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NEWS ABOUT: neuroscience

neuroscience stories: 36 news summaries

1 - 20 of 36 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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 New Brain Cells 
 Bump Old Memories 

Study finds new neurons clear out short-term memory

Nov 13, 09 5:03 AM CST
(Newser) - The birth of new brain cells bumps old memories into long-term storage, according to new research which upends earlier theories. Researchers working with rodents found that the creation of new neurons destabilized existing connections in the hippocampus instead of strengthening them as they had expected, effectively "clearing the inbox"... More »

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memory • brain • neuroscience • neurons • short-term memory • hippocampus

CIA Interrogations Caused Brain Damage: Scientist

Harsh techniques damaged subject's facility for recall

Sep 21, 09 3:26 PM CDT
(AP) - The CIA's harsh interrogations are likely to have damaged the brains of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper. The paper scrutinizes the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens... More »

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CIA • memory • brain • brain damage • neuroscience • sleep deprivation • waterboarding • enhanced interrogation techniques

Alcoholics Are Less Able to Read Your Face

Sensitivity is lower even when drinkers are sober for years: study

Aug 17, 09 4:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - Long-term alcoholics have a diminished ability to sense others’ emotions, even if they have been sober for years, the Chicago Tribune reports. A new study used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to look at the brain activity of abstinent alcoholics and non-alcoholics while they looked at pictures of faces that... More »

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alcohol • alcoholism • alcohol abuse • neuroscience • empathy • fMRI • hippocampus • amygdala • expressions • emotional intelligence

Scientist Seeks Help for the Hopelessly Lost

Brain disorder causes people to get lost even in their own homes

Aug 15, 09 9:48 AM CDT
(Newser) - A Canadian neuroscientist has discovered a brain disorder that causes sufferers to spend their lives hopelessly lost even in their own neighborhoods, reports the Canadian Press. People with developmental topographical disorientation utterly lack the ability to form mental maps and orient themselves, leaving them with no idea how to navigate... More »

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brain • neuroscience • neurological disorder • neurology

Researchers Discover Why Pot Makes You Forget

Scientists identify pathway for cognitive impairment under the effects of cannabis

Aug 3, 09 2:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have found the area in the mouse brain that marijuana acts upon to cause forgetfulness, AFP reports. Researchers in Barcelona used two groups of mice, each engineered to be missing one of the two concentrations of receptor neurons for cannabis (CB1) in the hippocampus, an area of the brain... More »

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marijuana • cannabis • neuroscience • Nature Neuroscience • amnesia • weed • biochemistry • brain chemistry • pot

Girls Bond,
Boys Compete:
Brain Study

Scans confirm gender split on one-on-one interaction

Jul 17, 09 4:24 PM CDT
(Newser) - Ever wonder why girls are so fixated on swapping friendship bracelets? They may just be wired that way, according to a new study. Using MRIs to look inside tweens' and teens' brains, researchers found that one-on-one interactions got girls’ synapses firing, Time reports. Boys focused less on other individuals than... More »

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gender • study • psychology • neuroscience • girls • fMRI • teenager • tween • boys

Real 'Thinking Cap' May Not
Be So Far Off

Magnetic pulse boosts learning, study shows; headgear next?

Jul 7, 09 2:44 PM CDT
(Newser) - A magnetic pulse directed at a certain area of the brain may enhance learning and memory, the Telegraph reports. Canadian researchers subjected volunteers to a test that required they track a dot moving on a computer screen with a joystick, and volunteers who received stimulation fared much better. More »

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memory • learning • brain • neuroscience • cognitive science • magnetic field • cognitive enhancement • thinking cap

(Newser) - Scientists are taking a new approach to autism research using magnetic field generators that test the brain’s reflexes, the Boston Globe reports. Much like tapping a patient on the knee to gauge a physical reaction, trans-cranial magnetic stimulation triggers activity in specific areas of the brain through a charged... More »

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autism • medical research • neuroscience • brain scans

Test for Early Alzheimer's in Development

Diagnosis could allow for treatment to slow disease's progression

May 27, 09 11:59 AM CDT
(AP) - A research institute devoted to Alzheimer's and related diseases has teamed up with a major maker of diagnostic tests to speed development of what could be the first test to detect Alzheimer's in its early stages. If all goes well, the first commercial version of the test could be available... More »

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medicine • medical research • treatment • neuroscience • Alzheimer's Disease • diagnostic test • Daniel Alkon • Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute

 Scientists 
 Locate Brain's 
 Sentimental Center 

Same Spot as Sex Urges

May 20, 09 4:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - It turns out sex and sentimentality are linked after all, reports Reuters. Scientists have pinpointed areas of the brain that determine an individual's warm and fuzzy feelings—which they say are the same regions that control sex and some food urges. Researchers hope the findings may help explain brain evolution... More »

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autism • schizophrenia • brain • neuroscience • personality • Cambridge University

Pentagon Project Aims to Create Telepathic Troops

DARPA boffins tasked with turning brain waves into silent words

May 15, 09 8:40 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Pentagon has launched a project officials hope will help soldiers of the future read each other's minds on the battlefield, Wired reports. DARPA—dubbed the military's "mad scientist" division—has been given $4 million to develop technology that can detect and analyze brain waves that precede specific speech.... More »

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Pentagon • US military • brain • neuroscience • DARPA • scientific research • Jay-ZTV • telepathy

Have an Itch?
It's All In
Your Spine

Urge to scratch comes from back not brain, researchers find

Apr 6, 09 1:26 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scratching an itch may be an everyday activity, but it’s also a longstanding conundrum to scientists who have never been sure if the urge originated in the skin or the brain. Until now. A new study from University of Minnesota neuroscientists appears to show that both the itch, and... More »

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medical breakthrough • neuroscience • spine • University of Minnesota • itch • scratch

Feds Probe Firebombing of Animal Researcher's Car

Attack targeted professor who used primates to study addiction

Mar 10, 09 3:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - An federal anti-terror task force is probing the firebombing of a UCLA neuroscientist's car, the Los Angeles Times reports. An animal rights group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place outside the researcher’s house and caused no injuries. The professor targeted has been using primates for research... More »

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California • FBI • bomb • animal rights • neuroscience • UCLA • primates • Animal Liberation Front

(Newser) - Doodling while listening actually increases retention of memory, LiveScience reports. A new study shows that subjects who “mindlessly” sketched while listening to a not-so-interesting phone message remembered key facts 29% more than others instructed to just listen. “It helps to keep us on track with a boring task,... More »

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psychology • neuroscience • scientific study • distraction • attention • doodling

(Newser) - A British neuroscientist thinks the children of today, exposed to “instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key,” will develop differently from past generations, and that’s not a good thing. Facebook, for instance provides an experience “devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term... More »

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social networking • Facebook • children • brain • neuroscience • Britain • attention deficit disorder

 Scientist: Love's 
 Just Brain Chemicals 

...that could someday be reproduced in a lab

Jan 8, 09 8:10 AM CST
(Newser) - An American neurologist is determined to prove wrong the poets who say love is beyond understanding, reports the BBC. The Emory professor argues that neurochemical reactions in certain parts of the brain can explain love, raising the possibility that scientists could someday create drugs to bring love back to dying... More »

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love • brain • neuroscience • neurology • oxytocin

Japanese Scientists Can Read Your Mind

They find a way
to extract images directly from the brain

Dec 12, 08 12:02 PM CST
(Newser) - The Thought Police could eventually exist in reality, if they can just figure out how to harness new technology developed by Japanese researchers, the Daily Yomuri reports. The team managed to re-create images that people were looking at—using only subjects' recorded brain activity. This is the first successful display... More »

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brain • neuroscience • fMRI • neurons • scientific breakthroughs

(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... More »

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

Brains Get
Noisier as
They Age

Study finds neural complexity generates more cranial static

Jul 10, 08 1:36 PM CDT
(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,... More »

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memory • schizophrenia • science • neuroscience • noise • scientific study • brain fitness • Alzheimer's Disease

That Irritating Itch? It May Just Be Your Brain

In fact, our noodles could be inventing 90% of what we call real

Jun 24, 08 3:17 PM CDT
(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... More »

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medicine • science • brain • neuroscience • pain • itch • phantom limb • scratch

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