BRAIN

Dec 20 2024HEALTH

Detecting Combat Brain Injuries: A Comparison of Methods

Identifying mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in veterans can be tricky. Two different systems, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the LIMBIC-CENC research project, were compared to see how well they found these injuries. The LIMBIC-CENC study uses detailed interviews to find all possib

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Dec 20 2024HEALTH

Embracing Cuteness: How It Affects Your Brain

Did you know that liking cute things could actually change your brain? A recent study found that people who enjoy cute stuff, often called "kawaii-ness, " had more gray matter in certain parts of their brain. Gray matter is important for things like learning, memory, and decision-making. You might

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Dec 19 2024SCIENCE

How Brain Cells Affect Balance in Aged Mice

The cerebellum, a crucial part of the brain, plays a significant role in balance, gaze stability, and spatial orientation by processing various sensory signals and motor commands. Within this region, certain brain cells called unipolar brush cells (UBCs) are abundant. UBCs receive direct and indirec

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Dec 19 2024HEALTH

The Unusual Journey of Blood in the Brain

Meet John, a 54-year-old man who had a special map of his brain's blood vessels made. This map, called a computed tomography angiogram (CTA), showed something unique. John's left posterior cerebral artery (PCA) wasn't just getting blood from the vertebrobasilar system, like most people. It also had

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Dec 17 2024HEALTH

How Team Sports Help Kids' Brains Grow

Did you know that playing team sports might actually boost your child's brainpower? It's true! Scientists have found that kids who play team sports often develop better problem-solving skills and improve their memory. Why is that? Well, when your child is on a team, they have to think fast, make qui

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Dec 17 2024HEALTH

How Gut Bugs Talk to the Brain

Did you know that tiny creatures living in your gut can chat with your brain? Yes, gut microbes can actually communicate with the brain through something called the gut-brain axis. This might sound a bit weird, but it's true! These little critters change as we grow older, with the number and types d

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Dec 17 2024SCIENCE

SASH1: The Cluster Buster in Your Brain

Ever thought about tiny protein friends in our brain? Meet SASH1 and Caskin1. Caskin1 is a vital brain protein that loves to hang out in groups, known as "homopolymers. " Scientists were puzzled about how these groups were formed and broken down. Enter SASH1, the new friend that can bust up Caskin1'

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Dec 16 2024HEALTH

Vets Trying Psychedelics for Brain Injury Relief

In July, a group of U. S. Special Operations veterans embarked on an unusual journey. They traveled to Mexico in search of relief for their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) symptoms. Their mission? To experiment with powerful psychedelics. Over two days, they pl

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Dec 16 2024HEALTH

Boosting Brain Tumor Diagnosis with Smart AI

Brain tumors are super serious and need quick, accurate diagnosis for the best treatment. Old ways for classifying these tumors take time and can be wrong. Let's start with collecting brain images from a special dataset. These images are then cleaned up to remove noise using a special method called

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Dec 16 2024SCIENCE

Brain and Belief: The Neuroscience of Spiritual Experiences

Scientists have been diving into the connection between religion and the brain, and they're finding some interesting links. It turns out that spiritual experiences might depend on how different parts of the brain talk to each other. Key players in this brain network are the default mode network (DMN

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