Brain
Monkeys Adapt Robot Arm as Their Own
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Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are not just learning to manipulate an external device, Duke University Medical Center neurobiologists have found. Rather, their brain structures are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage.
The finding has profound implications both for understanding the extraordinary adaptability of the primate brain and for the potential clinical success of brain-operated devices to give the handicapped the ability to control their environment, said the researchers.
Brain disease may cause death during sleep
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When an elderly person dies in his or her sleep, cessation of breathing related to the loss of neurons in a particular area of the brain could be a possible cause of death, if animal experiments are any indication.
A brain region called the ventrolateral medulla is critical for generating regular, rhythmic breathing, and neurons in this area show high levels of a receptor termed NK1R. Dr. Leanne C. McKay and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles theorized that a lack of NK1R-carrying neurons could underlie central sleep apnea.
Device mechanically removes brain blood clots
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An FDA-approved device, which is threaded into the brain’s arteries, can safely retrieve blood clots and open large vessels that become blocked and lead to stroke, research indicates.
Each year, about 700,000 Americans suffer a stroke and 88 percent of those strokes are caused by a blood clot that blocks the blood supply to the brain—so called ischemic stroke.
Stroke caused by occlusion of large brain blood vessels (greater than 1.5 mm in size) is a particularly “mortal form of stroke,” Dr. Wade S. Smith from the University of California, San Francisco noted in comments to Reuters Health.
Sweat scent study suggests gay men’s brains differ
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A compound taken from male sweat stimulates the brains of gay men and straight women but not heterosexual men, raising the possibility that homosexual brains are different, researchers in Sweden reported on Monday.
It also strengthens the evidence that humans respond to pheromones - compounds known to affect animal behavior, especially mating behavior, but whose role in human activity has been questioned.
The pheromone in question is a derivative of testosterone called 4,16-androstadien-3-one, or AND.
Race of face sets brain activity
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The brain reacts differently to the faces of people from different races, research shows.
When volunteers looked at pictures of African-Americans, the brain area that processes emotions became active, a study in Nature Neuroscience found.
When they looked at photos of Caucasian faces, the activity was much less.
Drugs help revive brain-damaged NY fireman—doctor
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The wife of a brain-damaged firefighter said it was “overwhelming” to hear her husband speak after nearly 10 years of silence, a startling revival his doctor credited to a new drug treatment.
Donald Herbert, 43, suddenly snapped to attention on Saturday after years of sitting silently in a wheelchair at his nursing home. He stunned the nursing home staff by asking where his wife, Linda, was.
Linda Herbert was summoned to the Father Baker Manor nursing home, where the injured firefighter engaged family and friends in a 14-hour visit. On Wednesday, Linda Herbert told a news conference that hearing her husband speak again was “overwhelming.”
