Dec 12 2005
World Science is reporting about a surprising discovery made by researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany who have determined that honeybees can not only be taught to recognize human faces, but can also remember them for several days. The study re-opens a human neuroscience question thought by many to be already definitively answered …
Dec 04 2005
LiveScience.com is reporting that researchers from the University of Washington have discovered neurons in the brainstems of rats whose sole function is to identify new sounds while ignoring ongoing and predictable background noises. The scientists believe these specialized neurons are present in all vertebrates, including humans in whom they probably play a significant role in …
Nov 25 2005
As part of the Artificial Mouse (AMOUSE) Project, researchers from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich have developed a robotic mouse, the AMouse, that navigates by means of an omnidirectional camera, several light sensors, and two active artificial whisker arrays. In nature, vibrissae, better known as whiskers, are important sensors for short-range …
Nov 13 2005
Scientists have long known that meditation has the ability to permanently alter neural patterns, but researchers have recently discovered that the practice also causes parts of the brain to physically thicken. LiveScience.com has a summary of the study that was led by Sara Lazar, an assistant in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. The 20 participants …
Nov 08 2005
It has long been perceived by scientists and non-scientists alike that women and men process and react to humor in different ways. Now researchers from the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University School of Medicine have neurological evidence to back that theory up. NewScientist.com has a summary of their study that is …
Nov 05 2005
MIT has published a news release about how neuroscientists in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research have recently made significant advances in their attempts to learn how the inferotemporal (IT) cortex identifies and categorizes visual data. The ability to visually recognize objects, while usually taken for granted because it happens quickly, automatically, and subconsciously, is …
Oct 28 2005
According to Nature.com, researchers have discovered that an injection of a drug used to promote the growth of new brain cells also has the effect of causing weight loss, as much as 15%, in laboratory mice. Scientists are hoping that they can harness this side-effect, which lasts for at least several weeks, to fight obesity …
Oct 21 2005
A forthcoming article in Nature explains how recent experiments by researchers at MIT have shed some light on why sometimes habits seem to be broken but never truly die. Scientists have discovered that with the proper stimulus a dormant habit can be retrieved from memory and once again influence a subject’s behavior.
