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Dodging dots helps explain brain circuitry

By Guest PostSeptember 30, 2014Healthastrophysical particles, brown university, carlos aizenman, derek schaeffer, detmar meurers, diamond mine, eastern russia, general model, guglielmo tino, inhibitory neurons, kaiserschnitt risiko, karin berendes, largest excavated hole, magnetosonic mach number, mirny mine, neuroscientists, omega ep, open pit, schlechte note, schulbuch, supersonic shock waves, tadpoles

In a new study, Brown University neuroscientists looked cell-by-cell at the brain circuitry that tadpoles, and possibly other animals, use to avoid collisions. The study produced a model of how individual inhibitory and excitatory neurons can work together to control a simple behavior.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A neuroscience study provides new insight into the primal brain circuits involved in collision avoidance, and perhaps a more general model of how neurons can participate in networks to process information and act on it. (more…)

Mobile games used for psychology experiments

By Guest PostJuly 30, 2014Technologychristiane bertram, earths inner temperature, embargo against cuba, emily sarafian, friedliche revolution, genetic, glenn gaetani, marine vitamins, neuroscience, neuroscientists, oceanic upper mantle, oral history, rigid tectonic plates, zeitzeugen im geschichtsunterricht

Initial findings from one of the largest cognitive science experiments ever conducted have shown that mobile games can be used to reliably address psychology questions, paving the way to a better understanding of how cognitive function differs across populations.

With its first comprehensive set of results published today, the Great Brain Experiment, a free mobile app run by neuroscientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL, uses ‘gamified’ neuroscience experiments to address scientific questions on a scale that would not be possible using traditional approaches. The app investigates memory, impulsivity, risk-taking and happiness. By playing the games, anyone can anonymously compare their abilities to the wider population and contribute to real scientific research. More than 60,000 people have taken part so far. (more…)

Helping Your Fellow Rat: Rodents Show Empathy-Driven Behavior

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceanimals, behavior, biological inheritance, chocolate, chocolate chips, emotional contagion, empathetic behavior, empathy driven helping behavior, empathy in rodents, evolutionary tree, homo sapiens, inbal ben ami bartal, jean decety, jeffrey mogil, laboratory rats, mcgill university, neuroscientists, peggy mason, phenomenon in humans, primates, pro social, rats, robert mitchum, rodents, special test, Technology, test arena, university of chicago, wild species

*Rats free trapped companions, even when given choice of chocolate instead*

The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.

The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought. Though empathetic behavior has been observed anecdotally in non-human primates and other wild species, the concept had not previously been observed in rodents in a laboratory setting. (more…)

New Study to Test Unusual Hypothesis on Beta Brainwaves

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2011Sciencebasal ganglia, beta, beta brainwaves, beta oscillations, brown university, christopher moore, cortex, david orenstein, hypothesis, key brain circuit, model, moore and jones, neurons, neuroscientists, optogenetics, parkinsonian symptoms, parkinsons disease, physical brain, predictions, sensory information, somatosensory system, stephanie jones, thalamocortical circuit, thalamus, touch, touch perception circuit

Beta oscillations are tightly linked to Parkinson’s disease and the ability to process sensory information, such as touch. Two neuroscientists have brought their collaboration to Brown University and won funding from the National Science Foundation to see if they can finally provide a definitive, if unorthodox, explanation for beta brainwaves.

Before she could seek to convince the world that her computer model of a key brain circuit explains a fundamental, 80-year-old mystery of neuroscience with potential relevance to Parkinson’s disease, Stephanie Jones sought to convince Christopher Moore. The new Brown neuroscience professors are now close collaborators, but when they first started talking about the beta oscillations of the cortex, Moore thought Jones was plain wrong, if not a bit nuts. (more…)

Nicotine May Play Key Role in Promising Alzheimer’s Therapy

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2010Health, Sciencea-beta, alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, alpha7 receptor, alzheimer, angela lee, bace-1 knockouts, bace1, brain nicotine receptors, calcium uptake, disease, enzyme, fiona laird, hey kyoung lee, hui wang, lihua song, neurological disorder, neurons, neuroscientists, neurotransmitters, nicotine, normal brain function, peptide, philip c wong, schizophrenia, sixth-leading cause of death, united states, university of maryland

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A team of neuroscientists has discovered important new information in the search for an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the debilitating neurological disorder that afflicts more than 5.3 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Hey-Kyoung Lee , associate professor in the University of Maryland Department of Biology, and her research team have shown that they may be able to eliminate debilitating side effects caused by a promising Alzheimer’s drug by stimulating the brain’s nicotine receptors. (more…)

Tag Archives: neuroscientists

Dodging dots helps explain brain circuitry

Mobile games used for psychology experiments

Helping Your Fellow Rat: Rodents Show Empathy-Driven Behavior

New Study to Test Unusual Hypothesis on Beta Brainwaves

Nicotine May Play Key Role in Promising Alzheimer’s Therapy