For the first time, research shows that a certain kind of visual illusion, neon color spreading, works on mice. The study is also the first to combine the use of two investigative techniques called electrophysiology and optogenetics to study this illusion. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications ..read more

Saturday evening at a well-attended stand-up party. Servers balance trays of appetizers over the heads of the guests. We spot donuts on one of these passing platters and decide in a matter of seconds in favor of the one on the far right. But then the waitress briefly disappears from our field of vision, only to reappear elsewhere. How does our arm know where to reach to grab the donut ..read more

Neuroscience researchers from Bochum confirm different strategies when choosing between primary and secondary rewards. The lever is impulsivity ..read more

Compared with computers, the brain can perform computations with a very low net energy supply. Yet our understanding surrounding how the biological brain manages energy is still incomplete. What is known, however, is that the dilation and constriction cycles of blood vessels, or vasomotion, spontaneously occur in the brain, a process that likely contributes to enhancing the circulation of energetic nutrients and clearing wasteful materials ..read more

Researchers have developed tiny, flexible devices that can wrap around individual nerve fibers without damaging them ..read more

A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests a common brain network exists between heart rate deceleration and depression. By evaluating data from 14 people with no depression symptoms, the team found that stimulating some parts of the brain linked to depression with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) also affected heart rate, suggesting that clinicians may be able to target those areas without the use of brain scans that aren't widely available. The findings were published in Nature Mental Health ..read more

DPABINet, developed by Dr. Chao-Gan Yan's team at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, simplifies brain network analysis with a user-friendly, one-click software that requires no programming skills ..read more

A recent study from the University of Oulu, Finland, reveals that high body mass index (BMI) is associated with changes in physiological brain pulsations. These pulsations play a crucial role in maintaining brain fluid circulation and the clearance of metabolic waste from the brain ..read more

A research team led by Professor Haruhisa Inoue (Department of Cell Growth and Differentiation) derived iPS cells (iPSC) from α-synucleinopathy patients with early-onset familial Parkinson's disease (PD) carrying the α-synuclein (SNCA) A53T mutation and differentiated them into cerebral cortical neurons in an attempt to decipher the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in neurodegeneration to develop new therapies for the devastating disease ..read more

If mice ever wonder what it's like to experience the world as a rat, some are now able to live that dream, at least when it comes to the sense of smell ..read more