Brain Blast | Absence Makes the Brain Grow Fonder
The latest news on the brain and beyond.
It’s been a busy month. While balancing the demands of work, family, and everyday life during these ever-changing times, you may have lost track of what’s happening in the world of neuroscience. For your convenience, we’ve summarized the top stories from this month below.
Take five minutes to catch up on all the latest neuroscientific research. Then, take another five minutes to close your eyes, quiet your mind, and breathe deeply. Your brain and body deserve it.
Looking at longing in the brain
Missing someone in this time of social distancing? You may be hard-wired to do so. A researcher examined prairie voles, which mate for life. She found that only when a vole was away from its partner did it exhibit activity in its nucleus accumbens, a reward center in the brain that is also activated by drug use. The longer voles were away from each other, the more activity they had in this brain region.
Story via University of Colorado at Boulder
Triggering the “off switch” for pain
It may be time to rethink the way we target pain. Duke University researchers recently located a portion of the amygdala in the rat brain that suppresses the pain response. They found that it was much easier to manage pain in rats by activating this area than by deactivating the multiple different portions of the brain involved in creating the pain response.
Story via Duke University
Creating a better electrode
Imagine an electrode that is 100 times thinner than a human hair. A multinational group of scientists has made this idea a reality. Together they created “tattoo electrodes”, incredibly thin dry electrodes that are ideal for long-term wear. These electrodes are cheaper and more comfortable than traditional electrodes, but are just as effective at reading EEG signals.
Story via Graz University of Technology
Combating memory loss after brain injury
In the rat brain, the immune receptor TLR4 regulates memory by suppressing neural activity in the hippocampus. However, a team at UC Riverside noticed that when a rat suffered a brain injury, the TLR4 in its brain began to increase neural activity in the hippocampus. They posit that the “noise” produced by this activity may be the cause of post-concussion memory loss in rats and in humans.
Story via UC Riverside
Pinpointing the origins of stress
Nagoya University researchers set out to uncover the mechanisms that cause the human body’s reaction to stress. Using rats, they found that the hypothalamus receives stress signals from the dorsal peduncular cortex and the dorsal tenia tecta (DP/DTT) areas of the brain. Therefore, stress disorders like PTSD may be alleviated by interventions which block interactions between the hypothalamus and the DP/DTT.
Story via Nagoya University
Examining the impact of the mother-infant connection
Scientists at the FAU WAVES Emotion Laboratory fitted three-month old babies with EEG caps to study the effect that Kangaroo Care, which involves skin-to-skin contact between a mother and their infant, has on children. They found that Kangaroo Care was associated with stimulation of the left frontal portion of an infant's brain, an area associated with cognition and emotional regulation.
Story via Florida Atlantic University