Researchers at MIT have developed a new method of electrically stimulating deep brain tissues without opening the skull Since 1997, more than 100,000 Parkinson’s Disease patients have been treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS), a surgical technique that involves the implantation of ultra-thin wire electrodes. The implanted device, sometimes referred to as a ‘brain pacemaker’, delivers electrical pulses to a structure called the subthalamic nucleus, located near the centre of the brain, and effectively alleviates many of the physical symptoms of the disease, such as tremor, muscle rigidity ..read more

New research shows that we can train our brains to become memory champions To many of us, having to memorize a long list of items feels like a chore. But for others, it is more like a sport. Every year, hundreds of these ‘memory athletes’ compete with one another in the World Memory Championships, memorising hundreds of words, numbers, or other pieces of information within minutes. The current world champion is Alex Mullen, who beat his competitors by memorizing a string of more than 550 digits in under 5 minutes. You may think that such prodigious mental feats are linked to having an unusual ..read more

New research provides evidence for the idea that sleep restores cellular homeostasis in the brain and helps us to forget irrelevant information We spend one third of our lives sleeping, but we still do not know exactly why we sleep. Recent research shows that that the brain does its housekeeping while we sleep, and clears away its waste. According to another hypothesis, sleep plays the vital role of restoring the right balance of brain synapses to enhance learning, and two studies published in today’s issue of Science now provide the most direct evidence yet for this idea. We do know that slee ..read more

New findings challenge our understanding of how the brain matures Faces are important to us. From the moment we are are born, we prefer to look at faces than at other, inanimate objects, and, being social animals, we encounter faces every day of our lives. The face is the first thing we look to when identifying other people; faces also convey emotions, informing us of peoples’ mood, and from them we can usually determine a person’s sex and, sometimes, roughly how old they are. Eye movements can also reveal to us something about another person’s intentions. Related: How your eyes betray your th ..read more

New research shows that the rhythm of breathing directly impacts neural activity in a network of brain areas involved in smell, memory and emotions The rhythm of breathing co-ordinates electrical activity across a network of brain regions associated with smell, memory, and emotions, and can enhance their functioning, according to a new study by researchers at Northwestern University. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest that breathing does not merely supply oxygen to the brain and body, but may also organise the activity of populations of cells within multiple brain ..read more

It’s not just your waistline that suffers as you put on weight. Researchers are beginning to find puzzling new links between obesity, memory loss and dementia Lucy Cheke and her colleagues at the University of Cambridge recently invited a few participants into her lab for a kind of ‘treasure hunt’. The participants navigated a virtual environment on a computer screen, dropping off various objects along their way. They then answered a series of questions to test their memory of the task, such as where they had hidden a particular object. Related: How your eyes betray your thoughts Related: How ..read more

New research shows that a genetic mutation associated with schizophrenia alters the process of cellular differentiation, disturbing the balance of neurons and glia in the brain Stem cells obtained from patients with schizophrenia carry a genetic mutation that alters the ratio of the different type of nerve cells they produce, according to a new study by researchers in Japan. The findings, published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry, suggest that abnormal neural differentiation may contribute to the disease, such that fewer neurons and more non-neuronal cells are generated during th ..read more

New research shows that the drug makes cells in the retina more sensitive to light 25 years ago, pharmacologist M. E. West of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, noted that local fisherman who smoke cannabis or drink rum made with the leaves and stems of the plant had “an uncanny ability to see in the dark,” which enabled them to navigate their boats through coral reefs. “It was impossible to believe that anyone could navigate a boat without compass and without light in such treacherous surroundings,” he wrote after accompanying the crew of a fishing boat one dark night ..read more

A new imaging technique may give researchers fresh insights into brain development, function, and disease The human brain is often said to be the most complex object in the known universe, and there’s good reason to believe that it is. That lump of jelly inside your head contains at least 80 billion nerve cells, or neurons, and even more of the non-neuronal cells called glia. Between them, they form hundreds of trillions of precise synaptic connections; but they all have moveable parts, and these connections can change. Neurons can extend and retract their delicate fibres; some types of glial ..read more

New research shows that frigatebirds can sleep on the wing, with just one or both halves of their brain When Charles Darwin arrived at the Galápagos Islands in 1839, he had the opportunity to observe the habits of frigatebirds, and marvelled at their graceful flight manoeuvres and their ability to soar up high. “When it sees any object on the surface of the water,” he wrote, “[it] descends from a great height… with the swiftness of an arrow; and at the instant of seizing with its long beak and outstretched neck, the floating morsel, it turns upwards, with extraordinary dexterity, by the aid of ..read more