Cortex News and Research

RSS

Children with autism cannot read facial expressions

When we have a conversation with someone, we not only hear what they say, we see what they say.

8 May 2007

Noise effects in ion channels in the brain are much larger than previously assumed

Addressing a current issue in neuroscience, Aldo Faisal and Simon Laughlin from Cambridge University investigate the reliability of thin axons for transmitting information.

4 May 2007

Scientists work out mechanism underlying asymmetric cell division in nematode worms

When a cell divides, normally the result is two identical daughter cells. In some cases however, cell division leads to two cells with different properties. This is called asymmetric cell division and plays an important role in embryonic development and the self-renewal of stem cells.

4 May 2007

Backup brain region compensates for stroke

Researchers have pinpointed in humans how a "backup" brain region springs into action to compensate for disruption of a primary functional area, as happens during stroke.

4 May 2007

Cause of gender differences in high blood pressure and related kidney disease

While men and women both get high blood pressure and related kidney disease, the path to get there is shorter, steeper and just different for men, researchers say.

4 May 2007

Gulf War veterans with health symptoms show differences in brain structures

Veterans of the first Gulf War who returned with multiple health symptom complaints show significant differences in brain structures from their fellow returnees without high numbers of health symptoms, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 59th Annual Meeting in Boston, April 28 ,May 5, 2007.

2 May 2007

Simvastatin may help sufferers with Alzheimer's

Treatment with Simvastatin, one of the statin drugs widely used for lowering cholesterol in humans, significantly improved spatial memory - how to navigate a water maze - in mice genetically bred to have an Alzheimer's like disease.

1 May 2007

Heavy use of cannabis triggers psychotic illnesses

Scientists in the UK say the heavy consumption of the drug cannabis may trigger psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia.

30 Apr 2007

New prosthetic limbs allow for eight degrees of freedom

An international team led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., has developed a prototype of the first fully integrated prosthetic arm that can be controlled naturally and provide sensory feedback, and allows for eight degrees of Freedom -- a level of control far beyond the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs.

27 Apr 2007

Food-associated cues linked to obesity

A unique pattern of gene expression observed in rats may be linked to a conditioned desire for food and excessive food intake, an article published in BMC Biology suggests.

27 Apr 2007

New understanding of schizophrenia

New research helps bridge an important gap in understanding schizophrenia, providing the best evidence to date that defects in the brain's white matter are a key contributor to the disease, which affects about 1 percent of people worldwide.

24 Apr 2007

Non-coplanar PCBs and related chemicals warrant serious attention for health reasons

Scientists have determined that a specific class of PCB causes significant developmental abnormalities in rat pups whose mothers were exposed to the toxicant in their food during pregnancy and during the early weeks when the pups were nursing.

24 Apr 2007

Cortex area thinner in youth with Alzheimer's-related gene

A part of the brain first affected by Alzheimer's disease is thinner in youth with a risk gene for the disorder, a brain imaging study by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one of the National Institutes of Health, has found.

24 Apr 2007

Discovery of molecular mechanism that alters strength of higher brain network connections

Yale School of Medicine and University of Crete School of Medicine researchers report in Cell April 20 the first evidence of a molecular mechanism that dynamically alters the strength of higher brain network connections.

21 Apr 2007

Neurobiologists pinpoint how brain copes with shifty eyeballs

Neurobiologists have pinpointed brain regions critical to one of the brain's more remarkable feats'piecing together a continuous view of the world by integrating snippets of visual input from constantly moving eyes.

19 Apr 2007

Internal part of prefrontal cortex identified as key structure for memory formation

Does a specific memory exist for events involving humans, French researchers from the Vulnerability, Adaptation and Psychopathology Laboratory (CNRS/Universit' Paris VI) and Canadian researchers from Douglas Hospital, McGill University (Montreal) have identified the internal part of the prefrontal cortex as the key structure for the memory formation of social information.

19 Apr 2007