Electrical implant steadies balance disorder in animals
...t Hopkins. While everyone knows about the five senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, few people think about a possible sixth sense - the sensation of head orientation and movement - until the system fails, says Della Santina, who has been working on this prosthesis since 2002. In their re...Chemical in brain acts like a fuel gauge
...he field. Theres a huge interest in how the body senses glucose, said Alan Watts, director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at USC and a co-author of the study. How that information is processed by the brain is really a hot current topic. Knowing how neurons relay hypoglycemia warnings is critic...Wired for sound: How the brain senses visual illusions
... occurs can reveal how information from different senses are integrated in the brain. The study of 34 subjects was carried out in the laboratory of Steven A. Hillyard, Ph.D., UCSD professor of neurosciences. "This type of perceptual illusion has been described before," said first author Jyoti Mishra, ...'Mindless Eating' is a nourishing read
..., he has told interviewers...and those pesky other senses influence our decisions also. We think we eat just enough to satisfy basic hunger, but we are being fooled all the time. (We even tend to eat more when we are with people we like.) If you want something that tastes good and reads well, pick up Mindl...Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute -- cancer study
...ich is needed to cause cell death. "The enzyme SPL senses when a cell has sustained damage or is undergoing mutations," said Dr. Saba. "Once the enzyme is aware of these changes it responds by killing the cell. We hope to find new ways to leverage the body's own natural responses to these mutated or damage...Clinical trial shows islet transplantation is a promising procedure
...ancreas transplantation. The transplanted pancreas senses blood sugar and produces insulin. Many people with diabetes who have taken daily insulin injections for years have achieved total insulin independence after pancreas transplantation--often for years after the transplant. About 1,500 pancreas or pancr...MIT device could prevent epileptic seizures
... well for that person." Ideally, when the device senses an impending seizure, it sends a magnetic signal to the implanted stimulator, which in turn activates the left vagus nerve. The vagus nerve sends electrical signals up to the brain as well as down toward the viscera, controlling heart rate, gastroint...Researchers identify antibiotic protein that defends the intestine against microbial invaders
...stand the mechanism by which the intestinal lining senses bacterial threats. What turns this protein antibiotic on?" Dr. Hooper asked. "We want to explore whether this is something we can stimulate artificially to stave off pathogenic infections."...Scientists learn how the brain 'boots up' to process information from the senses
...alamus." Godwin said it is likely that our other senses work the same way. "This showed us something imp...a straight line. Now we know that vision and other senses are more like a loop whose strength may wax and wane with the arousal of our brain." Godwin said t...Researcher studies sleep deprivation's effect on decisions
... night during the 11 straight sorties, my body and senses became very numb. I truly believe, because of the demand for the missions in OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom), our crew had become so tired that we forgot the little things, which can add up to big things." Because of incidents like Drummond's the Do...Virtual realities against pain
...e an optimum amount of attention involving various senses (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic), an active emotional involvement, and participation from the patient to compete with the signals of the harmful stimuli. The advanced distraction techniques (ADTs) recently developed use 3D images combined with ...New UF tool measures heart implant patients' anxiety
...rs a 750-volt shock to restore normal rhythm if it senses a dangerous rapid rhythm developing. Approximately 150,000 patients worldwide received an ICD in 2004, according to researchers at the University of Marburg in Germany. Patients' concerns about ICDs recently gained national attention after manufact...Immune signals of variations of a single gene linked to more severe Crohn's disease
...Medical Center explained, the innate immune system senses micro-organisms and pathogens using a family of proteins known as the Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs). This recognition activates both the innate and adaptive immune system, with each TLR recognizing a specific pattern of microbial components. The aim ...Researchers learn more about ways to regenerate the ear's hearing cells
...th of the cochlea the organ of the inner ear that senses sound where they convert sonic vibrations to electrical signals that are carried to the brain. The cells are very sensitive to damage from excessive noise, infections and toxins. Once damaged, hair cells do not naturally regenerate in mammals, and ...Technology to improve learning for visually-impaired children
...s. "We are experimenting with how to use different senses to partially replace missing visual capabilities, especially in tasks that are central in the construction of the system," he says. "Empirical research of collaborative and cross-modal haptic interfaces for visually-impaired children is one of the mo......ey expect to see. This numerical perception across senses demonstrates that babies have a truly abstract sen...rate that monkeys show numerical perception across senses http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2005/06/BrannonCurrBio.html . In those experiments, the researchers, c...Feeling fat in the festive season? It's all in your mind
...ow ceiling. However, unlike more elementary bodily senses such as limb movement, touch and pain, there are no specialized receptors in the body that send information to the brain about the size and shape of body parts. Instead, the brain appears to create a map of the body by integrating signals from the re...Wide racial disparities found in heart device implantation
...with wires attached to the heart. Whenever the ICD senses that the heart is either beating too fast or too slow, it delivers an appropriate electric impulse to bring the heart back into proper rhythm. ICDs have been proven effective in reducing sudden cardiac death in patients who have already suffered hear...Scientists work to discover how music training affects the brain
...of music conductors seems to enhance the way their senses work together enabling them to quickly tell who p...lity of music conductors to use cues from multiple senses to locate objects in space. The next step in the research will be to have some of the subjects under...New insights into cost-effectiveness of implanted heart device
...t, with wires attached to the heart. If the device senses a life-threatening irregularity of the heart rhythm, it delivers an appropriate electric impulse to bring the heart back into proper rhythm. ICDs have been proven effective in reducing sudden cardiac death in patients who had been resuscitated from a...