Atlantic horseshoe crabs are most commonly found on shallow ocean floors in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northeastern coast of the US. Despite their common name, horseshoe crabs are not crustaceans but marine arthropods, closely related to arachnids. Lab Anim. (NY) 44, 83 (2015). view full text (login required)
Author Archives: monicascicom
Neuroscience 2014
Neuroscience 2014, which took place in Washington, DC, last November, was a busy international gathering of 31,000 people all focused on the science of the mind, brain and nervous system. It was the 44th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). More than 15,000 presentations covered research advances, new techniques and promising treatments forContinueContinue reading “Neuroscience 2014”
The insect equivalent of the amygdala
Animals’ survival depends on their ability to gather information about their environment, process and evaluate that information, and then modify their behavior in response. In the vertebrate brain, the amygdala has a key role in evaluating sensory information. Scientists led by Silke Sachse (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany) recently reported that aContinueContinue reading “The insect equivalent of the amygdala”
How oxygen lights the firefly’s lantern
Fireflies communicate using light flashes produced when the compound luciferin is broken down in the presence of oxygen. This process has many potential applications, such as testing drugs, monitoring water contamination and using luminescent vegetation to provide street lighting, which are limited by our poor understanding of how oxygen is delivered to fireflies’ light-producing cells.ContinueContinue reading “How oxygen lights the firefly’s lantern”
Has domestication made dogs dumber?
Results of a new study evaluating animals’ ability to create and compare mental representations of quantities of food suggest that domesticated dogs might have limited information-processing skills compared with wolves, their closest wild cousins. The findings are consistent with a hypothesis that domestication has altered information processing in dogs by attenuating the selective pressures thatContinueContinue reading “Has domestication made dogs dumber?”
Specific neurons flip the switch on locust behavior
Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) normally shun other locusts, but in certain circumstances, such as drought conditions when resources are scarce, they are forced to be in close proximity with each other. Crowding triggers an extreme change in behavior: locusts enter a gregarious state and become strongly attracted to the company of other locusts. This switchContinueContinue reading “Specific neurons flip the switch on locust behavior”
Why ferrets get the same flu that we do
Influenza A virus is a serious threat to human health, owing in part to the potential emergence of highly virulent strains resulting in pandemic infection that can kill millions of people. Ferrets are the dominant model system for studying influenza A virus because they alone are naturally susceptible to the same strains that infect humans.ContinueContinue reading “Why ferrets get the same flu that we do”
Monkeys master movement with their minds
As reported at Neuroscience 2014, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (15–19 November 2014; Washington, DC), Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues at Duke University (Durham, NC) successfully trained two rhesus macaques to maneuver a wheelchair using a brain–machine interface that translated each monkey’s cortical activity into navigational signals that controlled the chair’s movement. LabContinueContinue reading “Monkeys master movement with their minds”
Toward a better understanding of tau
Results presented at Neuroscience 2014, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (15–19 November 2014; Washington, DC), highlighted the central role of tau protein in neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease and with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Almost 36 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, and 10 million or more sustain TBI each year.ContinueContinue reading “Toward a better understanding of tau”
Telomerase limits damage after heart attack
The enzyme telomerase is known to repair various types of cell damage, and new results indicate that this activity can be exploited to prevent damage to heart tissue after acute injury such as a heart attack or myocardial infarction. Lab Anim. (NY) 44, 46 (2015). view full text (login required)
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