Arrested development: How brain damage impairs moral judgmentUI study suggests that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is critical for moral competencyBy: John Riehl | 2014.03.28 | 07:00 AMWould you lie on your income tax return to save money for your struggling family? Moral judgment calls like this one help weave the fabric of a civilized society.Everyone knows you shouldn’t cheat on your taxes...

Study shows how changes in the organized cell membrane network of heart muscle leads to heart failureBy: Jennifer Brown | 2014.03.06 | 07:00 AMThe green areas in the images show the orderly nature of JP2 protein's distribution in normal human heart muscle (left panel) compared to the disorganized localization of the protein in unhealthy heart muscle (center and right panel). Images courtesy of...

Social networking helps UI graduate student raise money for researchBy: Jennifer Brown | 2013.10.02 | 10:43 AMMusic has been part of Amy Belfi's life for as long as she can remember. Now, she's using her other passion—for science—to explore the neurological basis of humans' deep connection with music. And, she's hoping that enough people will share her excitement to actually help finance her...

Matthew Rizzo, UI professor of neurology and mechanical and industrial engineering, is the 2013 recipient of the Bartimaeus Award from the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology. The award, presented at the 6th biennial World Congress on the Eye, the Brain, and the Auto 2013, recognizes research excellence in the area of vision and driving.Rizzo, an expert in the the role of vision and cognition in...

BY ROBERT CROZIER | JUNE 28, 2013 5:00 AMCollaborative research on the impact of brain injuries sustained during athletics competition announced last year may finally begin after a summit scheduled for mid-July.The project, announced June 19, 2012, in a Big Ten press release, aims to bring together athletic programs and research capabilities from the various institutions of the Big Ten and the Ivy...

By: UI Health Care Marketing and Communications | 2013.06.13 | 02:38 PM Qi Wu, assistant professor of pharmacology in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, has been selected as a 2013 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.Wu is one of just 22 scientists nationwide to receive the prestigious four-year, $240,000 award from the Pew Charitable Trusts.Pew's scholars...

By:Jennifer Brown | 2012.11.16 | 10:48 AM Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., University of Iowa professor of psychiatry, who holds the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry, has received the 2012 National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Scientific Research Award, honoring her contributions to the understanding of schizophrenia. Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D.Andreasen, who also directs the Psychiatry Iowa...

By:Kelli Andresen | 2012.11.16 | 10:43 AM A UI research team from undergraduate to post-docs, led by Mark Blumberg, have found that twitching whiskers made by rats in their sleep are signs of development in their brains. From left, Alex Tiriac, Alex Fanning, Brandt Uitermarkt, Blumberg, and Greta Sokoloff work as a research team in the lab. Photo by Tom Jorgensen. If you’ve ever watched a sleeping...

Researchers at the University of Iowa have discovered a new cause of hydrocephalus, a devastating neurological disorder that affects between one and three of every 1,000 babies born. Working in mice, the researchers identified a cell signaling defect, which disrupts immature brain cells involved in normal brain development. By bypassing the defect with a drug treatment, the team was able to...

Work by a neuroscience grad student may shed light on hydrocephalus By: Alison Crissman | 2012.06.29 | 07:15 AM Mark Lobas, a student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program and a member of faculty member Joshua Weiner's laboratory team in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Biology, received the graduate program's Publication Award for an article published in...