http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. When animals are on the hunt for food they likely use many senses, and scientists have wondered how the different senses work together. New research from the laboratory of CSHL neuroscientist and Assistant Professor Adam Kepecs shows that when rats actively use the senses of smell (sniffing) and touch (through their whiskers) those two processes are locked in synchronicity. The team's paper, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that sniffing and "whisking" movements are synchronized even when they are running at different frequencies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-rats-high-speed-multisensory-snapshots.html Neuroscience Tue, 07 May 2013 17:00:01 EST news287141132 (Medical Xpress)—The smooth operation of the brain requires a certain robustness to fluctuations in its home within the body. At the same time, its extraordinary power derives from an activity structure poised at criticality. In other words, it is highly responsive to many low-threshold events. When forced beyond its comfort zone in parameter space—its operating temperature, electrolytes, sugars, blood gas or even sensory input— the direct result is seizure, coma, or both. It would appear that anything rendered too hot or cold, too concentrated or scarce, precipitates seizure. In those genetically predisposed, or compromised by head trauma, the seizing tends toward full-blown epilepsy. A group in Hamburg, led by Michael Frotscher has been chipping away at the causes of common form a epilepsy, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Their latest research published in the journal, Cerebral Cortex, takes a closer at differentiated neurons in the dentate gryus of mouse hippocampus. Once thought to be completely immobilized by virtue of their broadly integrated dendritic trees, these neurons are now shown to become migratory once again in direct response to seizure activity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-epilepsy-differentiated-neurons.html Neuroscience Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:40:19 EST news283779586 People with spinal cord injuries show strong association of wheelchairs as part of their body, not extension of immobile limbs injuries show strong association of wheelchairs as part of their body, not extension of immobile limbs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-human-brain-prosthetic-devices-body.html Medical research Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:00:06 EST news281808388 Your brain has at least four different senses of location – and perhaps as many as 10. And each is different, according to new research from the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-complexities-brain-mental.html Neuroscience Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:00:14 EST news273929858 Caenorhabditis elegans, with just 302 neurons, has long been considered an ideal model system for the study of the nervous system. New research, however, is suggesting that the worms' "simple" nervous system may be much more complex than originally thought. In a new study of worm locomotion, researchers show that a single type of motor neuron harbors an entire sensorimotor loop. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cell-sensory-motor-output-worm.html Neuroscience Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:00:28 EST news272714199 Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a new pathway that appears to play a major role in information processing in the brain. Their research also offers insight into how imbalances in this pathway could contribute to cognitive abnormalities in humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-scientists-uncover-pathway-brain.html Neuroscience Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:33:42 EST news271701213 A Weizmann Institute experiment in which volunteers learned to sense objects' locations using just "rat whiskers" may help improve aids for the blind. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-scientists-humans-rat-whiskers.html Neuroscience Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:43:52 EST news271334619 (Medical Xpress)—The human brain likes to make predictions about how the world works. Imagine, for example, that you move to a new town. At first, you don't know where to go for dinner. But after weeks of trying different restaurants, you pick a favorite, a little Thai place that makes the best green curry. Several months later, however, you notice the curry isn't as spicy and the vegetables seem undercooked. At first you give your favorite place the benefit of the doubt. But after a few more so-so dinners, you suddenly realize that something must have changed—perhaps the owner hired a new chef—and your notion that this is the best place around is no longer valid. So you begin searching for a new favorite restaurant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-beliefs.html Neuroscience Tue, 09 Oct 2012 06:58:05 EST news268983677 In the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely-targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over an animal's brain, instruct it to turn in any direction they choose, and even to implant false sensory information, fooling the animal into thinking food was nearby. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-precisely-targeted-lasers-neurons-worms-brains.html Neuroscience Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:08:19 EST news267700090 Tokyo Tech's Yoshihiro Miyake and colleagues have developed an innovative, non-invasive therapeutic intervention that may improve the mobility, stability, and quality of life of Parkinson's disease patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-tokyo-tech-walkmate-quality-life.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:29:36 EST news265361361 Has a summer cold or mold allergy stuffed up your nose and dampened your sense of smell? We take it for granted that once our nostrils clear, our sniffers will dependably rebound and alert us to a lurking neighborhood skunk or a caramel corn shop ahead. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-skunk-cold-brain-stuffed-nose.html Neuroscience Sun, 12 Aug 2012 13:00:17 EST news263919216 (Medical Xpress) -- Consciousness is a selective process that allows only a part of the sensory input to reach awareness. But up to today it has yet to be clarified which areas of the brain are responsible for the content of conscious perception. Theofanis Panagiotaropoulos and his colleagues - researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen and University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona - have now discovered that the content of consciousness is not localized in a unique cortical area, but is most likely an emergent property of global networks of neuronal populations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-conscious-perception-global-neural-networks.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:11:28 EST news258793878 Despite a long-held scientific belief that much of the wiring of the brain is fixed by the time of adolescence, a new study shows that changes in sensory experience can cause massive rewiring of the brain, even as one ages. In addition, the study found that this rewiring involves fibers that supply the primary input to the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for sensory perception, motor control and cognition. These findings promise to open new avenues of research on brain remodeling and aging. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-persistent-sensory-good-aging-brain.html Neuroscience Thu, 24 May 2012 12:04:48 EST news257079879 (Medical Xpress) -- Research from Karolinska Institutet shows that the human olfactory bulb - a structure in the brain that processes sensory input from the nose - differs from that of other mammals in that no new neurons are formed in this area after birth. The discovery, which is published in the scientific journal Neuron, is based on the age-determination of the cells using the carbon-14 method, and might explain why the human sense of smell is normally much worse than that of other animals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-neurons-human-olfactory-bulb.html Neuroscience Thu, 24 May 2012 05:55:16 EST news257057690 A Kansas State University graduate student is creating a schoolyard that can become a therapeutic landscape for children with autism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-schoolyard-children-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Mon, 07 May 2012 12:45:19 EST news255613510 For some, the pain is so great that they can't even bear to have clothes touch their skin. For others, it means that every step is a deliberate and agonizing choice. Whether the pain is caused by arthritic joints, an injury to a nerve or a disease like fibromyalgia, research now suggests there are new solutions for those who suffer from chronic pain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-neuron-memory-key-chronic-pain.html Neuroscience Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:46:01 EST news248370338 The human brain is bombarded with a cacophony of information from the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. Now a team of scientists at the University of Rochester, Washington University in St. Louis, and Baylor College of Medicine has unraveled how the brain manages to process those complex, rapidly changing, and often conflicting sensory signals to make sense of our world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-nerve-cells-key.html Neuroscience Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:00:15 EST news241013592 Motherhood is associated with the acquisition of a host of new behaviors that must be driven, at least in part, by alterations in brain function. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the October 20 issue of the journal Neuron provides intriguing insight into how neural changes associated with the integration of odors and sounds underlie a mother's ability to recognize and respond to distress calls from her pups. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-unraveling-mysteries-maternal-brain-odors.html Neuroscience Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:38:01 EST news238246673 A team of scientists at the University of Louisville, UCLA and the California Institute of Technology has achieved a significant breakthrough in its initial work with a paralyzed male volunteer at Louisville's Frazier Rehab Institute. It is the result of 30 years of research to find potential clinical therapies for paralysis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-implant-breakthrough-paraplegic-legs-voluntarily.html Neuroscience Fri, 20 May 2011 02:44:16 EST news225078216