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ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News |
| Maternal voice reduces pain in premature babies Posted: 27 Aug 2021 05:24 AM PDT A baby born prematurely often has to be separated from its parents and placed in an incubator in intensive care. For several weeks, he or she will undergo routine medical procedures that can be painful, without being relieved by too many pharmaceutical painkillers, which are risky for his or her development. So how can we act for the good of the baby? A team observed that when the mother spoke to her baby at the time of the medical intervention, the signs of the baby's expression of pain decreased and his oxytocin level -- the hormone involved in attachment and also linked to stress -- increased significantly, which could attest to better pain management. |
| Neurons in visual cortex of the brain ‘drift’ over time Posted: 27 Aug 2021 05:24 AM PDT New research reveals that neurons in the visual cortex -- the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli -- change their responses to the same stimulus over time. Although other studies have documented 'representational drift' in neurons in the parts of the brain associated with odor and spatial memory, this result is surprising because neural activity in the primary visual cortex is thought to be relatively stable. |
| A new model for group decision-making shows how 'followers' can influence the outcome Posted: 26 Aug 2021 02:02 PM PDT From small committees to national elections, group decision-making can be complicated -- and it may not always settle on the best choice. That's partly because some members of the group do research on their own, and others take their cues from the people around them. A new mathematical framework predicts that decision-making groups have a critical threshold of people who get their information from others. Below that threshold, the group chooses the high-quality outcome. Above it, the group can end up choosing the better or worse option. |
| Brain refreshing: Why the dreaming phase matters Posted: 25 Aug 2021 08:36 AM PDT Researchers have found that blood flow in the brain capillaries, which is important for oxygen/nutrient delivery and waste removal, was increased during rapid eye movement sleep in mice. Adenosine A2a receptors might be at least partially responsible for this increased blood flow. These findings bring new hope for understanding the function of sleep and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases that involve the buildup of waste products in the brain, such as Alzheimer's disease. |
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