Neuroscience

16 open-access papers in Neuroscience, free to watch.

5:41

Temporal hyper-precision of brainstem neurons alters spatial sensitivity of binaural auditory processing with cochlear implants

Michaela Müller, Hongmei Hu, Mathias Dietz, Barbara Beiderbeck, Dardo N. Ferreiro, Michael Pecka

A cochlear implant can restore hearing, yet locating a sound in space can remain difficult. This study points to a surprising reason: the brain may receive timing signals that are too precise. Cochlear implants can preserve the timing signal the brain needs for localization, and still make spatial hearing worse. This paper points to an unexpected culprit: neural timing that is almost too precise.

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4:56

Sweet spot in music—Is predictability preferred among persons with psychotic-like experiences or autistic traits?

Rebekka Solvik Lisøy, Gerit Pfuhl, Hans Fredrik Sunde, Robert Biegler

Why can one person love a song that feels safely familiar while another finds it unbearably dull? This study found that music’s sweet spot really does move from person to person, but not for the reasons researchers expected. Music may have a sweet spot: too predictable becomes boring, while too unpredictable stops feeling musical. This study asks whether that sweet spot shifts for people with autistic or psychotic-like traits, and the answer is surprisingly not supported by the data.

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5:03

Matching the pitch perception of the cochlear implanted ear with the contralateral ear in patients with single-sided deafness: a novel approach

Tamás Tóth, Á. Németh, Péter Bakó, Péter Révész, Imre Gerlinger, István Szanyi

A cochlear implant can restore access to sound, yet speech may still feel strangely out of tune between the two ears. This study asks whether retuning that mismatch can make noisy conversations easier. What if a cochlear implant could be retuned using the patient’s own sense of pitch, so the implanted ear sounds more like the normal-hearing ear? This study tests that idea in twelve people with single-sided deafness.

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3:25

Mental stress objective screening for workers using urinary neurotransmitters

Kazuhiro Tanabe, Asaka Yokota

Stress can be affecting a worker before they call themselves unwell. This study asks whether a urine sample could reveal that hidden strain early enough to act on it. What if an ordinary urine sample could help reveal mental stress before it develops into depression or anxiety? This study tests that idea by combining six urinary neurotransmitters into a stress index.

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