http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Biologists from New York University have uncovered new ways our biological clock's neurons use electrical activity to help keep behavioral rhythms in order. The findings, which appear in the journal Current Biology, also point to fresh directions for exploring sleep disorders and related afflictions. http://phys.org/news268575640.html Biology Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:20:52 EST news268575640 Biologists at New York University have uncovered one way that biological clocks control neuronal activity—a discovery that sheds new light on sleep-wake cycles and offers potential new directions for research into therapies to address sleep disorders and jetlag. http://phys.org/news267809317.html Biology Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:28:59 EST news267809317 A University of Alberta-led research team has dramatically expanded the palette of fluorescent highlighters that can be used to track the movement of messengers inside of single cells. http://phys.org/news234709181.html Biology Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:00:01 EST news234709181 Regret has long been viewed as an exclusively human thought, one which helps prevent us from repeating bad choices but becomes debilitating when it triggers obsessive thoughts about past actions. http://phys.org/news225545819.html Biology Wed, 25 May 2011 12:37:17 EST news225545819 The first study to examine the activity of hundreds of individual human brain cells during seizures has found that seizures begin with extremely diverse neuronal activity, contrary to the classic view that they are characterized by massively synchronized activity. The investigation by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brown University researchers also observed pre-seizure changes in neuronal activity both in the cells where seizures originate and in nearby cells. The report will appear in Nature Neuroscience and is receiving advance online publication. http://phys.org/news220449872.html Medicine & Health Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:05:03 EST news220449872 Smoking is a common problem for patients with schizophrenia. The increased tendency of patients diagnosed with this disorder is to not only smoke, but to do so more heavily than the general public. This raises the possibility that nicotine may be acting as a treatment for some symptoms of schizophrenia. http://phys.org/news213963253.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:14:29 EST news213963253 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have uncovered a self-organizing biological principle in the brains of three very different, genetically diverse mammals -- but in all three they found the same mathematically precise "pinwheel" organization and orientation of neurons. http://phys.org/news208110964.html Biology Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:36:24 EST news208110964 Refinements to a fluorescent calcium ion indicator give scientists a powerful tool for tracking neuronal activity in the living brain http://phys.org/news206961179.html Medicine & Health Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:13:20 EST news206961179 Mount Sinai researchers have discovered how cocaine corrupts the brain and becomes addictive. These findings -- the first to connect activation of specific neurons to alterations in cocaine reward -- were published in Science on October 15. The results may help researchers in developing new ways of treating those addicted to the drug. http://phys.org/news206622242.html Medicine & Health Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:04:44 EST news206622242 A University of Alberta research team has discovered a potential new trigger for epileptic seizures that strike during deep sleep. http://phys.org/news204970983.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:23:23 EST news204970983 Information processing in the brain relies on the coordinated activity between populations of different types of neurons, each with distinct electrical properties and connections. Understanding how complex neuronal circuitry processes information is challenging, as it requires measuring the activity of groups of specified cells. http://phys.org/news204812675.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:25:00 EST news204812675 Rui Costa, Principal Investigator of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (Portugal), and Xin Jin, of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health (USA), describe in the latest issue of the journal Nature, that the activity of certain neurons in the brain can signal the initiation and termination of behavioural sequences we learn anew. Furthermore, they found that this brain activity is essential for learning and executing novel action sequences, many times compromised in patients suffering from disorders such as Parkinson's or Huntington's. http://phys.org/news198934294.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:16 EST news198934294 (PhysOrg.com) -- Most scientists have viewed electrical fields within the brain as the simple byproducts of neuronal activity. However, Yale scientists report in the July 15 issue of the journal Neuron that electrical fields can also influence the activity of brain cells. http://phys.org/news198350025.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:50:13 EST news198350025 New York University researchers have identified a mechanism the brain uses to help process sound localization. Their findings, which appear in the latest edition of the journal PLoS Biology, focus on how the brain computes the different arrival times of sound into each ear to estimate the location of its source. http://phys.org/news197040548.html Medicine & Health Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:00:04 EST news197040548 By stimulating certain areas of the brain, scientists can alleviate the effects of disorders such as depression or Parkinson's disease. That's the good news. But because controlling that stimulation currently lacks precision, over-stimulation is a serious concern — losing some of its therapeutic benefits for the patient over time. http://phys.org/news196958657.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:20:01 EST news196958657 A brain stimulation technique, known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, boosts the language ability of patients with Alzheimer's disease, suggests preliminary research, published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. http://phys.org/news196517839.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:00:12 EST news196517839 Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disease of the intestines and no definitive medical treatment has been defined yet. A research team from Turkey applied local anesthetics onto the experimentally induced colitis areas in rats to investigate their potential effect on treating the inflammation at the disease site. The improvement in the macroscopic inflammation at the site of application suggested that local anesthetics might have beneficial therapeutic effects on IBD. http://phys.org/news194693917.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:20:01 EST news194693917 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) found that microRNAs, small RNA regulators of gene expression, are up- and down-regulated in the retina during light-dark adaptation and in response to synaptic stimulation in hippocampal and cortical neurons. This important discovery provides an unexpected function for microRNAs: it shows that they are able to regulate rapidly the expression of synaptic proteins, which are involved in synapse plasticity and memory formation. http://phys.org/news193301577.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 May 2010 07:53:52 EST news193301577 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), are unraveling how odors are processed by the brain. As they report in Nature, odors in the olfactory brain are classified into groups represented by discrete activity states of neuronal circuits. Using advanced optical methods, they discovered that gradual variations in odors result in abrupt transitions between patterns of neuronal activity. These findings provide fundamental insights into the brain's information-processing mechanisms. http://phys.org/news192208587.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 May 2010 16:40:01 EST news192208587 In focal epilepsy, seizures are generated by a localized, synchronous neuronal electrical discharge that may spread to large portions of the brain. In spite of intense research in the field of epilepsy, a key question remains unanswered: what are the earliest cellular events leading to the initiation of a focal seizure? http://phys.org/news190398651.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:31:06 EST news190398651 Researchers at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute are now a step closer to deciphering a leading cause of blindness in the United States - glaucoma. http://phys.org/news186669414.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:00:01 EST news186669414 Investigators in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Faculty of Medicine, have made a major breakthrough in our understanding of nerve impulse generation within the brain. Brain cells communicate with each other by firing electrical impulses, which in turn rely upon special ion channels that are positioned at strategic locations in their membranes. This exciting, new foundational research was published this week in the prominent journal Nature Neuroscience. http://phys.org/news185553508.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:38:42 EST news185553508 Interconnected networks of neurons process information and give rise to perception by communicating with one another via small electrical impulses known as action potentials. In the past, scientists believed that adjacent neurons synchronized their action potentials. However, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany said in a current report in the journal Science that this synchronization does not happen. http://phys.org/news183909056.html Medicine & Health Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:00:08 EST news183909056 A team of scientists from The University of Alabama used worms to reel in information that they hope will lead to a greater understanding of cellular mechanisms that may be exploited to treat epilepsy. In a new research report in the journal Genetics, the researchers explain how the transparent roundworm, C. elegans, helped them identify key "molecular switches" that control the transport of a molecule (gamma-aminobutyric acid or "GABA") that if manipulated within our cells, might prevent the onset of seizures. http://phys.org/news179588495.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:43:06 EST news179588495 Two new studies show that the thalamus--the small central brain structure often characterized as a mere pit-stop for sensory information on its way to the cortex--is heavily involved in sensory processing, and is an important conductor of the brain's complex orchestra. http://phys.org/news179422808.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:41:31 EST news179422808 (PhysOrg.com) -- Neuroscientists at the University of Leicester are to work with a renowned international artist in order to gain new insights into perception. http://phys.org/news172141962.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:00:02 EST news172141962 A new understanding of how anesthesia and anesthesia-like states are controlled in the brain opens the door to possible new future treatments of various states of loss of consciousness, such as reversible coma, according to Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists. http://phys.org/news172136363.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:23:12 EST news172136363 Carbon nanotubes hold many exciting possibilities, some of them in the realm of the human nervous system. Recent research has shown that carbon nanotubes may help regrow nerve tissue or ferry drugs used to repair damaged neurons associated with disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and perhaps even paralysis. http://phys.org/news170601609.html Nanotechnology Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:50:04 EST news170601609 When we absorb new information, the human brain reshapes itself to store this newfound knowledge. But where exactly is the new knowledge kept, and how does that capacity to adapt reflect our risk for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of senile dementia later in our lives? http://phys.org/news169297836.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:20:02 EST news169297836 Alcohol's inebriating effects are familiar to everyone. But the molecular details of alcohol's impact on brain activity remain a mystery. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies brings us closer to understanding how alcohol alters the way brain cells work. http://phys.org/news165418779.html Medicine & Health Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:47:46 EST news165418779