Short-Term Enrichment Makes Male Rats More Attractive, More Defensive and Alters Hypothalamic Neurons

Short-Term Enrichment Makes Male Rats More Attractive, More Defensive and Alters Hypothalamic Neurons

Innate behaviors are shaped by contingencies built during evolutionary history. On the other hand, environmental stimuli play a significant role in shaping behavior. In particular, a short period of environmental enrichment can enhance cognitive behavior, modify effects of stress on learned behaviors and induce brain plasticity. It is unclear if modulation by environment can extend to innate be...

Polymeric Gas Separation Membranes: What Makes them Industrially more Attractive?

Hierarchical encoding makes individuals in a group seem more attractive.

In the research reported here, we found evidence of the cheerleader effect-people seem more attractive in a group than in isolation. We propose that this effect arises via an interplay of three cognitive phenomena: (a) The visual system automatically computes ensemble representations of faces presented in a group, (b) individual members of the group are biased toward this ensemble average, and ...

Making Interactive Guides More Attractive

We investigate the different roads that should be taken to make 2D and 3D guides on webpages and in (augmented) virtual reality environments more attractive. Currently, most of the approaches have been done from a graphics point of view. Often research stops when we have to model how these graphically well-designed agents are going to do something useful and have to interact with the user or a ...

Orphaned No More? Glucose-Sensing Hypothalamic Neurons Control Insulin Secretion.

Well before Dr. Minkowski discovered the role of the pancreas in regulating blood glucose (1889), Dr. Bernard had discovered the role of the brain (specifically the base of the fourth ventricle) in regulating blood glucose (1849). Bernard’s basic observation has been replicated by many interventions involving pharmacological manipulations directed toward the brain stem (1). Nevertheless, the ov...