Neuroscience News

Selective Breeding Altered Brain Anatomy in Dogs, Study Says

Left: structural differences in three dog breeds. Right: composite scan from 33 breeds displaying areas that vary the most. Image credit: Hecht et al, doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0303-19.2019.
Sep 5, 2019 by News Staff

A new study published in the JNeurosci shows that through selective breeding, humans have significantly altered the brains of different lineages of domestic dogs in different ways. Left: structural differences in three dog breeds. Right: composite scan from 33 breeds displaying areas that vary the most. Image credit: Hecht et al, doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0303-19.2019. “Dog breeds are known to vary in cognition, temperament, and behavior, but the neural...

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

Researchers Identify Second Short-Sleep Gene

Sep 4, 2019 by News Staff

Sleep is crucial for our survival, and many conditions, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s, are linked to...

A single bout of exercise may provide a boost to the mind. Image credit: Mabel Amber.

Single Session of Aerobic Exercise Boosts Cognition and Memory Performance in Older Adults: Study

Sep 2, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Iowa has found that a single bout of aerobic exercise improves cognitive functions and working memory in older...

A juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) in Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico. Image credit: Geoff Gallice / CC BY 2.0.

Impulsiveness in Adolescence is Not Uniquely Human

Aug 30, 2019 by News Staff

Human and non-human primate studies show that in adolescence, a time of increased reactive behavior, self control is limited. A juvenile rhesus macaque...

A honeybee (Apis mellifera). Image credit: Vijaya Narasimha.

Study Provides New Insights into Honeybee ‘Waggle Dance’ Communication

Aug 29, 2019 by News Staff

According to a study published in the journal eNeuro (bioRxiv.org preprint), changes in vibration-sensitive neurons may equip forager honeybees for waggle...

Astrocytes tagged with green fluorescent antibody. Image credit: Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes / António Pinto-Duarte.

Astrocytes Help Brain Establish Long-Lasting Memories, Animal Study Finds

Aug 27, 2019 by News Staff

Astrocytes, long considered to be passive elements in the brain, are required to establish long-lasting memories, according to a study in mice. Astrocytes...

Abdo et al discovered a meshlike organ covering the skin that senses dangerous environmental stimuli. Image credit: Tarkan K.

Researchers Discover New Pain Organ in Human Skin

Aug 19, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Karolinska Institutet has discovered a previously unknown meshlike organ in the skin that is sensitive to painful mechanical damage,...

Short bursts of exercise directly boost the function of a gene that increases connections between neurons in the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory. Image credit: Matan Ray Vizel.

Brief Periods of Exercise Enhance Brain Function, Animal Study Shows

Jul 5, 2019 by News Staff

In a study done in mice, a team of researchers found that short-term bursts of exercise — the human equivalent of a weekly game of pickup basketball,...

Scholars argue that consciousness is a fundamental quality of the Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL-Caltech / STScI / Sci-News.com.

Is Consciousness a Fundamental Quality of the Universe?

Jun 14, 2019 by The Conversation

Scientists have long been trying to understand human consciousness — the subjective ‘stuff’ of thoughts and sensations inside our minds. There...

Farmer et al used genetic techniques to make glowing brain cells or rendered them sensitive to laser light to alter their activity; these brain cells are now thought to coordinate activity across the cardiovascular system. Image credit: Farmer et al, doi: 10.1113/JP277661.

Researchers Find Blood Flow Command Center in Brain

May 20, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health and Macquarie University scientists has discovered a group of cells in the...

The normal form of amyloid beta has been tagged with a yellow marker in these cells, making healthy cells a uniform pale yellow (left). Contact with prion forms of amyloid beta -- for example in extracts from human brain tissue -- forces these yellow proteins into the sticky prion form as well, leading to the formation of bright yellow clumps (right). Image credit: Prusiner Lab / UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Alzheimer’s Amyloid-Beta and Tau Proteins Act as Prions, New Research Finds

May 7, 2019 by News Staff

Prions are misfolded versions of a protein that can spread like an infection by forcing normal copies of that protein into the same self-propagating, misfolded...

A brain-machine interface created Anumanchipalli et al can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract. Image credit: University of California San Francisco.

Speech Synthesized from Brain Signals

Apr 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at the University of California San Francisco used brain signals recorded from epilepsy patients to program a computer to mimic...

Overview of observed standardized regression coefficients (b values) for the associations between total body fat and fractional anisotropy (FA)- and mean diffusivity (MD)-based DTI tracts for men and women. Standardized regression coefficients reflect the standard deviation (SD) change in FA and MD, respectively, per standard deviation (6.5% in women and 5.5% in men) change in total body fat. Results were adjusted for age, ethnicity, Townsend deprivation index, assessment center (baseline visit and imaging visit), smoking, alcohol use, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and intracranial volume. Image credit: Dekkers et al, doi: 10.1148/radiol.2019181012.

Excessive Body Fat Linked to Smaller Gray Matter Volume, New Study Says

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers in the Netherlands has found that higher levels of body fat are associated with differences in the form and structure of the brain,...

Left: topography of the predominantly contralateral beta oscillatory activity during rest periods predictive of micro-offline learning, indicated by the LME (linear mixed effects) model coefficient. Right: frontoparietal beta activity predicted micro-offline gains throughout the duration of early-learning rest periods. Image credit: Bönstrup et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.049.

Study: Human Brain Uses Short Rest Periods to Strengthen Memories

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Current Biology, a team of researchers from the United States, Switzerland and Israel found that taking short breaks,...

Davis et al detected BMAA in the cerebral cortex of stranded dolphins; they also report Alzheimer-like neurodegenerative changes in the brains of dolphins containing BMAA. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find Cyanobacterial Neurotoxin and Amyloid Plaques in Brains of Stranded Dolphins

Mar 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

High levels of BMAA (β-methylamino-L-alanine), a neurotoxin produced by cyanobacterial blooms, and beta-amyloid plaques, a hallmark in human beings of...

Wang et al report a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

First Neuroscientific Evidence that Humans Have Geomagnetic Sense

Mar 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of neuroscientists and geoscientists from Caltech, the University of Tokyo, Princeton University and Tokyo Institute of Technology...

Weiler et al show that, for postural hand control, even the fastest spinal feedback pathway can produce efficient corrective responses, forcing a re-evaluation of how the nervous system derives the control laws that support motor behavior. Image credit: Medium69 / Jmarchn.

Study: Spinal Cord Contributes to Sophisticated Hand Function

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

It is well known that neural circuits in the spinal cord control seemingly simple things like the pain reflex in humans, and some motor control functions...

Advance marks critical step toward brain-computer interface systems that hold immense promise for those with limited or no ability to speak. Image credit: Kai Kalhh.

Experimental Brain-Computer Interface Translates Brain Signals into Recognizable Speech

Jan 30, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Columbia University has developed a speech brain-computer interface system that translates brain signals into intelligible, recognizable...

The rocking bed used by the researchers. Image credit: Laurence Bayer and Aurore Perrault.

Rocking Boosts Deep Sleep and Memory Consolidation, Two New Studies Show

Jan 30, 2019 by News Staff

Two new studies, one of which was conducted in young adults and the other in mice, add to evidence for the benefits of a rocking motion during sleep. In...

The unpleasantness of pain is an emotional phenomenon distinct from pain’s sensory qualities. To study how the brain processes pain-related emotions, Corder et al used neural calcium imaging in freely behaving mice. The team identified brain circuits that respond to pain and directly tested their causal role in motivational behaviors associated with acute and chronic pain. Image credit: Corder et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aap8586.

Neuroscientists Identify Neurons that Make Pain Unpleasant

Jan 22, 2019 by News Staff

Pain sensation and the emotional experience of pain are not the same. A research team at Stanford University has now identified a group of neurons in mice...

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