News tagged with biological function

Related topics: protein




Using precisely-targeted lasers, researchers manipulate neurons in worms' brains, take control of their behavior

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 ...

Neuroscience created Sep 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists reveal drinking champagne could improve memory

(Medical Xpress)—New research shows that drinking one to three glasses of champagne a week may counteract the memory loss associated with ageing, and could help delay the onset of degenerative brain disorders, ...

Health created May 08, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Fast and painless way to better mental arithmetic? Yes, there might actually be a way

In the future, if you want to improve your ability to manipulate numbers in your head, you might just plug yourself in. So say researchers who report in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 16 on studies of a harm ...

Neuroscience created May 16, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Sense of justice built into the brain

A new study from the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm School of Economics shows that the brain has built-in mechanisms that trigger an automatic reaction to someone who refuses to share. In the study publishing next week ...

Neuroscience created May 03, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (7) | comments 17 | with audio podcast

Researchers grow pituitary glands from embryonic stem cells

(Medical Xpress) -- A new study published in Nature reports that scientists have been able to grow working pituitary glands from embryonic stem cells from mice. When these were transplanted into mice with defects in the pi ...

Medical research created Nov 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

Sleep consolidates memories for competing tasks, researchers show

Sleep plays an important role in the brain's ability to consolidate learning when two new potentially competing tasks are learned in the same day, research at the University of Chicago demonstrates.

Neuroscience created Mar 20, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

More than a sign of sleepiness, yawning may cool the brain

Though considered a mark of boredom or fatigue, yawning might also be a trait of the hot-headed. Literally.

Neuroscience created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (8) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

'Alarm clock' gene explains wake-up function of biological clock

Ever wondered why you wake up in the morning -- even when the alarm clock isn't making jarring noises? Wonder no more. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a new component ...

Genetics created Sep 29, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study shows that blocking an inflammation pathway prevents cardiac fibrosis

(Medical Xpress)—New research from UC Davis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that blocking an enzyme that promotes inflammation can prevent the tissue damage following a heart attack ...

Medical research created Mar 22, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists develop drug that slows Alzheimer's in mice

A drug developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, known as J147, reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's disease in aged mice following short-term treatment. The findings, ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia created May 13, 2013 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Most common form of inherited intellectual disability may be treatable

Advancements over the last 10 years in understanding intellectual disability (ID, formerly mental retardation), have led to the once-unimaginable possibility that ID may be treatable, a review of more than 100 studies on ...

Neuroscience created May 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Attention and awareness uncoupled in brain imaging experiments

In everyday life, attention and awareness appear tightly interwoven. Attending to the scissors on the right side of your desk, you become aware of their attributes, for example the red handles. Vice versa, ...

Neuroscience created Nov 10, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

A mechanism to improve learning and memory

There are a number of drugs and experimental conditions that can block cognitive function and impair learning and memory. However, scientists have recently shown that some drugs can actually improve cognitive function, which ...

Neuroscience created Feb 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Protecting your brain: 'Use it or lose it'

The findings of a new study suggest that the protective effects of an active cognitive lifestyle arise through multiple biological pathways.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

With mind-reading speller, free-for-all conversations that are silent and still

Researchers have come up with a device that may enable people who are completely unable to speak or move at all to nevertheless manage unscripted back-and-forth conversation. The key to such silent and still ...

Neuroscience created Jun 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast