neuroscience

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Gadgets Are Frying Your Brain

Our brains need downtime to think, scientists say

(Newser) - Our love affair with gadgets is robbing our minds of the critical downtime they need to properly process our experiences, scientists tell the New York Times . Experiments show that when rats learn a new skill, such as running a maze, their brains actually process the experience only when they take...

Neuroscientist Discovers He's a 'Born Killer'
 Neuroscientist 
 Discovers He's 
 a 'Born Killer' 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jul 3, 2010 8:19 AM CDT

Neuroscientist Discovers He's a 'Born Killer'

Expert on killer brains spots one in his head

(Newser) - A neuroscientist who spent the last 20 years studying the brains of killers was more than a little surprised to discover that he had one. Jim Fallon—after learning that his father's side of the family tree was full of alleged killers, including Lizzie Borden—analyzed family brain scans and...

Lie-Detecting Brain Scan May Debut in Court

Lawyer hopes to have it admitted into evidence

(Newser) - Who needs Perry Mason when we've got neuroscience? A Brooklyn attorney wants to prove someone is telling the truth by introducing a scan of her brain activity into evidence this week, reports Wired . It would be a legal first and could open the door to more such evidence being used...

Oxytocin Improves Autistics' Social Skills

'Love hormone' offers hope of treatment

(Newser) - The hormone oxytocin may improve the social skills of people with high-functioning autism. In a new study, patients who received doses of it in a nasal spray were better able to recognize faces and interact with others in a game. In short, the so-called "love chemical" seems to help...

Your Skin Can Help You Hear, Study Finds

Subjects identify sounds better when paired with touch

(Newser) - What you feel can influence what you hear, a new study suggests. People were better able to identify aspirated sounds—those requiring a puff of air, like “pa” or “ta”—when the sound was paired with a puff of air on the back of the hand or...

New Brain Cells Bump Old Memories

Study finds new neurons clear out short-term memory

(Newser) - The birth of new brain cells bumps old memories into long-term storage, according to new research which upends earlier theories. Researchers working with rodents found that the creation of new neurons destabilized existing connections in the hippocampus instead of strengthening them as they had expected, effectively "clearing the inbox"...

CIA Interrogations Caused Brain Damage: Scientist

Harsh techniques damaged subject's facility for recall

(Newser) - The CIA's harsh interrogations are likely to have damaged the brains of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper. The paper scrutinizes the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens...

Alcoholics Are Less Able to Read Your Face

Sensitivity is lower even when drinkers are sober for years: study

(Newser) - Long-term alcoholics have a diminished ability to sense others’ emotions, even if they have been sober for years, the Chicago Tribune reports. A new study used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to look at the brain activity of abstinent alcoholics and non-alcoholics while they looked at pictures of faces that...

Scientist Seeks Help for the Hopelessly Lost

Brain disorder causes people to get lost even in their own homes

(Newser) - A Canadian neuroscientist has discovered a brain disorder that causes sufferers to spend their lives hopelessly lost even in their own neighborhoods, reports the Canadian Press. People with developmental topographical disorientation utterly lack the ability to form mental maps and orient themselves, leaving them with no idea how to navigate...

Researchers Discover Why Pot Makes You Forget

Scientists identify pathway for cognitive impairment under the effects of cannabis

(Newser) - Scientists have found the area in the mouse brain that marijuana acts upon to cause forgetfulness, AFP reports. Researchers in Barcelona used two groups of mice, each engineered to be missing one of the two concentrations of receptor neurons for cannabis (CB1) in the hippocampus, an area of the brain...

Girls Bond, Boys Compete: Brain Study

Scans confirm gender split on one-on-one interaction

(Newser) - Ever wonder why girls are so fixated on swapping friendship bracelets? They may just be wired that way, according to a new study. Using MRIs to look inside tweens' and teens' brains, researchers found that one-on-one interactions got girls’ synapses firing, Time reports. Boys focused less on other individuals than...

Real 'Thinking Cap' May Not Be So Far Off

Magnetic pulse boosts learning, study shows; headgear next?

(Newser) - A magnetic pulse directed at a certain area of the brain may enhance learning and memory, the Telegraph reports. Canadian researchers subjected volunteers to a test that required they track a dot moving on a computer screen with a joystick, and volunteers who received stimulation fared much better.

New Autism Research Tests Brain's 'Reflexes'

(Newser) - Scientists are taking a new approach to autism research using magnetic field generators that test the brain’s reflexes, the Boston Globe reports. Much like tapping a patient on the knee to gauge a physical reaction, trans-cranial magnetic stimulation triggers activity in specific areas of the brain through a charged...

Test for Early Alzheimer's in Development

Diagnosis could allow for treatment to slow disease's progression

(Newser) - A research institute devoted to Alzheimer's and related diseases has teamed up with a major maker of diagnostic tests to speed development of what could be the first test to detect Alzheimer's in its early stages. If all goes well, the first commercial version of the test could be available...

Scientists Locate Brain's Sentimental Center

Same Spot as Sex Urges

(Newser) - It turns out sex and sentimentality are linked after all, reports Reuters. Scientists have pinpointed areas of the brain that determine an individual's warm and fuzzy feelings—which they say are the same regions that control sex and some food urges. Researchers hope the findings may help explain brain evolution...

Pentagon Project Aims to Create Telepathic Troops

DARPA boffins tasked with turning brain waves into silent words

(Newser) - The Pentagon has launched a project officials hope will help soldiers of the future read each other's minds on the battlefield, Wired reports. DARPA—dubbed the military's "mad scientist" division—has been given $4 million to develop technology that can detect and analyze brain waves that precede specific speech....

Have an Itch? It's All In Your Spine

Urge to scratch comes from back not brain, researchers find

(Newser) - Scratching an itch may be an everyday activity, but it’s also a longstanding conundrum to scientists who have never been sure if the urge originated in the skin or the brain. Until now. A new study from University of Minnesota neuroscientists appears to show that both the itch, and...

Feds Probe Firebombing of Animal Researcher's Car

Attack targeted professor who used primates to study addiction

(Newser) - An federal anti-terror task force is probing the firebombing of a UCLA neuroscientist's car, the Los Angeles Times reports. An animal rights group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place outside the researcher’s house and caused no injuries. The professor targeted has been using primates for research...

Distracted Doodling Helps Us Focus, Study Shows

(Newser) - Doodling while listening actually increases retention of memory, LiveScience reports. A new study shows that subjects who “mindlessly” sketched while listening to a not-so-interesting phone message remembered key facts 29% more than others instructed to just listen. “It helps to keep us on track with a boring task,...

Facebook May 'Infantilize' Your Mind, Expert Warns

(Newser) - A British neuroscientist thinks the children of today, exposed to “instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key,” will develop differently from past generations, and that’s not a good thing. Facebook, for instance provides an experience “devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term...

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