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These flexible electrode arrays could significantly expand surgical options for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy

In an animal model, the researchers saw spiral waves of brain activity not previously observed during a seizure

Similar waves are known to ripple through cardiac muscle during a type of life-threatening heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation.

A stimulating electrode array might one day be designed to suppress seizure activity, working like a pacemaker for the brain

The brain contains billions of interconnected neurons that normally transmit electrical pulses

During a seizure, these pulses occur in abnormal, synchronized, rapid-fire bursts that can cause convulsions, loss of consciousness and other symptoms

is made of a pliable material that is only about one quarter the thickness of a human hair

It contains 720 silicon nanomembrane transistors in a multiplexed 360-channel array, which allow for minimal wiring and dense packing of the electrodes

The flexibility of the array allows it to conform to the brain's complex shape, even reaching into grooves that are inaccessible to conventional arrays

the array could be rolled into a tube and delivered into the brain through a small hole rather than by opening the skull

The researchers tested the flexible array on cats. Although mice and rats are used for most neuroscience research, cats have larger brains that are anatomically more like the human brain, with simplified folds and grooves

OCD and superior memory might have a common architecture in the brain

Scientists have long studied people with memory deficits, but there haven’t been many studies on people with exceptional memories

11 people who scored off the charts for autobiographical memory. These people could effortlessly remember, for instance, what they were doing on November 2, 1989, and could also tell you that it was a Thursday

Using brain scans, researchers found that people with supermemories had larger brain regions associated with memory

a brain structure called the lentiform nucleus, a cone-shaped mass in the core of the brain, was bigger in people with exceptional memories

This brain area has been linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder

The subjects haven’t been clinically evaluated for OCD, but LePort says that there are some similarities

The ability to organize their memories by dates seems to relieve anxiety

These people could encode information more effectively, or have a better system of retrieving it, or both

Though no genetic tests have been performed, some of the volunteers have reported that family members share extraordinary powers of recall

The volunteers are now keeping detailed diaries, so that the scientists can test whether particular kinds of memories are better suited to recollection. People might be better at remembering emotional memories, for instance