Related topics: brain

Discovery of the neural circuit for fear conditioning of fish

Animals are often noted sensing signs of danger and reacting. A simple form of this phenomenon is called fear conditioning, which is a type of learning commonly seen in every animal. By manipulating the activity of specific ...

Why do we have large brains?

In recently published article from Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the relationship between brain size and behavioural ecology was found to be highly sensitive to small data changes, and widely championed hypotheses such ...

Evolving robot brains

Researchers are using the principles of Darwinian evolution to develop robot brains that can navigate mazes, identify and catch falling objects, and work as a group to determine in which order they should exit and re-enter ...

The origins of laughter

We know the benefits of laughter on health. But why do we laugh? What are the evolutionary origins of laughter and humour? Steven Légaré has asked these questions and has made them the subject of his master's thesis, which ...

Sediba hominid skull hints at later brain evolution

An analysis of a skull from the most complete early hominid fossils ever found suggests that the large and complex human brain may have evolved more rapidly than previously realized, and at a later time than some other human ...

Human brain evolution, new insight through X-rays

A paper published today in Science reveals the highest resolution and most accurate X-ray scan ever made of the brain case of an early human ancestor. The insight derived from this data is like a powerful beacon on the hazy ...

Building a smarter ape?

Silly as the movie gets, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" explores big questions about human evolution.

Migratory behavior affects the size of brains in birds

Researchers at Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF, a Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain) shed new light on the evolution of brain size in birds. Scientists have known for some time that ...

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