For the first time in history, scientists have reprogrammed a whole batch of skin cells into a self-organizing, functioning network of brain cells, says a new study. That’s right, y’all – Dr. Sheng Ding at UCSF is blowin’ up the stem cell research game once again – except this time, instead of just reprogramming individual [...]
Posts Tagged ‘structural networks’
Skin Into Brain II
June 9th, 2012 
The Connectome 
Posted in Brain News, Featured 
Tags: biology, genetics, neurons, structural networks, technology 
1 Comment »
The Intelligence Network
April 10th, 2012 The Connectome Intelligence isn’t a single process – but it still depends on the coordinated activity of some specific brain areas, a new study reports. In one of the most sweeping surveys in neuroscience history, researchers put patients with various types of brain damage through a battery of cognitive tests, and pinpointed the neural correlates of “general [...]
Posted in Brain News, Featured Tags: functional networks, imaging, intelligence, neurophysiology, structural networks 1 Comment »
The Brain Grid
March 30th, 2012 The Connectome Connections in the brain aren’t all tangled up – they’re organized into a grid of tightly-knit bundles, says a new study. By applying mathematical analysis to the latest imaging technology, scientists have discovered that connective pathways are knit into a three-dimensional geometric pattern. When scientists first set out to map the connections in a brain, [...]
Posted in Brain News, Featured Tags: biology, connectomics, consciousness, functional networks, neuroanatomy, neurons, structural networks, technology 1 Comment »
Connection Clusters
February 19th, 2012 The Connectome As our brains learn something, our neurons form new connections in clustered groups, says a new study. In other words, synapses – connections between neurons – are much more likely to form near other brand-new synapses than they are to emerge near older ones. As our neuroscience friends like to say: “Cells that fire together [...]
Posted in Brain News, Featured Tags: learning, neurons, neurophysiology, structural networks No Comments »Taking Vision Apart
January 21st, 2012 The Connectome For the first time, scientists have created neuron-by-neuron maps of brain regions corresponding to specific kinds of visual information, and specific parts of the visual field, says a new study. If other labs can confirm these results, this will mean we’re very close to being able to predict exactly which neurons will fire when an [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: connectomics, neuroanatomy, neurons, neurophysiology, structural networks, vision No Comments »Saving Faces
January 11th, 2012 The Connectome A brain area that’s specialized to recognize faces has a unique structure in each of our brains – and mapping that area’s connectivity patterns can tell us how each of our brains use it, says a new study. The fusiform gyrus in the temporal lobe plays a part in our recognition of words, numbers, faces, [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: connectomics, functional networks, MRI, neurophysiology, senses, structural networks, vision 1 Comment »Surprising Synchrony
October 27th, 2011 The Connectome Our corpus callosum is a bundle of fibers that allows our brains’ left and right hemispheres to communicate – but even in people born without these connections, the hemispheres are still somehow able to synchronize their activity, reports a new study. The brains of people born with a condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: fMRI, functional networks, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, structural networks No Comments »Transforming Tracts
September 23rd, 2011 The Connectome Our brains don’t stop developing in our teenage years – they keep changing well into our 20s, a new study shows. By imaging the “wiring” of different brain areas, researchers have determined that white matter – connective brain material consisting mainly of the axons (branches) of neurons – continues to grow and change throughout our 20s. [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: fMRI, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, psychology, structural networks 2 Comments »
