Researchers from UC Irvine show that specific memories can be made by directly altering brain cells in the cerebral cortex, which produces the predicted specific memory. The researchers say this is the first piece of evidence that memories can be created by direct cortical manipulation.

To conduct their research, the team, led by senior author Norman M. Weinberger, played a specific tone to test rodents, then stimulated the nucleus basalis deep within their brains, which released acetylcholine (ACh), a chemical involved in memory formation. This procedure increased the number of brain cells responding to the specific tone. The following day, the scientists played many sounds to the animals and found that their respiration spiked when they recognized the particular tone, showing that specific memory content was created by brain changes directly induced during the experiment. Created memories have the same features as natural memories, including long-term retention.

By finding the way the brain makes memories, along with how it creates new memories with specific content, researchers hope this will pave the way to prevent and resolve learning and memory disorders.

Men with smaller testes are better dads to their toddlers, according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous research has looked at the connection between lower levels of testosterone and parenting, but this research focused on testicle volume, which is linked to sperm count and quality, to see if that played a part.

For the study, researchers looked at 70 biological fathers who had children between 1 and 2 years old, and who were living with the child and biological mother. The mother and father both took part in the interview to determine the father’s involvement in parenting. They gathered information on how often the father changes diapers, feeds and bathes the child, whether they stay home to care for the child when sick and if they take their child to doctor visits. The fathers’ testosterone levels were measured and then underwent an MRI, which measured brain activity while viewing photos of their children with happy, sad and neutral facial expressions.

Researchers found that both testosterone levels and size of the testes correlated with the amount of direct paternal caregiving reported by the parents. Men who had smaller testes showed increased nurturing-related brain activity when viewing photos of their kids.

Researcher say that while there is a correlation between testes size and nurturing activity, personal choice can still determine how involved a father will be in their child’s care. In addition, there could be other factors involved, such as the testes of a man could shrink when they become a father.

NEXT: First drunk driver: Sept. 10, 1897

Sourced from: Medical News Today, Dads with smaller testicles are better fathers, study shows

Stunning researchers, a woman who had her amygdala removed 13 years ago has been experiencing what has been described as hyper-empathy, which is the ability to recognize another person’s emotions. The especially unusual part of the story, according to researchers, is that the amygdala is involved in recognizing emotions, and removing it would be expected to make it harder rather than easier for a person to read others’ emotions.

The woman had parts of her temporal lobe, including the amygdala, removed from one side of the brain to treat a severe form of medication-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). After the surgery, the woman reported that her seizures had stopped, but that she started to have this over-powering feeling of empathy, which has persisted for the last 13 years.

Although patients with epilepsy treated with surgery have been known to experience new psychological issues afterward, such as depression or anxiety, this case of hyper-empathy is a first. In studying the woman with hyper empathy, researchers evaluated her psychological condition with a series of standard tests, and found that her mental health appeared normal. The researchers also analyzed how the woman responded to a questionnaire aimed at measuring empathy by answering questions such as “I am good at predicting how someone will feel” and “I get upset if I see people suffering on news programs.” She also completed a test of recognizing the emotions in 36 photographs of only people’s eyes, and her scores were compared to those of 10 women who served as controls. Her performance in empathy tests was above average, and her score on the eye test was significantly higher than that of the controls, according to the researchers.

The woman’s case suggests it is possible to have unexpectedly re-organized neural networks after this kind of surgery, the researchers said, and may have lessons for a better understanding of the brain.

NEXT: Eat your veggies

Sourced from: Live Science, Strange Case of ‘Hyper Empathy’ after Brain Surgery

Scientists have developed a strain of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that could be used to develop a vaccine against the deadly pathogen.

The team, from the Autonomous University of Madrid (“la Autónoma”) in Spain, engineered the lab strain, called rMERS-CoV-[delta]E, to have a mutation in its envelope protein that allows it to infect a limited number of cells and replicate itself but not spread into surrounding tissue and cause disease. This is an important feature for a vaccine, because vaccines need enough live virus to provoke an immune response and produce antibodies, but not so much that it overwhelms the body to cause illness.

According to the World Health Organization, the virus has infected 114 and killed 54 people since September 2012. Even though the virus has not infected many people to date, scientists are very concerned because if the virus mutates into a form that spreads easily among humans, it could lead to a widespread epidemic.

While conducting their research, the team at la Autónoma found that mutations in the envelope protein (E protein) of the virus enabled it to replicate its genetic material but not infect neighboring cells.While the research provides a good start in its finding of one safeguard with E protein, the FDA requires that live vaccines have at least three safeguards to ensure they do not revert to dangerous forms.

NEXT: Woman experiences case of hyper-empathy after brain surgery

Sourced from: Medical News Today, MERS lab strain could lead to vaccine