Brain

Princeton University researchers have captured among the first recordings of neural activity in nearly the entire brain of a free-moving animal. The three-dimensional recordings could provide scientists with a better understanding of how neurons coordinate action and perception in animals.

In an Editorial published this week in PLOS Medicine, editors ask an international panel of eleven expert researchers and clinicians spanning a range of specialties to answer questions on their field and what developments they hope and expect to see in 2016.

TORONTO, Dec. 29, 2015 - James Bond's nemesis in the most recent film likely failed neuroanatomy, said real-life neurosurgeon and scientist Dr. Michael Cusimano of St. Michael's Hospital.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played by Christoph Waltz, tortured the famed hero using restraints and a head clamp system fused with a robotic drill, intending to first inflict pain and then erase 007's memory bank of faces.

But Blofeld didn't quite know his brain anatomy and would've probably hit Daniel Craig's vertebral artery and likely killed his character instead, said Dr. Cusimano.

TORONTO, Dec. 29, 2015 - James Bond's nemesis in the most recent film likely failed neuroanatomy, said real-life neurosurgeon and scientist Dr. Michael Cusimano of St. Michael's Hospital.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played by Christoph Waltz, tortured the famed hero using restraints and a head clamp system fused with a robotic drill, intending to first inflict pain and then erase 007's memory bank of faces.

But Blofeld didn't quite know his brain anatomy and would've probably hit Daniel Craig's vertebral artery and likely killed his character instead, said Dr. Cusimano.

The human gut harbors a teeming menagerie of over 100 trillion microorganisms, and researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered that exercising early in life can alter that microbial community for the better, promoting healthier brain and metabolic activity over the course of a lifetime.

The research, which was recently published in the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, indicates that there may be a window of opportunity during early human development to optimize the chances of better lifelong health.

New findings by French researchers show that the brain devotes more processing resources to social situations that signal threat than those that are benign.

The results in the journal eLife may help explain the apparent "sixth sense" we have for danger. This is the first time that specific regions of the brain have been identified to be involved in the phenomenon. The human brain is able to detect social threats in these regions in a fast, automatic fashion, within just 200 milliseconds.

DALLAS - December 28, 2015 - In the first study of its kind, a team of international scientists led by UT Southwestern Medical Center and UCLA researchers have identified a dozen inherited traits related to sleep, wake, and activity cycles that are associated with severe bipolar disorder.

Researchers also were able to tie the traits to specific chromosomes, providing important clues to the genetic nature of the disorder, as well as potential new avenues for prevention and treatment.

The specialized human ability to perceive the sound quality known as 'pitch' can no longer be listed as unique to humans. Researchers at Johns Hopkins report new behavioral evidence that marmosets, ancient monkeys, appear to use auditory cues similar to humans to distinguish between low and high notes. The discovery infers that aspects of pitch perception may have evolved more than 40 million years ago to enable vocal communication and songlike vocalizations.

PITTSBURGH - Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new approach to broadly survey learning-related changes in synapse properties. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience and featured on the journal's cover, the researchers used machine-learning algorithms to analyze thousands of images from the cerebral cortex. This allowed them to identify synapses from an entire cortical region, revealing unanticipated information about how synaptic properties change during development and learning.

For some time doctors have known that psychological therapies can reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in the short term.

IBS is a gastrointestinal disorder that affects 7 - 16 percent of the U.S. population, adding somewhere between $950 million to $1.35 billion annually to the nation's healthcare bill.

PULLMAN, Wash. -- "Will you exercise this year?" That simple question can be a game-changing technique for people who want to influence their own or others' behavior, according to a recent study spanning 40 years of research.

The research is the first comprehensive look at more than 100 studies examining the 'question-behavior effect,' a phenomenon in which asking people about performing a certain behavior influences whether they do it in the future. The effect has been shown to last more than six months after questioning.

It may be your liver (and not your better judgement) that keeps you away from excess sweets this holiday season. Two independent research groups have found the first evidence of a liver-derived hormone that specifically regulates intake of sugars and alcohol in mice. One of the studies also found that the same hormone suppresses the consumption of sweets in primates.

We all love our sugar, especially during the holidays. Cookies, cake, and candy are simply irresistible.

While sugar cravings are common, the physiological mechanisms that trigger our "sweet tooth" are not well defined.

DALLAS - December 24, 2015 -A liver hormone works via the brain's reward pathway to reduce cravings for sweets and alcohol in mammals, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

"This is the first time a hormone made in the liver has been shown to affect sugar and alcohol preference in mammals," said Dr. Steven Kliewer, Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology at UT Southwestern and co-senior author of the study, published online today in Cell Metabolism.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two genetic variants previously linked to Alzheimer's disease have been more specifically tied to brain atrophy that is characteristic of the disease.

A newly reported study, led by Liana Apostolova, M.D., Barbara and Peer Baekgaard Professor of Alzheimer's Disease Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, also found that the proteins produced by the genes and circulating in the blood were associated with the brain atrophy and could be used in Alzheimer's-related tests in the future.