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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 ...
Ryan Gosling breaks Cannes heart misses premiere

Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux, right, reads a letter from actor Ryan Gosling explaining why he could not attend the festival, as director Nicolas Winding Refn, centre, and actress Kristen Scott Thomas listen during a press conference for the film Only God Forgives at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 22, ...
Anthony Weiner launches bid to become New York City mayor

New York - Anthony Weiner's run for a renaissance is officially on. The ex-congressman whose career imploded in a rash of raunchy tweets two years ago said in a YouTube video announcement late Tuesday that he's in the New York City mayoral race. He'd said last month he was considering it. "I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some ...
Proposal seeks to block insurance coverage for abortions in Michigan

Lansing - Michigan's election board is expected to consider a petition form for a proposal that would prohibit Michigan health insurance plans for covering elective abortions unless individuals or businesses buy a supplemental policy. The State Board of Canvassers could decide Wednesday whether the petition form started by a group called No Taxes for Abortion Insurance complies with state ...
House panel to vote on changes to curb military sexual assaults

Washington - Determined to check the growing epidemic of sexual assaults in the armed forces, a House panel is poised to approve a series of revisions to longstanding military law. They include stripping commanding officers of their unilateral authority to change or dismiss a court-martial conviction and requiring that service members found guilty of sexual offenses be dismissed or dishonorably ...

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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WMU student completes 216-mile kayak trip for fundraiser

Muskegon - A Western Michigan University student has completed a six-day, 216-mile kayak trip down the Muskegon River to raise money for Parkinson's disease research, education and advocacy. Cody Ledsworth paddled to the finish line at a boat launch on Muskegon Lake on Tuesday. The Muskegon Chronicle reports that 20-year-old's trip was in honor of his grandmother, Marguerite Ledsworth, ...
Police release sketch of Wixom apartment robbery suspects

Police in Wixom are asking for help identifying two teens who robbed and attacked a resident on Monday.Investigators released sketches of two teens wanted in the 11 p.m. incident Monday at the Village Apartments on Thornwood Street. The two teens forced their way into the apartment and demanded money. When the victim said he did not have any money, the pair attacked him before a third man armed ...
Detroit Country Day 6th grader among finalists in geography bee

WASHINGTON — Ten young geography experts will field questions about history, cultures, landmarks and climates ...
Trump says hed consider investing in Detroit

Trump told Republicans at the Lincoln Day Dinner they have a difficult road to win back the White House. He also highlighted efforts of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to help the state's economy, saying Snyder is "doing a fantastic job" and should win a second ...
Financially troubled district recalls more workers

Buena Vista School District Superintendent Deborah Hunter-Harvill, left, speaks during a May 9 Buena Vista School District Board of Education meeting. / Colleen Harrison/The Saginaw News/Associated ...

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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. ...