Brain, Research | featured news

President Obama on Tuesday will announce a broad new research initiative, starting with $100 million in 2014, to invent and refine new technologies to understand the human brain, senior administration officials said Monday.

Researchers at Brown University have succeeded in creating the first wireless, implantable, rechargeable, long-term brain-computer interface. The wireless BCIs have been implanted in pigs and monkeys for over 13 months without issue, and human subjects are next.

Two rats — one in North Carolina, the other in Brazil — worked together on a task by communicating telepathically, thanks to implants in their brain. Electrical signals from a "leader" rat’s brain were collected, encoded and then zapped into the "follower" rat’s cortex in the form of an electrical signal. The follower rat then pressed one of two levers based on a light visible only to the leader rat. The Duke University experiment is the first time two animals have collaborated through such an artificial link, and shows that the mammal brain can be trained to act on electrical signals from another animal.

More than a decade of research hinting that magnesium supplements might boost your brain power is finally being put to the test in a small clinical trial. The research, led by biopharmaceutical company Magceutics of Hayward, California, began testing the ability of its product Magtein to boost magnesium ion (Mg2+) levels in the brain earlier this month. The trial will track whether the ions can decrease anxiety and improve sleep quality, as well as following changes in the memory and cognitive ability of participants. But critics caution that the trial in just 50 people is too small to draw definitive conclusions.

The most common and aggressive brain tumor grows by turning normal brain cells into stem cells, which can continuously replicate and regrow a tumor with only a handful of cells left behind, new research finds.

Though current trials and several others about to begin probably will be too late to benefit Frost, research is showing the importance of early diagnosis. Once the process that destroys brain cells has begun, the disease is irreversible. But if researchers can find a way to catch it early and slow it down, they think they can prevent much of the worst damage.

The tantalising prospect of treating a range of brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, all with the same drug has been raised by UK researchers.

Would you go to the gym or pick up those free weights to prevent memory loss, sharpen your thinking, and protect you from dementia and Alzheimer's? New evidence suggests exercise is the best way to take care of your brain.

Nodding off in class may not be such a bad idea after all. New research shows that going to sleep shortly after learning new material is most beneficial for recall.

The elderly have a harder time multi-tasking than young adults because older people are far less nimble at switching neurological connections in their brains between activities, according to research released on Monday.