News tagged with sensory biology

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

Gene discovery explains how fruit flies retreat from heat

A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brain's clock influenced by senses

Humans use their senses to help keep track of short intervals of time according to new research, which suggests that our perception of time is not maintained by an internal body clock alone.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Our nostrils share a rivalry too, study finds

Your nostrils may seem to be a happy pair, working together to pick up scents. However, a study published online on August 20th in Current Biology reveals that there can actually be a kind of rivalry betwee ...

Biology / Other

created Aug 20, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Gain and Loss in Optimistic Versus Pessimistic Brains

Our belief as to whether we will likely succeed or fail at a given task -- and the consequences of winning or losing -- directly affects the levels of neural effort put forth in movement-planning circuits ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 04, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Project fruit fly: What accounts for insect taste?

A Johns Hopkins team has identified a protein in sensory cells on the "tongues" of fruit flies that allows them to detect a noxious chemical and, ultimately, influences their decision about what to eat and ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 23, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fish study turns colour vision theory inside out

(PhysOrg.com) -- Neurobiologists at the Queensland Brain Institute have found that animals are not always as brightly coloured as they seem - at least not to their counterparts.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 22, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The first gene-encoded amphibian toxin isolated

Researchers in China have discovered the first protein-based toxin in an amphibian -a 60 amino acid neurotoxin found in the skin of a Chinese tree frog. This finding may help shed more light into both the ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Mobile microscopes illuminate the brain

(PhysOrg.com) -- By building a tiny microscope small enough to be carried around on a rats' head, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, have found a way to ...

Biology / Other

created Nov 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Visual learning study challenges common belief on attention

A visual learning study by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston indicates that viewers can learn a great deal about objects in their field of vision even without paying attention. The findings ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 25, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers identify signals triggering dendrite growth

A study in worms that are less than a millimetre long has yielded clues that may be important for understanding how nerves grow.

Biology / Other

created Sep 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Surviving dance club music (noise) with hearing intact

By tweaking a system in the ear that limits how much sound is heard, a global team of researchers has discovered one alteration that shows that the ability of the ear to turn itself down contributes to protecting against ...

Biology /

created Jan 21, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

NanoCAGE reveals transcriptional landscape of the mouse main olfactory epithelium

The problem in biology of how to identify the promoters of olfactory receptor genes (>1000 genes) has remained unsolved due to the difficulty of purifying sufficient material from the olfactory epithelium. ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 05, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0