http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/neuroscience/ en-us Sun, 2 Nov 2008 18:12:32 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122672/posts WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- British researchers say they've identified a "hate circuit" in the brain. This hate circuit shares part of the brain associated with aggression, but is distinct from areas related to emotions such as fear, threat, and danger, said researchers Professor Semir Zeki and John Romaya, of University College London's laboratory of neurobiology. The study was published online Oct. 29 in the journal PLoS One. "Hate is often considered to be an evil passion that should, in a better world, be tamed, controlled, and eradicated," Zeki said in a journal news release. "Yet to the biologist,... Yahoo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122672/posts#comment Sun, 2 Nov 2008 18:12:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2118173/posts AS we enter the final week of a seemingly endless election campaign, opinion polls continue to identify a substantial fraction of voters who consider themselves “undecided.” Although their numbers are dwindling, they could still determine the outcome of the race in some states. Comedians and other commentators have portrayed these people as fools, unable to choose even when confronted with the starkest of contrasts. Recent research in neuroscience and psychology, however, suggests that most undecided voters may be smarter than you think. They’re not indifferent or unable to make clear comparisons between the candidates. They may be more willing than... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2118173/posts#comment Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:07:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2105964/posts Researchers in the US found that contrary to the popular view that having children reduces a woman's brainpower, having children actually improves her lifelong mental agility and protects her brain against the neurodegenerative diseases of old age. The research was carried out by Dr Craig Kinsley, professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia, and colleagues, and will be presented at the Society for Neuroscience 2008 conference which is to take place from 15 to 19 November in Washington DC. Kinsley said that while a woman may experience an apparent loss of brain function while she is pregnant, this... Medical News Today http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2105964/posts#comment Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:28:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2098411/posts Musicians Use Both Sides Of Their Brains More Frequently Than Average People ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2008) — Supporting what many of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt University psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person. The research by Crystal Gibson, Bradley Folley and Sohee Park is currently in press at the journal... Science Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2098411/posts#comment Mon, 6 Oct 2008 03:26:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999941/posts All dyslexics are not alike. According to new research, Chinese- and English-speaking people with the disorder have impairments in different regions of their brains. The findings shed light on the neurological basis of dyslexia and reveal fundamental differences in how brains process the two languages. Dyslexics, about 5% to 10% of the population in both the United States and China, have trouble making the connection between the sight and sound of a word. In English, this results in word distortions or transpositions of letters. "Dyslexia," for example, might be read as "Lysdexia." In Chinese, the problem can affect how a... ScienceNOW Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999941/posts#comment Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:06:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1941004/posts CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chimps performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests non-verbal math skills are not unique to humans. The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game. Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects. "This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1941004/posts#comment Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:04:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1939602/posts Excerpt - Last Sunday at a San Francisco hotel ballroom, EmSense researchers fitted five volunteers, all undecided Republicans, with battery-powered headsets made of elastic and lined with bits of copper. As they watched the debate on a big screen, the wireless units, which the company calls "EmGear," collected data on their skin temperature, heart rate, eye-blinking and brain activity and beamed them to a bank of computers. The data were run through a formula created by EmSense to identify whether a response was positive or negative. When John McCain ran through a list of Hispanic politicians who had endorsed him,... The Wall Street Journal (excerpt) (subscription required) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1939602/posts#comment Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:28:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935978/posts Even seniors fortunate enough to avoid the horrors of Alzheimer's disease typically experience some declines in memory and other cognitive abilities. Little is known about why this happens, but a new study suggests that cognitive declines in healthy older adults may result when brain regions that normally work together become out of sync, perhaps because the connections between them break down. A team led by Harvard neuroscientists Jessica Andrews-Hanna and Randy Buckner used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity in 38 young adults, mostly 20-somethings, and 55 older adults, age 60 or above. The researchers focused on... ScienceNOW Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935978/posts#comment Fri, 7 Dec 2007 04:53:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1934339/posts Young chimpanzee can recall number placement better than people can. A particularly cunning seven-year-old chimp named Ayumu has bested university students at a game of memory. He and two other young chimps recalled the placement of numbers flashed onto a computer screen faster and more accurately than humans. “It’s a very simple fact: chimpanzees are better than us — at this task,” says Tetsuro Matsuzawa, a primatologist at Kyoto University in Japan who led the study. The work doesn't mean that chimps are 'smarter' than humans, but rather they seem to be better at memorizing a snapshot view of their... Nature News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1934339/posts#comment Tue, 4 Dec 2007 06:11:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1929507/posts Modern brain science is confirming an 18th century philosopher's moral theories"As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation," observed British philosopher and economist Adam Smith in the first chapter of his magisterial The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). "Whatever is the passion which arises from any object in the person principally concerned, an analogous emotion springs up, at the thought of his situation, in the breast of every attentive spectator." Smith's argument... Reason http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1929507/posts#comment Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:04:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1927413/posts For the first time, investigators have identified a way to detect neural progenitor cells (NPCs), which can develop into neurons and other nervous system cells, in the living human brain using a type of imaging called magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The finding may lead to improved diagnosis and treatment for depression, Parkinson's disease, brain tumors, and a host of other disorders. Research has shown that, in select brain regions, NPCs persist into adulthood and may give rise to new neurons. Studies have suggested that the development of new neurons from NPCs, called neurogenesis, is disrupted in disorders ranging from depression... Science Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1927413/posts#comment Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:52:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1898783/posts A nice phenomenon of the past few years is the diminishing influence of I.Q. For a time, I.Q. was the most reliable method we had to capture mental aptitude. People had the impression that we are born with these information-processing engines in our heads and that smart people have more horsepower than dumb people. And in fact, there’s something to that. There is such a thing as general intelligence; people who are good at one mental skill tend to be good at others. This intelligence is partly hereditary. A meta-analysis by Bernie Devlin of the University of Pittsburgh found that... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1898783/posts#comment Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:39:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892939/posts Baroness Greenfield, the well known neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, has joined the likes of Nicole Kidman and Chris Tarrant by putting her name to a computer game designed to train the brain. ** Train your brain: Take the MindFit test At the House of Lords she helped to launch a new fitness routine to play on the insecurities of the masses - the brain workout - and described the results of a trial that suggests that it could help arrest the ageing of the body's most complex organ. "You are your brain and it is vital your... The Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892939/posts#comment Sat, 8 Sep 2007 03:34:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1883558/posts Gary Lynch has spent decades trying to understand how the brain processes new information so that we can recall it later. The first time I spoke with the neuroscientist Gary Lynch, the conversation went something like this: Me: I'm interested in spending time in a laboratory like yours, where the principal focus is the study of memory. I'd like to explain how memory functions and fails, and why, and use the work in the lab as a means to illustrate how we know what we know. Lynch: You'd be welcome to come here. This would actually be a propitious time... The Los Angeles Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1883558/posts#comment Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:01:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1875026/posts Deep-brain stimulation offers hope for minimally conscious patients.CLEVELAND CLINIC Deep-brain stimulation might help trauma patients regain consciousness. Brain function has been improved in a patient who was in a minimally conscious state, by electrically stimulating a specific brain region with implanted electrodes. The achievement raises questions about the treatment of other patients who have been in this condition for years, the researchers say. Patients in a minimally conscious state, often the result of severe brain trauma, show only intermittent evidence of awareness of the world around them. Typically, they are assumed to have little chance of further recovery if they... Nature http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1875026/posts#comment Thu, 2 Aug 2007 02:00:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1847660/posts The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for “episodic” memories—information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart. The finding helps explain where déjà vu originates in the brain, and why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients, said MIT neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa. The study is detailed today in the online version of the journal Science. LiveScience http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1847660/posts#comment Sat, 9 Jun 2007 21:48:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824885/posts Neuroscientists Martha Farah and Andrea Heberlein, in the January issue of the American Journal of Bioethics (subscription link), wonder if empirical insights from their discipline can naturalize personhood. In other words, they explore the notion that a person is a "natural kind" and "seeks objective and clear-cut biological criteria that correspond reasonably well with most peoples' intuitions about personhood. These criteria could then be substituted for intuition in those cases where intuitions fail to agree." This is an important issue, because trying to determine who is and is not a person figures in our ethical and policy debates over the... Reason http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824885/posts#comment Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:13:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1799155/posts I. Mr. Weinstein’s Cyst When historians of the future try to identify the moment that neuroscience began to transform the American legal system, they may point to a little-noticed case from the early 1990s. The case involved Herbert Weinstein, a 65-year-old ad executive who was charged with strangling his wife, Barbara, to death and then, in an effort to make the murder look like a suicide, throwing her body out the window of their 12th-floor apartment on East 72nd Street in Manhattan. Before the trial began, Weinstein’s lawyer suggested that his client should not be held responsible for his actions... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1799155/posts#comment Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:24:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781669/posts A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act. The team used high-resolution brain scans to identify patterns of activity before translating them into meaningful thoughts, revealing what a person planned to do in the near future. It is the first time scientists have succeeded in reading intentions in this way. ~snip~ The use of brain scanners to judge whether people are likely to commit crimes is a contentious issue that society should tackle now, according to Prof Haynes. "We see the... The Guardian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781669/posts#comment Fri, 9 Feb 2007 01:24:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1776179/posts Interview: Why we help others By CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Why some of us help our fellow man while others stay selfish has long been a riddle to scientists. Now, Scott Huettel, an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University and colleagues are beginning to form a picture of how our brains drive altruism. In the Jan. 21 issue of Nature Neuroscience, Huettel and colleagues report a novel discovery: Altruism may be linked to the perception of a person's actions, in addition to the potential for reward. United Press International talked to Huettel about his research. Q.... Science Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1776179/posts#comment Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:35:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771341/posts DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University Medical Center researchers have discovered that activation of a particular brain region predicts whether people tend to be selfish or altruistic. "Although understanding the function of this brain region may not necessarily identify what drives people like Mother Theresa, it may give clues to the origins of important social behaviors like altruism," said study investigator Scott A. Huettel, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Results of the study appear Sunday, Jan. 21, in the advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience and will be published in the February 2007 print issue of... Eurekalert http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771341/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:32:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1712530/posts They are eerie sensations, more common than one might think: A man describes feeling a shadowy figure standing behind him, then turning around to find no one there. A woman feels herself leaving her body and floating in space, looking down on her corporeal self. Such experiences are often attributed by those who have them to paranormal forces. But according to recent work by neuroscientists, they can be induced by delivering mild electric current to specific spots in the brain. In one woman, for example, a zap to a brain region called the angular gyrus resulted in a sensation that... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1712530/posts#comment Tue, 3 Oct 2006 03:52:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1664204/posts Like linemen stringing an electric cable over a gorge, a research team co-directed by a Cleveland scientist has devised a way to coax nerve fibers to grow a "bridge" across gaps in rats' damaged spinal cords. The new technique, reported today in the Journal of Neuroscience, successfully re-established some neural connections and restored a "considerable" amount of movement in five of seven partially paralyzed rats, according to the researchers. After treatment, animals that had been dragging their forelimbs were able to plant their front feet, bear weight and bend their arms to touch their faces. "I think it's a real... Cleveland Plain Dealer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1664204/posts#comment Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:59:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1567414/posts Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. — Picture this: Your boss is threatening to fire you because he thinks you stole company property. He doesn't believe your denials. Your lawyer suggests you deny it one more time, in a brain scanner that will show you're telling the truth. Wacky? Science fiction? It might happen this summer. Just the other day I lay flat on my back as a scanner probed the tiniest crevices of my brain and a computer screen asked, "Did you take the watch?" And two outfits, Cephos and No Lie MRI, say they'll start offering brain scans for lie... The Seattle Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1567414/posts#comment Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:11:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1567048/posts CHARLESTON, S.C. - Picture this: Your boss is threatening to fire you because he thinks you stole company property. He doesn't believe your denials. Your lawyer suggests you deny it one more time — in a brain scanner that will show you're telling the truth. Wacky? Science fiction? It might happen this summer. Just the other day I lay flat on my back as a scanner probed the tiniest crevices of my brain and a computer screen asked, "Did you take the watch?" The lab I was visiting recently reported catching lies with 90 percent accuracy. And an entrepreneur in... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1567048/posts#comment Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:05:18 GMT