Tag: neuroscience
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Mind the Gap! The Future of Spinal Repair
Aidan McConnell-Trevillion discusses the promising results of a 25-year study exploring spinal cord implants and their use in restoring movement after paralysis. Although he highlights the challenges that still remain, he hopes that advances in technology may improve outcomes, bringing us closer to making spinal cord injury a more treatable condition.
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Every breath you take, every memory you make
The way you breathe can influence your brain’s ability to form long-term memories, writes Clara Lenherr.
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Could locusts be the future of bomb detection? The “surprisingly simple” brain mechanism behind locust scent recognition
Lily Sharratt-Davidson explores how researchers attempting to bioengineer bomb-sniffing locusts have discovered that the insect’s sense of smell is governed by an arithmetic neuron mechanism. For several years now a team at Washington University in St. Louis has been researching the odour sensing system of locusts, with the aim of bioengineering locusts that are able…
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Issue 29 Online: EuScireka!
Welcome to the new edition of EuSci Magazine! We will be posting and promoting each article from the magazine individually on our website over the next few weeks. If you want to read the magazine in its full and original form you can either pick one up from many different locations on campus or read…
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What makes us human may come down to the way our neurons process information
Clara Lenherr explores the newly discovered human-specific characteristics of neurons and discusses how the uniqueness of human neurons brings into question what we already know about human cognition. The ability of neurons to carry out complex computations when integrating the thousands of inputs that they receive is thought to be the basis of cognition. The…
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Good news coffee drinkers: caffeine reduces the effect of drowsiness on cognitive performance
Alexandra Lesayova writes about new findings by the University of Western Australia and the University of Sydney on the effect of caffeine on cognition.
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Why we should be more concerned about maternal stress during pregnancy
Marie Poirot reports on a University of Edinburgh study which highlights the connection between stress during pregnancy and the development of the baby’s brain. Pregnancy is a time of immense change for the expecting mother. As we mostly see the positive aspects of this extraordinary event, many can be unaware that it can also bring…
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Tasting by touch, the unique way octopuses explore the world
Imagine you could taste the things your hands touch. You reach out to grab a slice of apple and can already feel its sweetness before it even touches your mouth. Science fiction? Not for the peculiar creature that is the octopus. This invertebrate is able to touch as well as taste its environment through its…
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Zombie neuroscience: it’s all about the braiiiiins
Ellie Bennett uses neuroscience to explore what has gone wrong in the zombie brain to make them the lumbering, flesh-hungry creatures depicted on our screens. A lumbering gait, no recognition of loved ones, the inability to verbalise above moans and grunts, and an insatiable appetite. It’s the archetypal zombie. He’s been staggering his way through…