Neuroscience News

Study Finds Bidirectional Link between Daytime Napping and Cognitive Aging

Daytime napping and cognition may drive each other’s changes bidirectionally. Image credit: StockSnap.
Mar 28, 2022 by News Staff

In a new cohort study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, participants tended to nap longer and more frequently with aging; most importantly, the progression of Alzheimer’s dementia appeared to accelerate this aging effect by doubling or more than doubling the annual changes (increases) in nap duration/frequency; the study’s results also show that longer and more frequent daytime naps were associated with higher risk of developing...

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Weekend recovery sleep doesn’t prevent weight gain or reduce insulin sensitivity. Image credit: Wok & Apix.

Study: Human Brain Selectively Tunes to Unfamiliar Voices during Sleep

Jan 18, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists from the University of Salzburg and the University of Basel has presented sleeping volunteers with their own names and unfamiliar...

Habitual coffee intake may be a protective factor against Alzheimer’s disease; specifically, increased coffee consumption could contribute to slower cognitive decline potentially by slowing the rate of cerebral Aβ-amyloid accumulation, and in doing so, ameliorate the associated neurotoxicity from Aβ-amyloid-mediated oxidative stress and inflammatory processes. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Higher Coffee Consumption Associated with Slower Cognitive Decline

Nov 24, 2021 by News Staff

A new long-term study led by Edith Cowan University scientists further supports the hypothesis that coffee intake may be a protective factor against Alzheimer’s...

Highly variable neuron size and input-output properties across 10 mammalian species. Image credit: Beaulieu-Laroche et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04072-3.

Human Neurons are Strikingly Different from Those of Other Mammals, Study Says

Nov 11, 2021 by News Staff

Human neurons have a much smaller number of channels that control the flow of ions (such as potassium and sodium) than expected, compared to the neurons...

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.

Human Brains Decreased in Size 3,000 Years Ago, New Study Says

Oct 25, 2021 by News Staff

Human brain size nearly quadrupled in 6 million years since Homo last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased...

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can cause hundreds of unintended mutations. Image credit: Lisichik.

Is Junk DNA What Makes Human Brain Unique?

Oct 11, 2021 by News Staff

In the genome of Homo sapiens, about 98% of DNA sequences are non-coding regions that were previously disregarded as ‘junk DNA.’ In fact, junk DNA...

Several lines of study suggest that peripheral metabolism of amyloid beta (Aß) is associated with risk for Alzheimer’s disease. In blood, greater than 90% of Aß is complexed as an apolipoprotein, raising the possibility of a lipoprotein-mediated axis for Alzheimer’s disease risk. Lam et al. report that genetic modification of C57BL/6J mice engineered to synthesize human Aß only in liver has marked neurodegeneration concomitant with capillary dysfunction, parenchymal extravasation of lipoprotein-Aß, and neurovascular inflammation. Image credit: National Institute on Aging / National Institutes of Health.

Protein from Liver May Cause Alzheimer’s Disease, Groundbreaking Study Says

Sep 15, 2021 by News Staff

According to a new study in mice, a probable cause of Alzheimer’s disease is the leakage from blood into the brain of fat-carrying particles transporting...

Casiraghi et al. show that on nights before a full moon, people sleep less and go to bed later on average. Image credit: Florian Kurz.

Lunar Cycle’s Effects on Sleep are More Pronounced among Men: Study

Sep 14, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new community-dwelling study from Sweden suggests that the lunar cycle affects sleep in humans, with more pronounced sleep alterations in men than women. Sleep...

Pham et al. examined whether habitual coffee consumption is associated with differences in brain volumes or the odds of dementia or stroke. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Excessive Coffee Consumption is Associated with Smaller Brain Volumes, Increased Odds of Dementia

Jul 23, 2021 by News Staff

Coffee is a highly popular beverage worldwide, containing caffeine which is a central nervous system stimulant. In a study of 398,646 UK Biobank participants,...

Antibiotic exposure early in life could alter human brain development in areas responsible for cognitive and emotional functions. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Early-Life Penicillin Could Lead to Brain Disorders, New Study Suggests

Jul 15, 2021 by News Staff

Penicillin in early life changes microbiome and gene expression, which allows cells to respond to its changing environment, in key areas of the developing...

An area (red-yellow) in the brain’s temporal pole specializes in familiar face recognition. Image credit: Sofia Landi.

New Class of Neurons Discovered

Jul 2, 2021 by News Staff

The question of how the human brain recognizes the faces of familiar individuals has been important throughout the history of neuroscience. Cells linking...

MPS is a novel neuroprotective molecule that is more than two orders of magnitude more potent than the related molecule, ethosuximide. The discovery may enable novel treatments for human neurodegenerative diseases to be developed in the future. Image credit: National Institute on Aging / National Institutes of Health.

Chronic Psychosocial Stress Could Lead to Alzheimer’s Disease

Jun 24, 2021 by News Staff

Chronic stress, which involves a pathway called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease,...

Arneodo et al. demonstrate the possibilities of a future speech prosthesis for humans. Image credit: Arneodo et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.05.035.

Scientists Convert Songbird’s Brain Signals into Its Song

Jun 21, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego, the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind has...

Zacharopoulos et al. examined whether the concentrations of GABA in the adolescent brain could classify whether a student is lacking mathematical education. Image credit: T.J. Evans.

Study: Lack of Mathematical Education Negatively Affects Developing Brain

Jun 9, 2021 by News Staff

A new study, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that within the same society, adolescent students who specifically...

A teacher guides a student through a task in this historical photo of the Abecedarian Project. Image credit: Virginia Tech.

Active Early Learning Shapes Adult Brain Structure, New Research Shows

Jun 1, 2021 by News Staff

In new research published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, low socioeconomic status infants were randomized to either five years of cognitively...

As part of the BrainGate clinical trial, researchers are using tiny electrode arrays to record signals from the motor cortex of the brain; those signals can then be used to control robotic prostheses, computers or other devices; the hope is that such a system may one help restore communication and movement in people with paralysis due to injury or illness. Image credit: BrainGate.org.

Brain-Computer Interface Translates Brain Signals Associated with Handwriting into Text

May 17, 2021 by News Staff

Researchers with the BrainGate Collaboration have deciphered the brain activity associated with handwriting: working with a 65-year-old (at the time of...

Konkoly et al. implemented procedures for two-way communication during polysomnographically verified REM sleep in 36 individuals. Image credit: Konkoly et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026.

Scientists Demonstrate Two-Way Communication with Dreaming Persons during Lucid Dream

Feb 24, 2021 by News Staff

New research from Northwestern University shows that individuals who are asleep and in the midst of a lucid dream — aware of the fact that they are...

Laham et al. show that mice form memories of their mother within days after birth and that these memories persist into adulthood. Image credit: Laham et al., doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108668.

Mice Form Memories of Their Mother within Three Days after Birth, Study Shows

Jan 28, 2021 by News Staff

Mouse pups recognize their caregiving mother and distinguish her from novel mothers as newborns and remember them after up to 100 days apart, according...

Increased subnetworks in absolute pitch musicians compared to non-musicians obtained in the whole-brain network-based statistic (NBS) analysis for resting-state functional connectivity (A) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI)-based structural connectivity (B). Abbreviations: ACC - anterior cingulate cortex; AP - absolute pitch; aSMG - anterior supramarginal gyrus; aSTG - anterior superior temporal gyrus; cOp - central operculum; fOp - frontal operculum; FP - frontal pole; HG - Heschl’s gyrus; IFG, po - inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis; L - left; MTG - middle temporal gyrus; PCC - posterior cingulate cortex; postCG - postcentral gyrus; preCG - precentral gyrus; pSTG - superior temporal gyrus, posterior division; pOp - parietal operculum; PP - planum polare; PT - planum temporale; ptFG - posterior temporal fusiform gyrus; R - right; toFG - temporal occipital fusiform gyrus; TP - temporal pole. Image credit: Leipold et al., doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1985-20.2020.

Musicians, Regardless of Innate Pitch Ability, Have More Connected Brains than Non-Musicians: Study

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that long-term musical training is associated with robust changes in large-scale brain...

Differences in brain activity between connected and disconnected states of consciousness studied with positron emission tomography imaging. Activity of the thalamus, anterior (ACC) and posterior cingulate cortices (PCC), and bilateral angular gyri (AG) show the most consistent associations with the state of consciousness (A = general anesthesia, B = sleep). The same brain structures, which are deactivated when the state of consciousness changes to disconnected in general anesthesia or natural sleep (cool colors in the left columns), are reactivated when regaining a connected state upon emergence from anesthesia (warm colors in the right columns). Image credit: Scheinin et al., doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0775-20.2020.

Neuroscientists Identify Brain Network Critical for Consciousness

Dec 30, 2020 by News Staff

The loss and return of consciousness is linked to the same core brain network for both sleep and anesthesia. Differences in brain activity between connected...

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