Neurostimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have gradually gained favor in the public eye over the past decade. In a new report, ethics experts raise important questions about the rising tide of tDCS coverage in the media, while regulatory action is lacking and ethical issues need to be addressed. ...
Fruit flies 'think' before they act, a study suggests. Neuroscientists showed that fruit flies take longer to make more difficult decisions. In experiments asking fruit flies to distinguish between ever closer concentrations of an odor, the researchers found that the flies don't act instinctively or impulsively. Instead they appear to accumulate information before committing to a choice. ...
Researchers discover learning processes in the brain are dynamically regulated by various types of interneurons. ...
Approximately one third of all brain aneurysms rupture during a patient's lifetime, resulting in a brain haemorrhage. A recent study demonstrates that, unlike what was previously assumed, the size of the aneurysm does not significantly impact the risk of rupture. The total number of individual risk factors is more important. Smoking, for example, increases the risk for ruptures, particularly in women....
Children with profound deafness who receive a cochlear implant had as much as five times the risk of having delays in areas of working memory, controlled attention, planning and conceptual learning as children with normal hearing, according research. The authors evaluated 73 children implanted before age 7 and 78 children with normal hearing to determine the risk of deficits in executive functioning...
A new study suggests that our gut instinct has significant impact on how we react to fear. ...
Mutations in a pair of genes, which normally help regulate eating scheduled and keep them in sync with daily sleep rhythms, may play a role in so called night eating syndrome. ...
An antibody that simultaneously blocks the sensations of pain and itching has been found in studies with mice. The new antibody works by targeting the voltage-sensitive sodium channels in the cell membrane of neurons. "We hope our discovery will garner interest from pharmaceutical companies that can help us expand our studies into clinical trials," said one researcher. ...
The list of brain receptor targets for opiates reads like a fraternity: Mu Delta Kappa. The mu opioid receptor is the primary target for morphine and endogenous opioids like endorphin, whereas the delta opioid receptor shows the highest affinity for endogenous enkephalins. The kappa opioid receptor is very interesting, but the least understood of the opiate receptor family. ...
We are all familiar with that uncomfortable feeling in our stomach when faced with a threatening situation. By studying rats, researchers have been able to prove for the first time that our ‘gut instinct’ has a significant impact on how we react to fear. An unlit, deserted car park at night, footsteps in the gloom. The heart beats faster and the stomach ties itself in knots. We often feel threatening...
Last month the first hospital outside of a clinical trial site implanted a pacemaker-like device in the brain of a patient. This may be a game-changer for patients with epilepsy. The device, called the RNS System, was implanted April 17, 2014 in a patient with seizures that previously could not be controlled with medication, or intractable epilepsy. The patient has recovered completely from the surgery....
The enzyme PIP5K1C controls the activity of cellular receptors that signal pain, researchers have found. By reducing the enzyme, researchers showed that levels of a lipid called PIP2 is also lessened. They also found a compound that can dampen the activity of PIP5K1C. These findings could lead to a new kind of pain reliever for the more than 100 million people who suffer from chronic pain in the US....
When the doctor gives us medicine, it is often in the shape of a pill. But when it comes to brain diseases, pills are actually an extremely inefficient way to deliver drugs to the brain, and according to researchers, we need to find new and more efficient ways of transporting drugs to the brain. Spraying the patient's nose could be one such way. ...
An unprecedented research conducted by a group of neuroscientists has demonstrated that it is possible to train brain patterns associated with empathic feelings. Volunteers who received neurofeedback about their own brain activity patterns whilst being scanned inside a functional magnetic resonance machine were able to increase empathic brain states. These findings could open new possibilities for...
Researchers create a new theoretical model to understand how cells monitor and self regulate their properties. ...
Researchers develop a new method of generating neurons from skin cells. ...
A protein with a propensity to form harmful aggregates in the body when produced in the liver protects against Alzheimer’s disease aggregates when it is produced in the brain, researchers have discovered. The results suggest that drugs that can boost the protein's production specifically in neurons could one day help ward off Alzheimer's disease. ...
Research in an animal model supports the potential therapeutic value of an antisense compound to treat Alzheimer's disease. The molecule also reduced inflammation in the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. The article is the second mouse study that supports the potential therapeutic value of an antisense compound in treating Alzheimer's disease in humans. ...
A precise rhythm of electrical impulses transmitted from cells in the inner ear coaches the brain how to hear, according to a new study. The ear generates spontaneous electrical activity to trigger a response in the brain before hearing actually begins, said the study's senior investigator. ...
While touch always involves awareness, it also sometimes involves emotion. Now, scientists describe a system of slowly conducting nerves in the skin that respond to gentle touch. Investigators are beginning to characterize these nerves and to describe the fundamental role they play in our lives as a social species. Their work also suggests that this soft touch wiring may go awry in disorders such as...