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 ...
Peters urges probe of Detroit waste storage

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters has taken to the House floor to criticize the storage of piles of an oil-refining byproduct known as petroleum coke along the Detroit River. The Bloomfield Township Democrat failed to win approval for an amendment to legislation on the Keystone Pipeline requiring an investigation of the storage. He said Wednesday that Congress needs to act to protect "families and ...
Reliance One hiring 400 test drivers in southeast Michigan

Auburn Hills-based Reliance One is hiring 400 test drivers to meet a growing demand from local automotive ...
Former top library official in Detroit charged with kickbacks

The former chief administrative officer of the Detroit Public Library has been charged with taking more than $1 million in kickbacks from contractors. Tim Cromer, who served as the library's chief administrative officer, and two contractors were charged Tuesday in a 21-count indictment, The Detroit News reported. Cromer, who was fired in February, had been suspended with pay after a raid ...
Robert Davis wants secretary of state to weigh in on Mike Duggan residency issue

Labor activist Robert Davis urged the state's top elections official to step in on a controversy over whether Mike Duggan was a Detroit resident long enough when he filed to become an official candidate. / Patricia Beck/Detroit Free ...

Movie Review

Jarhead

Sam Mendes Jarhead, based on the bestselling memoir by Anthony Swofford, is set in 1990 during the Gulf War, but it is not particularly about the Gulf War. In fact, it is not really about war itself, which is a topic too obviously enormous and complex for any one movie to try to ta ... ...

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One dead after machete attack on London streets

A tent is erected near the scene of an attack in Woolwich southeast London on Wednesday, May, 22, 2013. British officials said one person has died and at least two people have been wounded in an attack in southeast London. / Alastair ...
Helene St. James Cleary a pest but Wings love him for it

Detroit Red Wings' Daniel Cleary, right, and Chicago Blackhawks' Michal Rozsival battle as they wait for the puck May 15, 2013. / Associated ...
Kellogg School debuts new CMO program

Eric Leininger is the executive director of the Kellogg School's new CMO program. It's called burnishing your image. And Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management already known for its strength in the training of business marketers hopes to bolster that reputation with the launch this week of an executive development program designed, as the school's marketing ...
ACO to close 14 locations in Michigan

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) - ACO Home, Garden & Hardware say the company is closing 14 underperforming stores as they work to improve and strengthen the company's financialposition. As part of the process, ACO will conduct a "Total Inventory Blowout Sale" at each of the affected locations. The sales will being on Thursday, May 23. The affected stores are: 13400 E. Eleven ...
Pfizer plans offering to pare Zoetis stake

TRENTON, N.J. - Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. plans to try to sell its controlling stake in its former animal health business, Zoetis Inc., through a voluntary stock exchange with Pfizer shareholders.Pfizer, the world's second-largest drugmaker, said Wednesday that its shareholders will be able to trade their Pfizer holdings for Zoetis shares at a discount expected to be about 7 percent. The ...

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New York Marriott Financial Center Hotel

I arrived by taxi to the hotel which is just a block from the former World Trade Center site. The ...

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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. ...