by Chris Lane, University College London Electrodes being attached for electrical stimulation. Credit: Imperial College London / Thomas Angus A team involving UCL researchers have used electrical pulses to help suppress the tremors typically found in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. In a paper published in Nature Communications, the scientists report their new way of suppressing the brain waves underpinning tremors,...
Sleep problems in a baby’s first 12 months may not only precede autism diagnosis, but also associate with an altered growth trajectory in the hippocampus, a new study suggests. Infants spend most of their first year of life asleep. Those hours serve as prime time for brain development, when neural connections form and sensory memories...
by Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology A group of scientists from the Research Center of Neurology and Skoltech showed that human working memory can be tweaked using non-invasive magnetic stimulation of the brain. Also, they discovered that the effect of magnetic stimulation weakens as the brain works on a cognitive task under stimulation. Working...
by British Medical Journal Non-surgical brain stimulation should be considered as alternative or add-on treatments for adults with severe forms of depression, suggests a study published by The BMJ today. The findings also suggest that more established techniques should take priority over new treatments with a more limited evidence base. Depression is a common and debilitating illness that is usually treated with drugs and psychological therapies....
TMS could still shift the psychiatric treatment paradigm, despite failure in VA trial In June, we reported on a disappointing trial of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for treatment-resistant depression, which found no advantage for the treatment over a sham version in a Veterans Affairs (VA) population. In this follow-up article, we take a look at...
Before playing a guitar, musicians tune the strings to particular frequencies to get the pitch they want. Starting this week, a team of neuroscientists in Australia will apply a similar tuning process to human brains as part of a study to recalibrate abnormal neural patterns to a healthy state. The group, at Monash University in...
Every so often, Hadley Lucca will spend hours in front of her bedroom mirror, struggling to put on earrings or pull her long, golden locks back into ponytails. For Hadley, 11, activities that other girls her age take for granted can sometimes seem insurmountable. As an infant, she survived a stroke that resulted in hemiplegia,...
Scientists ‘Inject’ Information Into Monkeys’ Brains When you drive toward an intersection, the sight of the light turning red will (or should) make you step on the brake. This action happens thanks to a chain of events inside your head. Your eyes relay signals to the visual centers in the back of your brain. After...
The brain’s complex network of neurons enables us to interpret and effortlessly navigate and interact with the world around us. But when these links are damaged due to injury or stroke, critical tasks like perception and movement can be disrupted. New research is helping scientists figure out how to harness the brain’s plasticity to rewire...
Enjoyment of music is considered a subjective experience; what one person finds gratifying, another may find irritating. Music theorists have long emphasized that although musical taste is relative, our enjoyment of music, be it classical or heavy metal, arises, among other aspects, from structural features of music, such as chord or rhythm patterns that...
