Brain And Consciousness Research - November 2009 Archives

Brain's fear center is equipped with a built-in suffocation sensor (11/30/2009)

The portion of our brains that is responsible for registering fear and even panic has a built-in chemical sensor that is triggered by a primordial terror -- suffocation. A report in the November 25th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows in studies of mice that the rise in acid levels in the brain upon breathing carbon dioxide triggers acid-sensing channels that evoke fear behavior. ...> Full Article

Auditory illusion: How our brains can fill in the gaps to create continuous sound (11/29/2009)

It is relatively common for listeners to "hear" sounds that are not really there. In fact, it is the brain's ability to reconstruct fragmented sounds that allows us to successfully carry on a conversation in a noisy room. ...> Full Article

Study sheds light on brain's fear processing center (11/28/2009)

A University Iowa study helps explain why breathing carbon dioxide can trigger panic attacks and also suggests a new role for the amygdala -- the brain region that processes fear signals and directs fear behavior -- as a sensor that can detect certain fear signals for itself. ...> Full Article

Scientists find emotion-like behaviors, regulated by dopamine, in fruit flies (11/27/2009)

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Their findings, which may be relevant to the relationship between the neurotransmitter dopamine and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, are described in the December issue of the journal Neuron. ...> Full Article

Shifting blame is socially contagious (11/24/2009)

Merely observing someone publicly blame an individual in an organization for a problem -- even when the target is innocent -- greatly increases the odds that the practice of blaming others will spread with the tenacity of the H1N1 flu. ...> Full Article

Study shows brain's ability to reorganize (11/23/2009)

Department of Neurology scientists at UCLA have confirmed that blindness causes structural changes in the brain, implying that the brain may re-organize itself functionally in order to adapt to a loss in sensory inputs. ...> Full Article

Waking up memories while you sleep (11/23/2009)

They were in a deep sleep, yet sounds, such as a teakettle whistle, somehow penetrated their slumber. The 25 sounds were reminders of earlier spatial learning, though the Northwestern University research participants were unaware of the sounds as they slept. Yet, upon waking, memory tests showed that spatial memories had changed. "We are beginning to see that deep sleep actually is a key time for memory processing," said Ken Paller, professor of psychology at Northwestern. ...> Full Article

People work harder when expecting a future challenging task (11/22/2009)

Consumers will work harder on a task if they're expecting to have to do something difficult at a later time, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. ...> Full Article

To eat or not to eat? Mental budgets help control consumption (11/21/2009)

If you feel like you're in a losing battle with a triple-chocolate cake, a "mental budget" can help, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. ...> Full Article

Monetary gain and high-risk tactics stimulate activity in the brain (11/20/2009)

Monetary gain stimulates activity in the brain. Even the mere possibility of receiving a reward is known to activate an area of the brain called the striatum. ...> Full Article

Pushing the brain to find new pathways (11/19/2009)

Until recently, scientists believed that, following a stroke, a patient had about six months to regain any lost function. After that, patients would be forced to compensate for the lost function by focusing on their remaining abilities. Although this belief has been refuted, a University of Missouri occupational therapy professor believes that the current health system is still not giving patients enough time to recover. ...> Full Article

Are teenagers wired differently than adults? (11/19/2009)

Parents have long suspected that the brains of their teenagers function differently than those of adults. ...> Full Article

Researchers find explanation for rapid maturation of neurons at birth (11/19/2009)

So a baby can detect outside signals, the brain cells use a a "pump" that drains chloride out of newborn neurons, making these highly chaotic, developing cells quiet down. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have figured out the genetic control of the pump in rodents. ...> Full Article

Bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains (11/18/2009)

Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.Animals with bigger brains are not necessarily more intelligent. This begs the important question: what are they for? ...> Full Article

Shape perception in brain develops by itself (11/17/2009)

African nomads and westerners show the same ability to discriminate between shapes, a new study in Psychological Science reports. Authors suggest that brain's shape perception develops without deliberate training. ...> Full Article

The narrow line between love and jealousy (11/16/2009)

A new study carried out at the University of Haifa has found that the hormone oxytocin, also known as the "love hormone," which affects behaviors such as trust, empathy and generosity, also affects opposite behaviors, such as jealousy and gloating. ...> Full Article

Neural mechanism reveals why dyslexic brain has trouble distinguishing speech from noise (11/15/2009)

New research reveals that children with developmental dyslexia have a deficit in a brain mechanism involved in the perception of speech in a noisy environment. The study, published by Cell Press in the Nov. 12 issue of the journal Neuron, provides the first direct evidence that the human auditory brainstem exhibits remarkable moment-to-moment plasticity and undergoes a fine tuning that is strongly associated with noise exclusion. ...> Full Article

Scientists decipher the formation of lasting memories (11/14/2009)

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have discovered a mechanism that controls the brain's ability to create lasting memories. In experiments on genetically manipulated mice, they were able to switch on and off the animals' ability to form lasting memories by adding a substance to their drinking water. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal PNAS, are of potential significance to the future treatment of Alzheimer's and stroke. ...> Full Article

Vacationing in Thailand over Greece? That's the dopamine talking (11/14/2009)

People constantly make complex decisions, from the more mundane -- which restaurant to go to for dinner or which movie to go see -- to the more profound -- whether to have kids or not. Now, a new study published online on Nov. 12 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, confirms an important role for the brain chemical dopamine in how people make such life choices, by influencing our expectations of the pleasure associated with their outcomes. ...> Full Article

To make memories, new neurons must erase older ones (11/13/2009)

Short-term memory may depend in a surprising way on the ability of newly formed neurons to erase older connections. That's the conclusion of a report in the November 13 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, that provides some of the first evidence in mice and rats that new neurons sprouted in the hippocampus cause the decay of short-term fear memories in that brain region, without an overall memory loss. ...> Full Article

'Emotions increase or decrease pain': researchers (11/13/2009)

Getting a flu shot this fall? Canadians scientists have found that focusing on a pretty image could alleviate the sting of that vaccine. According to a new Universite de Montreal study, published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, negative and positive emotions have a direct impact on pain. ...> Full Article

Words, gestures are translated by same brain regions, says new research (11/12/2009)

Researchers have shown that the brain regions that have long been recognized as a center in which spoken or written words are decoded are also important in interpreting wordless gestures. The findings suggest that these brain regions may play a much broader role in the interpretation of symbols than researchers have thought and, for this reason, could be the evolutionary starting point from which language originated. ...> Full Article

Theory about long and short-term memory questioned by scientists (11/11/2009)

The long-held theory that our brains use different mechanisms for forming long-term and short-term memories has been challenged by new research from UCL, published today in PNAS. ...> Full Article

Sniffing out memories (11/11/2009)

Why are some smells irrevocably tied to certain memories? Weizmann Institute scientists found that our brain shows unique activity the first time we encounter a smell in the context of a particular experience. ...> Full Article

A vast right arm conspiracy? Study suggests handedness may effect body perception (11/10/2009)

There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are distributed throughout the brain are known as "body maps" and now there is evidence that these maps may influence how we perceive our physical bodies. ...> Full Article

Forget all about it: Traumatic memories can be erased (11/10/2009)

It is well known that fear memories are permanent. However, a recent paper in Science, evaluated by three Faculty Members for F1000, reports an extraordinary finding that supports the use of a drug to control recollections of traumatic incidents. ...> Full Article

Babies' language learning starts from the womb (11/9/2009)

From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on Nov. 5 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo. ...> Full Article

Melatonin, a hormone segregated by human body, regulates sleep better than somniferous (11/9/2009)

Scientists of the University of Granada state that the exogenous administration of melatonin corrects the sleep/wakefulness pace when human biological clock gets altered. At present, this substance is being widely used by the pharmaceutical industry to design synthetic medicines, a very interesting therapeutic tool for the treatment of sleep alterations ...> Full Article

Internet search process affects cognition, emotion (11/9/2009)

University of Missouri researchers found that readers were better able to understand, remember and emotionally respond to material found through "searching" compared to content found while "surfing." "If, as these data suggest, the cognitive and emotional impact of online content is greatest when acquired by searching, then Web site sponsors might consider increasing their advertising on pages that tend to be accessed via search engines," said Kevin Wise, assistant professor of strategic communication at MU. ...> Full Article

Early scents really do get 'etched' in the brain (11/8/2009)

Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study online on Nov. 5 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that first scents really do enjoy a "privileged" status in the brain. ...> Full Article

What is unique in the brain of an Arabic speaker? (11/7/2009)

"The cognitive disparity between the two languages is similar to the difference between a native and a second language. This offers an explanation for the objective and day-to-day difficulties that confront Arabic-speaking students when attempting to learn to read the nonspoken language," the researcher explains. The new study has been published in the Journal of Psychology Research and Behavior Management. ...> Full Article

Researchers unlock the 'sound of learning' by linking sensory and motor systems (11/6/2009)

Learning to talk also changes the way speech sounds are heard, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at Haskins Laboratories, a Yale-affiliated research laboratory. The findings could have a major impact on improving speech disorders. ...> Full Article

Precuneus region of human and monkey brain is divided into 4 distinct regions (11/5/2009)

A study published this week in PNAS provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution. An international collaboration co-led by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City examined patterns of connectivity to show that the precuneus, long thought to be a single structure, is actually divided into four distinct functional regions. ...> Full Article

No pain, no gain: Mastering a skill makes us stressed in the moment, happy long term (11/4/2009)

No pain, no gain applies to happiness, too, according to new research published online this week in the Journal of Happiness Studies. People who work hard at improving a skill or ability, such as mastering a math problem or learning to drive, may experience stress in the moment, but experience greater happiness on a daily basis and longer term, the study suggests. ...> Full Article

Unlocking mysteries of the brain with PET (11/3/2009)

Inflammatory response of brain cells -- as indicated by a molecular imaging technique -- could tell researchers more about why certain neurologic disorders, such as migraine headaches and psychosis in schizophrenic patients, occur and provide insight into how to best treat them, according to two studies published in the November issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. ...> Full Article

This is your brain on fatty acids (11/3/2009)

Saturated fats have a deservedly bad reputation, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a sticky lipid occurring naturally at high levels in the brain may help us memorize grandma's recipe for cinnamon buns, as well as recall how, decades ago, she served them up steaming from the oven. ...> Full Article

Angry faces: Research suggests link between facial structure and aggression (11/2/2009)

Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. According to new findings in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, a quick glance at someone's facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression. ...> Full Article

Adolescents think school bullying 'will keep on happening' and resign themselves to it (11/2/2009)

A research work conducted at the University of Granada reveals that schoolchildren see the victims as "passive persons and socially incompetent," and the abusers as "strong, brave and extrovert individuals." To carry out this work, the authors conducted a survey on 1,237 children aged between 11 and 16 years old from Granada and Braga, who completed a questionnaire in order to get to know their perception about "bullying." ...> Full Article

Launching an 'attention movement' in a distracted society (11/1/2009)

What can happen when we lose our ability to sustain focus? In "Distracted," Maggie Jackson ponders our cyber-centric world and fears we're entering a dark age of interruption that will render us unable to think critically, work creatively or cultivate meaningful relationships. She offers insight on how to manage distraction and cultivate a more meaningful life. Inspired, people are "taking back focus" to create an environment conducive to deep connection and thought. ...> Full Article