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Tag: "cortex" at biology news

Growth factor stimulates rapid extension of key motor neurons in brain

...ns ?critical brain cells that connect the cerebral cortex with the spinal cord and that die in motor neuron diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). In the November 2006 issue of Nature Neuroscience, two investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harva...

Two nerve cells in direct contact

... nerve cells in the relevant areas in the cerebral cortex has not yet been sufficiently explained to allow e...ll from the many billions of cells in the cerebral cortex would have an effect. Clearly, however, this does not mean that the findings made by the fly resea...

Learning during sleep?

...mpus, the short term memory area, and the cerebral cortex during sleep. According to their findings and contrary to previous assumptions, the cerebral cortex actively controls this transfer. The researchers developed a new technique for their investigations ...

Mysterious 'neural noise' actually primes brain for peak performance

...cience, the Rochester study shows that the brain's cortex uses seemingly chaotic, or "noisy," signals to rep... paper he found that it fit extremely well. "The cortex appears wired at its foundation to run Bayesian computations as efficiently as can be possible," say...

Teenager moves video icons just by imagination

... have different frequency distributions when their cortex becomes active. We might question if the frequency alterations are different, will that make a difference in performance?" Leuthardt said it is too early to make comparisons between adults and teenagers because they have only one set of teenage da...

Unraveling where chimp and human brains diverge

... networks differed the most widely in the cerebral cortex -- the brain's most highly evolved region, which i... of the genes that play a central role in cerebral cortex networks in humans, but not in the chimpanzee, also show significant changes at the DNA level. "W...

Researchers discover mechanism that determines when detailed memories are retained

...eus basalis, which relays commands to the auditory cortex by secreting acetylcholine. During some experiments, the stimulation of the nucleus basalis was weak, whereas in other animals the stimulation was stronger. When the tones were replayed the next day, the scientists could measure how well they remembe...

Slow brain waves play key role in coordinating complex activity

... a big mystery how widely separated regions of the cortex involving billions of cells are linked together to...ay, the researchers argue, areas like the auditory cortex and frontal cortex, separated by several inches in the cerebral cortex, can coordinate activity. "I...

Mirrors in the mind: New studies elucidate how the brain reflects onto itself the actions of others

...ress. Mirror neurons were first identified in the cortex of macaque monkeys: A particular subset of these neurons fire when, for example, a monkey picks up a banana, and when the monkey observes a human picking up a banana in a similar way. Mirror-neuron activity appears to be highly specific, such that a ...

Humpback whales have brain cells also found in humans

...ized cetaceans such as dolphins. The large area of cortex found in these mammals is thought to be related to...bility was found between the cell structure of the cortex in humpbacks compared to toothed whales. The authors suggest that these differences may indicate dif...

Study offers window into human behavior, brain disease

... arise -- the anterior cingulate and frontoinsular cortex -- are key targets of frontotemporal dementia. And...isease, motor neurons of the spinal cord and motor cortex degenerate in ALS and specific memory-forming medial temporal lobe neurons die in early Alzheimer's ...

Electronic chip, interacting with the brain, modifies pathways for controlling movement

...is. "The Neurochip records the activity of motor cortex cells," Fetz explained, "It can convert this activ...hanges is the strengthening of pathways within the cortex from the recording to the stimulation site. This strengthening may have been produced by the continu...

Smoking changes brain chemistry

... N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the part of the brain that processes pleasure and pain. The decreased NAA levels were evident regardless of whether or not the patient used a nicotine patch and correlated directly with the patient's smoking history: the greater the number of ...

Where we change our mind

... tease apart how different regions of the cerebral cortex process uncertain information and integrate it int...pinpointed which regions of the subjects' cerebral cortex were active during the different processes involved in "changing their minds." Specifically, the res...

Mutant mice show key autism traits

... mature, or "postmitotic," neurons of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus in the brain. These regions are as...Pten in postmitotic neurons of the hippocampus and cortex as well as providing new insight into the molecular correlates mediating social- and anxiety-related...

Brain-computer link lets paralyzed patients convert thoughts into actions

...translate the chatter between neurons in the motor cortex into a language the computer could understand and use to control other devices. Hatsopoulos and other students in the Donoghue lab were slowly able to match neuronal signal patterns with specific arm movements. In 2002, he, Donohue and colleagues at ...

Carnegie Mellon researchers discover key deficiencies in brains of people with autism

...cate the lower synchronization between the frontal cortex and other portions of the brain. They have discovered that key portions of the corpus callosum seem to play a role in the limitation on synchronization. In people with autism, anatomical connectivity -- based on the size of the white matter -- was fo...

Lost in thought: Brain research

.... Rather, the self-related areas of the prefrontal cortex appear to be engaged specifically when we are aware both of the sensory experience and of ourselves as the observers of this experience. When we are so occupied with the outside world as to "forget ourselves," only local, sensory-specific systems see...

Himalayan forests disappearing

...higher brain region, called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The researchers, led by Hajime Mushiake o...ed on a brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which many studies have shown to be involved in such higher brain functions as planning. Howe...

The brain's executive is an 'event planner'

...higher brain region, called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The researchers, led by Hajime Mushiake o...ed on a brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which many studies have shown to be involved in such higher brain functions as planning. Howe...

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