Scripps Research Institute scientists and their colleagues have successfully harnessed neurons in mouse brains, allowing them to at least partially control a specific memory. Though just an initial step, the researchers hope such work will eventually lead to better understanding of how memories form in the brain, and possibly even to ways to weaken harmful thoughts for those with conditions such as schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder.
Neuroscience
Anxiety boosts sense of smell
Anxious people have a heightened sense of smell when it comes to sniffing out a threat, according to a new study by Elizabeth Krusemark and Wen Li from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. Their work¹ is published online in Springer’s journal Chemosensory Perception. The study is part of a special issue² of this journal on neuroimaging the chemical senses.
Paul Allen donates additional $300 million to brain research facility
(Medical Xpress) — Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has added an additional $300 million to the $200 million hes already given to the brain research facility in Seattle he started back in 2003, the Allen Institute for Brain Science. This new grant is to go towards a new initiative for the Institute, outlined by Christof Koch, chief scientist at the Institute and Harvard neuroscientist R. Clay Reid, (who will be joining the Institute) in a recent comment brief in the science journal Nature. The new funding will go towards studying the visual cortex in the brain, starting with mice, and eventually moving to humans.
Listen to neurons in your own backyard with the SpikerBox
Amateurs have a new tool for conducting simple neuroscience experiments in their own garage: the SpikerBox.
Brains of frequent dance spectators exhibit motor mirroring while watching familiar dance
Experienced ballet spectators with no physical expertise in ballet showed enhanced muscle-specific motor responses when watching live ballet, according to a Mar. 21 report in the open access journal PLoS ONE.