“MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND MOTOR RECOVERY AFTER SPINAL INJURY”

Professor John Martin is applying a fascinating approach in his lab at Columbia University. Research in this laboratory examines postnatal development of the motor systems and skilled motor behavior in animals. Like the professor says “In addition, we have recently begun to apply principles learned from the study of motor system development to examine recovery of motor function after spinal cord injury. Like in development, after spinal cord injury new connections form and skilled motor behaviors are relearned”

For more information about his work please go to

http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/neurobeh/Martin.html

“Lobes of Steel, The New York Times”

Professor Scott Small has been featured in many national articles about his findings in physical fitness and its connection to the brain. According to the article “Lobes of steel”, “Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed”

For more information about this article please go to New York Times Websites

http://www.nytimes.com/t

For more information about Dr Small’s publications please go to

http://www.research.hs.columbia.edu/Faculty_Profiles/

“ The Memory Code, Scientific American, July 2007, Pp (52-59), by Joe Z.Tsien”

In this article professor Tsien shares his experiments to try to nail down the “memory code”. The hippocampus is that area critical for formation to memory formation. In his experiment with mice he studied the neuronal activity of tracking 200 neurons specific to memory formation.

For more information go to

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm

or for more information of Professor Tsien:

http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?

“ The Windows Of The Mind, Scientific American, August 2007”

In this article Neuroscientist Susana Martinez-Conde from The Barrow neurological Institute in Phoenix shares her revelations yet that minuscule ocular meanderings separate vision form blindness when a person looks out at a stationary world. The perception of the eyes is much more than we originally thought. The cant stop moving ‘Tiny subconscious eye movements are helping neuroscientists crack the brain’s Code for conscious visual perceptions”

For further reading please go to Scientific American Wesbsite:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm

or for more information about Professor Susana Martinez-Conde:

http://www.neuralcorrelate.com/smc_lab/

“Therapeutic Reflection, Scientific American, July 2007”

In this article the called mirror neurons mimic other peoples movments and help stroke victims regain lost abilities. What happens when you watch a fitness video from your couch? You might be getting neuronal activity without you knowing it. In this fascinating article it mentions the great work of neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his co-workers at the University Of Parma. They had run an experiment to record the electrical activity from neurons specialized for hand movement.

For more information about this article please go to:

http://www.sciam.com/

Exercise appears to improve brain function among younger people by

According the article published in The News Bureau, University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology and community health, has found that exercise may be beneficial to cognition during early and middle periods of life and protect against age-related loss of cognitive function during older adulthood”

For more information about this article please go to

more articles coming up, stay tuned