Tag: brain
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Observe.
A new device enables researchers to observe hundreds of neurons in the brain in real-time. The system is based on modified silicon chips from cameras, but rather than taking a picture, it takes a movie of the neural electrical activity. (1) Once a man tried to observe the cosmos. And he cannot stop ever since.…
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Brain. Skin. Thinking. Not being.
Brain activity has an unmistakable signature: the firing of neurons, as brain cells relay information to one another through the triggered release of chemical neurotransmitters, which are received by the long, branching dendrites of neighbouring cells. This microscopic ritual is distinctive, but it doesn’t belong only to neurons. Scientists have now found bursts of neuron-like…
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Ancestral asymmetries…
The left and right side of the brain are involved in different tasks. This functional lateralization and associated brain asymmetry are well documented in humans, but little is known about brain asymmetry in our closest living relatives, the great apes. Using endocasts (imprints of the brain on cranial bones), scientists now challenge the long-held notion…
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Knowing thy self…
Interoception is the awareness of our physiological states; it’s how animals and humans know they’re hungry or thirsty, and how they know when they’ve had enough to eat or drink. But precisely how the brain estimates the state of the body and reacts to it remains unclear. In a paper published in the journal Neuron,…
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Conscious. Unconscious!
What does this mean for the EEG’s ability to reflect consciousness? “The study does support the possibility that certain EEG features might not always accurately capture the level of consciousness in surgical patients,” says senior author George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the U-M Department of Anesthesiology. However, “EEG likely does have value in…
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