Try putting an ice-cube in your mouth. The insides of your mouth and tongue instantly turn numb. Hold it in still and you will feel pain. Now try sucking on peppermint. The mint itself is at room temperature…
Spinal cord injuries are currently irreparable. When nerve fibres in the central nervous system are damaged there is, as yet, no way of reversing this. But research we’ve been doing has led to the discovery…
Researchers have been able to restore mobility in paralysed rats using a technique called deep brain stimulation. This involved delivering electrical impulses to an area of the brain called the mesencephalic…
James Whitmore, The Conversation and Belinda Smith, The Conversation
A method for restoring feeling and action to amputees and others who have lost their sense of touch has been established through research published in Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS…
If you put a group of people on a calorie-restricted diet, you’ll see that some seem to lose weight easily, while others struggle to shed each pound. This difference doesn’t just come down to how much…
Welcome to the sixth and final part of _On the Brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Professor Malcolm Horne…