A reported case study in a Colombian woman , member of a family carriers of a mutation in the presinilin 1 gene which leads to early onset Alzheimer’s, has shown that a certain mutation in the gene APOE3 can protect from the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This woman was already aged 70 but […]
As important as remembering, it is forgetting. As Sherlock Holmes said the brain is like a room that you furnish with memories but where space is limited and unnecesary information should be erased. Much on how this erasing works is unkown, but a new study points out to a certain immune cell population in the […]
What differentiates us from our closest relatives and how are these differences caused? Scientists are trying to answer t his question by comparing the genomic information of us and our closest relatives . Yet, we are far from having a genomic explanation that justifies the observed phenotypic differences. Human Accelerated Regions (HARs) However, some findings […]
Too much of anything is usually a mistake, when we speak of a substance of abuse so common, and so easy to find as alcohol we can really get in trouble. Why do some indulge in too much drinking while others seem to easily control those urges is a valid question for which there is […]
Smartphones are our everyday travel companion. Be it for work, in our leisure time or to connect with family and friends they accompany us. However, for some this utility turns into a need. A need such that it could even be called addiction. New research from Heildelberg University has shown that smartphone addiction is also […]
Myelin is a lipid-rich substance that surrounds the axons of the neurons, which would be like the “wires” of the nervous system. This fatty structure serves to insulate the axons and to increase the speed with which electrical impulses, the so-called action potentials, pass along the axon. The myelinated axon can be compared to an […]
An interesting question is whether the brains of gay and straight people are the same or different. One study found that they are slightly different and that the brains of gay men, in the aspects analyzed, are more similar to those of heterosexual women. This would support the idea that sexual orientation is a biological […]
Why do some songs succeed and others fail? Some researchers believe that a key factor is their involvement with our personal universe: if they foster feelings of social connection, they get the approval of the public; if not, they are ignored and forgotten. If that were true, songs that fit that personal pattern should fall […]
Many people think of their brain as a computer full of microchips and wires, as a storehouse full of memories and learned things, as a clock with millions of mechanisms intimately intertwined with each other, so it is incredible to think that someone can live with much less than that, with only one brain hemisphere […]
Some people with autism do not get used to certain stimuli as normotypical people seem to do without problem. This would fit in with what in neuroscience, particularly in learning and memory issues, is called habituation. Habituation is a process by which, when faced with a repeated stimulus, the response is less and less intense […]