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Research to Reinvent a Healthier Tomorrow

Through scientific discovery and targeted research, the Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory drives the understanding of nutrition’s impact on brain cognition. The Center is the first interdisciplinary cognition and nutrition research center in the country.

The research at the Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory is led by faculty at Illinois in partnership with the leading scientists in cognition, brain function and supporting technologies from all over the world. The Center hosts an annual research competition to support pioneering, multi-disciplinary research, enabling teams of investigators to apply new technologies and thinking from across a wide range of disciplines to take nutrition and cognition research to a new level.

Made possible by a five-year investment from Abbott, research funding will be distributed on a competitive basis via the annual call for proposals, which occurs in the fall of every year. The emphasis for funding is on novel research that examines the ability of nutritional compounds to enhance learning and memory at different stages within the lifespan.

News & Events

Researchers use brain-injury data to map intelligence in the brain

News // Mon, 05/07/2012 - 1:30pm

Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory. “It’s a significant challenge to find patients (for research) who have brain damage, and even further, it’s very hard to find patients who have focal brain damage,” said University of Illinois neuroscience professor Aron Barbey, who led the study.

Researchers use brain-injury data to map intelligence in the brain

News // Mon, 05/07/2012 - 1:30pm

Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory. “It’s a significant challenge to find patients (for research) who have brain damage, and even further, it’s very hard to find patients who have focal brain damage,” said University of Illinois neuroscience professor Aron Barbey, who led the study

Researchers use brain-injury data to map intelligence in the brain

News // Mon, 05/07/2012 - 1:30pm

Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory.

Ancient migration: Coming to America

News // Mon, 05/07/2012 - 11:15am

For most of the past 50 years, archaeologists thought they knew how humans arrived in the New World. The story starts around the end of the last ice age, when sea levels were lower and big-game hunters living in eastern Siberia followed their prey across the Bering land bridge and into Alaska. As the ice caps in Canada receded and opened up a path southward, the colonists swept across the vast unpopulated continent. Archaeologists called these presumed pioneers the Clovis culture, after distinctive stone tools that were found at sites near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Brain Differences Found for Tinnitus, Hearing Loss

News // Mon, 04/30/2012 - 12:15pm

Researchers have found that the brain is capable of doing something that sufferers from tinnitus cannot do: ignore the ringing sound. The study, led by Beckman Institute researcher Fatima Husain, suggests key differences in the neural bases of tinnitus and the larger disorder of hearing loss.

Beckman Team Develops Method for High Quality 3-D Tissue Images

News // Mon, 04/30/2012 - 12:15pm

Beckman Institute faculty members Scott Carney and Stephen Boppart and postdoctoral researcher Steven Adie led a team that created a computational method which turns flawed optical tomography images into high quality, three-dimensional images for applications in medical diagnostics.

2012 CNLM Awards

News // Mon, 04/16/2012 - 2:45pm

Our inaugural research challenge has been answered by nearly 50 University of Illinois teams. A total of 13 proposals from Illinois researchers representing 16 campus departments and units, from 7 colleges, were selected to receive grant funding in this first round of submissions. More information and a list of the selected projects can be found by clicking on the news title.

How Exercise Can Prime the Brain for Addiction

News // Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:30am

Statistically, people who exercise are much less likely than inactive people to abuse drugs or alcohol. But can exercise help curb addictions? Some research shows that exercise may stimulate reward centers in the brain, helping to ease cravings for drugs or other substances. But according to an eye-opening new study of cocaine-addicted mice, dedicated exercise may in some cases make it even harder to break an addiction.