A new paper in ACS Chemical Neuroscience pulls no punches in claiming that most of what we know about the neuroscience of learning is wrong: Dendritic Learning as a Paradigm Shift in Brain Learning
According to authors Shira Sardi and colleagues, the prevailing view which is that learning takes place in the synapses is mistaken. Instead, they say, ‘dendritic learning’ is how brain cells really store information.
If a neuron is a tree, the dendrites are the branches, while the synaps ...read more
An international team of astronomers was able to determine the chemical composition of Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW95, an asteroid 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) away from Earth. Its makeup revealed elements that are prominent in the inner solar system, suggesting a significant outward migration. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)
It’s believed that our solar system’s gas giants caused quite a ruckus in their infancies. As they exited their tight orbits and began outward migr ...read more
A USGS scientist measures the temperature of gases emitted from a fissure at Leilani Estates on May 9, 2018. USGS/HVO.
The eruptions at Kilauea took a bit of a break over the last day — at least at the surface. The fissures that opened in Leilani Estates (see above) haven’t erupted much new lava, but the are still emitting copious amounts of volcanic gases like sulfur dioxide. So, right now, that is the biggest hazard for people on the east side of the big island: the threat of volca ...read more
(Credit: Review News/Shutterstock)
This just in: Europe is stealing life satisfaction from the U.S.
No, it’s got nothing to do with immigrants or trade tariffs; it seems that the dastardly Europeans are denying us our happiness through an even more insidious channel: The power of song.
Well, I doubt it’s a coordinated effort to rob us of well-being, but a recent study in the journal BMC Public Health did finds that doing well in the Eurovision song contest (which America, ...read more
Which way is out again? (Credit: Szasz-Fabian Jozsef)
Graduate psychology students can attest to the monotony of studying lab rats. Drop the animals into a maze, take diligent notes as they scurry around, repeat ad nauseum.
Mazes have been a mainstay in psychological research for more than a century, with scientists running rodents through contraptions to test their memory, learning and spatial skills. But they’ve always had limitations.
Now modern technology is finding its way into maze ...read more
Signs of leprosy mark a skull found in a Danish cemetery in use from the 13th through 16th centuries. (Credit Dorthe Dangvard Pedersen)
One of the most dreaded diseases for millennia, leprosy is still with us — though it has lost much of its menace. But some of its mystery remains, particularly its origins. In a study out today, researchers turned to ancient DNA to discover leprosy’s roots, and the path they followed took them to a surprising place.
Leprosy results from a ...read more
Reconstructing a video from the retinal activity. Left: two example stimulus frames displayed to the rat retina. Middle and right: Reconstructions obtained with two different methods (sparse linear decoding in the middle and nonlinear decoding on the right). Green circles denote true disc positions. (Credit: Botella-Soler et al.)
Using artificial intelligence techniques, researchers successfully took signals from the retinas of rats and reconstructed movies of what they saw, a new study finds. ...read more
Archaeologists have excavated a cave in Kenya showing artifacts over a period of tens of thousands of years, beginning about 78,000 years ago. Some of the artifacts are, from left, red ochre; sea shell beads, ostrich eggshell beads; bone tools; and a close-up of a bone tool showing scrapes from use. (Credit: Francesco D’Errico and Africa Pitch)
Excavation of an East African cave is offering clues to human culture and innovation over an expansive period starting 78,000 years ago.
The arti ...read more
