Latest Queensland Brain Institute Stories
People who take Ritalin are far more aware of their mistakes, a University of Melbourne study has found. The study, by Dr Rob Hester from the Department of Psychological Sciences and colleagues at the Queensland Brain Institute, investigated how the brain monitors ongoing behavior for performance errors – specifically failures of impulse control. It found that a single dose of methylphenidate (Ritalin) results in significantly greater activity in the brain’s error monitoring network...
Australian scientists have developed a novel autopilot that guides aircraft through complex aerobatic maneuvers by watching the horizon like a honey bee.Allowing aircraft to quickly sense which way is "˜up' by imitating how honeybees see, engineers and researchers at The Vision Centre, The Queensland Brain Institute and the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at The University of Queensland have made it possible for planes to guide themselves through extreme...
Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) scientists have found another important clue to why nerve cells die in neurodegenerative diseases, based on studies of the developing brain. Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland have just published findings, which add more weight to the "use it or lose it" model for brain function. QBI's Dr Elizabeth Coulson said a baby's brain generates roughly double the number of nerve cells it needs to function; with those cells that receive both...
Stem cells have long been described as the holy grail of bioscientists. These amazing cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body and have to potential to revolutionise medical science. Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish cells lost due to everyday wear and tear, or following injury or disease. Dr Rod Rietze, head of the Queensland Brain Institute's (QBI) Laboratory for Neural...
