Psych and Neuroscience
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Medical Daily: Structure deep within the brain may contribute to a rich, varied social life
Scientists have discovered that the amygdala, a small almond shaped structure deep within the temporal lobe, is important to a rich and varied social life among humans. The finding was published this week in a new study in Nature Neuroscience and is similar to previous findings in other primate species, which compared the size and complexity of social groups across those species. "We know that primates who live in larger social groups have a larger amygdala, even when controlling for overall brain size and body size," says Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, who led the study. "We considered a single primate species, humans, and found that the amygdala volume positively correlated with the size and complexity of social networks in adult humans."
The genetic basis of brain diseases | Science Blog
In research published today, scientists have studied human brain samples to isolate a set of proteins that accounts for over 130 brain diseases. The paper also shows an intriguing link between diseases and the evolution of the human brain. Brain diseases are the leading cause of medical disability in the developed world according to the World Health Organisation and the economic costs in the USA exceeds $300 billion. The brain is the most complex organ in the body with millions of nerve cells connected by billions of synapses.
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Specials archive : Nature
Schizophrenia is a condition experienced by over 0.5% of the world's population at some time in their lives, and has a more debilitating impact on sufferers than most psychiatric illnesses, as well as a disproportionate societal impact. This special issue highlights the state of play and opportunities for progress in understanding, diagnosing and treating the condition.
iStockphoto Pop quiz: What is 357 times 289? No pencils allowed. No calculators. Just use your brain. Got an answer yet?
The Brain: The "Router" in Your Head—a Bottleneck of Processing | Learning | DISCOVER Magazine
In the year following the 2004 tsunami, the Indonesian city of Meulaboh received eight neonatal incubators from international relief organizations. Several years later, when an MIT fellow named Timothy Prestero visited the local hospital, all eight were out of order, the victim of power surges and tropical humidity, along with the hospital staff's inability to read the English repair manual. Mr. Prestero and the organization he cofounded, Design That Matters, had been working for several years on a more reliable, and less expensive, incubator for the developing world. In 2008, they introduced a prototype called the NeoNurture.
The Origins of Good Ideas - WSJ.com
Brain damage might actually create fake memories
Brain damage, which can be caused by conditions such as amnesia and Alzheimer's Disease, doesn't just erase memories. In a shocking new discovery, it turns out brain damage can also cause its sufferers to experience false memories of familiarity. The perirhinal cortex is one of the brain's most important memory centers, charged with forming memories by arranging sensory information into a detailed, comprehensible picture of the event. It's also one of the most vulnerable sections of the brain to damage, as Cambridge psychologist Lisa Saksida explains: "The perirhinal cortex is one of the first regions that is affected in Alzheimer's disease, and it is very often damaged in cases of amnesia, so specific damage in this region is highly relevant to both of these conditions." The loss of this cortex forces the brain to improvise when it comes to making new memories, relying on simpler parts of the brain to fill in and help make sense of incoming information.
Why can't you tell when an hour has passed without looking at a watch? Why are you able to do three things at once? Does coffee make time go faster? Neuroscientsts explain how our brains tell time - or don't. It was a familiar feeling of surprise and dismay. Looking at the clock on my computer, I realized that the five minutes I'd spent finishing up an article had actually been 25 minutes.