Neuroscience – Science & research news

Breakthrough in construction of computers for mimicking human brain

July 12, 2018

A computer built to mimic the brain’s neural networks produces similar results to that of the best brain-simulation supercomputer software currently used for neural-signaling research, finds a new study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. [...]

Social ties could preserve memory, slow brain aging

June 18, 2018

Research suggests that having a larger social network can positively influence memory and cognitive health as we age: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Research suggests that merely having a larger social network can positively influence the aging brain: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience [...]

Leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health

June 7, 2018

Frontiers in Neuroscience: Leg exercise is critical to neurological health

Groundbreaking research shows leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health, fundamentally altering current brain and nervous system medicine: Frontiers in Neuroscience [...]

Should ethics or human intuition drive the moral judgments of driverless cars?

May 23, 2018

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience: Human intuition is sometimes at odds with ethically acceptable behavior and political guidelines for autonomous self-driving cars

People may not be happy with ethical decisions made by their self-driving cars: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience [...]

Music lessons improve children’s cognitive skills and academic performance

April 19, 2018

Structured music lessons significantly enhance children's cognitive abilities which lead to improved academic performance: Frontiers in Neuroscience [...]

Analyzing past failures may boost future performance by reducing stress

April 16, 2018

Duke, Rutgers & University of Pennsylvania researchers show for first time how writing about past failures helps boost future performance: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience [...]

Childhood aggression linked to deficits in executive function

April 4, 2018

Primary school kids with lower planning and self-restraint skills are more likely to show increased aggression in middle childhood, report University of Potsdam researchers in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience [...]

Moving toward a future free of drug-induced hearing loss

March 19, 2018

Research Topic compiles the latest research into hearing loss caused by drugs and solvents - how it occurs, how to treat it, and how to prevent it. [...]

Scientists move closer to treatment for Huntington’s disease

March 6, 2018

Improvements to gene-editing techniques hold promise for inactivating the defective gene responsible for Huntington's disease : Frontiers in Neuroscience [...]

Researchers find algorithm for large-scale brain simulations

March 2, 2018

Neuroscience brain simulation algorithm exascale

A decisive step towards simulating brain-scale networks on future supercomputers also significantly speeds up simulations on existing supercomputers: Frontiers in Neuroinformatics [...]

Brain disease: do pathological behaviors stem from faulty beliefs?

February 23, 2018

Neuroscience brain function disease Bayesian model

A promising model for understanding neurological and psychiatric disorders could help provide personalized treatments for patients: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience [...]

New path into bipolar disorder comes to light

February 20, 2018

Research reveals a novel potential drug target and offers new insights into the underlying biology of bipolar disorder: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience [...]

Can your brain testify against you?

February 6, 2018

A defined set of guidelines is required to ensure neuroscientific techniques are used correctly and effectively in law: Frontiers in Neuroscience [...]

Mirror neuron activity predicts people’s decision-making in moral dilemmas

January 22, 2018

Genuine concern for others' pain plays a causal role when judging moral dilemmas, shows a study in Frontiers in Psychology [...]

Presurgical imaging may predict whether epilepsy surgery will work

January 3, 2018

A new method described in Frontiers in Neuroscience may help identify epilepsy patients at high risk of continued seizures. [...]

Paraplegic rats walk and regain feeling after stem cell treatment

November 21, 2017

Engineered tissue containing human stem cells has allowed paraplegic rats to walk independently and regain sensory perception: Frontiers in Neuroscience [...]

Do violent communities foster violent children?

November 17, 2017

Children and adolescents regularly confronted with violence have a greater tendency to show antisocial behavior, shows a study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience [...]

Lost in time and space: How challenges change the way you think

November 17, 2017

Research in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience shows that challenging situations make it harder to understand where you are and what's happening around you. [...]

What happens when technology opens up the brain — and its information?

November 1, 2017

Limbo, a novel by neurosurgeon and inventor Eric Leuthardt, explores what happens when neurotechnology is used for nefarious purposes. [...]

Scientists pinpoint jealousy in the monogamous brain

October 20, 2017

Jealousy activates brain areas associated with social pain and pair bonding, reports a study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution [...]

HIV infection, even with antiretroviral therapy, appears to damage a growing child’s brain

October 19, 2017

HIV-positive children who started ART by the age of 18 months show ongoing disruptions in white matter development, shows a study in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy [...]

Modeling brain connections to understand Parkinson’s disease

October 3, 2017

A new model in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience finds differences in basal ganglia connection strengths between healthy and Parkinson's disease brains. [...]

No evidence of permanent hearing loss from common recreational noise

October 2, 2017

A study in Frontiers in Neuroscience finds no evidence that loud events cause auditory nerve injury or permanent hearing loss in young adults. [...]

Binge drinkers show similar changes in brain activity as chronic alcoholics

September 14, 2017

Binge-drinking-alcohol-abuse-brain-damage

Distinctive changes in brain activity in binge-drinking college students may be an early marker of brain damage, reports a study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. [...]

Personalized treatment for chronic pain relief?

September 13, 2017

Antidepressants-chronic-pain-personalized-medicine

A study of antidepressant drugs used to treat chronic pain, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, shows that some individuals might better tolerate certain side effects than others, pointing the way for personalized medicine. [...]

Preventing childhood deafness following treatment with life-saving cancer drugs

September 13, 2017

Reducing childhood hearing loss from chemotherapy drug cisplatin

A new way to deliver steroids to the inner ear reduces hearing loss caused by chemotherapy, finds a study in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. [...]

Mind wandering is common during driving

September 11, 2017

Dangerous-driving-inattention-daydreaming-mind-wandering

Research on driver distraction published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that people's minds wander a lot in a simulated daily work commute - but they not always aware of this. [...]

New Section Launch: Neuroinfectious Diseases in Frontiers in Neurology

September 6, 2017

New specialty section on Neuroinfectious Diseases to be headed by Chief Editor, Dr. Avindra Nath. [...]

Brain augmentation brought to Russian audience

September 5, 2017

A collection of research published in Frontiers in Neuroscience is being brought to the Russian public by popular science neuroscience website - Neuronovosti. [...]

Our brains do change from early to mid-adulthood

August 29, 2017

Because scientists have been unaware of how our brains change during this period of life, they don't routinely account for this when studying the brain, which could lead them to misinterpret their results.

Contrary to belief, study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, shows considerable structural changes in the brain from early to mid-adulthood. [...]

Brain injury in kids might lead to alcohol abuse

August 29, 2017

Traumatic brain injuries in children and adolescents could lead to alcohol abuse in later life

Researchers find evidence that traumatic brain injuries in children and adolescents could be a risk-factor for alcohol abuse in later life [...]

Dancing can reverse the signs of aging in the brain

August 29, 2017

While previous research has shown that physical exercise can combat age-related brain decline, it is not known if one type of exercise can be better than another. To assess this, the exercise routines given to the volunteers differed. The traditional fitness training program conducted mainly repetitive exercises, such as cycling or Nordic walking, but the dance group were challenged with something new each week.

New research, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience compares two fitness routines to explore anti-aging effects on the brain in the elderly. [...]

Study reveals most impactful neuroscience research

July 27, 2017

A study has identified the 100 most-cited neuroscience papers, and their research topics and journals. [...]

Bacteria found in Alzheimer’s brains

July 24, 2017

The research team set out to discover if there were any differences in the types of bacteria present in brains from Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy brains.

Brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease show changes in bacterial populations compared with healthy brains. [...]

Elderly yoginis have greater cortical thickness

July 24, 2017

The research team wanted to see if elderly long-term yoga practitioners had any differences in terms of brain structure compared with healthy elderly people who had never practiced yoga.

Elderly female yoga practitioners have greater cortical thickness in the left prefrontal cortex, suggesting that yoga may protect against cognitive decline. [...]

Self-driving cars may soon be able to make moral and ethical decisions as humans do

July 18, 2017

The research showed that moral decisions in the scope of unavoidable traffic collisions can be explained well, and modeled, by a single value-of-life for every human, animal, or inanimate object.

Can a self-driving vehicle be moral, act like humans do, or act like humans expect humans to? New study has found that human morality can be modeled. [...]

Creating music by thought alone

July 18, 2017

The Encephalophone collects brain signals through a cap that transforms specific signals into musical notes. The invention is coupled with a synthesizer, allowing the user to create music using a wide variety of instrumental sounds.

Neurologists have created a hands-free, thought-controlled musical instrument, which they've recently described in a report in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. [...]

Menstruation doesn’t change how your brain works — period

July 13, 2017

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience study suggests that hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle have no impact on aspects of cognition [...]

Treating autism by targeting the gut

July 6, 2017

Therapies to change the bacteria in the gut, through diet, pro-and prebiotic supplements, faecal matter transplants or antibiotics, could treat autism. [...]

Video games can change your brain

July 5, 2017

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience review article outlines structural brain changes caused by video games [...]

Creating human super intelligence: winner of Spotlight Award 2017

June 14, 2017

Superintelligence: fact or fiction. First Frontiers Spotlight Award Winner for outstanding research into human brain augmentation [...]

Blue Brain Team Discovers a Multi-Dimensional Universe in Brain Networks

June 12, 2017

Using mathematics in a novel way in neuroscience, the Blue Brain Project shows that the brain operates on many dimensions, not just the three dimensions that we are accustomed to [...]

Time is not ‘one size fits all’

May 23, 2017

This research suggests that 18-19 year old students would need to start in the early afternoon in order to optimize cognitive performance. Image by Shutterstock.

New research, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience makes the case against fixed starting times, i.e. a fixed one-size-fits-all daily routine. [...]

In trying to teach kids about the brain, researchers ended up learning about themselves

May 23, 2017

The research, published in Frontiers for Young Minds, focuses on early-life nutrition and how that influences brain development, using pigs as a human proxy. [...]

Study sheds light on link between diseases like Alzheimer’s and normal aging in the brain

May 19, 2017

Ground-breaking study, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, opens up new area of preventative research for diseases like Alzheimer's: Targeting age-dependent protein aggregates as possible therapeutic targets.

New study opens up new area of preventative research for diseases like Alzheimer's: Targeting age-dependent protein aggregates as possible therapeutic targets. [...]

Shaping your brain with exercise, video games and more

May 19, 2017

This Research Topic, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, investigates cognitive training techniques in health and disease, and in youth and old age. [...]