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+16 +6
'Memories' pass between generations
Behaviour can be affected by events in previous generations which have been passed on through a form of genetic memory, animal studies suggest. Experiments showed that a traumatic event could affect the DNA in sperm and alter the brains and behaviour of subsequent generations.
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+17 +2
A Prosthetic Hand That Sends Feelings to Its Wearer
A new nerve interface can simulate a sense of touch from 20 spots on a prosthetic hand.
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+11 +3
Crow Brains Reveal Secrets of Their Intelligence
Crows are well known for their intelligence. In fact, the entire Corvidae family is renowned for being the smartest of all birds and some of the smartest of all animals. The secret to their superior intellect has been located in their brain for the first time, according to a new study from Lena Veit and Andreas Nieder from the Institute of Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen.
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+10 +3
Scientists Use Electrical Brain Stimulation to Evoke 'Will to Persevere'
Can science make someone want to overcome their greatest challenge? Scientists believe they may have found a way to inspire the "will to persevere" in people as long as they don't mind a few electrodes in the brain.
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+19 +8
How Mosquitoes Are Drawn to Human Skin and Breath
UC Riverside researchers identify affordable, safe and pleasant-smelling compounds that can help control spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
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+12 +1
5 Old-Timey Medical Treatments That Actually Work
The transorbital lobotomy is a pretty brutal practice. In 1946, Dr. Walter Freeman created the procedure, in which physicians hammer an ice pick through the eye socket into the brain to sever nerve fibers in the frontal lobe.
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+2 +3
A Prosthetic Hand That Sends Feelings to Its Wearer
A new nerve interface can simulate a sense of touch from 20 spots on a prosthetic hand.
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+12 +3
Why it's time for brain science to ditch the 'Venus and Mars' cliche
As hardy perennials go, there is little to beat that science hacks' favourite: the hard-wiring of male and female brains. For more than 30 years, I have seen a stream of tales about gender differences in brain structure under headlines that assure me that from birth men are innately more rational and better at map-reading than women, who are emotional, empathetic multi-taskers, useless at telling jokes. I am from Mars, apparently, while the ladies in my life are from Venus.
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+14 +2
You Are Your Brain
Patricia Churchland, a neurophilosopher at the University of California at San Diego, says our hopes, loves and very existence are just elaborate functions of a complicated mass of grey tissue. Accepting that can be hard, but what we know should inspire us, not scare us. Her most recent book is Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain.
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+13 +3
Lack of Sleep: What It Does to Your Brain
Behind the controls of the Metro-North train that derailed in New York earlier this week was a tired driver, according to new reports that engineer William Rockefeller fell asleep at the wheel. Could lack of sleep cause such a fatal mistake?
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+15 +5
What brain scans reveal about hurt feelings
Brain scans have revealed that hurt feelings literally do hurt. Our brain responds so similarly to rejection and physical pain that people who were given a pain reliever and then put through a rigged rejection experience reported significantly less emotional pain than those who were not given a pain reliever.
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+15 +2
Soldier moves bionic arm by thoughts
A soldier injured in battle said he is determined to make a success of his new life with a bionic arm he can control with his thoughts. Cpl Andrew Garthwaite, 26, from South Tyneside, was badly injured in Afghanistan when a Taliban grenade took off his right arm. He is believed to be the first person in the UK to have such a bionic arm.
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+12 +3
How a Concussion Can Lead to Depression Years Later
A head injury can lead immune-system brain cells to go on “high alert” and overreact to later immune challenges by becoming excessively inflammatory – a condition linked with depressive complications, a new animal study suggests.
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+7 +2
Feeling Your Consumer: What Marketers Are Missing About Making Emotional Connections
Douglas Van Praet discusses the neurological nature of empathy and how marketers often focus on competition at the expense of real connections.
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+13 +4
Ray Kurzweil: Why Should We Create a Mind?
There was a time was when Google engineers spent all their days counting links and ranking pages. The company's famous algorithm made it the leading search engine in the world. Admittedly, it was far from perfect. That is why current efforts are aimed at developing ways for computers to read and understand natural language.
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+20 +3
Would you take smart drugs to perform better at work?
Drugs that boost brainpower are increasingly being taken by healthy people to study or work harder. Could this become the norm, or a condition of employment? Would you let your child get on a bus driven by someone on mind-altering drugs? What about having an operation conducted by a surgeon taking stimulant pills? Unappealing at first glance; however would your opinion change if you knew those drugs made the driver less likely to crash, and the surgeon better able to keep a steady hand?
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+4 0
The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder
After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating. Severely hyperactive and impulsive children, once shunned as bad seeds, are now recognized as having a real neurological problem. Doctors and parents have largely accepted drugs like Adderall and Concerta to temper the traits of classic A.D.H.D., helping youngsters succeed in school and beyond.
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+20 +3
Music brings memories back to the injured brain
In the first study of its kind, two researchers have used popular music to help severely brain-injured patients recall personal memories. Amee Baird and Séverine Samson outline the results and conclusions of their pioneering research in the recent issue of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.
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+11 +3
No Two People Smell the Same
A difference at the smallest level of DNA - one amino acid on one gene - can determine whether you find a given smell pleasant. A different amino acid on the same gene in your friend's body could mean he finds the same odor offensive, according to researchers at Duke University.
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+17 +4
Crows could be the key to understanding alien intelligence
Crows are among the planet's most intelligent animals, teaching their young to use tools for foraging and banding together to fight off intruders. Now, the first study of how abstract reasoning works in these birds' brains could shed light on how intelligence works in a truly alien, non-mammal brain.
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