Come le differenze individuali nella struttura e funzione cerebrale siano legate al modo in cui ci comportiamo e proviamo emozioni e' una di quelle domande "esistenziali" alla quale gli scienziati cercano di dare una risposta da anni. Benchè risultati conclusivi non siano ancora disponibili, i dati raccolti fino ad ora hanno mostrato un forte legame tra la "forma" di alcune aree cerebrali e le varie caratteristiche di personalità. E' la conclusione di un recente studio effettuato da un team ...

Braccio di Ferro, con la sua tipica pipa permanentemente in bocca e gli avambracci nerboruti, è un uomo di mare dall'aspetto un po' buffo che si trova sovente in situazioni rissose con Bruto, imponente marinaio attaccabrighe dalla barba folta e nera. L'arma segreta di Braccio di Ferro sono gli spinaci, un alimento ricco di diverse sostanze nutritive tra cui i nitrati. Recenti studi scientifici suggeriscono che l'ossido nitrico, prodotto derivante dai nitrati, svolge diverse funzioni ...

Gli adolescenti con gravi comportamenti antisociali presentano evidenti anomalie cerebrali rispetto ai coetanei che non soffrono di questo disturbo: è quanto emerge da una ricerca recentemente pubblicata sulla rivista internazionale Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Lo studio è stato condotto dalle Università di Cambridge e Southampton in collaborazione con l'Università Tor Vergata e il Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). I ricercatori che hanno partecipato allo studio ...

It takes just 300 ms to our brain to understand whether one person's facial mimic and body language are consistent with her inner feelings and mental states or with a verbal description of her feelings and mentations. And, when they are not, that person's verbal message has a short life in our brain. Indeed, our brain very quickly compares the inputs deriving from areas processing facial expressions, and face and body mimics (including the mirror neurons system) with the visceral feelings of ...

Dejà-vù is a fascinating and mysterious psychological phenomenon investigated by philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists. However, until now there is not a clear scientific theory able to explain this phenomenon. The Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology-CNR of Catanzaro, in collaboration with the Institute of Neurology of the Policlinico "Magna Graecia" Catanzaro, has shed new light on the neurobiological correlates underlying Dejà-vù. This research has been ...

The most efficacy drug therapy employed to treat Parkinson's disease is the levodopa but, for obscure reasons, after few years this induces motor complications called dyskinesias. The Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology-CNR of Catanzaro, in collaboration with the Institute of Neurology of the Policlinico "Magna Graecia" Catanzaro, has shed new light on the neurobiological correlates of this motor complication demonstrating the efficacy of neurostimulation. This research has been ...

A mild decrease of oxygen supply to the brain can selectively impair the brain's arousal levels and behavioral responses, but not orienting of spatial attention and executive control functions. This is indicated by the findings of a study carried out by the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology in collaboration with the University of Milan Bicocca. These findings were presented at the "2014 Society for Neuroscience" Annual Congress, the largest and most influential Neuroscience ...

Nicotine improves the capacity of the 'working memory', the store where information is temporarily stocked in order to re-use it during cognitive processing, through the activation of regions of the frontal and prefrontal cortices of the right hemisphere in the human brain. It also appears to impair brain processing underpinning motor response choice and execution. These are the outcomes of a study carried out by the CNR-IBFM and the Bicocca University of Milan suggesting that the ...

Unlike laypersons' brain, professional basketball players brain's mirror neurons system (MNS) can automatically detect incorrect basketball playing actions in four tenths of a second. This was revealed by a study of the Bicocca University of Milan and the CNR-IBFM just published in Scientific Reports.Nature.

Looking at images usually linked to a sound activates the superior temporal auditory cortex in a tenth of a second. The study carried out by the University of Milan-Bicocca and Ibfm-CNR reveals, besides other neurophysiological mechanisms, why seeing the labial fosters language comprehension and why the off-sync distorts it so heavily. The auditory cortex is activated by vision too. Looking at pictures linked to a sound, for instance a saxophonist with his bulging cheeks blowing into his ...

To investigate the existence in human beings of the "mirror neurons" originally found in monkeys by means of single cell recordings, Alice Mado Proverbio and Federica Riva at the University of Milan-Bicocca, together with Alberto Zani at the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology (IBFM) of CNR at Milan, recorded brain electrical potentials in a group of volunteers. Now in print in Neuropsychologia, the findings of the present study point out the neuronal processes going on in our ...

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a functional imaging method frequently used to assess diagnosis and prognosis of patients with cancer. PET main clinical application are staging and restaging tumors, and the evaluation of treatment. Furthermore, in lung cancer, PET has been used to assess malignancy of solitary pulmonary nodules, that are undetermined at conventional imaging (e.g. Computed Tomography , CT). This study is the first one published showing PET usefulness for lung cancer ...

A recent study about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying language processes has focused on behavioural-cognitive aspects and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) in bilingual subjects. fMRI technique is based on changes of cerebral blood flow that are linked with the regional cerebral activation associated with the execution of motor, sensory and cognitive tasks. Previous studies have contributed to the realization of a functional map of cerebral circuits responsible for the elaboration of the ...

Prostate cancer is one of the most relevant tumors in male. After radical treatment for this tumor an increase of PSA serum level indicates a recurrence of disease. Once recurrence is suspected re-staging procedures are indicated, involving different studies such as trans-rectal ultrasound, CT, MR imaging and bone scintigraphy. PET with [18F]FDG is showing increasing usefulness in clinical oncology. However, its use in some tumors, including prostate adenocarcinoma, is limited by a low ...

The preliminary results of a physiological and molecular study carried out in the frame of the Pyramid project have been reported on the occasion of the "International Seminars on Mountains" (Kathmandu, Nepal, March 2002). For the first time some variables related to physical performance have been investigated in Tibetan refugees, during the early phase of reacclimatization to normoxia. Tibetans, the only population resident permanently at high altitude since thousands of years, appear to ...