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Tag: "sensory" at biology news

Master genetic switch found for chronic pain

... are key players involved in transmitting external sensory information, like pain and the perception of movem...factors. Runx1 was known to be expressed only in sensory nerve cells called "nociceptive" cells, involved in sensing pain. Such pain-sensing cells function b...

Ultrasounds show mothers' drinking shrinks fetal brain

...on of the brain involved in many mental, motor and sensory tasks. Fetal growth measures were essentially the same among nondrinkers and those who quit when they learned of their pregnancy. "There may have been measures that were not part of routine ultrasound examinations that would have been more sensitiv...

UC Berkeley researchers create a biologically-inspired artificial compound eye

.... These eyes can eventually be used as cameras or sensory detectors to capture visual or chemical informatio...hape and function to an ommatidium, the individual sensory unit of a compound eye. Just like pins in a pincushion ?or a dragonfly's 30,000 ommatidia ?the team...

Neurons find their place in the developing nervous system with the help of a sticky molecule

... over the rest of the brain and is responsible for sensory perception, higher-level reasoning, and, in humans, language. In mammals, the largest and evolutionarily newest part of the cortex, the neocortex, is recognized anatomically by its six horizontal layers. The neocortex develops outward from an underl...

Frog’s ear canal may provide insights for understanding human hearing loss

...y A. tormotus' eardrum, as well as hair cells, the sensory cells in the inner ear that are essential for hearing, to learn how the hair cells are able to detect ultrasounds. The scientists also are interested in learning why only the males possess recessed eardrums. Other researchers involved in the study r...

Bees solve complex colour puzzles

...ial) can construct useful behaviour from ambiguous sensory information. 'One long-term aim of our research is to exploit this understanding to build seeing robots that, like the bee with its mere one million neurons, can learn to find a simple flower in a meadow, which no machine can do at present. Our lab...

Scientists crack code for motor neuron wiring

...rons that control motor neuron firing patterns and sensory neurons that transmit feedback information on musc...d, aspects of the code could also give identity to sensory neurons, enabling their connections with motor neurons," said Jessell. Deciphering the entire Hox co...

What can change in the brain? Electrical synapses, research shows

...n the center of the brain responsible for relaying sensory information to the cerebral cortex, where it is tr...a sort of switch, starting or stopping the flow of sensory stimuli to the cortex, may implicate it as a major player in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness...

The brain is broadly wired for reproduction

...ying whether or not it wants to receive particular sensory information -- depending on the reproductive circumstances, such as the stage of the female's estrus cycle." The researchers also sought to determine whether pheromones could trigger olfactory pathways to activate GnRH neurons. To investigate this, ...

Olfactory system detects pheromones that control reproduction

...the VNO resides in the nasal cavity, the pheromone sensory system is distinct from the sense of smell, as are...eptors involved. In animals possessing a pheromone sensory system -- including mice, dogs, cats, and elephants -- the system governs a range of genetically pre...

Meditation associated with structural changes in brain

...n areas of the brain associated with attention and sensory processing. An imaging study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers showed that particular areas of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, were thicker in participants who were experienced practitioners of a type of medi...

Brainstem blocks pain to protect key behaviors

...voke a state of vigilant eating without concurrent sensory suppression." "We have known for a long time that these cells could be manipulated by opioids, such as morphine," said Mason, "but we had no good explanation of what their natural role might be." Their prime location -- in the brain stem, the "Gold...

Womb needed for proper brain development

...g during pregnancy in utero, very little patterned sensory stimulation reaches the brain, she explained. The eyelids are closed, the infant is bathed in fluid and minimal sounds are perceived. In contrast, once the premature infant is born, he is necessarily bombarded by a complex environment full of sights...

Team led by Carnegie Mellon University scientist finds first evidence of a living memory trace

...irst to detect a distinct signature, not only of a sensory short-term memory, but one that developed after a single exposure to a previously unknown stimulus, so that there is no context," said Galán. "All previous studies in this field have observed only a sustained, non-specific increase in neural activity...

New study examines how sense of smell affects mating and aggression in mice

... principles that mammalian brains use to transform sensory information into behavior," says lead investigator... olfactory region of the nasal cavity and contains sensory neurons that recognize odors and transmit this information to the brain. The study is important, sa...

MIT researcher finds neuron growth in adult brain

...cess and explore under what conditions -- genetic, sensory or other -- we can make that happen," said study co-author Elly Nedivi, the Fred and Carole Middleton Assistant Professor of Neurobiology. While scientists have focused mostly on trying to regenerate the long axons damaged in spinal cord injuries, ...

Sudden change in social status triggers genetic response in male fish, study finds

...here I have seen gene activation due to not purely sensory or motor aspects of the behavior, but to a social opportunity," says co-author Jarvis, an associate professor of neurobiology at Duke University. "What I think is striking about this paper is how rapid the social change, the physiological sign of dom...

Brains response to visual stimuli helps us to focus on what we should see, rather than all there is to see

...ass on just the right amount and the right kind of sensory information. Their study, published online by Nature Neuroscience, depicts how specific types of inhibitory neurons in the visual cortex of a rat brain are wired to, and "talk" with, discrete excitatory neurons. They also show how that "conversation...

Cornell finds natural selection in humans

...lved in immune function, sperm and egg production, sensory perception and transcription factors (proteins that control which genes are turned on or off) have been particularly affected by positive selection and show rapid evolution in the last 5 million years, when humans shared a common ancestor with chimps...

Biotechnology's newest chemical tool

...d wire this hand into the nervous system, allowing sensory feedback from the hand to reach the brain, and instructions to come from the brain to control the hand, at least in part. Coordinated by Professor Paolo Dario with Professor Maria Chiara Carrozza leading the development of the hand, the project unit...

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