Simon Driver, PhD, at Baylor Scott & White Health, discusses preventing traumatic brain injuries.

Simon Driver, PhD, at Baylor Scott & White Health, discusses traumatic brain injuries.  What You Need to Know: A traumatic brain injury is a blow or jolt to the body or head. Common traumatic brain injuries occur during vehicle accidents,…

Brain Area Thought to Impart Consciousness, Behaves Instead Like an Internet Router

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine posit that a region of the brain that Francis Crick thought to impart consciousness may have been incorrect: They developed a new theory — built on data — that the claustrum behaves more like a high-speed internet router, taking in executive commands from “boss” areas of the brain’s cortex that forms complex thoughts to generate “networks” in the cortex.

Researchers find a better way to measure consciousness

Millions of people are administered general anesthesia each year in the United States alone, but it’s not always easy to tell whether they are actually unconscious. A small proportion of those patients regain some awareness during medical procedures, but a new study of the brain activity that represents consciousness could prevent that potential trauma.

‘Brain Surfing’: Ultrasound waves focused on prefrontal cortex elevate mood and change brain connectivity in human volunteers

A team of researchers at the University of Arizona has found that low-intensity ultrasound waves directed at a particular region of the brain’s prefrontal cortex in healthy subjects can elevate mood, and decrease connectivity in a brain network that has been shown to be hyperactive in psychiatric disorders. The method uses transcranial focused ultrasound (‘tFUS’), a painless, non-invasive technique to modulate brain function comparable to transcranial magnetic stimulation (‘TMS’), and transcranial direct current stimulation (‘tDCS’). This study shows, for the first time, a correlation between tFUS-induced mood enhancement, and reorganization of brain circuits.