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The conclusion is that the high-fat diet triggered chronic inflammation, which in turn triggered an autoimmune response in the mice's central nervous systems. Normally this response protects the brain from invaders like bacteria, but a high-saturated fat diet knocks the process off track, resulting in damage to synapses in the brain - specifically in the hippocampus. Since the hippocampus is a brain area central to memory and learning, the eventual outcome is impaired brain function. In short, the high-fat diet caused brain damage.

Hosted by: Michael Aranda 0:36 Brain Personality Maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBv1w... 5:10 Do I Only Use 10% of My Brain?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxIS3... 8:47 Are People Really Left or Right Brained?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYWBL... 16:46 Your Brain is Plastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KLPx... 20:24 3 Senses You Didn't Know You Had: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA_j3... ----------

You may remember neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis - he built the brain-controlled exoskeleton that allowed a paralyzed man to kick the first ball of the 2014 World Cup. What's he working on now? Building ways for two minds (rats and monkeys, for now) to send messages brain to brain. Watch to the end for an experiment that, as he says, will go to "the limit of your imagination."

Sure, we know insufficient serotonin levels get a bad rap when it comes to depression, but that's like blaming one person in a full-scale riot. Depression isn't caused by only one factor. In fact, study co-author Elyse Aurbach says we're probably not getting to the core of why people are depressed because "the brain is immensely complex." In this study, the research team conducted eight experiments (four on animal brains, four on brains of the deceased human kind) of varying sample sizes - from 20 to 90 brains in each - and found that the brains of deceased humans who'd been depressed had increased levels of hippocampal FGF9 and that live animals with increased FGF9 levels demonstrated depressive, anxious behavior. "This is not just a correlation," study leader Huda Akil of the University of Michigan says. Less really may be more, at least when it comes to FGF9.

Humans may in part owe their big brains to a DNA "typo" in their genetic code, research suggests. The mutation was also present in our evolutionary "cousins" - the Neanderthals and Denisovans. However, it is not found in humans' closest living relatives, the chimpanzees. As early humans evolved, they developed larger and more complex brains, which can process and store a lot of information. Last year, scientists pinpointed a human gene that they think was behind the expansion of a key brain region known as the neocortex.

Ever wonder how your brain processes information? These brain tricks and illusions help to demonstrate the two main systems of Fast and Slow Thinking in your brain.

Two thirds of the population believes a myth that has been propagated for over a century: that we use only 10% of our brains. Hardly! Our neuron-dense brains have evolved to use the least amount of energy while carrying the most information possible -- a feat that requires the entire brain.

The researchers isolated different subpopulations of human brain stem cells and precisely identified, which genes are active in which cell type. In doing so, they noticed the gene ARHGAP11B: it is only found in humans and in our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisova-Humans, but not in chimpanzees. This gene manages to trigger brain stem cells to form a bigger pool of stem cells. In that way, during brain development more neurons can arise and the cerebrum can expand. The cerebrum is responsible for cognitive functions like speaking and thinking.

Stress isn't always a bad thing; it can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you're playing a competitive sport or have to speak in public. But when it's continuous, it actually begins to change your brain. Madhumita Murgia shows how chronic stress can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions, right down to the level of your genes.

In the animal kingdom, humans are known for our big brains. But not all brains are created equal, and now we have new clues as to why that is. Researchers have uncovered eight genetic variations that help determine the size of key brain regions. These variants may represent "the genetic essence of humanity," says Stephan Sanders, a geneticist and pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. These results are among the first to come out of the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) collaboration, involving some 300 scientists from 33 countries. They contributed MRI scans of more than 30,000 people, along with genetic and other information, most of which had been collected for other reasons. "This paper represents a herculean effort," Sanders says.

When it comes to what you bite, chew and swallow, your choices have a direct and long-lasting effect on the most powerful organ in your body: your brain. So which foods cause you to feel so tired after lunch? Or so restless at night? Mia Nacamulli takes you into the brain to find out.

This directed case study follows two college roommates, Darrell and Anthony, who have just returned to school after winter vacation. They share that their ageing fathers are concerned about their declining faculties and are amused by their fathers' efforts to reverse the process.  Darrell's dad plays "brain games" on the computer while Anthony's father believes running will slow his memory decline. Intrigued, the roommates search through their biopsychology class notes to find out whether their fathers are correct. They review the topics of synaptic formation and plasticity, including axonal and dendritic development, and chemical factors in the brain that promote the survival and growth of neurons or stop the genetically programmed death of neurons. Based on research findings, students reading this case will decide whether Darrell and Anthony's fathers are correct in their assertions. The case is appropriate for a wide variety of courses including introductory anatomy or physiology, or for upper-division biopsychology, biology, or neuroscience courses.

When it comes to what you bite, chew and swallow, your choices have a direct and long-lasting effect on the most powerful organ in your body: your brain. So which foods cause you to feel so tired after lunch? Or so restless at night? Mia Nacamulli takes you into the brain to find out.

There has always been a debate on whether video games change your brain or not. What's the truth about games and the brain?

U.S. researchers have found that Zika can attack special populations of brain cells in adult mice in the part of the brain involved in learning and memory, raising new questions about how the virus may be impacting millions of adults who have been infected with the virus. The findings, published on Thursday in the journal "Cell Stem Cell," are the first to look at whether Zika can attack the same kinds of cells in adult mice that they do in fetal mice.

A new map of the human brain could be the most accurate yet, as it combines all sorts of different kinds of data. This might finally solve a century of disagreements over the shapes and positions of different brain areas.

Scientists and clinicians have demonstrated that a neuroprotectant drug protects the human brain against the damaging effects of stroke. In patients who had ruptured brain aneurysm, which comprise a population of patients at very high risk of neurological damage, those treated with Tat-NR2B9c all had good neurological outcomes, whereas only 68% of those treated with placebo had good outcomes.

It is now time to meet the system that helps your crazy brain stay in touch with the outside world. We follow up last week's tour of the central nervous system with a look at your peripheral nervous system, its afferent and efferent divisions, how it processes information, the reflex arc, and what your brain has to say about pain. Table of Contents Peripheral Nervous System 0:38 Afferent and Efferent Divisions 5:42 Information and Responses to Pain 3:12 Five Steps of the Reflex Arc 4:35 Different Kinds of Reflexes 6:44 What the Brain Says About Pain 8:09

4:07 Hank explains the gift that your brain gives you every day: the gift of neural plasticity -- the ways in which your brain actually changes at the cellular level as you learn.

Brain-eating amoebas (Naegleria fowleri) are found in warm freshwater pools around the world, feeding on bacteria. If someone swims in one of these pools and gets water up their nose, the amoeba heads for the brain in search of a meal. Once there, it starts to destroy tissue by ingesting cells and releasing proteins that make other cells disintegrate.