Study discovers neurons in the human brain that can predict what we are going to say before we say it
From 06/02/24 By using advanced brain recording techniques, a new study led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) demonstrates how neurons in the human brain work together to allow people to think about what words they want to say and then produce them aloud through speech. Together, these findings provide a detailed map of […]
New technology lets researchers track brain cells’ “off switches”
From Scripps Research 30/01/24 For decades, scientists have studied the intricate activity patterns in human and animal brains by observing when different groups of brain cells turn on. Equally important to understanding the brain and related diseases, however, is knowing how long those neurons stay active and when they turn off again. Now, scientists at […]
Riding sound waves in the brain
From ETH Zurich 28/12/23 Brain tumours, brain haemorrhages and neurological and psychological conditions are often hard to treat with medication. And even when effective drugs are available, these tend to have severe side effects because they circulate throughout the brain and not just the area they are meant to treat. In light of this situation, […]
New source of stem cells in injury-affected brains of patients
From Helmholtz Munich 18/12/23 Researchers from Helmholtz Munich and the LMU have discovered that, in the case of brain injuries, specific cells in the brain become active in disease situations, exhibiting properties of neural stem cells. The authors further discovered that a specific protein regulates these cells and hence could function as a target for […]
Tracing how the infant brain responds to touch with near-infrared spectroscopy
From Tokyo Metropolitan University 12/12/23 Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have measured how oxygenated hemoglobin levels in the blood change in infants’ brains in response to touch. Using spectroscopy methods with external sensors placed on the scalp of sleeping infants, they found that the time at which levels peak doesn’t change with infant age, but […]
Nanowire network mimics brain, learns handwriting with 93.4% accuracy
From UCLA 29/11/23 FINDINGS An experimental computing system, modeled after the biological brain, achieved a 93.4% accuracy in identifying handwritten numbers. This success is attributed to a novel training algorithm providing real-time feedback during the learning process. This algorithm surpassed the accuracy of traditional machine-learning methods, which train after processing batches of data, achieving only […]
Researchers help unravel brain processes involved in vision
From York University 25/11/23 Faced with images that break the expected pattern, like a do not enter sign where a stop sign is expected, how does the brain react and learn compared to being shown images which match what was predicted? That was the question a team, including York University, set out to answer. A […]
For epilepsy, yoga may be good for your mind
From American Academy of Neurology 14/11/23 For people with epilepsy, doing yoga may help reduce feelings of stigma about the disease along with reducing seizure frequency and anxiety. This insight comes from new research published in the November 8, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “People with […]
We can respond to verbal stimuli while sleeping
From Institut du Cerveau (Paris Brain Institute) 08/11/23 Sleep is generally defined as a period during which the body and mind are at rest—as if disconnected from the world. However, a new study led by Delphine Oudiette, Isabelle Arnulf, and Lionel Naccache at Paris Brain Institute shows that the frontier between wakefulness and sleep is […]
Mechanism decoded: How synapses are formed
From Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie 03/11/23 Whether in the brain or in the muscles, wherever there are nerve cells, there are synapses. These contact points between neurons form the basis for the transmission of excitation, i.e. communication between neurons. As in any communication process, there is a sender and a receiver: Nerve cell processes called […]