Human fingertips have several types of sensory neurons that are responsible for relaying touch signals to the central nervous system. Scientists have long believed these neurons followed a linear path to the brain with a “labeled-lines” structure. But new research on mouse whiskers from Duke University reveals a surprise — at the fine scale, the sensory system’s wiring diagram doesn’t…
In a breakthrough for understanding brain evolution, neuroscientists have shown that differences between primate brains – from the tiny marmoset to human – can be largely explained as consequences of the same genetic program. In research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Professor Marcello Rosa and his team at Monash University’s School of Biomedical Sciences and colleagues at Universidade Federal…
In studying spotted hyenas, lions and, most recently, the raccoon family, Sharleen Sakai has found a correlation between the size of the animals’ frontal cortex and their social nature. In her latest study, Sakai examined the digitally recreated brains of three species in the Procyonid family — the raccoon, the coatimundi and the kinkajou — and found the coatimundi had…
ISG Associate Director, Jessica Lynch Alfaro, publishes poem “Flight Distances” in the journal Poecology. Poecology is a literary journal and online resource for contemporary writing about place, ecology and the environment, with a particular interest in poetry.
We are thrilled to announce that ISG Postdoctoral Fellow, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook has received the 2013 Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research. This award provides a cash prize to especially accomplished UCLA postdoctoral scholars recognized for their outstanding research. This prize was established in 1998 to recognize the important contributions that postdoctoral scholars make to UCLA’s research mission. All nominees, including the winners, will…