Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be “white noise” measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chieti, Italy, have shown.

Scientists also report that the degree of change reflects how well subjects have learned to perform the task. Their study is published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [continue reading…]

Through the power of Google Earth, you can travel the globe from the comfort of your computer screen, peering down on everything from above. But once you change your perspective – if you go into one of the buildings that you’ve looked down on – you have to upload a new map. Now, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have discovered that the brain also creates multiple independent maps while finding the way in the physical world. [continue reading…]

Newsweek has a great graphical feature “Inside our Heads” which features some great images from The Human Brain Book.
Over the last 100 years neuroscience has been revolutionized by the advent of powerful imaging.The Human Brain Book looks at how the brain sends messages to the rest of the body, how we think and feel, how we perform unconscious actions (for example breathing), explores the nature of genius, asks why we behave the way we do, explains how we see and hear things, and how and why we dream. Physical and psychological disorders affecting the brain and nervous system are clearly illustrated and summarized in easy-to-understand terms.
Source: Newsweek