Neurons

For nearly a century we’ve thought about the human brain almost solely in terms of its hundred billion neurons. Electrical signals pulse between millions of those long, slender cells, as though through the microprocessors in a computer, and bingo - we see; we think; we fall in love. But only about 15 percent of all the cells in our brains are neurons. So how can we be sure that the microprocessor analogy is accurate? What about the other 85 percent? A new book by R. Douglas Fields, a National Institute of Health neuroscientist, suggests that the other 85 percent - cells called glia that we have...

> A friend of mine started a book club for mums, which was fine until one member invited all her pals. Most of them don't read the book, dismiss it in a sentence, then sit there for long, awkward silences. (We aren't insisting on a genre nobody likes; this happens with many different kinds of books.) As a teacher, my inclination is to take charge. Is this wrong? I've been resisting the urge to whip out a white board and markers while caroling, "Let's brainstorm!" That or cut and run with my original friend.

Neuroscience is a vast field, but in the end the whole enterprise is motivated by a few central questions. One of them is, "Do we have free will?" A new study, published in the journal Neuron , has shed a little more light on that question. It suggests that we might need to rethink what "free will" really means. Until now, the most important finding about free will has come from the famous " Libet experiment ," devised by Benjamin Libet in 1983. Libet sat you in a chair, stuck electrodes on your head, and put a clock and a button in front of you. Whenever you felt like it, you could push...

Neuroscience is a vast field, but in the end the whole enterprise is motivated by a few central questions. One of them is, "Do we have free will?" A new study, published in the journal Neuron , has shed a little more light on that question. It suggests that we might need to rethink what "free will" really means. Until now, the most important finding about free will has come from the famous " Libet experiment ," devised by Benjamin Libet in 1983. Libet sat you in a chair, stuck electrodes on your head, and put a clock and a button in front of you. Whenever you felt like it, you could push...

NEW YORK — Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona spoke briefly by telephone yesterday with astronaut Scott Kelly, her brother-in-law, who is aboard the international space station, the latest development in her recovery from being shot in the head last month. Details about her recovery have been thin. But members of her staff say she recently began speaking for the first time since the Jan. 8 attack by a gunman in Tucson. Brain injury patients who regain speech typically begin to do so about four to six weeks after the injury, specialists said.

WASHINGTON -- Scientists have used stem cells and a soup of nerve-friendly chemicals to not just bridge a damaged spinal cord, but regrow the circuitry needed to move a muscle, helping partially paralyzed rats walk. Years of additional research is needed before such an experiment could be attempted in people. But the work marks a tantalizing new step in stem cell research that promises to one day help repair damage from nerve-destroying illnesses such as Lou Gehrig's disease or from spinal cord injuries.

WASHINGTON — Parkinson’s disease may stem from an energy crisis in the brain, years before symptoms appear. If the research proves true, it could suggest a new approach for Parkinson’s: Giving a boost to a key power switch inside brain cells in hopes of slowing the disease’s inevitable march, instead of just treating symptoms. “It could be a root cause’’ of Parkinson’s, said Dr. Clemens Scherzer of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University.

> A friend of mine started a book club for mums, which was fine until one member invited all her pals. Most of them don't read the book, dismiss it in a sentence, then sit there for long, awkward silences. (We aren't insisting on a genre nobody likes; this happens with many different kinds of books.) As a teacher, my inclination is to take charge. Is this wrong? I've been resisting the urge to whip out a white board and markers while caroling, "Let's brainstorm!" That or cut and run with my original friend.

Cathy Hutchinson imagined picking up her coffee from the table. She thought hard about bringing the red bottle toward her lips and taking a drink, without any assistance. Then, for the first time since a stroke left her arms and legs paralyzed 15 years earlier, she did it. A blue robotic arm, guided by an experimental brain implant that "read" Hutchinson's thoughts, grasped the bottle and carried it toward her. By picturing her own immobile right arm and hand moving, she navigated the robot arm to the right position, tipped the bottle toward her lips, and took a long, satisfied sip through a straw.

Cathy Hutchinson imagined picking up her coffee from the table. She thought hard about bringing the red bottle toward her lips and taking a drink, without any assistance. Then, for the first time since a stroke left her arms and legs paralyzed 15 years earlier, she did it. A blue robotic arm, guided by an experimental brain implant that "read" Hutchinson's thoughts, grasped the bottle and carried it toward her. By picturing her own immobile right arm and hand moving, she navigated the robot arm to the right position, tipped the bottle toward her lips, and...

NEW YORK — Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona spoke briefly by telephone yesterday with astronaut Scott Kelly, her brother-in-law, who is aboard the international space station, the latest development in her recovery from being shot in the head last month. Details about her recovery have been thin. But members of her staff say she recently began speaking for the first time since the Jan. 8 attack by a gunman in Tucson. Brain injury patients who regain speech typically begin to do so about four to six weeks after the injury, specialists said.

WASHINGTON — Parkinson’s disease may stem from an energy crisis in the brain, years before symptoms appear. If the research proves true, it could suggest a new approach for Parkinson’s: Giving a boost to a key power switch inside brain cells in hopes of slowing the disease’s inevitable march, instead of just treating symptoms. “It could be a root cause’’ of Parkinson’s, said Dr. Clemens Scherzer of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University.

For nearly a century we’ve thought about the human brain almost solely in terms of its hundred billion neurons. Electrical signals pulse between millions of those long, slender cells, as though through the microprocessors in a computer, and bingo - we see; we think; we fall in love. But only about 15 percent of all the cells in our brains are neurons. So how can we be sure that the microprocessor analogy is accurate? What about the other 85 percent? A new book by R. Douglas Fields, a National Institute of Health neuroscientist, suggests that the other 85 percent -...

WASHINGTON -- Scientists have used stem cells and a soup of nerve-friendly chemicals to not just bridge a damaged spinal cord, but regrow the circuitry needed to move a muscle, helping partially paralyzed rats walk. Years of additional research is needed before such an experiment could be attempted in people. But the work marks a tantalizing new step in stem cell research that promises to one day help repair damage from nerve-destroying illnesses such as Lou Gehrig's disease or from spinal cord injuries.

Andrew Culbert was increasingly having trouble hearing conversations in noisy restaurants. Then Culbert, a Boston corporate lawyer, noticed that he was missing key words during negotiations and depositions in a quiet conference room. "It can lead to embarrassing situations sometimes," Culbert said. "I can remember responding to people and they would look at me, somewhat in surprise, and that led me to realize I was not communicating with them about the subject matter. " Culbert's difficulties began in his mid-50s, when hearing problems are quite common.

When my wife, Diana, went into labor 12 weeks early, I was out of town. On the stunned, early-morning ride to the airport in Baltimore, I was certain our child would either not survive or that the complications would be too severe to imagine. Fending off the grimmest thoughts, I rehearsed writing to loved ones to explain what had happened. But while I was still in the car I received a call from my father-in-law at Cambridge Hospital, first congratulating me on the birth of my son and then informing me of a "best-case scenario.