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Hands. As a species, we humans take pride in our opposable thumbs and our penchant for maneuvering our digits to perform complicated tasks. Coordination of limbs is an evolutionarily ancient skill, shared by both vertebrates and invertebrates alike. What is happening in the brain during complicated bimanual performances such as piano playing? And does practice make "perfect" in the brain?
Read More“If you know one child with autism,” the saying goes, “you know one child with autism.” Though an estimated 1 in 68 children in the United States will be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), their diverse personalities seem to defy categorization. Yet, dating back to the first report on ASD by Austrian-American psychiatrist Leo Kanner, clinicians have identified clear themes in the children’s behavior. Researchers have long struggled to pinpoint the common biological pathway underlying these behavioral commonalities seen in ASD. A study published last year by Silvia De Rubeis and her colleagues took advantage of rare risk variants to find molecular commonalities that underlie the behavioral traits that link autism spectrum disorders together.
Read MoreRhesus monkeys, like humans, live within a social status system. A monkey's social position within that hierarchy can be predicted from a single blood sample - but which comes first, the rank or the difference in gene expression?
Read MoreEpisodic memory, or memory for autobiographical experiences, has the remarkable feature that each remembered experience happened exactly once, and yet exists in memory for decades. How does the brain capture fleeting experiences and transform them into patterns of neural activity that are stable over our lives?
Read MoreThough domesticated pumpkins and other gourds (think zucchinis, acorn squashes, butternut squashes), are edible (and tasty!), their wild cousins produce a toxic bitter compound, rendering them poisonous to humans, even in small amounts. Anyone who has ever picked a pumpkin and hauled it home might be wondering…why on earth would a plant produce fruit weighing more-than-some-dogs that no one can eat?
Well, its turns out there's an answer. And it involves some Jurassic Park level science (but better, because it's real). Read on, fellow nerds…
Read MorePregnant women who are hospitalized for infections, including the flu, have a slightly higher risk for giving birth to a child with a neurodevelopmental disorder like autism. What's going on? Is the immune system influencing the developing brain?
Spoilers: yes. And it all starts when immune cells (microglia) are lured into the brain by the siren call of neural progenitor cells.
Read MoreMolecular biology is still defined by its "central dogma," but we often don’t use the word dogma in science unless we are about to contradict it. Here, Nick Kramer tells us about how circular RNAs, a newly discovered, highly conserved class of RNA molecules, are abundant in the brain and may contribute to its development.
Read MoreNeural stem cells help create new cells for the brain to maintain itself in normal circumstances and to heal itself after injury, but they come in a variety of flavors. What causes some types of neural stem cell to activate and drive regeneration, while others remain dormant?
Read MoreHave you ever seen a puppy or infant twitching at night and wondered if he/she was having a nightmare? As worrisome as they may be, these sleep twitches, termed “myoclonic twitches”, are not exclusive to our bad dreams. In fact, many species exhibit these twitches, and an increasing amount of evidence suggests that they may play a more important role during development than occasionally disturbing our sleep.
Read MoreAncient humans often referred to the “bowels” as the seat of emotional experience. We now attribute higher functions such as thought and emotion exclusively to our brains, but the idea that what’s going on in your gut may control your instincts may actually have some biological credibility.
Read MoreHome of NeuWrite West and the Stanford Neuroblog.
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