Scientists "switch off" brain cell death in mice

(Reuters) - Scientists have figured out how to stop brain cell death in mice with brain disease and say their discovery deepens understanding of the mechanisms of human neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. More>

Brain Scans Give Glimpse of How Your Dog Thinks

(Wired Science) Brain scans of dogs could give researchers a new tool for studying what happens in the mind of man’s best friend.
“I think it could open a whole new type of research on cognition,” said neuroscientist Greg Berns of Emory University, lead author on a dog-scanning study that will be published in Public Library of Science One.
Berns described the initial findings, in which brain regions expected to become active in anticipation of reward did just that, as a proof-of-concept to show that studying a dog inside a functional magnetic resonance imager was logistically feasible. More>

How Does the Brain Secrete Morality?

(Reason.com) “The brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile,” asserted 18th century French physiologist Pierre Cabanis. The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies convened a conference of neuroscientists and philosophers to ponder how our brains secrete thoughts about ethics and morality... more