In a new paper published in Learning and Memory, researchers from Boston University's Center for Systems Neuroscience reveal just how much power scents have in triggering the memory of past experiences--and the potential for odor to be used as a tool to treat... Continue Reading →
How quickly do we experience the benefits of exercise? A new University of Maryland study of healthy older adults shows that just one session of exercise increased activation in the brain circuits associated with memory - including the hippocampus -... Continue Reading →
In a study of epilepsy patients, researchers at the National Institutes of Health monitored the electrical activity of thousands of individual brain cells, called neurons, as patients took memory tests. They found that the firing patterns of the cells that... Continue Reading →
The conclusions of a study carried out by Víctor Costumero, as the first author, Marco Calabria and Albert Costa (died in 2018), members of the Speech Production and Bilingualism (SPB) group at the Cognition and Brain Center (CBC) of the... Continue Reading →
In a study of Americans over age 50 years who died between 2004 and 2014, individuals who were characterized as lonely based on survey results were burdened by more symptoms and received more intense end-of-life care compared with non-lonely people.... Continue Reading →
Oxytocin, a brain peptide that is widely known for its role in love and bonding, may hold potential for helping individuals overcome alcohol addiction. In a collaborative study with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), scientists at Scripps Research... Continue Reading →
Brain functions are made possible by circuits of spiking neurons, connected together by microscopic, but highly complex links called synapses. In this new study, published in the scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports, the scientists created a hybrid neural network where biological... Continue Reading →
Counterfactual thinking focus on how the past might have been, or the present could be, different. These thoughts are usually triggered by negative events that block one’s goals and desires. Counterfactual thoughts have a variety of effects on emotions, beliefs,... Continue Reading →
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable disease of the central nervous system. In most cases, ALS is fatal within a short period following diagnosis. However, people sometimes live with the disease for decades, as did the astrophysicist Steven Hawking.... Continue Reading →
Scents of Science 