Uk.pinterest. Decapitated Worms Regrow Heads with Memories Still Inside. How good are you at remembering something you learned two weeks earlier? What if during the intervening 14 days, your head was removed? One flatworm isn't bothered by this scenario. After growing back its entire head and brain, it picks off pretty much where it left off. The planarian is a modest little flatworm, the kind of common microscope denizen you might find in a Gary Larson cartoon. What's remarkable about it is its ability to regenerate. The whole body can regrow, head to eyespots to tail, from even a tiny fragment of the original animal. Tal Shomrat and Michael Levin at Tufts University built a computerized apparatus for training planarians. First, their worms spent 10 days getting familiar with one kind of environment, either a regular petri dish or one with a rough floor.
When the researchers tested the worms again 14 days later, they found that the worms trained on a rough-bottomed dish were still more comfortable with it than the other worms. Neurogenesis. UCLA study suggests iron is at core of Alzheimer's disease | Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Findings challenge conventional thinking about possible causes of disorder Alzheimer's disease has proven to be a difficult enemy to defeat. After all, aging is the No. 1 risk factor for the disorder, and there's no stopping that. Most researchers believe the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. As we age, most scientists say, these proteins either disrupt signaling between neurons or simply kill them.
Now, a new UCLA study suggests a third possible cause: iron. Dr. The research appears in the August edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. While most Alzheimer's researchers focus on the buildup of tau or beta-amyloid that results in the signature plaques associated with the disease, Bartzokis has long argued that the breakdown begins much further "upstream.
" Myelin is produced by cells called oligodendrocytes. "It is difficult to measure iron in tissue when the tissue is already damaged," he said. A Senior Moment or Alzheimer's Generated Memory Loss. New evidence suggests that age-related memory loss is a syndrome in its own right, differs from Alzheimer's disease; and that, this form of memory loss is reversible.
+Alzheimer's Reading Room A team of Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers, led by Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel, MD, has found that deficiency of a protein called RbAp48 in the hippocampus is a significant contributor to age-related memory loss and that this form of memory loss is reversible.
The study, conducted in postmortem human brain cells and in mice, also offers the strongest causal evidence that age-related memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease are distinct conditions. The findings were published in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine. A Major Cause of Age-Related Memory Loss Identified “Our study provides compelling evidence that age-related memory loss is a syndrome in its own right, apart from Alzheimer’s. Dr. The Gist Related Content The Conclusions The Mortimer B.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546039/pdf/pone.0053716.pdf. Neuroscience Information Framework - Search for Neuroscience Resources. About NIF - Neuroscience Information Framework. The Neuroscience Information Framework is a dynamic inventory of Web-based neuroscience resources: data, materials, and tools accessible via any computer connected to the Internet. An initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, NIF advances neuroscience research by enabling discovery and access to public research data and tools worldwide through an open source, networked environment. View the Introductory Video about NIF.
The NIF project is designed to serve the biomedical research community. The more participation from the community, the better the NIF. We welcome all feedback and suggestions and are actively looking for resource providers to make their resources accessible through the NIF. Collaborating institutions working on the current version of NIF include University of California, San Diego, California Institute of Technology, George Mason University, Yale University Medical College, and Washington University. The first phase of NIF was led by Dr. Neuro. Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see.
DARPA Projects That'll Creep You Out - Aaron Dykes & Melissa Melton - Truth Stream Media | Science and Technology. Michael Merzenich: Growing evidence of brain plasticity. How does my brain work? | TED Playlists. I thought I put it in the hippocampus but it's not there! Cocaine use linked to new brain structures: Possible mechanism for drug-seeking behavior in humans identified. Mice given cocaine showed rapid growth in new brain structures associated with learning and memory, according to a research team from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco. The findings suggest a way in which drug use may lead to drug-seeking behavior that fosters continued drug use, according to the scientists.
The researchers used a microscope that allowed them to peer directly into nerve cells within the brains of living mice, and within two hours of giving a drug they found significant increases in the density of dendritic spines -- structures that bear synapses required for signaling -- in the animals' frontal cortex.
In contrast, mice given saline solution showed no such increase. The researchers also found a relationship between the growth of new dendritic spines and drug-associated learning. In all living brains there is a baseline level of creation of new spines in response to, or in anticipation of, day-to-day learning, Wilbrecht said. The Neurocritic: The Dark Side of Diagnosis by Brain Scan. Daniel Amen: Pioneer or profiteer? : Psychiatrist Daniel Amen uses brain scans to diagnose mental illness. Most peers say that’s bonkers.
Right on the heels of a Molecular Psychiatry paper that asked, "Why has it taken so long for biological psychiatry to develop clinical tests and what to do about it? " (Kapur et al., 2012) comes this provocatively titled article in the Washington Post about neurohuckster Dr. Daniel Amen and his miraculous SPECT scans: Daniel Amen is the most popular psychiatrist in America. SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) is a relatively inexpensive cousin of PET scanning (positron emission tomography) with lower spatial resolution.1 There is no peer reviewed literature that establishes SPECT as a reliable method of diagnosing psychiatric disorders. In his Washington Post article, author Neely Tucker assembled an impressive list of naysayers: But wait!
But beware! Where Are the Clinical Tests for Psychiatric Disorders? Dr. Am I blue, Dr. Footnotes. Terence mcKenna en Alexander Shulgin in Mexico 1996. Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain. ..:: DMT - THE SPIRIT MOLECULE | DOCUMENTARY ::.. What the Government Doesn't Want YOU to Know about DMT.
New Finding Calls Into Question Assumptions About Sexuality. —Paul Stokes, MD, PhD Almost weekly, research reveals the tremendous neuroplasticity of the human brain . However, most prior studies pointed to the adaptability of the larger, more superficial cerebral cortex . The deeper, primitive ( limbic ) brain was seen as an evolutionary holdover that simply responded to the impulses sent from the higher cortex. Only addiction neuroscientists highlighted the multiple neuroplastic changes that occur in the reward circuit...of addicts. However, they presumed that a pathological process caused this phenomenon.
Now, it appears that addiction is merely an extreme case of neuroplasticity . The same plastic mechanisms are deeply etched by day-to-day experience—especially during adolescence and early adulthood. Twin studies provide a powerful way of investigating the effects of genetic versus environmental factors. The researchers divided the brain's dopamine systems into three overlapping regions based on function: Result? What Causes Homosexual Desire - Dr. Cameron. By Paul Cameron, Ph. D. Dr. Cameron is Chariman of the Family Research Institute of Colorado Springs, Colorado USA. Click here for more information about this organization. Most of us fail to understand why anyone would want to engage in homosexual activity. The peculiar nature of homosexual desire has led some people to conclude that this urge must be innate: that a certain number of people are "born that way," that sexual preferences cannot be changed or even ended.
At least three answers seem possible. Which of these views is most consistent with the facts? 1) No researcher has found provable biological or genitic differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals that weren't caused by their behavior Occasionally you may read about a scientific study that suggests that homosexuality is an inherited tendency, but such studies have usually been discounted after careful scrutiny or attempts at replication. 2) People tend to believe that their sexual desires and behaviors are learned 1.
Gay Pride Event Turns Violent, Christian Protestor Attacked. Memory Scientists Say: All Is Not Forgotten. Unless you are this woman, you probably have a long mental list of moments and facts you wish you could remember -- but for the life of you, you can't. To use a personal example, I periodically Google the words "yellow house Berlin," hoping to produce the name of that one hostel I lived in for a summer in college; alas, no success yet. The good news, though, is that while such memories may be currently inaccessible, they're not entirely gone, and could theoretically be retrieved, according to new brain imaging research from the University of California, Irvine. In the study, neurobiologist Jeffrey Johnson (along with a few colleagues) ran 16 college participants through an fMRI machine (which measures neural activity via blood flow) to compare brain patterns during memory formation and recall.
Using what is called "pattern analysis," it's possible to attach a unique pattern of brain activity to every individual thing we do. [via Wired.com] The brain scan that can read people's intentions | Science. A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act.
The research breaks controversial new ground in scientists' ability to probe people's minds and eavesdrop on their thoughts, and raises serious ethical issues over how brain-reading technology may be used in the future. The team used high-resolution brain scans to identify patterns of activity before translating them into meaningful thoughts, revealing what a person planned to do in the near future. It is the first time scientists have succeeded in reading intentions in this way.
"Using the scanner, we could look around the brain for this information and read out something that from the outside there's no way you could possibly tell is in there. The research builds on a series of recent studies in which brain imaging has been used to identify tell-tale activity linked to lying, violent behaviour and racial prejudice. Mind-Reading Machines: How Far Should They Go? | Wired Science. Scientists have developed a computer program that predicts the mental patterns a picture will elicit, and thus can tell what somebody saw simply by looking at their brain’s activity.
The decoder, described today in a study published in Nature, is not quite a mind reader — but it points in that direction, raising ethical questions about mental privacy and the possible dangers of knowing our minds too well. My Wired News story about the study should come out shortly, but in the meantime I’d like to present some of the neuroethical discussions that were left on the cutting room floor. "It’s important not to go overboard at the moment," said John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute neuroscientist who wasn’t involved in the study.
Mind reading isn’t yet possible, he said, "but as soon as it’s relevant for proactical applications, it’s vital to think about the ethics, and the ethics are quite difficult. " On the subject of mental privacy, wrote the researchers, Image: California State University. Read My Brain - I Didn't Do It - Inside Time Newspaper. Back By Tomoko Sasaki, from insidetime issue March 2008 Guilty or innocent, our intentions could soon be revealed using brain scanning technology according to experts in the field. We are generally accustomed to thinking that our intentions remain secret until we put them into action, but this could no longer be the case. According to Dr. John-Dylan Haynes and his associates at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany it is now possible to detect these supposedly hidden intentions by observing patterns of brain activity. For decades, researchers have used brain scans to observe different types of brain activity, but now scientists in America claim to have recently developed a method that will eventually open up the innermost secrets of our brains; and predict what we may be planning to do in the future, or identify whether we did something in the past.
Dr. Tomoko Sasaki has a Masters Degree in Forensic Psychology and is a prison lawyer with Swain & Co. Clearing the Mind: How the Brain Cuts the Clutter | Mind, Brain & Senses. Newly discovered neurons in the front of the brain act as the bouncers at the doors of the senses, letting in only the most important of the trillions of signals our bodies receive. Problems with these neurons could be the source of some symptoms of diseases like attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia. "The brain doesn't have enough capacity to process all the information that is coming into your senses," said study researcher Julio Martinez-Trujillo, of McGill University in Montreal.
"We found that there are some cells, some neurons in the prefrontal cortex, which have the ability to suppress the information that you aren't interested in. They are like filters. " Humans are constantly taking in huge streams of data from each of our senses. A cluttered mind This "brain clutter," or inability to filter out unnecessary information, is a possible mechanism of diseases like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia. Mindful monkeys. Institute | What is Aphasia? Aphasia is an acquired disorder caused by an injury to the brain and affects a person’s ability to communicate. It is most often the result of stroke or head injury.
An individual with aphasia may experience difficulty expressing themselves when speaking, difficulty understanding the speech of others, and difficulty reading and writing. Sadly, aphasia can mask a person’s intelligence and ability to communicate feelings, thoughts and emotions. There are over 100,000 Canadians living with aphasia today – a condition that is not well-known or understood. Aphasia is usually the lasting result of a stroke or brain injury but can also be caused by other neurological conditions such as brain tumours or dementia. Aphasia can be an isolating condition that can affect a person’s ability to communicate and deprive them of the ability to speak, read, write and understand the speech of others.
What is a Seizure? | Epilepsy Foundation. Skin Cells Reprogrammed Directly into Brain Cells. Human skin cells (top) can be converted into medium spiny neurons (bottom) with exposure to the right combination of microRNAs and transcription factors, according to work by Andrew Yoo and his research team. (Source: WUSTL/Yoo lab)Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntington’s disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell types, the study’s authors report. The researchers, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, demonstrated that these converted cells survived at least six months after injection into the brains of mice and behaved similarly to native cells in the brain. The work appears in the journal Neuron.