Posts Tagged ‘neuron’
Music of the mind
August 10, 2009
Brain scanning has revealed how years of music practice have changed the brains of professional musicians.
Research announced to the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Philadelphia, US, has shown how musicians have more “grey matter” – or brain cells, in certain key regions.
By BBC News
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Brain Boosters
July 29, 2009
Daryl Kipke is showing off his company’s latest prototype, a state-of-the-art electronic chip. It’s not the sort likely to end up powering your iPod, but it does produce a beat you won’t be able to get out of your head—because this device is designed to be surgically implanted deep in your brain, where the chip will deliver electric signals to specific clusters of cells. Kipke’s firm, NeuroNexus Technologies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is developing and testing the device to deliver electric pulses that can relieve some of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression. “Deep-brain stimulation has been poorly understood,” says Kipke, who is also a University of Michigan neuroscientist. “But with this technology we can improve neuron targeting and tuning.”
By David H. Freedman (Newsweek)
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The experience of time
July 21, 2009Suggested by Pocholo Peralta (Plato On-line)
Time research has been a neglected topic in the cognitive neurosciences of the last decades: how do humans perceive time? How and where in the brain is time processed? This introductory paper provides an overview of the empirical and theoretical papers on the psychological and neural basis of time perception collected in this theme issue. Contributors from the fields of cognitive psychology, psychiatry, neurology and neuroanatomy tackle this complex question with a variety of techniques ranging from psychophysical and behavioural experiments to pharmacological interventions and functional neuroimaging. Several (and some new) models of how and where in the brain time is processed are presented in this unique collection of recent research that covers experienced time intervals from milliseconds to minutes. We hope this volume to be conducive in developing a better understanding of the sense of time as part of complex set of brain–body factors that include cognitive, emotional and body states.
By Marc Wittmann and Virginie van Wassenhove (The Royal Society)
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Do ADHD Drugs Take a Toll on the Brain?
July 13, 2009
Stimulant treatments for ADHD are effective; they can improve attention, concentration and productivity and suppress impulsive behavior, producing significant improvements in some people’s lives.
Over the past 15 years doctors have been prescribing stimulants for a rapidly rising number of patients, who also increasingly take the drugs for many years. With the expanded and extended use of stimulants comes mounting concern that the drugs might wreak silent havoc on the brain over the long run.
A smattering of recent studies, most of them involving animals, hint that stimulants could alter the structure and function of the brain in ways that may depress mood, boost anxiety and, in sharp contrast to their short-term effects, lead to cognitive deficits.
By Edmund S. Higgins (Scientific American)
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Skip the Robotics: Paralyzed Limbs Come to Life with New Connection to Brain
February 18, 2009
Rerouting signal from neuron to muscle allows the brain to move deadened limbs.
Scientists have forged a promising avenue in the quest to restore mobility to patients paralyzed by disease or injury. Researchers at the University of Washington devised a way to reroute signals from the brain’s motor cortex to trigger hand movement directly.
Scientific America
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