Brain Training May Help Stroke Victims Recover Vision
News

Brain Training May Help Stroke Victims Recover Vision

by Tom Valeo

BrainWork

A form of visual therapy that employs computer exercises may help restore some vision to patients who lost sight as a result of stroke. Some researchers are skeptical that the patients were truly blind, however.

News

Neuroscience, Performance Art Begin to Play Off Each Other

by Aalok Mehta

Neuroscience is increasingly pursuing questions about artistic expression even as artists commandeer scientific findings for their performances, panelists said during a recent roundtable.

News

Controlling Neurons With Light

by Jim Schnabel

“Optogenetics” techniques, which use light-sensitive proteins to select and influence a neuron, are a powerful new set of tools for neuroscience and neurology, scientists say.

In Autism, Movements May Not Quickly Become Habit
News

In Autism, Movements May Not Quickly Become Habit

by Faith Hickman Brynie

Children who have autism continue to use one of the brain’s “new learning” networks during a repetitive finger-tapping exercise when other children have switched mental control to their “automatic” networks, suggests recent research.

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News

Imaging Reveals Alzheimer’s Clues both Before and After Disease Develops

by Carl Sherman

BrainWork

Signs of Alzheimer’s may be detectable years before symptoms emerge. New brain imaging techniques and other approaches are giving scientists new insight into disease risk and may one day help them start treatment earlier and develop better methods.

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Blog

Games for Life: Using Wii to treat Parkinson’s

Wii Sports helps movement and mood in people with Parkinson’s, according to a new study. With motion control looming for two other major consoles, is a health revolution brewing? And the July 13 Newsweek features an interesting article about advances in brain research and potential therapies that may help build a “smarter brain.”

Studying the Brains of the ‘Super Old’
Column

Studying the Brains of the ‘Super Old’

by Guy McKhann, M.D.

Brain in the News

Baby boomers are reaching their 60s—an age at which dementia starts to appear in increasing numbers of people. But the fastest-growing segment of our society is "well" people living into their 90s and beyond. What can they tell us about healthy aging?

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Partner Site

Trace the Route from Genes to Cognition

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Genes to Cognition (G2C) Online project, sponsored in part by the Dana Foundation, includes an interactive Web site with information on neuroscience topics, especially on cognitive disorders, brain processes and research approaches. The site’s multimedia “maps” illuminate the connections between topics, so you can trace your own path through the site. [off-site link]

News

Safer than Marijuana, a Natural Chemical Strengthens Memories

by Elizabeth Norton Lasley

BrainWork

A chemical in the amygdala that stimulates the same receptors as marijuana, but more safely, is involved in shoring up highly emotional memories, evidence shows.

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Podcast

The Brain's 'Replay' Button

On the monthly NeuroPod, Nature reporter Kerri Smith reports on how what you look for biases what you see, using magnetic stimulation for research and treatment, mouse 'assault courses' and how the brain replays memories any chance it gets. [off-site audio link]

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News

The Latest Links from Brain in the News

Brain in the News

Each week we update our Brain in the News page with links to the latest top-quality articles. Among this week’s: Researchers hope their new process that causes neurons in a mouse's brain to fire using fiber optics may one day be used to help treat disease. 

Translating Research in Mice to Trials in Patients
Column

Translating Research in Mice to Trials in Patients

by Ralph Steinman, M.D.

Immunology in the News

Researchers need to focus on translating the results from hundreds of mouse cancer studies to human application.

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News

‘Neuroeducation’ Emerges as Insights into Brain Development, Learning Abilities Grow

BrainWork

As scientists learn more about how the brain grows and learns, universities are developing programs to translate those insights into practical classroom strategies.

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News

Arts Education Opportunities, Achievement Gaps Remain, Survey Finds

Results do not include fallout from economic crisis, which is likely to curb school arts programs.

by Aalok Mehta

Opportunities to learn music and the visual arts remain similar to 1997 levels, a nationwide arts assessment indicates. But the survey was conducted in early 2008, before the economic crisis reached full swing.

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News

How Stress Affects the Brain May Depend on Age

by Kayt Sukel

How our brains react to stress in adulthood may be influenced by if and when we were stressed as children, suggests a recent review of research in the area.

Neuroimaging: Separating the Promise from the Pipe Dreams

Neuroimaging: Separating the Promise from the Pipe Dreams

by Russell A. Poldrack, M.D.

Cerebrum

Researchers and news reports sometimes exaggerate findings from brain imaging, and we should regard “breakthroughs" with caution, writes an experienced interpreter of brain scans.

Arts Educators Should Be Asking One Key Question
Column

Arts Educators Should Be Asking One Key Question

by Janet Eilber

Arts Education in the News

Researchers and educators need to collaborate to learn how arts education will inform the cognitive skills of children in the 21st century.

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Briefing Paper

Addicted to Food?

Research Suggests Compulsive Eating, like Compulsive Drug Use, Is a Brain Disorder

by Brenda Patoine

Increasing evidence suggests that food and drugs both trigger a sense of well-being by activating the reward circuitry of the brain. This has led to a debate over whether to include “pathological” overeating as a brain disorder in the upcoming version of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, the DSM-V. 

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Cerebrum 2009: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science
Dana Press Book

Cerebrum 2009: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

In this annual anthology of articles selected from Cerebrum, the online magazine, a stellar group of scientists and science writers, including neuroscientist Guy McKhann, computational neuroscientist Sebastian Seung, developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan and neurologist Stephen L. Hauser, introduce readers to cutting-edge developments in brain science.

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Online Magazine for Teens

The Vast Potential of the Mind and Brain

Neuroethicist Michael Gazzaniga asks the big questions, the winner of the International Brain Bee describes her path to glory and pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson says years of education are so worth it in the Mind & Brain issue of Imagine, the magazine for middle- and high school students published by the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University. [off-site link]

The Faces of a New Field
Dana Press Book

The Faces of a New Field

The author of Deep Brain Stimulation chats about the promises of the technology, its ethical implications and the colorful cast of patients and doctors she met while researching the book.

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At 100, Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini Continues Her Work
European Dana Alliance for the Brain

At 100, Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini Continues Her Work

Rita Levi-Montalcini, who  started her research career in a laboratory set up in her bedroom in Turin, Italy during World War II, pioneered research into nerve growth factor (NGF). Her findings opened new areas of research in neuronal plasticity and repair, with implications for neurodegenerative diseases. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986, which she shared with her colleague Stanley Cohen. She is a founding member of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. Read more.

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Learning How You Learn Best
Partner site

Learning How You Learn Best

"Your Brain at Work: Making the Science of Learning and Memory Work for You" is an interactive Web site exploring how learning changes with age, learning better in the workplace and how a brain-healthy lifestyle can support learning throughout life. It's the newest piece in the Dana Alliance's Cognitive Fitness at Work series, developed in partnership with The Conference Board. [off-site link]

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The Teen Brain: Primed to Learn, Primed to Take Risks

The Teen Brain: Primed to Learn, Primed to Take Risks

by Jay N. Giedd, M.D.

Cerebrum

The changes the brain undergoes during adolescence pave the way to adulthood, but this plasticity also can open the door to poor decision making and risky behavior, writes Jay N. Giedd, a child psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health. 

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Learning, Arts, and the Brain
Research

Learning, Arts, and the Brain

Dana Consortium studies find strong links

For the first time, coordinated, multi-university scientific research brings us closer to answering the question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?

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Book Releases
Try to Remember

Try to Remember

by Paul R. McHugh, M.D.

One of our country’s leading authorities on psychiatry tells the unforgettable story of how lives can be destroyed by faddish misdirections of thought and therapeutic practices. His first-hand account begins in the 1990s with his battle against the theory of “repressed sexual memories” and ends with his concern that excessive diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder is today placing many patients in treatments that leave their real mental troubles untouched. A passionate advocate for the contribution of psychotherapy to healing, McHugh reaches out to patients, families, and mental health providers to explain how to work together toward effective diagnosis and treatment to win a contest for mental peace.

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Cerebrum 2008: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

Cerebrum 2008: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

In this second annual anthology, top scientists and scholars interpret the latest discoveries about the human brain and confront their implications for fields from architecture to ethics, music to health care policy. Foreword by Carl Zimmer.

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Your Brain on Cubs

Your Brain on Cubs

Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

Edited by Dan Gordon

A group of today’s leading science writers and neuroscientists explore here the ways that our brain functions when we participate in sports as fans, athletes, and coaches, taking baseball as the quintessential sport for all three perspectives.

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Best of the Brain from Scientific American

Best of the Brain from Scientific American

Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain

by Floyd E. Bloom, M.D.

Top neuroscientist Floyd E. Bloom has selected the most fascinating brain-related articles from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind since 1999 in this collection. Divided into three sections—Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow’s Brain—this compilation takes you to the latest information from the front lines of brain research.

Audiobooks Now Available

Audiobooks Now Available

The Creating Brain, The Ethical Brain, Your Brain on Cubs and Best of the Brain from Scientific American are available now as audiobooks at Audible or iTunes.


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Focus on Neuroeducation


Brain Scientists See Signs That Arts Educators Find Familiar

The latest research in neuroscience is providing evidence that supports a notion long argued by advocates: that the arts improve learning and cognition.

Learning Arts Brain Mariale Hardiman - ThumbnailThe Arts Will Help School Accountability: Commentary by Mariale Hardiman

Federal and state policy makers should expand their view of what constitutes an effective school based on the evidence of science and of experience, proposes a neuroeducation specialist at Johns Hopkins University.  For example, at the school she ran in Baltimore, "as teachers designed arts-integrated lessons that fostered creative thinking, a transformation occurred in the school."

2009 Learning, Arts, and the Brain Summit - Jerome Kagan_thumbnailWhy the Arts Matter: Jerome Kagan Gives Six Good Reasons for Advocating the Importance of Arts in School

"It is not possible to live by rationality alone," said cognitive-research pioneer Jerome Kagan during the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference in Baltimore. 


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