Latest Cerebral cortex Stories

Scientists find sensory cortex develops late in fragile X syndrome defectWhy do people with fragile X syndrome, a genetic defect that is the best-known cause of autism and inherited mental retardation, recoil from hugs and physical touch "“ even from their parents?New research has found in fragile X syndrome there is delayed development of the sensory cortex, the part of the brain that responds to touch, according to a study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. This...

New research provides insight into why fragile X syndrome, the most common known cause of autism and mental retardation, is associated with an extreme hypersensitivity to sounds, touch, smells, and visual stimuli that causes sensory overload and results in social withdrawal, hyperarousal, and anxiety. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 11 issue of the journal Neuron, uncovers a previously unknown developmental delay in a critical brain circuit that processes sensory...

Acquired prosopagnosia reveals what is special about normal face recognitionYou stop at a shop window and wonder why someone inside is blatantly staring at you "” until you realize this person is you. Scenarios like this are impossible for us to imagine, but quite common for sufferers of acquired prosopagnosia (AP), a condition which can occur after brain damage, hindering the ability to recognize faces. In a new study published in the March 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, researchers have...

New research shows our brains are a lot more chaotic than previously thought, and that this might be a good thing. Neurobiologists at the University of Maryland have discovered information about how the brain processes sound that challenges previous understandings of the auditory cortex that suggested an organization based on precise neuronal maps. In the first study of the auditory cortex conducted using advanced imaging techniques, Patrick Kanold, Assistant Professor of Biology, Shihab...

Draw a map of the brain when fear and anxiety are involved, and the amygdala"”the brain's almond-shaped center for panic and fight-or-flight responses"”looms large.But the amygdala doesn't do its job alone. Scientists at Emory University have recently built upon work from others, extending the fear map to part of the brain known as the prelimbic cortex.Researchers led by Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, found that mice lacking a critical growth factor in the prelimbic cortex have trouble...

In new animal study, neurons developed from stem cells successfully wired with other brain regionsTransplanted neurons grown from embryonic stem cells can fully integrate into the brains of young animals, according to new research in the Jan. 20 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Healthy brains have stable and precise connections between cells that are necessary for normal behavior. This new finding is the first to show that stem cells can be directed not only to become specific brain...

Our energy-hungry brains operate reliably and efficiently while processing a flood of sensory information, thanks to a sort of neuronal thermostat that regulates activity in the visual cortex, Yale researchers have found.The actions of inhibitory neurons allow the brain to save energy by suppressing non-essential visual stimuli and processing only key information, according to research published in the January 13 issue of the journal Neuron."It's called the iceberg phenomenon, where only...

A group of Norwegian and American researchers have shown that common variations in genes associated with microcephaly "“ a neuro-developmental disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced "“ may explain differences in brain size in healthy individuals as well as in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.The study, which involved collaboration between researchers from the University of Oslo, the University of California, San Diego and Scripps Translational Science...

How do we know that certain combinations of letters have certain meanings? Reading and spelling are complex processes, involving several different areas of the brain, but researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the USA have now identified a specific part of the brain "“ named the left fusiform gyrus "“ which is necessary for normal, rapid understanding of the meaning of written text as well as correct word spelling. Their findings are published in the February 2010 issue of Cortex...

Two new studies show that the thalamus--the small central brain structure often characterized as a mere pit-stop for sensory information on its way to the cortex--is heavily involved in sensory processing, and is an important conductor of the brain's complex orchestra.Published in Nature Neuroscience and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the two studies from the laboratory of Murray Sherman both demonstrate the important role of the thalamus in shaping what humans see, hear...