Category Health/Medical

In the first experiment, two objects always appeared in the same position relative to the room’s boundary; the other two always appeared in the same spot relative to another object acting as a landmark. This image shows the boundary wall and a landmark object. Credit: University of Pennsylvania

Imagine a room or a landscape or a city street. Part of what differentiates that scene from a face or an object is the fact that it has boundaries, and Uni of Pennsylvania researchers Joshua Julian et al aimed to parse out which part of the brain helps perceive those borders. What they learned, through 2 experiments involving transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS, is that this function falls to the occipital place area, OPA.

The OPA, located near the top of the back of the head, is known for its st...

Time-averaged local volume fraction ϕ(r) of interacting and noninteracting particles in a system with spatially patterned one-particle swim speed v(r), where v = vi = v0(1 – i/16) in the ith well and v = v0 between the wells. The solid lines show our predictions with a prefactor determined by least-squares fits, where we neglected the three highest density (ϕ > 0.5) data points for the interacting particles. Inset: Spatially resolved plot of ϕ(r) for the interacting particles; note the logarithmic scale on the color bar.

Light of a certain wavelength can be used to put so-called active materials into motion and control their movement...

Measurement in pig’s brain tissue. Credit: Image courtesy of Investigación y Desarrollo

Removing a brain tumor is a delicate task, if not done properly it can have catastrophic consequences, such as brain damage, motor impairment or failure in controlling a vital organ function. In order to make this work more precise, the Mexican David Oliva Uribe designed, at Brussels, Belgium, a “smart scalpel” that determines whether an area is healthy or tumorous. The device is designed to be used in the operating room when a brain tumor is already diagnosed and the only solution is to remove it. The tool has the size of a scalpel, but the tip is spherical and of a diameter <1 millimeter.

The prototype was tested in artificial tumors and brain tissue from pigs, where excellent results were obtained a...

Representation of the wearable epileptic seizure prediction device that is under development. Credit: Dr. Toshitaka Yamakawa

Recent research from Japan has found that epileptic seizures can be more easily predicted by using an electrocardiogram to measure fluctuations in the heart rate than by measuring brain activity, because the monitoring device is easier to wear. By making more accurate predictions, it is possible to prevent injury or accident that may result from an epileptic seizure. This is a significant contribution toward the realization of a society where epileptic patients can live without worrying about sustaining injury from an unexpected seizure.

Epilepsy is a disease that affects 1% of the global population...