News tagged with receptor neurons

A change of mind: One protein appears to control neurons' ability to react to new experiences

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plasticity -- the brain's ability to change in response to external input -- is critical for most cognitive functions, including learning and memory. Those changes usually involve a strengthening ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Mar 24, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers identify dominant chemical that attracts mosquitoes to humans

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the dominant odor naturally produced in humans and birds that attracts the blood-feeding Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile virus ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 5

Researchers find gene critical to sense of smell in fruit fly

(Medical Xpress) -- Fruit flies don't have noses, but a huge part of their brains is dedicated to processing smells. Flies probably rely on the sense of smell more than any other sense for essential activities ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The brain knows what the nose smells, but how? Researchers trace the answer

(PhysOrg.com) -- Professor of Biology Liqun Luo has developed a new technique to trace neural pathways across the brain. He has mapped the path of odor signals as they travel to the higher centers of a mouse ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists glimpse dance of skeletons inside neurons

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have uncovered how a structural component inside neurons performs two coordinated dance moves when the connections between neurons are strengthened.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Sep 13, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Testosterone directly amplifies but does not program male behaviors

New research uncovers some surprising information about how sex hormones control masculinization of the brain during development and drive gender related behaviors in adult males. The study, published by Cell Press in the ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Apr 28, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists discover how chemical repellants trip up insects

Fire up the citronella-scented tiki torches, and slather on the DEET: Everybody knows these simple precautions repel insects, notably mosquitoes, whose bites not only itch and irritate, but also transmit diseases such as ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 25, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Discovery offers promising research for spinal-cord injury treatments

Researchers in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine have made an important discovery that could lead to more effective treatments for spinal-cord injuries. Karim Fouad and David Bennett have identified ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created May 30, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Protein found to control the early migration of neurons

Long before a baby can flash her first smile, sprout a first tooth or speak a first word, the neurons that will form her central nervous system must take their first, crucial steps. And these steps must be careful to take ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jul 27, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A unique on-off switch for hormone production

Weizmann scientists have revealed a new kind of on-off switch in the brain for regulating the production of a main biochemical signal from the brain that stimulates cortisol release in the body.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

This is your brain on fatty acids

Saturated fats have a deservedly bad reputation, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a sticky lipid occurring naturally at high levels in the brain may help us memorize grandma's recipe for cinnamon buns, as ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 30, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Airway cells use 'tasting' mechanism to detect and clear harmful substances

The same mechanism that helps you detect bad-tasting and potentially poisonous foods may also play a role in protecting your airway from harmful substances, according to a study by scientists at the University ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jul 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Scientists find emotion-like behaviors, regulated by dopamine, in fruit flies

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Their findings, which may be relevant to the relationship betwee ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Phasic firing of dopamine neurons is key to brain's prediction of rewards

Researchers are one step closer to understanding the neurobiology that allows people to successfully learn motivated behaviors by associating environmental cues with rewarding outcomes, according to a study published yesterday ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Apr 03, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

How to get obese mice moving -- and cure their diabetes

Mice lacking the fat hormone leptin or the ability to respond to it become morbidly obese and severely diabetic—not to mention downright sluggish. Now, a new study in the June Cell Metabolism shows that b ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0