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Category: Neuroscience

Neuroscientists reveal how jazz improvisation shifts brain activity

Neuroscientists reveal how jazz improvisation shifts brain activity

PsyPost reports: Recent findings in neuroscience provide new evidence that musical creativity is not a static trait but a dynamic process involving the rapid reconfiguration of brain networks. By monitoring the brain activity of skilled jazz pianists, an international research team discovered that high levels of improvisational freedom rely less on introspection and more on sensory and motor engagement. The study suggests that the brain shifts its processing strategy depending on how much creative liberty a musician exerts. These findings…

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We’re finally learning what it’s like to die. And it’s not as bad as you think…

We’re finally learning what it’s like to die. And it’s not as bad as you think…

Nate Scharping writes: The last words Steve Jobs, the legendary Apple founder, spoke were simple: “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.” Their mystery is enticing – what did Jobs, the digital prophet who brought us the smartphone, see as he neared death? We’ll never know. But stories of near-death experiences (NDEs) tantalise the living, and something unique seems to be happening inside our brains as we sense death approaching. Despite NDE testimonies, the moments surrounding death largely remain a mystery…

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Once thought to support neurons, astrocytes turn out to be in charge

Once thought to support neurons, astrocytes turn out to be in charge

Ingrid Wickelgren writes: The human brain is a vast network of billions of neurons. By exchanging signals to depress or excite each other, they generate patterns that ripple across the brain up to 1,000 times per second. For more than a century, that dizzyingly complex neuronal code was thought to be the sole arbiter of perception, thought, emotion, and behavior, as well as related health conditions. If you wanted to understand the brain, you turned to the study of neurons:…

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Why some people are wired to help strangers, and what their brains reveal

Why some people are wired to help strangers, and what their brains reveal

The Washington Post reports: Abigail Marsh, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgetown University, studies extraordinary altruism — people who jump in to rescue strangers in emergencies or donate a kidney to someone they don’t know. Marsh spoke with Cristina Quinn, host of The Washington Post’s podcast “Try This,” about what her work has uncovered, and what brain science reveals about people who habitually engage in selfless acts. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You often…

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Chimp sounds trigger a strange brain signal in humans

Chimp sounds trigger a strange brain signal in humans

SciTechDaily reports: The human brain is not limited to recognizing speech from other people. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have found that specific parts of the auditory cortex react strongly to the vocalizations of chimpanzees. These primates are our closest relatives both in evolutionary terms and in the acoustic qualities of their calls. The study, published in the journal eLife, points to the presence of specialized subregions in the human brain that are particularly responsive to the sounds…

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Microbes may hold the key to brain evolution

Microbes may hold the key to brain evolution

Northwestern University: A groundbreaking new study reveals that changes to the gut microbiome can change the way the brain works. Humans have the largest relative brain size of any primate, but little is known about how mammals with larger brains evolved to meet the intense energy demands required to support brain growth and maintenance. A new study from Northwestern University provides the first empirical data showing the direct role the gut microbiome plays in shaping differences in the way the…

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How ‘brain cleaning’ while we sleep may lower our risk of dementia

How ‘brain cleaning’ while we sleep may lower our risk of dementia

nopparit/Getty By Julia Chapman, Macquarie University; Camilla Hoyos, Macquarie University, and Craig Phillips, Macquarie University The brain has its own waste disposal system – known as the glymphatic system – that’s thought to be more active when we sleep. But disrupted sleep might hinder this waste disposal system and slow the clearance of waste products or toxins from the brain. And researchers are proposing a build-up of these toxins due to lost sleep could increase someone’s risk of dementia. There…

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Cutting calories by 30% may be sufficient to shield the brain against aging

Cutting calories by 30% may be sufficient to shield the brain against aging

Science Alert reports: A calorie-restricted diet could slow down the aging that naturally happens in the brain as we get older, according to a new study of rhesus monkeys, and the findings could also be relevant to brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Researchers led by a team from Boston University analyzed the brains of 24 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) that had been fed calorie-restricted or standard diets for more than 20 years. After these lifelong dietary differences, the researchers found…

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Neuroscientists find evidence that brain plasticity peaks at the end of the day

Neuroscientists find evidence that brain plasticity peaks at the end of the day

PsyPost reports: New research provides evidence that the brain’s ability to process signals and adapt to new information fluctuates rhythmically over a 24-hour cycle. A study published in Neuroscience Research reveals that while fatigue appears to suppress immediate neural activity at the end of the active phase, this same period may heighten the brain’s capacity for learning and memory formation. These findings suggest that the brain creates specific temporal windows that are optimized for different types of neural processing. Biological…

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Long-term calorie restriction in diet may slow biological aging in the brain

Long-term calorie restriction in diet may slow biological aging in the brain

PsyPost reports: A new study suggests that restricting calorie intake over a lifetime may slow the biological aging of support cells in the primate brain. The research provides evidence that a thirty percent reduction in calories preserves the metabolic function of cells responsible for insulating nerve fibers. These findings were published in the journal Aging Cell. The brain relies on complex networks of communication to function correctly. This communication depends heavily on white matter, which consists of nerve fibers coated…

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Musicians possess a superior internal map of their body in space

Musicians possess a superior internal map of their body in space

PsyPost reports: Research suggests that learning to play a musical instrument does far more than provide artistic satisfaction; it appears to fundamentally alter how the brain maps the physical body in space. A new analysis indicates that trained musicians possess a superior ability to maintain their physical orientation and balance, even in the absence of visual cues. These findings were recently published in the academic journal Cortex. Spatial cognition is the mental process that allows individuals to navigate the physical…

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How to maintain good cognitive health at any age

How to maintain good cognitive health at any age

By Benjamin Boller, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Is it an achievable goal to remain mentally sharp while aging, or is it a pipe dream? It’s entirely possible if you cultivate habits throughout your life that are beneficial to brain function. As a researcher in cognitive neuroscience and the neuropsychology of aging processes, I aim to shed light on the ways we can maintain good cognitive health while aging in light of recent scientific advances. This article is part…

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Between sleep and awareness are many types of liminal states

Between sleep and awareness are many types of liminal states

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: The pillow is cold against your cheek. Your upstairs neighbor creaks across the ceiling. You close your eyes; shadows and light dance across your vision. A cat sniffs at a piece of cheese. Dots fall into a lake. All this feels very normal and fine, even though you don’t own a cat and you’re nowhere near a lake. You’ve started your journey into sleep, the cryptic state that you and most other animals need in some form…

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The neuroscience of making sense

The neuroscience of making sense

Asif Ghazanfar writes: Picture someone washing their hands. The water running down the drain is a deep red. How you interpret this scene depends on its setting, and your history. If the person is in a gas station bathroom, and you just saw the latest true-crime series, these are the ablutions of a serial killer. If the person is at a kitchen sink, then perhaps they cut themselves while preparing a meal. If the person is in an art studio,…

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How the brain maintains a harmonious balance between excitation and inhibition

How the brain maintains a harmonious balance between excitation and inhibition

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: From Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s hand came branches and whorls, spines and webs. Now-famous drawings by the neuroanatomist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries showed, for the first time, the distinctiveness and diversity of the fundamental building blocks of the mammalian brain that we call neurons. In the century or so since, his successors have painstakingly worked to count, track, identify, label and categorize these cells. There is now a dizzying number of ways to…

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Most daily actions are habitual, not the result of conscious choices

Most daily actions are habitual, not the result of conscious choices

University of Surrey: Habit, not conscious choice, drives most of our actions, according to new research from the University of Surrey, University of South Carolina and Central Queensland University. The research, published in Psychology & Health, found that two-thirds of our daily behaviours are initiated “on autopilot”, out of habit. Habits are actions that we are automatically prompted to do when we encounter everyday settings, due to associations that we have learned between those settings and our usual responses to…

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