News tagged with neural function

Study: Believers' inferences about God's beliefs are uniquely egocentric

Religious people tend to use their own beliefs as a guide in thinking about what God believes, but are less constrained when reasoning about other people's beliefs, according to new study published in the ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (50) | comments 182

Dreams may have an important physiological function

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dreams have long been assumed to have psychological functions such as consolidating emotional memories and processing experiences or problems, but according to a Harvard psychiatrist and sleep ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (29) | comments 12 weblog

Good conversation results in a 'mind meld'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers studying human conversation have discovered the brains of listeners and speakers become synchronized, and this "neural coupling" makes for effective communication. In essence, ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jul 27, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (22) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Why sleep? Scientist delves into one of science's great mysteries

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bats, birds, box turtles, humans and many other animals share at least one thing in common: They sleep. Humans, in fact, spend roughly one-third of their lives asleep, but sleep researchers still don't know ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 20, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (22) | comments 24

Researchers document how brain computes language

A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports a significant breakthrough in explaining gaps in scientists' understanding of human brain function. The study - ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (19) | comments 1

Neuroengineers silence brain cells with multiple colors of light

(PhysOrg.com) -- Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. When targeted to specific neurons, these tools could ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 06, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

The brain as a 'task machine'

The portion of the brain responsible for visual reading doesn't require vision at all, according to a new study published online on February 17 in Current Biology. Brain imaging studies of blind people as they read words ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 17, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (12) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Site for alcohol's action in the brain discovered

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 ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jun 28, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 1

Study reveals how taking an active role in learning enhances memory

Good news for control freaks! New research confirms that having some authority over how one takes in new information significantly enhances one's ability to remember it. The study, in the journal Nature Ne ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 06, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Pot shot: Scientists find cannabis trigger for forgetfulness

Researchers on Sunday said they had pinpointed the biochemical pathway by which cannabis causes memory loss in mice.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 02, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 5

Neural mechanisms of abstract learning

A new study provides intriguing insight into the way that humans approach novel situations. The research, published in the April 29 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals neural mechanisms that underlie our remarkable abilit ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Apr 28, 2010 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Early life experience modifies gene vital to normal brain function

Early life stress, such as an extreme lack of parental affection, has lasting effects on a gene important to normal brain processes and also tied to mental disorders, according to a new animal study in the Sept. 29 issue ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Sep 28, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers develop 'brain-reading' methods

It is widely known that the brain perceives information before it reaches a person's awareness. But until now, there was little way to determine what specific mental tasks were taking place prior to the point of conscious ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jul 27, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1

Future angst? Brain scans show uncertainty fuels anxiety

(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who has spent a sleepless night anguishing over a possible job loss has experienced the central finding of a new brain scan study: Uncertainty makes a bad event feel even worse.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 2

How to read brain activity?

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the very first time, scientists show what EEG can really tell us about how the brain functions.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 0