Wednesday, February 28, 2007
In 2005, PLoS Medicine published an essay by John Ioannidis, called “Why most published research findings are false,” that has been downloaded over 100,000 times and that was called “an instant cult classic” in a Boston Globe op-ed of July 27 2006. This week, PLoS Medicine revisits the essay, publishing two articles by researchers that move the debate in two new directions. …
Read the full news article at Science Daily
The brain appears to process information more chaotically than has long been assumed. This is demonstrated by a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Bonn. The passing on of information from neuron to neuron does not, they show, occur exclusively at the synapses, i.e. the junctions between the nerve cell extensions. Rather, it seems that the neurons release their chemical messengers along the entire length of these extensions and, in this way, excite the neighbouring cells. …
Read the full press release at AlphaGalileo
Friday, February 23, 2007
They may look like toys, but these robots have helped to back one theory of the origins of language. …
Read the full article at Telegraph
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Planning and worrying about the future has always been considered an exclusively human activity, but now at least one species of bird has also been found to plan for tomorrow. The finding also raises the intriguing possibility that, like humans, birds may get anxious about the future. Research published today (22 February) in the journal Nature shows that western scrub-jays are able to plan for future food shortages by caching food. The birds are shown to have learned from their previous experiences of food scarcity, storing food for future use in places where they anticipate future slim pickings. The researchers at the University of Cambridge believe this is the first known example of future planning in animals. …
Read the full news article at EurekAlert
New research pinpoints specific areas in sound processing centers in the brains of macaque monkeys that shows enhanced activity when the animals watch a video. This study confirms a number of recent findings but contradicts classical thinking, in which hearing, taste, touch, sight, and smell are each processed in distinct areas of the brain and only later integrated. … Kayser notes that the findings also could be used to reveal the role of audio-visual integration in communication or to help pin down where sounds are coming from. …
Read the full news article at Science Daily
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The regions of the brain that control vision and other sensory information grow dramatically in the first few months following birth, while the area that controls abstract thought experiences very little growth during the same period, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found. …
Read the full news article at Science Daily
One of anthropology’s most enduring mysteries — the origins of the ancient Etruscan civilisation — may finally have been solved, with a study of cattle. …
Read the full news article at New Scientist
Monday, February 12, 2007
Three girls who were imprisoned by their mother in a house of indescribable filth for seven years may never recover from the ordeal, experts said last night. The girls were shut away from the outside world, existing in almost complete darkness, playing only with mice and communicating in their own language. …
Read the full article at Times Online
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Wisdom in old age depends on a fresh supply of new brain cells, a study in mice suggests. When mature mice learn a new task, their newly generated brain cells are three times more active than their old ones, the researchers found. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that the adult brain needs a steady addition of new cells to maintain its mental faculties. …
Read the full article at New Scientist
When they begin to lose the ability to remember words, many people assume they have Alzheimer’s disease. But they might have primary progressive aphasia, a disorder that impairs the ability to understand speech and use language. Feinberg School of Medicine researcher Marsel Mesulam discovered the disease in 1982. Now, he and his colleagues have found its genetic cause - a discovery that might lead to better treatment for the rare condition. …
Read the full article at the Daily Northwestern
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Today the Economic and Social Research Council, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government have together announced £5million funding for a new research centre to study bilingualism. Based at the University of Wales, Bangor, the new research centre aims to create greater understanding of bilingualism across the world. Research will focus on the nature of the relationship between the two languages of individual bilingual speakers as well as amongst the wider community. …
Read the full article at AlphaGalileo
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