Understanding how our brains encode thoughts at the cellular level may be a step closer after neuroscientists at MIT discovered groups of neurons encoding specific behavioral rules by oscillating in synchrony, a finding that suggests conscious thought emerges from oscillatory cycles in the brain. The findings, published in Neuron, could help science to finally unravel […]
Researchers who have just completed a new analysis of the famous scientist’s grey matter say portions of Albert Einstein’s brain were unlike those of most people and could be related to his extraordinary cognitive abilities. After his death in 1955 and with the permission of his family, Einstein’s brain was removed and photographed from multiple […]
Fear can skew our perception of approaching objects, causing us to underestimate the distance of a threatening one, according to researchers from Emory University and the University of London. The findings, published in Current Biology, show that emotion and perception are subtly intertwined in the mind. To explore our perception of when objects heading towards […]
UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning and memory during sleep and discovered that it behaves as if it’s remembering something, a finding that counters conventional theories about memory consolidation during sleep. Mayank R. Mehta, senior author of a study that details […]
Heavy drinking appears to impair the brain’s ability to recover from trauma and may put people at greater risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), say scientists from the University of North Carolina and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Medicos have long recognized a link between alcoholism and anxiety disorders – simply, those […]
After a plane crash, where should the survivors be buried? A new study using electroencephalography to explore what is happening in our brains when we process sentences containing semantic illusions – such as the one above – has shown human listening to be shallow at best. The research, carried out by the Economic and Social […]
New experimental findings show a causal link between unconscious conflict and the conscious symptoms experienced by people with anxiety disorders, lending scientific weight to one of Sigmund Freud’s key theories. Howard Shevrin, emeritus professor of psychology in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, presented his research last week at the 101st Annual Meeting of […]
Pathological rage can be blocked in mice by shutting down a specific receptor in the brain, report University of Southern California researchers who believe the finding could lead to new treatments for aggression and hostile overreactions to stress. The study, appearing in the Journal of Neuroscience, explains how the researchers identified a critical neurological factor […]
Researchers at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a robotic probe to automate the process of finding and recording information from neurons in the living brain. Getting access to the inner workings of a neuron offers a wealth of useful information: its patterns of electrical activity, its shape, even a profile of […]
Previously used in experiments to see whether it could predict pop music success, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain is now being turned to more serious endeavors. Dartmouth College scientists using MRI to investigate the areas of the brain to do with reward and self-control found they could predict the subjects’ levels of weight […]
