brain

Where Are Genitals Represented in the Brain?

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Paracelsus, the German-Swiss physician and alchemist, asserted in the sixteenth century that he knew how to create a “little man”—or homunculus—by placing human semen in a sealed vessel packed with horse manure that was then nurtured with blood to gestate. The recipe was no more useful than the ones for turning base metals into gold, … Read more

Brain scanning studies are usually too small to find reliable results

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Most studies that have used MRI machines to find links between the brain’s structure or function and complex mental traits had an average of 23 participants, but thousands are needed to find reliable results Mind | Analysis 16 March 2022 By Clare Wilson A functional magnetic resonance imaging scan of a brain taken during tasks … Read more

There Are ‘Secret’ Tunnels Connecting Your Skull And The Brain

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Did you know you have tiny tunnels in your head? That’s OK, no one else did either until recently! But that’s exactly what a team of medical researchers confirmed in mice and humans in 2018 – tiny channels that connect skull bone marrow to the lining of the brain.   The research shows they may … Read more

Blind people may use their visual cortex to regulate movement

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The brain’s visual cortex may be reorganised to control movement in people who cannot see Health 16 March 2022 By Jason Arunn Murugesu Stock image of a blind person walking with a stick Shutterstock / PH888 The visual cortex, the part of the brain that receives information from the eyes, has been known to respond … Read more

Here’s What Doomscrolling Is Doing to Your Brain – And How to Fix It

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Many people have experienced chronic stress since the pandemic lockdowns. Added to this are the climate crisis, the increasing cost of living and most recently threats to European and global security due to the conflict in Ukraine.   To some, it may seem that there is never any good news anymore. This is of course … Read more

Indigenous Amazonians Have Just 1% Dementia Rates. We Can Learn From This

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We know about the devastating effect that Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia can have on people – but what’s less clear is how they get started in the brain and what can be done to cure them or prevent them from happening in the first place.   Some clues could be found amongst indigenous … Read more

Here’s How The Human Brain Reboots Itself After The Deep Sleep of Anesthesia

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You may well have spent hours wondering what your laptop is up to as it takes its time to boot up. Scientists have asked the same question of the human brain: How exactly does it restart after being anesthetized, in a coma, or in a deep sleep?   Using a group of 30 healthy adults … Read more

Biologists Just Totally Proved Wrong a Long-Standing Rumor About Sharks

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It’s been rumored that sharks don’t sleep at all; the fact some sharks must stay on the move to facilitate their breathing has contributed to this idea. A new study, however, finally confirms what anecdotal evidence and other research have long suggested – these animals do slumber, just as we do.   “We have provided … Read more

A Common Link Between Several Neurodegenerative Diseases Might Finally Be Identified

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There’s a hallmark of incurable neurodegenerative diseases – misfolded proteins that clump together to form sticky plaques or tangles called fibrils. Now, new research has discovered that a protein normally tasked with clearing cells of molecular debris might be a common feature of a cluster of common and rare neurodegenerative diseases, including two distinct forms … Read more

Brain cells: Special neurons may signal when to start new memories

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Recordings from electrodes in people’s brains reveal that certain neurons in the hippocampus show a burst of activity to mark the boundary between different events Mind 7 March 2022 , updated 7 March 2022 By Clare Wilson Illustration of neurons in the hippocampus KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A newly discovered kind of brain cell involved … Read more