Science News: Our Weekly Picks From Around the Web

Scientists Discover Sleeping Brain Behaves as if it’s Remembering Something
UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer’s disease during sleep.
newsroom.ucla.edu (10/07/2012)

Stem Cells Safe for Rare Brain Disorder
Four young boys with a rare, fatal brain condition have made it through a dangerous ordeal. Scientists have safely transplanted human neural stem cells into their brains.
news.sciencemag.org (10/10/2012)

Brain Changes When You Change Your Mind
Researchers found that the rejection of an old belief correlates with abrupt changes in activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain region involved in cognitive functions such as reward anticipation and decision-making.
www.hhmi.org (10/05/2012)

Brain Scans Can Predict Children’s Reading Ability, Stanford Researchers Say
New research can identify the neural structures associated with poor reading skills in young children, and could lead to an early warning system for struggling students.
news.stanford.edu (10/10/2012)

It’s Music to Their Brains
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (LA Phil), the USC Brain and Creativity Institute (BCI) and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) announced a research collaboration to investigate the emotional, social and cognitive effects of musical training on childhood brain development.
news.usc.edu (10/09/2012)

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Awards Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka are awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of G-protein–coupled receptors.
www.nobelprize.org (10/10/2012)