How much change in the brain makes a difference in the mind? That’s the issue raised by a very interesting comment regarding my previous blog, “The Brain in a Bucket.” So I’ve taken the liberty [...]
Tag Archives | synapses
The Brain in a Bucket
Have you ever seen a real brain? I remember the first time I saw one, in a neuropsych class: the instructor put on rubber gloves to protect against the formaldehyde preservative, popped the lid off [...]
Researchers explain how we detect the location of sound
The slightest turn of the head can significantly change the way a person or animal detects sound. A subtle tilt alters the angle at which high-frequency sound waves hit the ear, providing cues to localize the sound. To use those cues, the brain must put what it hears into the context of the position of the head. Until recently, scientists were not sure how this was done. Now researchers in Wisconsin appear to have the explanation. They have discovered that in the cochlear nucleus, the first sound-processing station in the brain, certain cells accomplish the job by integrating the two kinds of information, each of which travels along a distinct pathway.