Latest Neuroanatomy Stories

The work advances understanding of how memories form and offers new insight into disorders such as schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder Scripps Research Institute scientists and their colleagues have successfully harnessed neurons in mouse brains, allowing them to at least partially control a specific memory. Though just an initial step, the researchers hope such work will eventually lead to better understanding of how memories form in the brain, and possibly even to ways to...

Amateurs have a new tool for conducting simple neuroscience experiments in their own garage: the SpikerBox. As reported in the Mar. 21 issue of the open access journal PLoS ONE, the SpikerBox lets users amplify and listen to neurons' electrical activity – like those in a cockroach leg or cricket torso – and is appropriate for use in middle or high school educational programs, or by amateurs. The work was a project from Backyard Brains, a start-up company focused on developing...

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has donated $300 million in order to create a center that will study the brain and learn more about exactly how the human mind works, the Allen Institute for Brain Science announced Wednesday. The latest donation brings the amount of money that the 59-year-old businessman, investor and philanthropist has invested in the institute which was named in his honor to $500 million, Forbes staff writer Matthew Herper said. According to Herper and the Wall Street...

What characterizes many people with depression, schizophrenia and some other mental illnesses is anhedonia: an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences. Exactly why this happens is unclear. But new research led by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine may have literally shined a light on the answer, one that could lead to the discovery of new mental health therapies. A report of the study appears March 22 in the...

Researchers identify the novel expression of an ion channel in neurons of the brain Research at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) has demonstrated the novel expression of an ion channel in Purkinje cells – specialized neurons in the cerebellum, the area of the brain responsible for movement. Ray W. Turner, PhD, Professor in the Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy and PhD student Jordan Engbers and colleagues published this finding in the January edition of...

(Ivanhoe Newswire)-- Huntington's disease is a dreaded and debilitating congenital neurological disorder. There are little successful treatments and no cure. But a special type of brain cell forged from stem cells could help restore the muscle coordination deficits that cause the uncontrollable spasms characteristic of the disease. "This is really something unexpected," Su-Chun Zhang, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist and the senior author of the new study, was quoted...

The March 24 event in Chicago by AWAKEN Higher Brain Living™ outlines how to become a licensed center CEO of a progressive 21st Century Neuroscience System. Chicago, IL (PRWEB) March 19, 2012 If your career path is in neutral and searching for an alternative direction an event being held in Chicago would qualify as a definite "Must Attend" for serious minded entrepreneurs. "I have created a Revolutionary System for Creating Personal Growth," said Dr. Michael Cotton of AWAKEN Higher...

Author Chester Litvin shares his method of treating psychological disorders North Hollywood, CA (PRWEB) March 19, 2012 In the 2011 film “Limitless,” the protagonist uses a top-secret drug to unlock hidden potential in his mind, allowing him to use his thoughts in ways normal people could not imagine. Of course, this is a fictional idea, but the concept of finding new ways to use the mind’s power is something author Chester Litvin takes very seriously in his new book...

Infants' faces evoke species-specific patterns of brain activity in adults Distinct patterns of activity—which may indicate a predisposition to care for infants-- appear in the brains of adults who view an image of an infant face—even when the child is not theirs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Seeing images of infant faces appeared to activate in the adult's brains circuits that reflect preparation for...

Huntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow death sentence. But if researchers can build on new research reported this week (March 15, 2012) in the journal Cell Stem Cell, a special type of brain cell forged from stem cells could help restore the muscle coordination deficits that cause the uncontrollable spasms characteristic of the...