Michigan Sun news

Potential brain switch responsible for our behavioural change identified

A new study by investigators at the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly may reveal the "switch" that helps our brains to make the shift from current behaviours to new ones. They measured levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is involved in attention and memory, while rats monitored a screen for a signal. At the end of each trial, the rat had to indicate if a signal had ...
Video Detroits Big 3 to cut back on summer break

The market opened higher as investors wait for Ben Bernanke's testimony to Congress, Detroit's big 3 automakers are cutting back their traditional two-week summer break, and Target reported a 26 percent drop in first-quarter profit. Ashley Morrison ...
Royal Oak Township woman 72 fires shot at daughter

ROYAL OAK TOWNSHIP, MICH. — Authorities say a 72-year-old suburban Detroit woman has been arrested after firing a shot from a handgun at her daughter during an argument.No injuries were reported in the Tuesday night shooting at the ...
AAA About 1.1M in Michigan plan travel for Memorial Day

AAA Michigan says nearly 92 percent in the state will travel by personal vehicle, slightly more than last year. Others will travel by air, train or ...
Michigan State AD Mark Hollis praises coach Dantonio for being stoic presence

MLive.com reporter Mike Griffith and helped to break down that image and painted a picture of a man not often seen on the sidelines of Spartan Stadium; an image, Hollis says, that doesn't encapsulate the whole story of Mark Dantonio. "The main thing about Mark is he is a family person, on two different levels,'' Hollis said of the team's coach. "One, he's ...

Movie Review

The Sessions

In The Sessions, John Hawkes plays Mark OBrien, a real-life journalist and poet who spent 43 of his 49 years of life cruelly confined to an iron lung after a bout with childhood polio left him unable to move his limbs, and he is a revelationpraise I am inherently reluctant to make s ... ...

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Police 1-year-old dies after being found in tub in Flint

Flint - Police say a 1-year-old boy has died after being found unresponsive in a water-filled bathtub in Flint. The Flint Journal reports police are treating the child's death Monday night as suspicious. The child's mother told police the boy was in the living room when she put his bath toys in the tub and put a drain plug in the tub. The woman told police the water wasn't running ...
Ryan Gosling skips Cannes Film Festival to hang in Detroit

Ryan Gosling attends the premiere of 'The Place Beyond The Pines' in New York. Gosling is in Detroit filming his directorial debut and will miss the Cannes Film Festival. / Evan ...
Muppets creators items head to New York City museum

Muppets Fozzie Bear, left, a Whatnot, center, and Kermit the Frog make a television appearance Nov. 24, 2008, in New York. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Bert and Ernie of 'Sesame Street' fame, the stars of 'Fraggle Rock' and other puppets, costumes and items from throughout Muppets creator Jim Henson's career have been donated to the Museum of the Moving Image, which is building a ...
News on Wrestle Mania possibly heading back to Detroit Tammy Sytch and more

WWE to host either Wrestle Mania 31 or 32 with the event taking place at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. Ford Field was the site of Wrestle Mania 23 back in 2007, which was headlined by John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship. Wrestle Mania was held in Michigan one other time, back in 1987 at the Silverdome in Pontiac, ...
Eric Garcetti elected mayor of Los Angeles

Los Angeles - Eric Garcetti has defeated Wendy Greuel in the race to become next mayor of Los Angeles. With all precincts reporting Wednesday, the city councilman grabbed 54 percent of the votes against his fellow Democrat. Garcetti sent out a tweet thanking voters and saying he's honored to lead the city. The 42-year-old Garcetti will be the city's first elected Jewish mayor. He was ...

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New York Marriott Financial Center Hotel

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Potential brain 'switch' responsible for our behavioural change identified

A new study by investigators at the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly may reveal the "switch" that helps our brains to make the shift from current behaviours to new ones.

They measured levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is involved in attention and memory, while rats monitored a screen for a signal. At the end of each trial, the rat had to indicate if a signal had occurred.

Researchers noticed that if a signal occurred after a long period of monitoring or "non-signal" processing, there was a spike in acetylcholine in the rat's right prefrontal cortex. No such spike occurred for another signal occurring shortly afterwards.

"In other words, the increase in acetylcholine seemed to activate or 'switch on' the response to the signal, and to be unnecessary if that response was already activated," said Cindy Lustig, one of the study's senior authors and an associate professor in the U-M Department of Psychology.

The researchers repeated the study in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, and also found a short increase in right prefrontal cortex activity for the first signal in a series.

To connect the findings between rats and humans, they measured changes in oxygen levels, similar to the changes that produce the fMRI signal, in the brains of rats performing the task. ...