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Last Updated: Nov 18, 2006 - 12:32:53 PM |
Latest Research
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Memory
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Intelligence
Music thought to enhance intelligence
A recent volume of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences takes a closer look at how music evolved and how we respond to it. Contributors to the volume believe that animals such as birds, dolphins and whales make sounds analogous to music out of a desire to imitate each other. This ability to learn and imitate sounds is a trait necessary to acquire language and scientists feel that many of the sounds animals make may be precursors to human music.
Jun 24, 2006 - 4:06:00 PM
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Neurosciences
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Memory
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Intelligence
Short term synaptic plasticity play a widespread role in information processing
Animals' neurons, and the synapses that connect them, are constantly changing. This plasticity is thought to underlie learning and memory. Take the rat in the maze. As he learns to navigate a new environment, familiarity with the space is reflected in the neuronal activity of a small almond-shaped brain structure called the hippocampus. Neurons in the hippocampus are generally quiescent. But when the rat meanders into a spot that a specific neuron prefers, called its �place field,� the neuron responds with high-frequency bursts of spikes. As the rat's familiarity with the maze increases over only a few minutes, so does the reliability by which hippocampal neurons respond to their preferred place. This short-term experience modifies the neurons' responses, and very likely the synapses, although the synaptic mechanisms of short-term plasticity in this context have not been fully described.
Jun 23, 2006 - 12:33:00 AM
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Memory
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Brain Rewards Curiosity with Shot of Natural Opiates
Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. The "click" of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist.
Jun 21, 2006 - 12:06:00 AM
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Neurosciences
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Memory
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Intelligence
Dysbindin-1 gene (DTNBP1) - The Intelligence Gene
Psychiatric researchers at The Zucker Hillside Hospital campus of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have uncovered evidence of a gene that appears to influence intelligence. Working in conjunction with researchers at Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics in Boston, the Zucker Hillside team examined the genetic blueprints of individuals with schizophrenia, a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by cognitive impairment, and compared them with healthy volunteers.
Apr 30, 2006 - 11:10:00 PM
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Neurosciences
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Memory
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Intelligence
Brains of the smarter kids tend to change more dramatically
Brains of the smarter kids tend to change more dramatically as they grow up, say scientists who claim to have discovered why some children have higher IQ levels.
Mar 30, 2006 - 3:03:00 PM
Latest Research
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Neurosciences
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Memory
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Intelligence
Brain size matters for intellectual ability
Brain size matters for intellectual ability and bigger is better, McMaster University researchers have found. The study, led by neuroscientist Sandra Witelson, a professor in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and published in the December issue of the journal Brain, has provided some of the clearest evidence on the underlying basis of differences in intelligence. The study involved testing of intelligence in 100 neurologically normal, terminally ill volunteers, who agreed that their brains be measured after death. It found bigger is better, but there are differences between women and men. In women, verbal intelligence was clearly correlated with brain size, accounting for 36 percent of the verbal IQ score. In men, this was true for right-handers only, indicating that brain asymmetry is a factor in men.
Dec 23, 2005 - 6:53:00 PM
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