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October 12, 2008 10:03:04 PM CDT

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Stories related to: neuroscience

Stories

19 Stories

  • September 2008

    • Brain Pacemakers May Revolutionize Treatment

      Chicago Tribune  |  Sep 9, 08 6:45 PM CDT

      Brain Pacemakers May Revolutionize Treatment

      (Newser) - The precise application of electricity to certain areas of the brain—the same principles a pacemaker uses for the heart—is showing promise for people with an array of illnesses such as Parkinson's, severe depression, epilepsy, and Alzheimer's, the Chicago Tribune reports. The treatment, called deep brain stimulation, remains in the preliminary stages, but its potential grows as researchers develop ever-more detailed maps of the brain and its circuitry. More »

      Tags

      medicine  • depression  • surgery  • neurology  • neuroscience  • therapy  • deep brain stimulation

  • July 2008

    • Brains Get Noisier as They Age

      LiveScience  |  Jul 10, 08 1:36 PM CDT

      Brains Get Noisier as They Age

      (Newser) - Just because you can't hear it doesn't mean your brain isn't making noise. It is, and scientists using high-tech gear to record it have now discovered that it increases as you mature, reports LiveScience . A comparison of noise generated by groups of children and young adults indicates that brain noise, once dismissed by neuroscientists as inconsequential static, increases along with cranial complexity. More »

      Tags

      science  • Alzheimer's  • schizophrenia  • neuroscience  • memory  • noise  • brain fitness

  • June 2008

    • That Irritating Itch? It May Just Be Your Brain

      New Yorker  |  Jun 24, 08 3:17 PM CDT

      That Irritating Itch? It May Just Be Your Brain

      (Newser) - A woman suffers from an itch so severe that she scratches right through to her brain—yet doctors find no medical ailment. War victims feel the sensations of a real limb—but from phantom appendages. What does it all add up to? Perhaps a new understanding of how our brains perceive reality: Call it the “brain’s best guess” theory, Atul Gawande writes in the New Yorker . More »

      Tags

      science  • medicine  • brain  • neuroscience  • pain

  • May 2008

    • Baby Birds' Babbling Suggests Intricate Brain

      Boston Globe  |  May 5, 08 4:54 PM CDT

      Baby Birds' Babbling Suggests Intricate Brain

      (Newser) - Being bird-brained might not be much of an insult: New MIT research paints a more intricate portrait of how songbirds learn to sing, with one part of the brain used for learning and another for singing itself. Rather than maturing from babbling to birdsong, the independent but overlapping pathways work together during different life stages. More »

      Tags

      science  • brain  • speech  • language  • birds  • neuroscience  • science experiment

    • Surgery for Depression? Yup.

      CNN  |  May 3, 08 8:35 AM CDT

      Surgery for Depression? Yup.

      (Newser) - A type of brain surgery previously used to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease may be effective in countering the debilitating effects of deep depression, CNN reports. A new study shows that deep brain stimulation, a process in which electrodes are inserted into problem areas in the brain and hooked up to a power source, can decrease symptoms of depression up to 50%. More »

  • April 2008

    • Brain Training Can Boost Smarts

      Wired  |  Apr 29, 08 3:13 AM CDT

      Brain Training Can Boost Smarts

      (Newser) - Software claiming to improve intelligence has met with market success in recent years— along with plenty of skepticism—but sales could now get a boost with the discovery that it really is possible to improve general intelligence with mental gymnastics. Researchers had thought so-called "fluid intelligence" was purely genetic, but tests have demonstrated that mental workouts can improve capacity, Wired reports. More »

      Tags

      software  • brain  • intelligence  • neuroscience  • human intelligence

  • March 2008

    • Cell Phones Worse Than Smoking, Study Says

      Independent (UK)  |  Mar 30, 08 3:46 PM CDT

      Cell Phones Worse Than Smoking, Study Says

      (Newser) - Cell phones may cause more deaths than smoking or asbestos, warns a new study in which an Australian neurosurgeon found that a decade of cell use can double brain tumor risk—an effect that he says will show in coming years. "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation," Vini Khurana said. More »

      Tags

      cell phones  • cancer  • cell phone industry  • brain cancer  • neuroscience  • tumor  • handsets  • Vini Khurana

    • Why Girls Are Better at Language

      Scientific American  |  Mar 6, 08 11:12 AM CST

      Why Girls Are Better at Language

      (Newser) - Study after study has found that girls have better language skills than boys, and scientists now think they've found a biological reason why, Scientific American reports. Researchers discovered that girls showed more activity in the language part of their brains, which deciphers abstract encoding, than boys. The boys had more activity in the regions of the brain linked to auditory and visual function. More »

      Tags

      children  • education  • research  • language  • neurology  • neuroscience  • fMRI

    • Mind-Reading Edges Closer to Reality

      Independent (UK)  |  Mar 6, 08 3:30 AM CST

      Mind-Reading Edges Closer to Reality

      (Newser) - Mind-reading has taken a step toward possibility with a new computer that can decode brain activity to determine what a person is looking at with up to 90% accuracy, the Independent reports. With improvements, the technology could be able to reconstruct any image a person could conjure up—and someday, their very thoughts and dreams, said the lead researcher of the experiments detailed in the journal Nature . More »

      Tags

      brain  • research  • neurology  • neuroscience  • mind  • fMRI  • neuroimaging

  • February 2008

    • Vaccines, Medicines to Treat Addiction on the Way

      Newsweek  |  Feb 25, 08 1:45 PM CST

      Vaccines, Medicines to Treat Addiction on the Way

      (Newser) - It's been decades since scientists recognized that addiction is a disease, not just a lack of willpower, but only now are potential treatments coming online that address what Newsweek calls "a chronic, relapsing brain disorder to be managed with all the tools at medicine's disposal." The magazine surveys recent breakthroughs, from pills that prevent intoxication to vaccines that turn antibodies against addictive agents. More »

      Tags

      drugs  • pharmaceutical companies  • addiction  • neuroscience  • Alcoholics Anonymous

    • Missing Protein May Explain 'Rain Man'

      LiveScience  |  Feb 13, 08 4:27 PM CST

      Missing Protein May Explain 'Rain Man'

      (Newser) - The absence of a certain brain protein may play a role in the development of “autistic savants”—patients who exhibit the socio-cognitive impairments of autism but possess exceptional aptitude in highly specific areas, Live Science reports. Researchers found mice lacking the Shank1 protein, used for building synapses, learned one spatial memory task faster and better than normal mice despite having somewhat shriveled brains. More »

      Tags

      autism  • neuroscience  • synapse

    • Chronic Pain Rewires the Brain

      Reuters  |  Feb 6, 08 5:34 AM CST

      Chronic Pain Rewires the Brain

      (Newser) - Researchers studying the brains of people suffering from chronic pain have found that  an area of their cortex is permanently active when it should sometimes deactivate, Reuters reports. That part of the brain, usually associated with emotion, stays on "full throttle" at all times. Researchers say this could explain why people who endure chronic pain are also more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and shortened attention spans.  More »

      Tags

      depression  • brain  • neurology  • neuroscience  • anxiety  • insomnia  • neurons  • chronic pain  • sleeplessness

  • November 2007

    • Freud Is Everywhere but in Psych Dept

      New York Times  |  Nov 25, 07 10:59 AM CST

      Freud Is Everywhere but in Psych Dept

      (Newser) - Sigmund Freud's ideas have seeped into every corner of popular culture and academia, from film to foreign policy. The one place they've seeped out of is university psychology departments, where psychoanalysis is now viewed as obsolete, the New York Times reports. A new survey of 150 top colleges and universities confirms the couch's comedown: of 1,175 courses that referenced psychoanalysis, more than 86% were offered in other departments. More »

      Tags

      health insurance  • psychology  • neuroscience  • academia  • Sigmund Freud

    • New Scanning Techniques Could Decode Brain Wiring

      MIT Technology Review  |  Nov 19, 07 11:32 PM CST

      New Scanning Techniques Could Decode Brain Wiring

      (Newser) - An international team of researchers is investigating a new type of neuroimaging technique, called connectomics, that can make incredibly detailed "wiring diagrams" of the brain, Technology Review reports. The researchers cut nanometer-thin slices off of brain tissue and use an electron microscope to image each sliver, catching much more detail than the alternative practice of staining and imaging one system at a time. More »