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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 ...
Large building fire in southwest Detroit

DETROIT (WXYZ) - The Detroit Fire Department is on the scene of a large fire at a commercial building in southwest Detroit. Michigan State Police has been asked to block traffic near I-75, around South Deacon and ...
Police looking for witness from latest sexual assaults

East Lansing police are continuing the search to find the man responsible for two sexual assaults and an attempted sexual assault, the most recent occurrence taking place about 8 p.m. May 16 at the Abbott Pointe Apartments, 204 E. Pointe Lane. Officers now are looking for a witness that possibly saw the suspect leave the scene while walking his dog on the Northern Tier Trail near Abbott Pointe ...
UN Secretary General Visits Africas Great Lakes Region

Kinshasa, May 22 (Presa Latina) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon began a 48-hour visit today to ...
Senate rejects bid to let states run food stamp program

Washington - The Senate has rejected a Republican amendment to turn the federal food stamp program over to the states. The current food stamp program is administered by the Agriculture Department and federal dollars are unlimited as long as recipients qualify. It cost $78 billion last year, more than double what it cost in 2008. The amendment by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to a wide-ranging farm ...

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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Michigan Marijuana Driving Ruling By State Supreme Court Offers Limited DUI Protection

File photo. In this Tuesday Jan. 26, 2010 file photo, a pedestrian walks past neon sign advertising a medical marijuana provider along a street in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, ...
U-M adding a QB transfer Not looking likely

With every day that passes, Michigan appears less likely to add a transfer quarterback for this fall.There have been only a few players briefly associated with U-M, and both have chosen other schools. Florida ...
Duchess Kate brightens queens annual garden party

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, appeared with Prince Charles, left, and his wife, Camilla. It was Kate's first public engagement in a couple of weeks. / WPA Pool/Getty ...
Sathwik Karnik of Massachusetts wins National Geographic Bee

WASHINGTON — Twelve-year-old Sathwik Karnik of Plainville, Mass., has won the 2013 National Geographic Bee.Sathwik correctly named Chimborazo as the mountain in Ecuador that represents the farthest point from the Earth's center to clinch the title. Thirteen-year-old Conrad Oberhaus of Lincolnshire, Ill., finished second.Sathwik led throughout the final round of the 25th annual ...
Director for Detroits building dept. resigns

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing on Wednesday said he had accepted the resignation of Nathan Ford, the city's director for the Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department ...

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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. ...