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NEWS ABOUT: neurology

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Scientists Get Step Closer to Decoding Our Thoughts

Computers track brain activity as words are heard

(Newser) - Scientists have taken a big step toward being able to decode our thoughts. Researchers working with brain surgery patients taught computers to decipher the brain activity that takes place when words are heard. The brain, they found, breaks sounds down into their consistent acoustic frequencies. Using that computer model, they... More »

Worrying Yourself Sick? Science Has a Cure

Doctors pinpoint the so-called 'nocebo' effect

(Newser) - Worried that it's unhealthy to be glued to the Internet, surfing through stories? That anxiety alone could cause health problems—and doctors are now uncovering the neurological roots of this so-called "nocebo" effect, according to an award-winning essay by Penny Sarchet in the Guardian . The opposite of the... More »

Do Your Brain a Favor: Meditate

Other coping mechanisms do more harm than good: research

(Newser) - Humankind has developed plenty of coping mechanisms over the centuries, from long walks to hard drugs. While many of these methods have endured, not all of them are in our brains’ best interests, writes Alice Walton at Forbes . Smoking and drinking, for example, can lead to a vicious cycle of... More »

Scientists Recreate Movies From Brain Activity

Process could someday let us look in on dreams

(Newser) - Scientists at UC Berkeley have made a major advancement in the field of mind reading, reconstructing YouTube videos based on brain scans from people who’d seen them. Researchers would put subjects into an MRI machine and track their brain activity as they viewed videos. Once they’d build a... More »

Only Human Brains Shrink

Monkeys keep their gray matter throughout their lives

(Newser) - Next time you start to feel mentally superior to a chimp, think again. It turns out that while human brains shrink as they age, chimpanzee brains do not, a new George Washington University study has discovered. The findings upend the conventional wisdom that all primates saw their brains shrink over... More »

50% of Alzheimer's Cases May Be Preventable

Tackling risk factors could cut number of cases, researchers say

(Newser) - At least half of all cases of Alzheimer's disease are linked to common risk factors, and researchers believe the number of cases could be sharply reduced if people took steps to tackle those underlying issues. To reduce the risk, researchers say people need to stay active both mentally and... More »

5 Myths About Your Brain

No, we don't just use 10% of the thing

(Newser) - The brain is much mythologized in mainstream culture—so much so that many believed “facts” are actually fiction, reports the Smithsonian:
  1. We use just 10% of our brains. Nope, brains scans show that even basic tasks use a large portion of the brain—and even a small brain injury
... More »

Oregon Woman Wakes From Surgery With Weird Accent

Karen Butler believed to have rare 'foreign accent syndrome'

(Newser) - Oregon native Karen Butler woke up from dental surgery with an accent that's not from Oregon—or anywhere else in the world. Butler, 56, who experts believe may be a victim of the rare but real condition "foreign accent syndrome," now speaks with an accent described as... More »

Scientists Unveil 'Brain Atlas'

Allen Institute maps gene activity in body's most complex organ

(Newser) - Researchers probing the staggering complexities of the human brain now have a map to help them find their way around. Scientists have unveiled a computerized "atlas of the brain," which combines several imaging techniques to map features including nerve structure and gene activity. The project, funded by Microsoft... More »

Hospitals Try to Prove Out-of-Body Experiences

Researchers hang images in emergency room to test near-dead

(Newser) - Researchers in the US and UK have devised a devilishly simple plan for putting claims of out-of-body experiences to the test. Since patients who knock on death’s door often report watching themselves being resuscitated from above, researchers have taken the step of hanging images face-up from the ceilings in... More »

The Strange Odyssey of Einstein's Stolen Brain

And the breakthrough it led to

(Newser) - When Thomas Harvey performed Albert Einstein's autopsy, he removed his brain, which was standard procedure. But what he did next wasn't standard at all: He put the brain in a jar of formaldehyde and made off with it. NPR relates the strange tale in a segment this morning. Harvey said... More »

Scientists Spot Secret in Michelangelo God

Sistine painting contains brain diagram

(Newser) - Michelangelo used the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to conceal a message the church would have found blasphemous, according to a pair of neuroanatomists. God's oddly lumpy neck in The Separation of Light from Darkness, a detail that has long puzzled art historians, is actually a completely accurate depiction of... More »

Insomnia Linked to Shrinking Brains

Decision-making part of the brain less dense in chronic insomniacs

(Newser) - In news unlikely to make insomniacs rest any easier, a study has linked sleepless nights to loss of gray matter for the first time. Neurologists using brain imaging technology found that chronic insomniacs had significantly lower brain density in the parts of the brain responsible for resting and decision-making. They... More »

NFL Adds Concussion Rules

Teams must now keep independent neurologists on hand

(Newser) - Facing heat from both players and Congress, the NFL is adopting new policies designed to protect players in the event of a concussion. Teams will soon be required to keep an impartial, independent neurologist on hand to treat players for concussions. Players won’t be allowed to return to the... More »

Dopamine: Produces the Rush, Not the Pleasure

The "it" neurotransmitter stimulates drive, not good feeling

(Newser) - Dopamine has become the decade’s “it” neurotransmitter, just as serotonin was in the ‘90s. But the popular image of dopamine as the brain chemical in charge of making us feel good, and hooking us on craving that feeling, a “Bacchus in the brain,” is misleading... More »

Your Brain Has a Neuron Just for Tom Cruise

...and another for every celeb you recognize, study finds

(Newser) - You have a neuron in your brain devoted entirely to recognizing Tom Cruise. Another specializes in Barack Obama, yet another LeBron James, and, yes, Jon and Kate are taking up two. By studying a decade worth of brain activity, researchers have discovered a series of cells that act like celebrity... More »

Playing Tetris Boosts Brain Power

Study claims game has building blocks for better grey matter

(Newser) - Playing Tetris leaves people's brains better-equipped to deal with more than just an onslaught of falling blocks, according to a new study. Researchers—funded by the video game's makers—took brain scans of adolescent girls before and after three months of daily Tetris playing and found that some parts of... More »

Scientist Seeks Help for the Hopelessly Lost

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

(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 »

Artificial Brain Could Be Just 10 Years Away

(Newser) - A functional artificial brain could be built within the next decade, leading scientist and brain-builder Henry Markram told a tech conference. Markram, who leads a project seeking to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from lab data, says his team has already duplicated parts of the rat brain, the BBC reports.... More »

Immunotherapy Offers New Hope on Alzheimer's

(Newser) - An immune-system booster already used in the treatment of other diseases could prove to be a powerful weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, researchers have found. Analyzing the records of patients who received intravenous immunoglobulin—IVIg—they discovered that recipients were 42% less likely to develop Alzheimer's, HealthDay reports. More »

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