Research News
Can you hear what I say?
Neuroscientists at TU Dresden were able to prove that speech recognition in humans begins in the sensory pathways from the ear to the cerebral cortex and not, as previously assumed, exclusively in the cerebral cortex itself.
Simulating the effect of transcranial brain stimulation
The long-lasting aftereffects of non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) promise an alleviation of severe symptoms of diseases like depressive disorder or chronic pain. In a new modeling study, researchers from the Bernstein Center Freiburg suggest that the aftereffects observed in experiments may be a consequence of homeostatic network growth. Their model is based on the idea that the stimulation triggers a rearrangement of synaptic couplings among stimulated and unstimulated neurons, eventually leading to network remodeling and cell assembly formation.
Hidden Dynamics Detected in Neuronal Networks
Neuronal networks in the brain can process information particularly well when they are close to a critical point – or so brain researchers had assumed based on theoretical considerations. However, experimental investigations of brain activity revealed much fewer indicators of such critical states than expected. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University have now proposed a possible explanation. They showed that neuronal networks can assume a second, previously unknown critical mode whose hidden dynamics are almost impossible to measure with conventional methods.
The scientific case for brain simulations
HBP scientists argue for brain simulators as “mathematical observatories” for neuroscience
Hearing the light: how artificial hearing could become more natural
Researchers at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ) are demonstrating improved frequency resolution of artificial hearing using optical stimulation of the inner ear.
Sleep frees up the hippocampus for new memories
University of Tübingen research team demonstrates how the neocortex works as a long-term storage unit
Abundance of information narrows our collective attention span
New study investigates 'social acceleration'
Primed for memory formation
A new study carried out in a collaboration between researchers from LMU and UC San Diego suggests that new sensory experiences are encoded in pre-existing patterns of neuronal activity, which are recalled, modulated and enhanced following periods of behavioral activity.
Opening the Black Box of Dendritic Computing
How do nerve cells compute? This fundamental question drives LMU neurobiologists led by Andreas Herz. They have now presented a novel method to disentangle complex neural processes in a much more powerful way than was previously possible.