Specialized nerve cells of the mammalian brain, called pyramidal cells, are involved in memory-guided navigation. Here, the axons of three individual pyramidal cells (red, green, and magenta) are traced from their target regions. When you are lost or disoriented, your brain uses cues from your surroundings—landmarks both near and far—to sort out where you are....
Tag: <span>brain</span>
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Brain scans may help diagnose neurological, psychiatric disorders
Brain networks from nine people were analyzed to generate the heat map above, which shows the areas that change the most (red) to the least (green), from person to person. A new study shows that individual brain networks are remarkably. There are no laboratory tests to diagnose migraines, depression, bipolar disorder and many other ailments...
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Researchers find the brain processes sight and sound in same manner
Although sight is a much different sense than sound, Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists have found that the human brain learns to make sense of these stimuli in the same way. The researchers say in a two-step process, neurons in one area of the brain learn the representation of the stimuli, and another area categorizes...
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Enigmatic gene critical for a healthy brain
A cross section of the mouse olfactory bulb. Green is electroporated neuroblasts born in the sub ventricular zone that migrated into the olfactory bulb. Blue is a DAPI nuclear counterstain. Credit: Francis Szele New research has shown how an unusual gene is needed for brain development in young mice. Since the human genome was first sequenced in...
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Perineuronal Nets: A Mechanism to Control Brain Plasticity
In 1898, Camillo Golgi, an eminent Italian physician and pathologist, published a landmark paper on the structure of “nervous cells.” In addition to the organelle that still bears his name, the Golgi apparatus, he described “a delicate covering” surrounding neurons’ cell bodies and extending along their dendrites. That same year, another Italian researcher, Arturo Donaggio,...
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Study finds the frequency of alpha brain waves could be used to assess a person’s predisposition to pain
The personal experience of pain is highly variable among individuals, even in instances where the underlying injury is assessed to be identical. Credit: University of Birmingham The frequency of alpha brain waves can be used as a measure of an individual’s vulnerability to developing and experiencing pain, researchers at the University of Birmingham in the...
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Study overturns age-old theory of brain learning
For decades, scientists thought that learning occurs in synapses, or the numerous junctions between brain cells. But now, a new study proposes that learning occurs in a few dendrites, the branches that feed inputs to the brain cell, or neuron. The results of a new study offer a brand new insight into brain learning. In...
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Neural fingerprints of altruism
There are two war veterans, both with penetrating traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a gunshot. One of them tends to donate his own money to societal entities he believes in, and the other one punishes institutions that don’t represent him. The answer for these behavioral differences rely on brain areas, which, after being damaged...
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Cell therapy could improve brain function for Alzheimer’s disease
PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer’s disease. Like a great orchestra, your brain relies on the perfect coordination of many elements to function properly. And if one of those elements is out of sync, it affects the entire ensemble. In Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, damage to specific neurons can alter brainwave rhythms and...
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Mind-reading device that turns thoughts into words could link up to smartphones within 5 years
Short picks: Device accurately guesses what number from 0-9 people are thinking of Technology could be used to create a telepathic typewriter This could one-day help handicapped people who struggle to speak Last year scientists developed a device to reproduce speech from brain recordings to help those with motor disease. A device that reads people’s...