An imaging study of the brain and spinal cord published in JNeurosci reveals pain processing changes in healthy men after receiving a short-term application of a strong opioid.

LSD alters the activity of brain regions involved in differentiating between oneself and another person.

Finding that increased brain activity reflects reduced efficiency contradicts leading theory in neuroscience of aging.

Dive into the brain networks that determine if a message is persuasive — or not.

Rectus pulleys are predicted to shift in convergence (Clark et al, IOVS 41:3787, 2000). Tri-planar gadodiamide contrast MRI was obtained in 8 young adults during binocular fixation of a target aligned to one eye at 800 and 15 cm distance. EOM cross sections and paths were determined from area centroids. In convergence, the aligned eye rotated 0.3±0.6° (mean±SE) horizontally and 0.6±0.6° vertically with 0.6±0.1 mm lens thickening. The aligned globe moved anteriorly 0.2±0.5 mm. Focal cross section increases occurred with convergence in the aligned eye medial rectus (MR), lateral rectus (LR), and inferior oblique (IO), the latter increasing by 1.5±0.4 sq mm (P<0.05). The converging eye rotated nasally 22.4±0.8° and superiorly 0.5±0.5°, with 0.5±0.1 mm lens thickening. The converging globe moved anteriorly 0.2±0.5 mm. Interocular spacing decreased by 0.6±0.3 mm (P<0.05). The converging eye MR and LR had large contractile cross section changes, but IO also increased by 1.8±0.5 sq mm (P<0.05). Anterior paths of ...

The ability to stop motor responses depends critically on the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and also engages a midbrain region consistent with the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Here we used diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) tractography to show that the IFC and the STN region are connected via a white matter tract, which could underlie a “hyperdirect” pathway for basal ganglia control. Using a novel method of “triangulation” analysis of tractography data, we also found that both the IFC and the STN region are connected with the presupplementary motor area (preSMA). We hypothesized that the preSMA could play a conflict detection/resolution role within a network between the preSMA, the IFC, and the STN region. A second experiment tested this idea with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a conditional stop-signal paradigm, enabling examination of behavioral and neural signatures of conflict-induced slowing. The preSMA, IFC, and STN region were significantly activated the greater the conflict-...

Increased activity in a brain region involved in motivation may protect from depressive symptoms associated with poor sleep, according to a large study of young adults published in JNeurosci.

The commercial brain-training program Lumosity has no effect on decision-making or brain activity in young adults, according to a randomized, controlled trial published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Eleanor Maguire, a cognitive neuroscientist whose research on the human hippocampus—especially those belonging to London taxi drivers—transformed the understanding of memory, revealing that a key structure in the brain can be strengthened like a muscle, died on Jan. 4 in London. She was 54.

Brain tissue loss, such as the gray matter (GM) thickness, is a potentially-reliable marker of injury and equally important, its reversal could serve as a powerful sign of recovery. GM thickness in vivo is detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)...