Tag: neuroscience

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New Detailed Brain Map Could Aide Future Understanding

Researchers have created the most detailed general map of the brain to date by scanning the brains of 1200 people. After recording detailed imaging of the subjects’ brain activity as they performed a variety of mental tasks, the information was used to ‘teach’ a computer to identify spatial ‘regions’ of related activity. These regions span the brain, creating a 3D, puzzle-like map. Also called a … Continue reading New Detailed Brain Map Could Aide Future Understanding

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Mirror Neurons After a Quarter Century: New light, new cracks

by JohnMark Taylor figures by Youngeun Kaitlyn Choi What about the human brain allows a person to perform such feats as learning guitar through imitation, empathizing with anothers’s pain, or intuiting where a fencer will strike next? Nearly twenty-five years ago, scientists discovered a special kind of cell called a mirror neuron that many both in science and the popular press came to believe might … Continue reading Mirror Neurons After a Quarter Century: New light, new cracks

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Brain tricks to make food taste sweeter: How to transform taste perception and why it matters

by Jessleen K. Kanwal figures by Brad Wierbowski Imagine for a moment that you are unable to taste or smell anything.  For many patients undergoing chemotherapy, this is an everyday reality of their daily fight against cancer.  Chemotherapy kills fast-growing cells in the body in an effort to eradicate tumors.  Taste receptor cells located on our tongue are also fast-growing, regenerating every 2 weeks.  Thus, … Continue reading Brain tricks to make food taste sweeter: How to transform taste perception and why it matters

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The spreading confusion: Rethinking Alzheimer’s disease

by Danielle Heller Proteins are molecular machines. They perform an incredible diversity of tasks that enable all living cells to function.  Like any machine, a protein must be properly assembled in order to carry out its specific task, and if something goes awry, the cellular consequences can be dire. Take Alzheimer’s disease for example. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting over 5 … Continue reading The spreading confusion: Rethinking Alzheimer’s disease

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