Brain

The southeastern US, including much of Texas through to Florida, have ideal conditions for spread of Zika virus according to a new study published in eLife.

A large portion of global tropical and subtropical regions have highly suitable environmental conditions and are at the greatest risk. These areas are inhabited by over 2.17 billion people.

Neural stem cells are responsible for the formation of differentiated daughter cells in the developing brain. If no new cells are needed, the stem cells may enter a resting phase called quiescence. Biologists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have now discovered that the phases of quiescence in the Drosophila fruit fly central nervous system are controlled by the Hippo signaling pathway.

A team of scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have created prototypes of "electronic synapses" based on ultra-thin films of hafnium oxide (HfO2). These prototypes could potentially be used in fundamentally new computing systems. The paper has been published in the journal Nanoscale Research Letters.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- As America battles an epidemic of deaths from misused pain pills, a new study suggests an inexpensive way to cut risky use of these drugs by people who have a high chance of overdosing.

And it could happen exactly where many patients get those drugs in the first place: the emergency room of their local hospital.

Just a single half-hour session with a trained therapist during an ER visit was enough to motivate people who misused prescription opioid painkillers to reduce their use as well as their riskiest behaviors, the study finds.

TORONTO, April 20, 2016 -- Who will win the women's singles tennis title at the 2016 Rio Olympics this August? That's a question recent York U brain research can help answer.

The new study shows that when doing a visual task, neural activity in the frontal cortex initially reflects the visual goal accurately but errors accumulate during a memory delay, and further escalate during the final memory-to-motor transformation.

Specific combinations of gut bacteria produce substances that affect myelin content and cause social avoidance behaviors in mice, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in the medical journal eLife. This research suggests that targeting intestinal bacteria, or their metabolites, could be one way to treat debilitating psychiatric disorders and demyelinating diseases, like multiple sclerosis.

MADISON -- Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) have developed one of the first mouse models for the study of Zika virus. The model will allow researchers to better understand how the virus causes disease and aid in the development of antiviral compounds and vaccines.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have proposed a model that resolves a seeming paradox in one of the most intriguing areas of the brain -- the dentate gyrus.

This region helps form memories such as where you parked your car, and it also is one of only two areas of the brain that continuously produces new nerve cells throughout life.

In their controversial 2014 book, "The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America," legal scholars Amy Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, attempted to explain why some groups "do strikingly better than others in terms of wealth, position and other conventional measures of success."

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have published a study highlighting the effectiveness of using positive memories and images to help generate positive emotions.

It has been suggested that savouring positive memories can generate positive emotions. Increasing positive emotion can have a range of benefits including reducing attention to and experiences of threat.

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Researchers at The Ohio State University have pinpointed the area of the brain responsible for recognizing human facial expressions.

It's on the right side of the brain behind the ear, in a region called the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS).

In a paper published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers report that they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify a region of pSTS as the part of the brain activated when test subjects looked at images of people making different facial expressions.

MADISON, Wis. -- Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) have developed one of the first mouse models for the study of Zika virus. The model will allow researchers to better understand how the virus causes disease and aid in the development of antiviral compounds and vaccines.

PULLMAN, Wash. - Biological implants that communicate with the brain to control paralyzed limbs or provide vision to the blind are one step closer to reality thanks to research by Brian Collins, an assistant professor of physics at Washington State University.

Collins and an international team of scientists developed methods to improve the performance of a conductive plastic that can be used in devices that interface with the human body. Sensors based on the material are superior in detecting and recording signals used by neurons in the brain.

A secondary analysis of data gathered in scores of interviews with female inmates suggests girls who have an incarcerated adult in the family may be at greater risk for lifelong neurological problems.

The flu and other viral infections have long been known to cause mood changes, beyond the more familiar symptoms of fever and sore throat. A study in mice, published April 19, 2016 in Immunity, now reveals how the antiviral immune response alters brain activity. Upon infection, brain cells lining blood vessels produce a protein called CXCL10, which impairs neuronal firing in the hippocampus -- a brain region important in learning, memory, and mood.