Institute of Science and Technology Austria

Neuroscience

How to generate a brain of correct size and composition

To build the neocortex, a brain area involved in higher cognitive functions, stem cells produce billions of neurons of various types. In a Science study, neuroscientists from Switzerland, Belgium, and the Institute of Science ...

Neuroscience

Grid cells create 'treasure map' in rat brain

Grid cells and place cells are specialized neurons that allow the brain to create a map of the outside world in which one navigates (Nobel Prize 2014). This brain GPS system is built on grid cells' strikingly regular pattern ...

Oncology & Cancer

New gene potentially involved in metastasis identified

Cancers that display a specific combination of sugars called T-antigens are more likely to spread through the body and kill a patient. However, scientists do not understand what regulates the appearance of T-antigen in cancer ...

Neuroscience

Memories of movement are replayed randomly during sleep

Sleep is far from an inactive time for the brain: while rats (and humans) are asleep, neurons in the hippocampus fire rapidly. After a rat has repeatedly moved from one spot to another, the same neurons that fired while the ...

Neuroscience

Lateral inhibition keeps similar memories apart

When you park in the office car park, you usually have no problem finding your car again at the end of the day. The next day, you might park a few spots further away. However, in the evening, you find your car, even though ...

Neuroscience

Unifying the theories of neural information encoding

Digital video cameras have the capability to record in incredible detail, but saving all that data would take up a huge amount of space. Researchers seek new methods to compress video—that is, remove information—in such ...

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