News tagged with brain activity

Body clocks of depressed people altered at cell level, researchers show

Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. The brain acts as timekeeper, keeping the cellular clock in sync ...

Medical research created May 13, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (19) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Neurons that can multitask greatly enhance the brain's computational power, study finds

Over the past few decades, neuroscientists have made much progress in mapping the brain by deciphering the functions of individual neurons that perform very specific tasks, such as recognizing the location ...

Neuroscience created May 20, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | 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

Theta brainwaves reflect ability to beat built-in bias

Vertebrates are predisposed to act to gain rewards, and to lay low to avoid punishment. Try to teach chickens to back away from food in order to obtain it, and you'll fail, as researchers did in 1986. But ...

Neuroscience created May 07, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Restless legs syndrome, insomnia and brain chemistry: A tangled mystery solved?

Johns Hopkins researchers believe they may have discovered an explanation for the sleepless nights associated with restless legs syndrome (RLS), a symptom that persists even when the disruptive, overwhelming nocturnal urge ...

Neuroscience created May 07, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New hope for Autistic children who never learn to speak

An Autistica consultation published this month found that 24% of children with autism were non-verbal or minimally verbal, and it is known that these problems can persist into adulthood. Professionals have long attempted ...

Autism spectrum disorders created Apr 24, 2013 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Hit a 95 mph baseball? Scientists pinpoint how we see it coming

(Medical Xpress)—How does San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval swat a 95 mph fastball, or tennis icon Venus Williams see the oncoming ball, let alone return her sister Serena's 120 mph serves? For ...

Neuroscience created May 08, 2013 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Grammar errors? The brain detects them even when you are unaware

Your brain often works on autopilot when it comes to grammar. That theory has been around for years, but University of Oregon neuroscientists have captured elusive hard evidence that people indeed detect ...

Neuroscience created May 13, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Melon focus headband turns to Kickstarter for rollout plans

(Medical Xpress)—What if the quality of your work depends more on your focus on the piano keys or canvas or laptop than your musical or painting or computing skills? If target users can be convinced, they ...

Neuroscience created May 17, 2013 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast weblog

Anti-smoking ads with strong arguments, not flashy editing, trigger part of brain involving behavior change

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that an area of the brain that initiates behavioral changes had greater activation in smokers who watched anti-smoking ads with ...

Neuroscience created Apr 23, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Real-time brain feedback can help people overcome anxiety

(Medical Xpress)—People provided with a real-time readout of activity in specific regions of their brains can learn to control that activity and lessen their anxiety, according to new findings published ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 09, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Methylphenidate 'normalizes' activation in key brain areas in kids with ADHD

The stimulant drug methylphenidate "normalizes" activation of several brain areas in young patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a review published in the May Harvard Review of Psychiatry. ...

Attention deficit disorders created May 09, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Researchers visualize memory formation for the first time in zebrafish

In our interaction with our environment we constantly refer to past experiences stored as memories to guide behavioral decisions. But how memories are formed, stored and then retrieved to assist decision-making ...

Neuroscience created May 16, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mild blast injury causes molecular changes in brain akin to Alzheimer, team says

A multicenter study led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine shows that mild traumatic brain injury after blast exposure produces inflammation, oxidative stress and gene activation patterns akin ...

Neuroscience created Apr 24, 2013 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Expert discusses how BRAIN Initiative will affect neuroscience

Mapping the human brain, with its billions of neurons, is one of science's most elusive projects. But a new federal program—the $100 million Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative ...

Neuroscience created Apr 24, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Electroencephalography

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced by the firing of neurons within the brain. In clinical contexts, EEG refers to the recording of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time, usually 20–40 minutes, as recorded from multiple electrodes placed on the scalp. In neurology, the main diagnostic application of EEG is in the case of epilepsy, as epileptic activity can create clear abnormalities on a standard EEG study. A secondary clinical use of EEG is in the diagnosis of coma and encephalopathies. EEG used to be a first-line method for the diagnosis of tumors, stroke and other focal brain disorders, but this use has decreased with the advent of anatomical imaging techniques such as MRI and CT.

Derivatives of the EEG technique include evoked potentials (EP), which involves averaging the EEG activity time-locked to the presentation of a stimulus of some sort (visual, somatosensory, or auditory). Event-related potentials refer to averaged EEG responses that are time-locked to more complex processing of stimuli; this technique is used in cognitive science, cognitive psychology, and psychophysiological research.

For more information about Electroencephalography, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.