Brain

Bringing the real world into the brain scanner, researchers at The University of Western Ontario from The Centre for Brain and Mind (http://www.uwo.ca/its/brain/) can now determine the action a person was planning, mere moments before that action is actually executed.

The findings were published this week in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience, in the paper, "Decoding Action Intentions from Preparatory Brain Activity in Human Parieto-Frontal Networks."

(Embargoed) CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Using a combination of genetic engineering and laser technology, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have manipulated brain wiring responsible for reward-seeking behaviors, such as drug addiction. The work, conducted in rodent models, is the first to directly demonstrate the role of these specific connections in controlling behavior.

DURHAM, N.C. -- So much for tagging photographs with names, locations and activities yourself – a new cell phone application can take care of that for you.

The system works by taking advantage of the multiple sensors on a mobile phone, as well as those of other mobile phones in the vicinity.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed that all humans seek to fulfill a hierarchy of needs, which he represented with a pyramid. The pyramid's base, which he believed must come first, signified basic needs (for food, sleep and sex, for example). Safety and security came next, in Maslow's view, then love and belonging, then esteem and, finally, at the pyramid's peak, a quality he called"self-actualization." Maslow wrote that people who have these needs fulfilled should be happier than those who don't.

A team of North Carolina State University researchers has discovered more about how a gene connected to the production of new brain cells in adults does its job. Their findings could pave the way to new therapies for brain injury or disease.

How people choose to consume resources and use contraception influences their responses to climate change, according to a team of psychologists.

Janet K. Swim, professor of psychology, Penn State, and her colleagues report that growing consumption and growing population are two significant contributors to human impact on the environment. Both substantially increase carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, the researchers report in a special issue of American Psychologist that focuses on how psychology contributes to understanding and addressing global climate change.

Milan, Italy, 29 June 2011 – Children with dyslexia often find it difficult to count the number of syllables in spoken words or to determine whether words rhyme. These subtle difficulties are seen across languages with different writing systems and they indicate that the dyslexic brain has trouble processing the way that sounds in spoken language are structured. In a new study published in the June issue of Elsevier's Cortex, researchers at Cambridge have shown, using a music task, that this is linked to a broader difficulty in perceiving rhythmic patterns, or metrical structure.

Chronic stress has long been linked with neurodegeneration. Scientists at USC now think they may know why.

The study, which has tremendous implications for understanding and treating Alzheimer's disease, was published in the June issue of The FASEB Journal (the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology).

Research led by the University of Cambridge has found a link between impulsivity and flawed reasoning (such as believing in superstitious rituals and luck) in problem gamblers.

Studying compulsive gamblers who were seeking treatment at the National Problem Gambling Clinic, the researchers found that those gamblers with higher levels of impulsivity were much more susceptible to errors in reasoning associated with gambling, such as superstitious rituals (e.g. carrying a lucky charm) and explaining away recent losses (e.g. on bad luck or 'cold' machines).

It is a mathematical puzzle which has vexed academics and travelling salesmen alike, but new research from Queen Mary, University of London's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, reveals how bumblebees effectively plan their route between the most rewarding flowers while travelling the shortest distances.

The research, led by Dr Mathieu Lihoreau and published in the British Ecological Society's Functional Ecology, explored the movement of bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, as they collected nectar from five artificial flowers varying in reward value.

Washington, DC — HIV weakens the blood-brain barrier — a network of blood vessels that keeps potentially harmful chemicals and toxins out of the brain — by overtaking a small group of supporting brain cells, according to a new study in the June 29 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings may help explain why some people living with HIV experience neurological complications, despite the benefits of modern drug regimens that keep them living longer.

Llamas can't really manage it. Giraffes aren't very good at it and while big horn sheep and muskox excel at it, it turns out a small plant eating dinosaur – the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras validum – was probably even better at it: head butting.

Living through weddings or divorces, job losses and children's triumphs, we sometimes feel better and sometimes feel worse. But, psychologists observe, we tend to drift back to a "set point"—a stable resting point, or baseline, in the mind's level of contentment or unease.

Research has shown that the set points for depression and anxiety are particularly stable over time. Why?

LA JOLLA, CA – Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a surprising new molecular pathway in skin cells that is involved in wound-healing and sensory communication.

The new study, published in Nature Communications on June 28, 2011, shows that in this process skin cells produce nitric oxide, a versatile signaling molecule involved in temperature-sensing and wound-healing. This alternative, oxygen-independent mode of nitric oxide production previously had been thought to occur only outside cells.

The mechanics of instinctive behavior are mysterious. Even something as simple as the question of how a mouse can use its powerful sense of smell to detect and evade predators, including species it has never met before, has been almost totally unknown at the molecular level until now.