John Hewitt

(Medical Xpress)—Neurophysiologist like to think of neurons as communicating with spikes. If that were the whole story, it might be possible to imagine spike codes which could then be used to estimate the flow of information, ...

(Medical Xpress)—Rett Syndrome is a neurological disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 girls. Back in 1992, University of Edinburgh researcher Adrian Bird discovered that the protein, MeCP2, plays a major role in the disease. ...

(Medical Xpress)—Sensory adaptation is a familiar phenomenon. Whether jumping into a cold pool, or driving through manure-laden air as you pass by a recently fertilized farm, an initially strong sensory experience generally ...

(Medical Xpress)—The ability to infer emotion or intention in others from their outward appearance and behavior, has been called a "Theory of Mind" (TOM). While cognitive scientists have debated whether animals other than ...

(Medical Xpress)—Many diseases are multifactorial and can not be understood by simple molecular associations alone. Alzheimer's disease (AD)is associated with toxic transformations in two classes of protein,amyloid beta and ...

(Medical Xpress)—Despite decades of research, little is known about the function of REM sleep, or the dreams that often accompany it. Rapid eye movements occur in most mammals, with a few exceptions like echidnas and dolphins. ...

(Medical Xpress)—The constant refrain of the federal BRAIN Initiative can be summarized as the twin-towered call of "tools to codes." To that point, the latest issue of Nature methods is currently running an in-depth series ...

(Medical Xpress)—Neuroscientists have sought to explain diseases like schizophrenia and autism in terms of abnormal development of cortical microcircuitry. Before leaping to high level functional conclusions from low level ...

(Medical Xpress)—Motile cilia are present on the surface of many types of cells. When they are not working properly, respiratory problems, various sensory deficits, and occasionally, even a reversal of placement of the internal ...

(Phys.org) —Gaining control of the ability of mature tissues to generate stem cells is the central medical challenge of our day. From taming cancer, to providing compatible cell banks for replacement organs, knowledge of ...

(Medical Xpress)—Regulating the distribution of power in neurons is done by a system that makes the national electric grid look simple by comparison. Each neuron has several thousand mitochondria confined into narrow neuritic ...

(Phys.org) —In order to study many complex phenomena, physicists seek to isolate them in potential wells or boxes with easily described forms and boundary conditions. These features in turn dictate various behaviors of the ...

(Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo is often inescapable. ...

(Phys.org) —It is widely known that the optical properties of certain materials can be modified by using lasers to control the quantum states of their optical electrons. Lasers that can generate ultra-short pulses in the ...