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“Tests currently given to players who suffer concussions on the football field show that the measurable effects disappear 10 to 12 days after they receive a blow to the head,” explains Louis De Beaumont, who is currently writing a doctoral thesis on the topic. “However, our research has shown that sequelae can be observed up to nine months later. We’re afraid that blows to the brain could even have lasting effects.” [continue reading…]
The study, available online and appearing in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience, is the first to identify the specific signal that establishes nonpermanent cellular memory and reveals how the brain holds temporary information. It has implications for addiction, attention disorders and stress-related memory loss, said Dr. Don Cooper, assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study conducted in mice.
Individual nerve cells in the front part of the brain can hold traces of memories on their own for as long as a minute and possibly longer, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
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Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that the human brain—once thought to be a seriously flawed decision maker—is actually hard-wired to allow us to make the best decisions possible with the information we are given. The findings are published in today’s issue of the journal Neuron.
Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky received a 2002 Nobel Prize for their 1979 research that argued humans rarely make rational decisions. Since then, this has become conventional wisdom among cognition researchers. [continue reading…]
Biochemist Gregory Petsko makes a convincing argument that, in the next 50 years, we’ll see an epidemic of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, as the world population ages. His solution: more research into the brain and its functions
Source: TED
