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The growing acceptance of Neuro plasticity lets us see the brain as a resource we can continually develop. This talk describes a programme designed to help us address limitations of our own brain and even take our skills to exceptional levels Barbara Arrowsmith-Young tells the inspiring story of how she overcame her severe learning difficulties with specific brain exercises she developed herself. We also hear the moving accounts of two Australians who've taken a leaf out of her book.  They've found the hard work has paid off.

We now know that the oft-repeated "your brain only runs on glucose!" is wrong. I've mentioned it before, and anyone who's taken the time to get fat-adapted on a low-carb Primal eating plan intuitively knows that your brain doesn't need piles of glucose to work, because, well, they're using their brain to read this sentence

"At EPFL's Blue Brain facilities, computer models of individual neurons are being assembled into neural circuits that produce electrical signals akin to brain waves. The results, published in the journal Neuron, are helping solve the mystery of how and why these signals arise in the brain."

" Brain cells talk to each other in a variety of tones. Sometimes they speak loudly but other times struggle to be heard. For many years scientists have asked why and how brain cells change tones so frequently. Today National Institutes of Health researchers showed that brief bursts of chemical energy coming from rapidly moving power plants, called mitochondria, may tune brain cell communication."

"Navigate the brain in a way that was never before possible; fly through major brain pathways, compare essential circuits, zoom into a region to explore the cells that comprise it, and the functions that depend on it. The Human Connectome Project aims to provide an unparalleled compilation of neural data, an interface to graphically navigate this data and the opportunity to achieve never before realized conclusions about the living human brain."

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has released the world's first anatomically and genomically comprehensive human brain map.

When you're really tired, your brain deals with the problem by putting parts of itself to sleep. Scientists say partially-asleep brains could explain everything from sleepwalking and talking, to why you make so many mistakes when you're exhausted.

I can guarantee right now part of my brain is asleep - 4am wedding coverage ...lol nice wedding through

In a stunning first for neuroscience, researchers have created an electronic link between the brains of two rats, and demonstrated that signals from the mind of one can help the second solve basic puzzles in real time - even when those animals are separated by thousands of miles.

"The brain appears to be wired more like the checkerboard streets of New York City than the curvy lanes of Columbia, Md., suggests a new brain imaging study. The most detailed images, to date, reveal a pervasive 3D grid structure with no diagonals, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health."

It turns out your brain is organized even if you're not. At least that's the conclusion of a study in Science that looked at the network of fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. Researchers used cutting-edge imaging technology to look at places where these fibers intersect. And they found a remarkably organized three-dimensional grid, says Van Wedeen of Harvard Medical School, the study's lead author. The grid is a bit like Manhattan, Wedeen says, "with streets running in two dimensions and then the elevators in the buildings in the third dimension."

The sight of unhealthy food during a period of sleep restriction activated reward centers in the brain that were less active when participants had adequate sleep, according to a new study using brain scans to better understand the link between sleep restriction and obesity.

Metabolic interactions between multiple cell types are difficult to model using existing approaches. Here we present a workflow that integrates gene expression data, proteomics data and literature-based manual curation to model human metabolism within and between different types of cells. Transport reactions are used to account for the transfer of metabolites between models of different cell types via the interstitial fluid. We apply the method to create models of brain energy metabolism that recapitulate metabolic interactions between astrocytes and various neuron types relevant to Alzheimer's disease. Analysis of the models identifies genes and pathways that may explain observed experimental phenomena, including the differential effects of the disease on cell types and regions of the brain. Constraint-based modeling can thus contribute to the study and analysis of multicellular metabolic processes in the human tissue microenvironment and provide detailed mechanistic insight into high-throughput data analysis.

fascinating approach to modelling a human brain in a computer. 

amazing interactive demonstration of the brain.  Uses web 3d technologies to provide an interactive environment to explore brain tractography

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found a new mechanism by which neurons migrate in the developing brain, suggesting how other types of cells, including cancer cells, may also travel within the body in metastasis.

The brainiest creatures share a secret - an odd kind of brain cell involved in emotions and empathy that may have accidentally made us conscious

Three films exploring the very thing that makes us human. Each episode features an extraordinary character who can do extraordinary things with their brain. Marc Yu is only 7 years old, but he already has a repertoire of over 15 classical piano pieces - some of them over 20 minutes long. Chess grand master Susan Polgar tells the story of how her father turned her and her sisters into chess prodigies. Autistic Savant George Widener stuns us with his superhuman calculating and memory skills. And prepare to be moved by Tommy McHugh - the Liverpool hardman who turned into an obsessive artist after surviving a stroke. We find out how they do it. Episodes included: Make Me A Genius, Accidental Genius, and Born Genius.

The biggest question for would-be cyborgs is: How are you going to power all those brain implants? And now it looks like some MIT engineers may have stumbled upon the answer. They have developed a fuel cell that can run on your brain's own glucose - a breakthrough that could result in powerful neural prosthetics that could restore and control a number of bodily functions.

excellent example of exploring the brain in 3d

Excellent 3d brain modelling.