Should you leave your comfortable job for one that pays better but is less secure? Should you have a surgery that is likely to extend your life but poses some risk that you will not survive the operation? Should you invest in a risky startup company whose stock may soar even though you could lose your entire investment?

Variations in a gene known as SORL1 may be a factor in the development of late onset Alzheimer's disease.

Understanding how the human brain learns to perceive objects is one of the ultimate challenges in neuroscience. In 2003, Pawan Sinha, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, launched an initiative with the hopes of shedding some light on the acquisition of visual skills.

Cutting Edge Biology Lecture Series - Stanford University's Dr. Stephen Smith, an authority on microscope imaging techniques and the biology of brain cells, will talk about the eye-brain connection in the developing embryo, in the second in the Exploratorium's Cutting Edge Biology Lecture Series.

Despite the explosive growth in size and complexity of the human brain, the pace of evolutionary change among the thousands of genes expressed in brain tissue has actually slowed since the split, millions of years ago, between human and chimpanzee, an international research team reports in the December 26, 2006, issue of the journal, PLOS Biology.

You don't need to sign up for pricey wine appreciation classes to parse the subtle difference between the black cherry bouquet of a pinot noir and the black currant scent of a cabernet sauvignon. Just pour yourself a couple glasses and sniff. Your brain will quickly help you become a modest oenophile. It's up to you if you want to drink the lesson plan.

Using innovative brain-scan technology UCLA researchers have shown that the abnormal brain protein deposits that define Alzheimer's disease can be detected in mild cognitive impairment - a condition that increases the risk for developing Alzheimer's and affects 15 to 20 million Americans. The study will be published in the Dec. 21 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Alcohol and Head Trauma

Alcohol has a paradoxical effect on mortality of patients admitted to hospital with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), shows the study led by trauma surgeon Dr. Homer Tien out of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

For the inexperienced traveler, Aubrey Gilbert's "whirlwind tour of your nervous system" blows past the hippocampus and cortex of the frontal lobes like a five-day package excursion through the great cities of Europe.

New research reveals the brain's capacity to regenerate -- however, the sooner alcoholics abstain from drinking the more they may recover.

Conventional wisdom tells us that experience is the best teacher. But a new study of virtual marketing strategies finds that this isn't always true.