Brain

• Proper cell-to-cell connection is a fundamental mechanism for normal brain function; abnormal connections result in various forms of brain disorders or death.
• Synapses are the functional connections between neurons. Synapses are either excitatory or inhibitory depending on the type of influence they initiate.
• The spatial arrangement of synapses has a critical role in neuronal function, but the rules that govern this precise synaptic localization remain unknown.

"Smart" eyewear -- that can integrate augmented reality with your own, feed you live information about your surroundings and even be used in the operating room -- is no longer the stuff of science fiction.

Wearable displays also have the potential to enhance cognitive ergonomics, or more simply, make it less mentally taxing to complete certain tasks. But before technologies like Google Glass become a part of daily life, engineers need a way to monitor exactly how they affect the brain in everyday situations.

Putnam Valley, NY. (August 11, 2016) - A team of researchers has found that doses of bilirubin help provide suppression of the immune response following islet transplantation in mouse models. Bilirubin also significantly decreased islet cell death after the cells had been isolated and undergone nutrient deprivation and hypoxic (low oxygen) stress. If applied, the results of the study are expected to improve outcomes after allograft (other donated) islet cell transplantation to treat type 1 diabetes.

Are you more or less likely to drink often and heavily when in a relationship? That may depend on the relationship.

A new University of Virginia study indicates that people who are married, or cohabitating, generally tend to drink less - that's fewer drinks, and less frequently. The findings also show that singles are more inclined to drink more often, and in larger quantities.

Virtual brains reconstructed from ancient, kiwi-sized primate skulls could help resolve one of the most intriguing evolutionary mysteries: how modern primates developed large brains.

Cincinnati, OH, August 12, 2016 -- Food advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry, with approximately $1.8 billion annually aimed at children and adolescents, who view between 1,000 and 2,000 ads per year. Some studies have shown that there is a relationship between receptivity to food commercials and the amount and type of food consumed.

Aerobic exercise can significantly help people coping with the long-term mental health condition schizophrenia, according to a new study from University of Manchester researchers.

Through combining data from 10 independent clinical trials with a total of 385 patients with schizophrenia, Joseph Firth found that around 12 weeks of aerobic exercise training can significant improve patients' brain functioning.

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 9, 2016 - Identifying and treating metabolic deficiencies in patients with treatment-resistant depression can improve symptoms and in some cases even lead to remission, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine published online today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

This research is funded through a 2014 Pitt Innovation Challenge Award from Pitt's Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

LAWRENCE -- CEOs and corporate lobbyists often spend plenty of time decrying how potential government regulations will affect their bottom line, but a new University of Kansas study finds that the U.S. Clean Water Act, when implemented in the right balance, improves firms' profitability.

Eight people who have spent years paralyzed from spinal cord injuries have regained partial sensation and muscle control in their lower limbs after training with brain-controlled robotics, according to a study published Aug. 11 in Scientific Reports.

The patients used brain-machine interfaces, including a virtual reality system that used their own brain activity to simulate full control of their legs. Videos accompanying the study illustrate their progress.

On June 12th 2014, the Walk Again Project (WAP), a non-profit international research consortium, performed a unique scientific demonstration, during the opening ceremony of the Soccer World Cup in Brazil. During that demo, a young Brazilian man paralyzed from his chest down, delivered the opening kickoff of the World Cup by using a brain-machine interface that allowed him to control the movements of a lower-limb robotic exoskeleton, while receiving tactile feedback from the exo's feet.

During the 2014 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, a young Brazilian man, paralyzed from the chest down, delivered the opening kickoff. He used a brain-machine interface, allowing him to control the movements of a lower-limb robotic exoskeleton.

This unprecedented scientific demonstration was the work of the Walk Again Project (WAP), a nonprofit, international research consortium that includes Alan Rudolph, vice president for research at Colorado State University, who is also an adjunct faculty member at Duke University's Center for Neuroengineering.

Without having tasted a specific new juice mix before, an orangutan in a Swedish zoo has enough sense to know whether it will taste nice or not based on how he recombined relevant memories from the past. Only humans were previously thought to have this ability of affective forecasting, in which prior experiences are used to conjure up mental pictures about totally new situations, says Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc of Lund University in Sweden, in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.

In a study spanning molecular genetics, stem cells and the sciences of both brain and behavior, researchers at University of California San Diego, with colleagues at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies and elsewhere, have created a neurodevelopmental model of a rare genetic disorder that may provide new insights into the underlying neurobiology of the human social brain.

The findings are published in the August 10 online edition of Nature.

As indicated by their name, photoreceptor cells in the eye respond to light: is an image point bright or dark? They do not indicate the direction of a movement. This perception only arises in the brain through the comparative computations of light signals coming from adjacent image points. Engineers, physicists and neurobiologists have been debating the exact nature of these computations for around 50 years.