Okazaki, Japan - It is common that neurons transmit information to another group of neurons by increasing or decreasing their activity, i.e. "firing rate changes". In addition to firing rate changes, ...

Thousands of our daily activities, from making coffee to taking a walk to saying hello to a neighbor, are made possible through an ancient collection of brain structures tucked away near the center of ...

Smooth movements require coordinated control of muscles. Even a simple reaching movement involves coordinated movements of his/her shoulder, arm, wrist and fingers, which are controlled by temporally ...

Birdsong, like human speech, consists of a sequence of temporally precise movements acquired through vocal learning. The learning of such sequential vocalizations depends on the neural function of the ...

Actions are not mediated solely by cortical processes but rely on communication within basal ganglia-thalamocortical loops. Speech is one example, although how the basal ganglia participate in this ...

A group of neurons called the corticobasal ganglia projecting neurons are important for vocal learning in young birds, but not in adult birds, according to a new study. A group of neurons called the ...

Research conducted at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), has looked at the importance of specific neurons for seemingly simple, day-to-day tasks that involve ...

Scientists have studied the main source of serotonin in the brain -- the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). By studying how activating the brain's 'serotonin center' affects awake animals for the first time, ...