unknown whether animals can intentionally...

Jiang et al. used maternal separation (MS) as a stress model to investigate whether MS causes abnormal behavior in adolescence. Image credit: WOKANDAPIX.

Anxiety is Contagious, New Mouse Study Suggests

Oct 17, 2023 by News Staff

New research from Guangzhou University and South China Normal University reveals neural mechanisms underlying the transmission of adolescent anxiety to...

Ward et al. suggest that the presence of an odor can bias an observer’s decision of what their perceived version of a neutral gray is. Image credit: Kerstin Herrmann.

Study: Presence of Different Odors Influences How We Perceive Colors

Oct 11, 2023 by News Staff

Human brain constantly combines multisensory information from our surrounding environment. Odors for instance are often perceived with visual cues; these...

Harrison et al. investigated whether the human visual system represents environmental attributes that are critical for optimal inference. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Human Brain is Naturally Wired to Perform Advanced Calculations, New Study Confirms

Sep 15, 2023 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has developed a specific mathematical model that closely matches how a human brain works when it comes to reading vision....

Schematic diagram of the mechanism of action of irisin. Image credit: Kim et al., doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.08.012.

Irisin-Based Therapies May Help Combat Alzheimer’s Disease

Sep 11, 2023 by News Staff

Irisin is a hormone released mainly from muscles after exercise which increases adipose tissue energy expenditure. Schematic diagram of the mechanism of...

White matter degenerating microglia are a novel therapeutic target to potentially reduce the impact of white matter injury and myelin loss on the progression of cognitive impairment. Image credit: Miroslaw Miras.

New Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia Discovered

Sep 5, 2023 by News Staff

Ferroptosis, which is caused by a buildup of iron in cells, appears to be a major mechanism of white matter injury in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular...

Detection of brain spirals based on moment-by-moment fMRI signals. Image credit: Xu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41562-023-01626-5.

Neuroscientists Detect Spiral-Shaped Signals that Organize Brain Activity

Sep 5, 2023 by News Staff

New research led by University of Sydney and Fudan University neuroscientists shows that spiral-like, rotational wave patterns (brain spirals) are widespread...

Orexigenic appetitive processing relies on the integration of sensory, interoceptive and hormonal signals to govern consummatory behaviors. Dysregulation of this process leads to maladaptive eating behavior such as binge eating and is associated with obesity. This circuit, however, was elusive in humans --- until now. Image credit: Barbosa et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06459-w.

Neuroscientists Find Link between Appetite and Memory in Human Brain

Sep 5, 2023 by News Staff

Obese individuals possess impaired connections between the dorsolateral hippocampus and the lateral hypothalamus, which may impact their ability to control...

Educational attainment is protective and moderates the effect of apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype on cognition. Image credit: WOKANDAPIX.

Higher Educational Attainment May Have Protective Effect Against Alzheimer’s Disease

Sep 4, 2023 by News Staff

New research illustrates that when it comes to risk of Alzheimer’s disease, even genetically determined forms of this disease, genetics is only one piece...

Complex sugar molecules control the formation of perineuronal nets (shown here in green) that surround neurons to help stabilize connections in the brain. Image credit: Hsieh-Wilson et al.

Sulfate Groups on Complex Sugar Molecules Affect Brain Plasticity, Animal Study Suggests

Aug 16, 2023 by News Staff

Sulfate groups on complex sugar molecules called glycosaminoglycans affect ‘plasticity’ in the brains of mice, according to a team of researchers led...

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