Cortex in Medical News

Easy Baby or Fussy -- It May Be Out of Mom's Control

... between the DRD4 gene and activity in the frontal cortex of the brain to find out if it predicted ... infants with more activity in the left frontal cortex are temperamentally "easy" and take little effort ... children with more activity in the right frontal cortex are more easily distressed, more difficult to ...

People who wear rose-colored glasses see more, University of Toronto study shows

... and bad moods literally change the way our visual cortex operates and how we see," says Adam Anderson, a U ... shows that when in a positive mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods ... resonance imaging to examine how our visual cortex processes sensory information when in good, bad, ...

Activation of the prefrontal cortex improves working memory

... to show that there are two parts of the cerebral cortex with highly differentiated roles implicated in ... memory needs to be increased, the prefrontal cortex reinforces the activation of the parietal cortex, ... A brief stimulus that reaches the parietal cortex generates a reverberating activation that ...

Kavli Prize awarded to Pasko Rakic, pioneering Yale neuroscientist

... revealed how neurons in the developing cerebral cortex are generated and how they assemble themselves ... idea that different regions of the cerebral cortex acquire many of their specialized anatomical and ... through genetic programs intrinsic to the cortex itself. His early studies have, in large part, ...

Humans have more distinctive hearing than animals, Hebrew U study shows

... the activity of single neurons in the auditory cortex while subjects were exposed to sound stimuli. The auditory cortex has a central role in the perception of sounds by the brain. Current knowledge on the auditory cortex was largely based on earlier studies that traced ...

CSHL scientists make progress in determining how the brain selectively interprets sound

... parties. Neurons in the brains auditory cortex interpret incoming sound signals and send them to ... found that only 5% of neurons in the auditory cortex had a high firing rate when receiving a range of ... sounds. Most of what is known about the auditory cortex of the mammalian brain comes from studies of the ...

Lend me your ears -- and the world will sound very different

... led by Dr Jan Schnupp, have studied the auditory cortex of the brain and discovered that its responses ... to the former; the neurons in the auditory cortex appear to anticipate and respond best to gradual ... and identify sounds. Each person's auditory cortex in their brain is adapted to way their ears ...

Auditory neurons in humans far more sensitive to fine sound frequencies than most mammals

... from the hair cells of the inner ear to the cortex as much as 30 times more sensitivity. Indeed, such frequency tuning in the human auditory cortex is substantially superior to that typically found in the auditory cortex of non-human mammals, with the exception of bats. ...

Brain imaging and genetic studies link thinking patterns to addiction

... People who sustain damage to the orbital frontal cortex generally suffer impaired judgment, manage money ... revealed reduced activity in the orbital frontal cortex in the brains of subjects who preferred now over ... a history of alcoholism. The orbital frontal cortex activity may be a neural equivalent of long-term ...

Scientists identify brain abnormalities underlying key element of borderline personality disorder

... of the brain within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was key to people's ability to restrain behaviors ... activity in the subjects' ventromedial prefrontal cortex as they performed what behavioral neuroscience ... discrete parts of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex -- the subgenual anterior ...

ADHD Delays Growth of Certain Brain Areas

... children with ADHD revealed that half of 40,000 cortex sites attained peak thickness at an average age ... different times. "Finding a normal pattern of cortex maturation, albeit delayed, in children with ADHD ... the theory that ADHD is caused by a delay in cortex maturation, the researchers said. They plan to ...

Scientists search for brain center responsible for tinnitus

... discovered that when the brains auditory cortex begins receiving diminished neural signals from ... hearing organ, due to injury or age, the auditory cortex turns up the volume, increasing weak neural ... pattern of neural activity in the auditory cortex is associated with the onset of tinnitus. In ...

Researchers uncover novel mechanism that balances the sizes of functional areas in the brain

... back of the brain. The findings show how the cortex is properly parceled into frontal areas that ... of neurons in the cortex. The back of the cortex is predominantly specialized to process vision, whereas the front of the cortex handles motor functions and controls voluntary ...

NYU study points to lasting impact of mild hearing loss on neurological processes

... results showed that the projection to auditory cortex had changed following a brief period of hearing ... a greater extent. They also found that auditory cortex neurons became more sensitive to stimulation. These findings indicate that auditory cortex function is susceptible to relatively modest loss ...

Abnormal Brain Circuits May Prevent Movement Disorder

... discrete areas along the pathway that links the cerebellum to the motor cortex that together determine whether a mutation carrier will display clinical ... cerebellum (a region that controls movement) puts the breaks on the motor cortex by potentiating inhibition at the cortical level. It is likely that ...

Looking at language

... of the neural basis of language has largely focused on regions in the cortex the outer brain layers thought by many researchers to have expanded ... of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, reported in the September Issue of cortex ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex ), published by Elsevier, adds to ...

Standard IQ Test May Undervalue People With Autism

... showed more activity in the left cuneus, a region of the brain's occipital cortex thought to be involved with updating working memory and making comparisons ... autism, autistic people showed less activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex of the brain that are thought to be involved in manipulation and ...

Brain Can 'See' Objects Through Touch

... stroke-related damage in an area of the brain called the lateral occipital cortex (LO), which plays an important role in object recognition. As a result, ... that have implied that there are direct connections between somatosensory cortex and LO." The study appears online May 28 in the journal Current ...

Shire's INTUNIV (Guanfacine) extended release in children with ADHD and oppositional symptoms

... adrenergic receptors located in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain associated with working memory, behavioral ... this selective alpha-2A agonist strengthens working memory and prefrontal cortex neuronal firing. This research supports the use of guanfacine for the ...

Shire to Present New Scientific Data on its ADHD Treatments at a National Scientific Meeting of Psychiatrists on May 18

... adrenergic receptors located in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain associated with working memory, behavioral ... this selective alpha-2A agonist strengthens working memory and prefrontal cortex neuronal firing. This research supports the use of guanfacine for the ...

Five UCSF Scientists Elected to National Academy of Sciences

... system. The goal of his research, most of which is done on the visual cortex of mice, is to gain insight into the way in which nerve fibers grow and ... In normal development, neural connections to and within the visual cortex are refined through the action of mechanisms of neural plasticity in ...

Can't Control Junk Food Cravings? Blame the Brain

... has shown that an area of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is involved in all value-based decisions. When vmPFC activity ... however, another area of the brain -- called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) -- becomes active and modulates the basic value signals so that ...

Wayne State University and Children's Hospital of Michigan Research Team Discover Chemical That Plays a Major Role in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

... in the brain), caudate nucleus (brain's secretary), anterior cingulate cortex (brain's arousal center) and orbital prefrontal cortex (brain's executive decision maker). This work showing glutamate ...

Hollow mask illusion fails to fool schizophrenia patients

... volunteers, connectivity between two parts of the brain, the parietal cortex involved in top-down control, particularly spatial attention, and the lateral occipital cortex involved in bottom-up processing of visual information, increased when the ...

JHU researcher discovers brain cells have 'memory'

... that part of the answer lies in a special region of the brain's visual cortex which is in charge of distinguishing between background and foreground ... a surprise because the usual understanding is that neurons in the visual cortex simply respond to visual stimulation, but do not have a memory of their ...

Rigorous Visual Training Teaches the Brain to See Again After Stroke

... a stroke that damaged an area of the brain known as the primary visual cortex or V1, which serves as the gateway to the rest of the brain for all the ... allowing us to see. Patients with damage to the primary visual cortex have severely impaired vision - they typically have a difficult or ...

The brain 'joins the dots' when drawing a cartoon face from memory

... Miall, Gowen and Tchalenko published by Elsevier, in the March issue of cortex ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex ), a brain scanner was used to ... non-visual form. Instead, there was increased activity in parietal cortex and frontal areas consistent with the encoding and retention of the ...

Sex is in the brain, says new research from Stanford

... shown the erotic clips. In another brain area the bilateral entorhinal cortex the opposite effect occurred. This finding establishes specific locations ... part in the sexual dysfunction. The increased activation in the entorhinal cortex observed in the control subjects may correlate with an improved ability ...

Aging Brain May Contribute to Some Hearing Loss

... Reduction in size of auditory cortex might lead to problems, study suggests TUESDAY, Feb. 17 ... in the brain. "We found that a small portion of the brain's auditory cortex is closely related to word recognition, and that structural change in the ...

Growth factor protects key brain cells in Alzheimer's models

... to the entorhinal cortex; aged rhesus monkeys, and monkeys with entorhinal cortex damage. In each case, when compared with control groups not treated ... will be countered by the widespread death of neurons in the cerebral cortex as a result of advancing Alzheimer's disease. "In contrast, BDNF acts ...

Brain Protein May Have Potential Against Alzheimer's

... injected BDNF in lab animals that either were aged, had entorhinal cortex damage or were genetically altered to have Alzheimer's-like symptoms, they ... to the entorhinal cortex, aged rhesus monkeys and monkeys with entorhinal cortex damage -- also showed long-term benefits. They began producing more BDNF ...

Cutting Calories May Boost Aging Brains

... restriction and changes detected by MRI in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex areas of the brain. The hippocampus deals with memory, and the prefrontal cortex controls executive functions and information retrieval strategies, she ...

When less attention improves behavior

... of Bologna, and published by Elsevier in the February 2009 issue of cortex ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex ) shows that, in confabulating ... false memories, with dramatic consequences. The research published in cortex shows that if memory in confabulation is like a car with broken brakes, ...

Memory Formation Different in Those With Stress-Related Psychiatric Disorders

... or suppress their memory of the other word. "The dorsal prefrontal cortex is hyper-activated during tasks which require suppression and retrieval of ... a small study impossible. "It's definitely true that the prefrontal cortex modulates the emotional value associated with memories, but it's not ...

Stress-related disorders affect brain’s processing of memory

... to explore alterations in the neural circuitry that links the prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus, while study participants performed a memory task. ... the hippocampus, suggesting that insufficient activation of the prefrontal cortex could be the basis for inadequate suppression of unwanted traumatic ...

Scientists Identify Brain's 'Hate Circuit'

... hated people triggered activity in an area that includes structures in the cortex and in the sub-cortex as well as components that generate aggressive ... it into action. The hate circuit also includes a part of the frontal cortex that's believed to play a major role in predicting the actions of others, ...

Neurogenesis in the adult brain: The association with stress and depression

... which is particularly relevant to the reduced volume of the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. The shrinkage might explain some of the emotional ... tissues revealing that the number of glial cells in the prefrontal cortex is adversely affected in patients with mood disorders. Experiments ...

Magnetic Pulses to Brain Improve Lazy Eye in Adults

... the adult brain, which until recently was thought to be impossible. The cortex is a vital part of the brain, involved in vision among other functions. ... Lazy eye occurs because the proper connections between the eye and the cortex do not form early in life, Cykiert explained. "We thought that if the ...

Star-Shaped Brain Cells Make Scans Possible

... work shows that astrocytes, which make up 50 percent of the cells in the cortex but whose function was unknown, respond exquisitely to sensory drive, regulate local blood flow in the cortex and even influence neuronal responses," Sur said. "What's more, astrocytes ...

Lou Gehrig's protein found throughout brain, suggesting effects beyond motor neurons

... of the upper and lower motor neurons that extend from the motor cortex to the spinal cord and brainstem motor neurons, which directly innervate ... to wiggle your big toe, the signal travels from the motor neuron in the cortex at the top of your head to a synapse on the lower spinal cord motor ...