OHSU research discovers a gene in mice that’s activated by brief periods of exercise OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY Most people know that regular exercise is good for your health. New research shows it may make you smarter, too. Neuroscientists at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, working with mice, have discovered that a short burst of exercise directly boosts the function of a gene that...
Tag: <span>brain</span>
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Sudoku or Crosswords May Help Keep Your Brain 10 Years Younger
New research finds that solving puzzles may help you stay “sharp.” A new study adds more evidence that puzzles can be effective for brain health. The verdict is still out, however, on how they can help us in the long-term or if they can help prevent cognitive decline. According to a recent study published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, the more people over 50...
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Understanding how the brain’s structure and functions generate consciousness
by CORDIS If we take a broad definition of consciousness as experience of ourselves and the outside world, it can be said to come and go. During dreamless sleep it seems absent, seemingly reappears during vivid dreaming, before more definitively reappearing on awakening. But how the brain transitions between these states is poorly understood. Acknowledging that answers...
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Bacteria and their Bearing on Bowels and Brain
Posted Today Microbiome’s effects on autism, inflammatory bowel disease explored. PNNL researchers today published a pair of papers, in Cell and in Nature, exploring the effects of the gut microbiome on our health, including autism, brain function, and inflammatory bowel disease. While scientists have known that the microbes that reside in us have far-reaching effects, the two...
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Proof it’s possible to enhance or suppress memories
Boston University neuroscientist shows that stimulating different parts of the brain can dial up or down a specific memory’s emotional oomph BOSTON UNIVERSITY What if scientists could manipulate your brain so that a traumatic memory lost its emotional power over your psyche? Steve Ramirez, a Boston University neuroscientist fascinated by memory, believes that a small...
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Regular crosswords and number puzzles linked to sharper brain in later life
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER Older adults who regularly take part in word and number puzzles have sharper brains, according to the largest online study to date. The more regularly adults aged 50 and over played puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the better their brain function, according to research in more than 19,000 participants, led by the University of Exeter and King’s...
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AAN: Oral BTK inhibitor superior to placebo in multiple sclerosis
Xavier Montalban, M.D., Ph.D., from the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues conducted a randomized phase 2 trial involving patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. A total of 267 patients were randomly assigned to one of five groups: placebo, evobrutinib (at doses of 25 mg once daily, 75 mg once daily, or 75 mg twice daily),...
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How the olfactory brain affects memory
RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM How sensory perception in the brain affects learning and memory processes is far from fully understood. Two neuroscientists of Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have discovered a new aspect of how the processing of odours impacts memory centres. They showed that the piriform cortex – a part of the olfactory brain – has a direct influence on information storage in our most important memory structure, the hippocampus....
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Fundamentally New MRI Method Developed to Measure Brain Function in Milliseconds
The speed of the human brain is remarkable — in a fraction of a second, neurons are activated, propagating thoughts and reactions to stimuli. But the speed at which we can non-invasively follow brain function using an MRI is not as impressive. Functional MRI (fMRI), which measures changes in blood oxygen levels, has revolutionized the field of...
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Virtual vocal tract creates speech from brain signals, a potential aid for ALS and stroke patients
By SHARON BEGLEY @sxbegle APRIL 24, 2019 Speaking one’s mind” is getting literal: A device that detects electrical signals in the brain’s speech-producing regions created synthetic speech good enough for listeners to mostly understand complex sentences, University of California, San Francisco, scientists reported on Wednesday. Listeners missed about 30 percent of the words in the synthetic speech,...