Brains News

Whether jazz or classic is the preference, the brains of musicians who excel in different music forms differ according to a neuroscience study.

The hunt for new ‘super-foods’ continues (assuming that there really are super-foods rather than sensible diets). Attention has now turned to the humble blueberry and its apparent ability to boost brain function.

Organ donation is well-established with many people willing to donate various body parts. Brains are a different matter, with many people unaware they can donate their brain. Yet researchers need brains; we look at why this is important.

Stress affects the human body in different ways, exerting physiological and biochemical affects. A new study of teenagers suggests the impact of stress on the brains of boys and girls differs.

London - The more a person lies, the more their brain becomes desensitized to lying, according to a new study. Whether it is scientific, political or financial fraud, or infidelity, the brain can adapt to the continued lying so the process becomes easier.

Antwerp - A brain bank, a grisly sounding collection of brains and tissues, has been established in Belgium, with parts of the collection being shipped from the U.K. The idea is to provide tissue and medical records to researchers all over the world.

Scientists are now growing brains outside the human body which could one day think and feel and even suffer from autism or schizophrenia.

Vanderbilt - Size matters when it comes to human evolution, although the advancement in cognitive thinking owes more to the concentration of neurons than it does to the size of the brain, according to a new study.

A new research study, looking at the brains of teenagers who use social media regularly, has found that the responses in the brain to things like Instagram likes is similar to eating chocolate or other "pleasure responses."

Can brain death be reversed? This may sound the stuff of science fiction, but some leading biotechnology companies have been given the go ahead to run an experiment.

It is sometimes part of the popular lexicon to sometimes speak of a "male brain" or a "female brain," drawing in on gender-role stereotypes. Scientifically there is no such thing, as a new study demonstrates.

David Charles, from Indiana, admitted to stealing human brain samples from a medical museum. He also admitted to selling them.

Taking mind control to its fullest, scientists have used a cocktail of different chemicals to the control the minds and responses of laboratory mice.

Scuttling around in their Cambrian world over 500 million years ago, two species of hard-shelled, primitive arthropods could have no idea that they would help scientists to better understand how modern arthropods like lobsters and scorpions evolved.

The fact that those who grow up with a silver spoon in their mouths do better in life than those with a plastic one, is irrefutable. But now, a study says this also has a basis in the different sizes of brains between richer and poorer children.

Scientists have identified a human DNA element that spurs nerve growth and brain growth when placed in mice. The consequences are that the larger brain might have a greater memory capacity.

Austin - The mystery of the 100 brains reported missing from a research laboratory at the University of Texas in Austin has finally been solved, the Los Angeles Times is reporting.

Washington - A brain-computer interface has used the brain activity of monkeys to allow them to steer a wheelchair towards a food reward.

Research suggests that early humans made an evolutionary trade-off, giving up muscular strength to fuel bigger brains. This is not the view, however, shared by all biologists.

Atlanta - A new study shows that reading fiction novels or short stories improves neural connections in the brain and the effects last several days after reading.

Young adults who occasionally use pot show abnormalities in two key areas of their brain related to emotion, motivation, and decision making, new research reveals.

Researchers have developed a solution that turns tissues transparent. It is hoped that the technique will be used to view neuronal circuits in the human brain, as part of the examination of conditions like Alzheimer's disease.

A scientific research concludes that dorsomedial prefrontal cortex mediates rapid evaluations predicting the outcome of romantic interactions.

New research shows cellphones excite the brain by stimulating glucose that can affect decision making, and thinking and impair the senses.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science say that cockroaches could be beneficial to health. They could be used to help develop new antibiotic treatments.

Wildlife organizations are warning that South Africa's vultures are being pushed to extinction by gamblers looking to gain special powers by smoking the dried brains of these birds of prey in order to predict the outcome of World Cup games.

Dublin - In Russian Roulette a bullet is placed in a chamber of the gun, the cylinder is spun, and one player aims the revolver at their head and pulls the trigger. Play continues until one player blows their brains out and ends the contest.

Three professional football players from the National Football League (NFL) announced Monday that they will donate their brains and spinal cord tissue in aid of studies concerning sports-related brain injuries.

The well known presenter of the BBC programme Newsnight Jeremy Paxman will donate his brain to a brain repository after his death.

A slow, chronic starvation of the brain as we age appears to be one of the major triggers of a biochemical process that causes some forms of Alzheimer's disease.