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Q&A: How the Brain Activity Map came together—and what its proponents hope to achieve

Q&A: How the Brain Activity Map came together—and what its proponents hope to achieve

It was a single tweet. On 12 February, after US President Barack Obama made a subtle nod to a new neuroscience project in his annual State of the Union address, Francis Collins, director of the country’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), posted on the @NIHDirector Twitter feed: “Obama mentions the #NIH Brain Activity Map in #SOTU.” Instantly, scientists were buzzing with rumors that the Brain Activity Map could be the next moon shot, with a budget and timeline similar to the Human Genome Project.  Read more

VIDEO: ‘Resting state’ brain scans give diagnosis by default

Brain scans that map differences in how brain regions communicate while people lie idle in the imaging machine are providing a possible new way to diagnose attention disorders. Michael Milham of the Child Mind Institute in New York talks about the work being done on so-called ‘resting state’ brain scans and explains how they are expanding the field of functional MRI.  Read more

VIDEO: Stem cell discovery puts women’s reproduction on fertile ground

Researchers have discovered a population of human ovarian stem cells with the potential of forming new eggs during a woman’s reproductive years. The findings, reported online today in Nature Medicine, could lead to new therapies that might help extend female fertility into late middle age and beyond.  Read more