-
To Perceive Faces, Your Brain Relies on a Process Similar to Computer Face Recognition Systems
Some patients with a disorder called hemi-PMO see distortions in the same half of a person’s face, regardless of the angle they view the face. Findings suggest the visual system standardizes all the faces we perceive using the same process, so they can be better compared to faces we have seen before.
-
Head Movements Control the Activity of Primary Visual Cortex in a Luminance-Dependent Manner
The vestibular system broadcasts head-movement-related signals to sensory areas throughout the brain, including visual cortex. These signals are crucial for the brain’s ability to assess whether motion of the visual scene results from the animal’s head movements. However, how head movements affect visual cortical circuits remains poorly understood. Here, we discover that ambient luminance profoundly […]
-
ADAPTATION IN SINGLE NEURONS PROVIDES MEMORY FOR LANGUAGE PROCESSING
To understand language, we have to remember the words that were uttered and combine them into an interpretation. How does the brain retain information long enough to accomplish this, despite the fact that neuronal firing events are very short-lived? Hartmut Fitz from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and his colleagues propose a neurobiological explanation […]
-
Survival Mechanism Activated by the Brain in Conditions of Uncertainty
A new Tel Aviv University study examined the brain’s reactions in conditions of uncertainty and stressful conflict in an environment of risks and opportunities. The researchers identified the areas of the brain responsible for the delicate balance between desiring gain and avoiding loss along the way.
-
Pinpointing the cells that keep the body’s master circadian clock ticking
UT Southwestern scientists have developed a genetically engineered mouse and imaging system that lets them visualize fluctuations in the circadian clocks of cell types in mice. The method, described online in the journal Neuron, gives new insight into which brain cells are important in maintaining the body’s master circadian clock. But they say the approach […]
-
Hormones control paternal interest in offspring
Basing their research on an unexpected interspecies difference between rats and mice, researchers at Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University have mapped a system in the brain that controls paternal behaviour towards offspring. A key component in this behaviour is the hormone prolactin, which prepares females for motherhood and has now been shown to control paternal […]
-
Evidence in mice that electroacupuncture reduces inflammation via specific neural pathways
Stimulating the nervous system using small electric current by acupuncture could tamp down systemic inflammation in the body, suggests new research in mice from a team of neuroscientists in the U.S. and China. The research, publishing August 12 in the journal Neuron, helps to map the neuroanatomical underpinnings of this ancient medical practice.
-
New theory suggests autism may not be tied to mind blindness
Tracking the extent to which other people think differently from yourself appears to be more relevant than understanding someone else’s thoughts per se. Neuroscientists at Ghent University and the University of New South Wales (Sydney) came to this conclusion.
-
2020 TCCI Fall Newsletter
We hope this email finds you healthy, safe and well. 2020 has presented us all with seemingly unending challenges. We believe however, it is during these times, that we see the best
-
Earlier Help for Anorexia
The most life-threatening of all psychiatric disorders is anorexia nervosa, affecting about one percent of Americans. The eating disorder typically emerges in adolescence and is characterized by low body-mass index and an intense fear of weight gain. Anorexia damages the heart, sometimes fatally, and can injure the brain and other organs, weaken bones and muscles, impair […]