"Sorry but all the Laurets mentioned either received the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology or the Noble Prize for Chemistry. The fact that many of the researchers were working in areas that were not specifically associated with Chemistry or with Physiology and Medicine simply highlights how the criteria have been stretched to accomodate the achievements in Biology for which there is no specific Nobel prize."
"Hundreds of species of bacteria call the human gut their home. This gut "microbiome" influences our physiology and health in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand. Now, a new study suggests that gut bacteria can even mess with the mind, altering brain chemistry and changing mood and behavior.
In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in how gut bacteria might influence the brain and behavior, says John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland. So far, most of the work has focused on how pathogenic bugs influence the brain by releasing toxins or stimulating the immune system, Cryan says. One recent study suggested that even benign bacteria can alter the brain and behavior, but until now there has been very little work in this area, Cryan says."
"Over the last 10 years, MIT biologist Leonard Guarente and other researchers have demonstrated that very-low-calorie diets provoke a comprehensive physiological response, which promotes survival due to a set of proteins called sirtuins. A new report by Guarente published online in Cell has now demonstrated that sirtuins may also have a key part in the psychological response to dietary restriction. "
"Hundreds of species of bacteria call the human gut their home. This gut "microbiome" influences our physiology and health in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand. Now, a new study suggests that gut bacteria can even mess with the mind, altering brain chemistry and changing mood and behavior.
In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in how gut bacteria might influence the brain and behavior, says John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland. So far, most of the work has focused on how pathogenic bugs influence the brain by releasing toxins or stimulating the immune system, Cryan says. One recent study suggested that even benign bacteria can alter the brain and behavior, but until now there has been very little work in this area, Cryan says."
ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2011) - Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have taken a first step toward developing a diagnostic tool that could eliminate a major hurdle in pain medicine -- the dependency on self-reporting to measure the presence or absence of pain. The new tool would use patterns of brain activity to give an objective physiologic assessment of whether someone is in pain.
The unique physiology of Mahendra Trivedi has been studied and documented extensively in the USA, Australia, Canada and India by renowned clinical specialists and scientists.
"The human brain is a big believer in equality -- and a team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, has become the first to gather the images to prove it."
Our funny primate variety of color vision turns out to be optimized for seeing the physiological modulations in the blood in the skin that underlies our primate color signals.
For theoretical neurobiologist and author Mark Changizi, "why" has always been more interesting than "how." While many scientists focus on the mechanics of how we do what we do, his research aims to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel and see as we do. Guided by this philosophy, he has made important discoveries on why we see in color, why we see illusions, why we have forward-facing eyes, why letters are shaped as they are, why the brain is organized as it is, why animals have as many limbs and fingers as they do, and why the dictionary is organized as it is.
"(PhysOrg.com) -- A 'secret weapon' used by a minority of sportsmen and women and which could make the difference between winning and losing at sport has been revealed by a scientist at the University of Portsmouth."