Perception News

October 4, 2024

Top Headlines

Deep Brain Stimulation Instantly Improves Arm and Hand Function Post-Brain Injury

Oct. 1, 2024 — Deep brain stimulation may provide immediate improvement in arm and hand strength and function weakened by traumatic brain injury or ...

'Who's a Good Boy?' Humans Use Dog-Specific Voices for Better Canine Comprehension

Oct. 1, 2024 — Humans slow their own speech when talking to their dogs, and this slower tempo matches their pets' receptive abilities, allowing the dogs to better understand their commands, according to a new ...

Lengthened Consonants Mark the Beginning of Words

Sep. 24, 2024 — Speech consists of a continuous stream of acoustic signals, yet humans can segment words from each other with astonishing precision and speed. To find out how this is possible, a team of linguists has analysed durations of consonants at different ...

When Serotonin Dims the Light

Sep. 18, 2024 — Signals in our brain are not always processed in the same way: certain receptors modulate these mechanisms, influencing our mood, perception, and behavior in various ways. One of these is the 5-HT2A receptor, which has a recently discovered unique ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:04am EDT

Activity in Brain System That Controls Eye Movements Highlights Importance of Spatial Thinking

Sep. 19, 2024 — The superior colliculus is a midbrain region that is traditionally thought to help animals orient themselves toward important locations in space, ...

What Numbers Do You See? A New Bistable Perceptual Phenomenon on Symbolic Numbers

Sep. 18, 2024 — This research described a new perceptual phenomenon of bistability induced by partial occlusion of digital numerals. Results of experiments using ...

Fruit Flies' Visual Navigation Tactics Differ by Environment

Sep. 17, 2024 — Fruit flies use vision to head toward interesting things, but also to stay steady during flight. To accomplish this, the eyes need to fixate on the visual background while noticing objects that might ...

Vital Language Sites in Brain Act Like Connectors in a Social Network

Sep. 16, 2024 — When surgeons perform brain surgery on people with brain tumors or epilepsy, they need to remove the tumor or abnormal tissue while preserving parts of the brain that control language and movement. A ...

Wearable Brain Imaging Device Shines a Light on How Babies Respond in Real-World Situations

Sep. 11, 2024 — A technology which uses harmless light waves to measure activity in babies' brains has provided the most complete picture to date of brain functions ...

Brain-Wide Decision-Making Dynamics Discovered

Sep. 11, 2024 — Neuroscientists have revealed how sensory input is transformed into motor action across multiple brain regions in mice. The research shows that decision-making is a global process across the brain ...

Gene Therapy Effective in Hereditary Blindness

Sep. 10, 2024 — Bothnia dystrophy is a form of hereditary blindness, prevalent in the region Vasterbotten in Sweden. A new study shows that gene therapy can improve vision in patients with the ...

New AI Can ID Brain Patterns Related to Specific Behavior

Sep. 9, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new AI algorithm that can separate brain patterns related to a particular behavior. This work promises to improve brain-computer interfaces and aid with the discovery of ...

How the Brain's Inner Chamber Governs Our State of Consciousness

Sep. 9, 2024 — Investigators studying the nature of consciousness have successfully used a drug to identify the intricate brain geometry behind the unconscious state, offering an unprecedented look at brain ...

Music Can Reveal Which Areas of the Brain Are Affected by Aging

Sep. 4, 2024 — Researchers are using works by Johann Sebastian Bach, along with MEG and MRI scans, to investigate how the brain compensates for age-related ...

Automatic Speech Recognition Learned to Understand People With Parkinson's Disease -- By Listening to Them

Sep. 27, 2024 — Listening to people with Parkinson's disease made an automatic speech recognizer 30-percent more accurate, according to a new ...

How Synchronization Supports Social Interactions

Sep. 25, 2024 — Turn-taking dynamics of social interactions are important for speech and gesture synchronization, enabling conversations to proceed efficiently, according to a new ...

100x Improvement in Sight Seen After Gene Therapy Trial

Sep. 6, 2024 — The vision of people with a rare inherited condition that causes them to lose much of their sight early in childhood was 100 times better after they received gene therapy to address the genetic ...

Morphing Facial Technology Sheds Light on the Boundaries of Self-Recognition

Aug. 30, 2024 — Facial recognition is a critical part of self-image and social interactions. In an era of advanced digital technology, we face intriguing questions about communication and identity. How does altering ...

Researchers Identify Basic Approaches for How People Recognize Words

Aug. 29, 2024 — Recognizing spoken words is a split-second competition, and a new study defines how people approach that competition and ultimately recognize words. The researchers identified three main approaches ...

Neuroscientists Explore the Intersection of Music and Memory

Aug. 28, 2024 — New research explores music's impact on learning, memory, and emotions in two studies. One reveals that familiar music can enhance concentration and learning, while the other demonstrates that ...

Prioritizing the Unexpected: New Brain Mechanism Uncovered

Aug. 28, 2024 — Researchers have discovered how two brain areas, neocortex and thalamus, work together to detect discrepancies between what animals expect from their environment and actual events. These prediction ...

Moths May Use Disco Gene to Regulate Day/night Cycles

Aug. 28, 2024 — How does one species become two? A new study shows what happens when individuals of a moth species become separated in ...

Researcher Finds Sound Progress in Babies' Speech Development

Aug. 23, 2024 — The sounds babies make in their first year of life may be less random and more self-driven than previously believed, according to new ...

Declining Senses Can Impact Mental Health and Loneliness in Aging Adults

Aug. 22, 2024 — Researchers found that people who develop sensory disabilities with age tend to have worse mental health, and that different types of sensory disability are associated with different aspects of ...

Positive Effects of Rhythm and Music in Brain Disorder

Aug. 21, 2024 — Music-based movement therapy, known as the Ronnie Gardiner Method, has the potential to contribute to rehabilitation after a stroke and in other brain ...

Novel Molecular Imaging Tool Objectively Measures and Diagnoses Smell Disorders

Aug. 20, 2024 — A new fluorescent imaging probe can for the first time objectively and non-invasively measure loss of smell, clinically known as anosmia. Targeting the olfactory nerve, the new tool has potential to ...

New Way to Control the Sense of Touch

Aug. 19, 2024 — Researchers have found a new way to manage the receptors that control the sense of touch, which could lead to treating chronic pain more effectively. Using phosphatidic acid as a regulator of the ...

Brain Wiring Is Guided by Activity Even in Very Early Development

Aug. 15, 2024 — In humans, the process of learning is driven by different groups of cells in the brain firing together. For instance, when the neurons associated with the process of recognizing a dog begin to fire ...

Singing from Memory Unlocks a Surprisingly Common Musical Superpower

Aug. 14, 2024 — Psychologists studied 'earworms,' the types of songs that get stuck in your head and play automatically on a loop, to show that highly accurate pitch memory is much more common than might ...

New Brain-Computer Interface Allows Man With ALS to 'Speak' Again

Aug. 14, 2024 — A new brain-computer interface translates brain signals into speech with up to 97 percent accuracy. Researchers implanted sensors in the brain of a man with severely impaired speech due to ...

New Research Identifies Early Sensorimotor Markers for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Aug. 14, 2024 — A study has uncovered significant findings related to the early sensorimotor features and cognitive abilities of toddlers who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder ...

The Atmosphere in the Room Can Affect Strategic Decision-Making, Study Finds

Aug. 13, 2024 — The atmosphere within a group can influence the outcome of strategic decision-making, according to a new study. Researchers found that different atmospheres led to people speaking and interacting in ...

Babbling Babies Need Timely Responses to Learn Language, Social Norms

Aug. 12, 2024 — New research shows the timing of others' reactions to their babbling is key to how babies begin learning language and social norms -- a process evident in infants' interactions with a ...

Classical Music Lifts Our Mood by Synchronizing Our 'Extended Amygdala'

Aug. 9, 2024 — Whether Bach, Beethovan, or Mozart, it's widely recognized that classical music can affect a person's mood. Scientists use brainwave measurements and neural imaging techniques to show how ...