A monkey has successfully fed itself using a robotic arm controlled by signals from its brain. The researchers behind the device, from the University of Pittsburgh, say the breakthrough could lead to the development of brain-machine interfaces for people with spinal cord injuries and those with “locked-in” conditions such as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “Our immediate […]
A study by researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center and Harvard Medical School has linked the widely used chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to an ongoing collapse of populations of stem cells in the central nervous system. Writing in the Journal of Biology, the researchers speculate that this may be one of the underlying […]
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), two scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow. The joint research, using musician volunteers from the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute, sheds light on the creative improvisation that artists and […]
Vanderbilt University researchers have shown for the first time that the brain processes aggression as a reward – much like sex, food and drugs – offering insights into our propensity to fight and our fascination with violent sports. “Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as […]
While the nature-nurture argument about homosexuality continues to be debated, a team of neurobiologists from the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered that sexual orientation in fruit flies is controlled by a previously unknown regulator of synapse strength. Armed with this knowledge, the researchers were able to use either genetic manipulation or drugs to […]
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that blood may actually help us think, in addition to its well-known role as the conveyor of fuel and oxygen to brain cells. “We hypothesize that blood actively modulates how neurons process information,” explained MIT’s Christopher Moore. Writing in the Journal of Neurophysiology, he noted that many […]
Scientists from Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WF) have discovered that in autistic individuals, connections between brain cells may be deficient within single regions, and not just between regions, as was previously believed. Using magnetoencephalography brain imaging technology to measure brain electrical activity, UF’s Tony Wilson administered a test called the 40 hertz auditory […]
Compared to healthy individuals, people with serious cases of writer’s cramp have less brain tissue in areas of the brain that connect with the affected hand, say French researchers in the latest issue of Neurology. Writer’s cramp – a form of dystonia – is an involuntary, sustained muscle contraction that sometimes occurs in people who […]
Ritalin – used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder – may cause long-term changes in children’s brains, suggests a new study from the Weill Cornell Medical College. While figures are vague, up to 18 percent of American children are thought to be affected by ADHD and Ritalin, a stimulant similar to amphetamine, is one of the […]
The infamous middle finger salute is recognized by nearly everyone in our society, but to someone from a foreign country, it may be incomprehensible – or even worse, interpreted as some kind of precopulatory come-on. Likewise, Americans are likely to be clueless about the common gestures of a different culture. Which raises an intriguing question […]
