January 2012
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fMRI brain imaging illuminates magic mushrooms'...
Brain scans of people under the influence of the psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, have given scientists the most detailed picture to date of how psychedelic drugs work. The findings of two studies being published in scientific journals this week identify areas of the brain where activity is suppressed by psilocybin and suggest that it helps people to experience memories more...
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You – or more accurately, your brain – has control...
A team of neuroscientists have found that if someone has a lesser sense of ownership over a part of their body, their immune system also responds differently to that body part, treating it as ‘non-self’ rather than ‘self’.
These findings have direct implications for understanding autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and a range of neurological and psychiatric...
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I'm back!
After a brief tumble hiatus, I’m back and ready to link copy-written content for all your neuroscience hungry minds!
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December 2011
1 post
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November 2011
17 posts
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October 2011
6 posts
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Want to Resist Temptation? Thinking Might Not... →
Uh-oh. Here comes temptation — for a dieter, it’s a sweet treat; an alcoholic, a beer; a married man, an attractive, available woman. How to defeat the impulse to gratify desire and stick to your long-term goals of slimness, sobriety, or fidelity?
Read more
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Young Genes Correlated With Evolution Of Human... →
Young genes that appeared after the primate branch split off from other mammal species are more likely to be expressed in the developing human brain, a new analysis finds. The correlation suggests that evolutionarily recent genes, which have been largely ignored by scientists thus far, may be responsible for constructing the uniquely powerful human brain. The findings are published October 18 in...
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September 2011
9 posts
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Infiltrating the blood-brain barrier →
Engineers use short ultrasound pulses to reach neurons through blood-brain barrier
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a new technique to reach neurons through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and deliver drugs safely and noninvasively. Up until now, scientists have thought that long ultrasound pulses, which can inflict collateral damage, were required. But in this new study, the...
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WatchFirst, Keith Barry shows us how our brains can fool our bodies — in a trick that works via podcast too. Then he involves the audience in some jaw-dropping (and even a bit dangerous) feats of brain magic.
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WatchNeurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnet syndrome — when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon.
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Princeton Study Matches Brain Scans with Complex... →
In an effort to understand what happens in the brain when a person reads or considers such abstract ideas as love or justice, Princeton researchers have for the first time matched images of brain activity with categories of words related to the concepts a person is thinking about. The results could lead to a better understanding of how people consider meaning and context when reading or thinking.
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Suffering Heightens Belief in God →
New research by Kurt Gray (assistant professor of psychology, University of Maryland) and colleagues indicates that suffering plays an important role in belief in God.
In one study, participants read either that a family (the Millers)- and even their dog- had drowned from a water damn breakage or that the breakage had just ruined their lunch. They then were told either that the damn breakage...
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August 2011
3 posts
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July 2011
28 posts
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Age-related brain shrinking is unique to humans →
The brains of our closest relatives, unlike our own, do not shrink with age.
The findings suggest that humans are more vulnerable than chimpanzees to age-related diseases because we live relatively longer.
Our longer lifespan is probably an adaptation to having bigger brains, the team suggests in their Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper.
“The psychologists call it “deindividuation”. It’s what happens when social norms...”
– Online commenting: the age of rage (via scipsy)
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First Artificial Neural Network Created out of... →
Artificial intelligence has been the inspiration for countless books and movies, as well as the aspiration of countless scientists and engineers. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have now taken a major step toward creating artificial intelligence — not in a robot or a silicon chip, but in a test tube. The researchers are the first to have made an artificial...