Computer simulations of cancer cells – cancer avatars – have been used by researchers to identify drugs most likely to kill cancer cells isolated from patients’ brain tumors. The findings may help researchers stratify cancer patients for clinical trials according to their cancers' genomic signatures and predicted sensitivities to different cancer drugs. ...
Three brain attentional networks -- alerting, orienting, and executive control -- have been studied among alcohol-dependent (AD) individuals. Results indicate that AD individuals have particularly pronounced deficits in executive control. These deficits were strongly correlated with duration of AD habits, number of previous detoxification treatments, and mean alcohol consumption prior to detoxification....
Nearly two million children in the United States have experienced a parent's military deployment. Previous research has shown that these children may be at increased risk for emotional, behavioral and relationship difficulties, yet little is known about how best to address military children's specialized needs. Now, a researcher says school-based interventions could benefit children whose parents have...
A new cognitive test that can better determine whether memory impairments are due to very mild Alzheimer's disease or the normal aging process has been developed by researchers. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease will increase from 5 million in 2014 to as many as 16 million by 2050. Memory impairments and other early symptoms of Alzheimer's...
Pregnant women, compared to their non-pregnant counterparts, rate music as more intensely pleasant and unpleasant, associated with greater changes in blood pressure, a study has demonstrated. Music appears to have an especially strong influence on pregnant women, a fact that may relate to a prenatal conditioning of the fetus to music. ...
A molecule in an animal model that acts as a key player in establishing the organization of the auditory system has been discovered in a recent study. The molecule, a protein known as Bmp7, is produced during embryonic development and acts to help sensory cells find their ultimate position on the tonotopic map, which is the fundamental principle of organization in the auditory system. ...
If conventional lie detector machines, polygraphs, have been endlessly debunked and shown not to provide admissible nor even valid evidence, then the 21st Century tool of choice for reading the minds of witnesses and putative criminals may well be the brain scanner. More specifically, the kind of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that can seemingly probe our inner selves and reveal the flow...
Premature babies' risk of brain injury is influenced by their genes, a new study suggests. Researchers have identified a link between injury to the developing brain and common variation in genes associated with schizophrenia and the metabolism of fat. The study builds on previous research, which has shown that being born prematurely -- before 37 weeks -- is a leading cause of learning and behavioral...
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have significantly different concentrations of certain bacterial-produced chemicals, called metabolites, in their feces compared to children without ASD. This research provides further evidence that bacteria in the gut may be linked to autism. ...
Even though it could impact their admission or care in the hospital, few seizing patients receive a diagnostic electroencephalogram, or EEG, in the emergency department, says a new study. The team studied the use of EEGs to diagnose status epilepticus, a life-threatening condition in which the brain is in a state of persistent seizure for more than five minutes. ...
Six-month-old infants require more information from a cochlear implant than an adult or older child, a study has demonstrated. This may be due to the lack of experience infants have with speech and their inability to fill in the missing information from the cochlear implant. This research has important ramifications on the therapy infants with cochlear implants should receive. ...
Sociality, cooperation and “prosocial” behaviors are the foundation of human society (and of the extraordinary development of our brain) and yet, taken individually, people often show huge variation in terms of altruism/egoism, both among individuals and in the same individual at different moments in time. What causes these differences in behavior? An answer may be found by observing the activity of...
Alpha waves appear to be even more active and important than neuroscientists already thought. A new theory has been postulated on how the alpha wave controls attention to visual signals. Brain cells 'spark' all the time. From this electronic activity brain waves emerge: oscillations at different band widths. And like a radio station uses different frequencies to carry specific information far away...
Researchers have created a new imaging system which reveals neural activity throughout the brain of living animals. ...
Keywords in our word networks hold together groups of words in our memory, a new study suggests. ...
Insights from a highly social fish can help understand how other androgenic steroids, like testosterone, can shape a male's parenting skills. Once bluebanded gobies become fathers, they stay close to the developing eggs, vigorously fan and rub them until they hatch, and also protect them from mothers who would eat them. ...
A technique that can predict — with 95 percent accuracy — which stroke victims will benefit from intravenous, clot-busting drugs and which will suffer dangerous and potentially lethal bleeding in the brain has been developed by researchers. In an ischemic stroke, a blood clot is stuck in a vessel, cutting off blood flow to a portion of the brain, which will begin to die the longer the clot remains....
While dementia patients can often suffer from depression and declining physical and mental ability, exercise has been shown to help improve both their physical and psychological wellbeing. Researchers investigated how combining cognitive activities and elements of yoga, tai chi, qigong and meditation with routine physical exercise affected dementia patients. They found that a holistic exercise program...
A brain-scanning technology that tracks what the brain is doing by shining dozens of tiny LED lights on the head has been advanced by new research. The improvement avoids the radiation exposure and bulky magnets the others require. The new optical approach to brain scanning is ideally suited for children and for patients with electronic implants, such as pacemakers, cochlear implants and deep brain...
Fluoridating water does not adversely affects children's mental development and adult IQ, new research concludes. The researchers were testing the contentious claim that exposure to levels of fluoride used in community water fluoridation is toxic to the developing brain and can cause IQ deficits. "Our findings will hopefully help to put another nail in the coffin of the complete canard that fluoridating...