brain

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Autism-Reversing Drugs Show Promise

MIT scientists stumbled onto workaround for misfiring brain system

(Newser) - MIT scientists have discovered one of the mechanisms of Fragile X Syndrome, one cause of autism, and are developing drugs to treat it, NPR reports. The disorder, triggered by a genetic mutation, interferes with the normal links between brain cells, making those networks something like a car without a brakes....

'Social Siberia' Isn't Just a Metaphor

Icy behavior cools body temperatures: study

(Newser) - Icy stares and chilly receptions can leave you feeling—well, cold. Metaphors about social behavior, like "warm welcome" and "cold shoulder," seem to relate to physical reality, new research finds. People who had experienced and recalled social rejection perceived a 5-degree temperature drop in the lab and...

Low B12 Levels Tied to Brain Shrinkage, Memory Loss

Many adults deficient in crucial nutrient

(Newser) - Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause memory loss, particularly in the elderly, reports the BBC. People short on the nutrient were 6 times more likely than individuals with normal levels to experience brain shrinkage, which is strongly linked to dementia, a new study shows. Forty percent of people are believed to...

Busy Brain May Mean Big Belly
 Busy Brain May Mean Big Belly 
Sep 5, 2008 12:50 PM CDT

Busy Brain May Mean Big Belly

(Newser) - Does thinking make us fat? Researchers say that intellectual activity just might cause us to pig out, LiveScience reports. Volunteers who performed a series of problem-solving tasks in a study consumed almost 30% more calories afterward than those who just sat around and took it easy. One theory: The body...

Brain Doesn't Remember Events—It Relives Them

Study records evidence supporting long-suspected memory pathway

(Newser) - Scientists for the first time have observed how brain cells drum up a memory, and the findings buttress the notion that our minds don't so much remember events as relive them. When recalling short film clips they had seen, patients' brains repeated the same pattern of neuron activity they experienced...

Children Can Count Without Numbers
Children Can Count Without Numbers
Aug 19, 2008 8:30 AM CDT

Children Can Count Without Numbers

Study suggests that kids have innate math abilities

(Newser) - A study sure to fan a fiery disagreement among developmental psychologists has found that children can count objects even if their language lacks words for the numbers involved. Researchers found that Australian Aboriginal children, who know words for only a few small numbers, did just as well as English-speaking children...

Staying Sharp While Aging: It Has a Price

Exercising the brain can stem tide of memory loss

(Newser) - Fighting the aging process is more about hard work than anti-wrinkle cream and hair dye, Jonah Lehrer writes in the Washington Post. The issue for most of us is not to dance like Madonna or swim like US Olympian Dara Torres; it's to remember names and places and find the...

Roots of Speech Found in Humming Fish

All vocalizing creatures share common brain circuit, researchers find

(Newser) - The songs of birds, the hums and grunts of toadfish, and the lofty speech of humans all use the same ancient brain circuit, despite an evolutionary split 400 million years ago, reports National Geographic. Researchers have discovered that the base of the hindbrain and upper spinal cord is the starting...

That Irritating Itch? It May Just Be Your Brain

In fact, our noodles could be inventing 90% of what we call real

(Newser) - A woman suffers from an itch so severe that she scratches right through to her brain—yet doctors find no medical ailment. War victims feel the sensations of a real limb—but from phantom appendages. What does it all add up to? Perhaps a new understanding of how our brains...

Brains Look Alike in Gay Men, Straight Women

Findings add to evidence that sexual orientation is innate

(Newser) - Gay men and straight women have similarly shaped brains, new research shows. Homosexual men and heterosexual women both have relatively symmetrical brains, while heterosexual men and lesbians have significantly larger right hemispheres, reports the Guardian. The research provides new evidence that sexual orientation is hardwired into the brain.

Dude! Harsh! Weed Shrinks Your Brain

Long-term smokers show abnormalities, damage to emotions

(Newser) - Heavy marijuana use over a number of years can cause significant brain abnormalities, damage memory and emotional processing, and even shrink parts of the brain, the Age reports. All cannabis smokers—not just high-risk groups such as the young and those susceptible to mental illness—can experience effects equivalent to...

New Trust Drug: Good for Shyness, Bad for Investing

Natural hormone makes people dumb with their money in experiment

(Newser) - Scientists have created a nasal spray that makes its users more trusting, the BBC reports. Made up mostly of oxytocin, alternatively nicknamed the “love hormone” or “cuddle chemical,” the spray decreases social fears by lowering activity in the amygdala. That should be great news for social phobics;...

How Bad Is It, Doc?
 How Bad Is It, Doc? 
May 20, 2008 3:52 PM CDT

How Bad Is It, Doc?

Kennedy's glioma, depending on size of tumor, could affect speech, memory, movement

(Newser) - While doctors know that Sen. Ted Kennedy has the most common form of brain cancer, the positioning, type and size of the tumor will determine the degree of danger and side effects from surgery, CNN reports. Kennedy’s glioma is in the left parietal lobe, which is involved in speaking...

Baby Birds' Babbling Suggests Intricate Brain

How our feathered friends learn, play back song may hold answers for human speech

(Newser) - Being bird-brained might not be much of an insult: New MIT research paints a more intricate portrait of how songbirds learn to sing, with one part of the brain used for learning and another for singing itself. Rather than maturing from babbling to birdsong, the independent but overlapping pathways work...

Brain Training Can Boost Smarts

 Brain Training Can Boost Smarts 
Apr 29, 2008 3:13 AM CDT

Brain Training Can Boost Smarts

Mental gymnastics can strengthen general intelligence, study finds

(Newser) - Software claiming to improve intelligence has met with market success in recent years— along with plenty of skepticism—but sales could now get a boost with the discovery that it really is possible to improve general intelligence with mental gymnastics. Researchers had thought so-called "fluid intelligence" was purely genetic,...

Study Links Sex and Gambling
 Study Links Sex and Gambling 
Apr 5, 2008 7:46 AM CDT

Study Links Sex and Gambling

Financial risk-taking lights up brain's pleasure center

(Newser) - Taking risks with money lights up the same parts of the brain as sexual arousal, a "neuroeconomics" study has found. Men shown sexy pictures gambled more daringly than those shown scary pictures—spiders and snakes—or neutral pictures, reports the AP. The study of 15 heterosexual Stanford students focused...

Botox May Move from Face to Brain
Botox May
Move from
Face to Brain
Apr 3, 2008 10:23 AM CDT

Botox May Move from Face to Brain

Anti-wrinkle toxin traveled to rats' central nervous system

(Newser) - Botox can spread from the face to the brain, scientists who injected rats with the anti-wrinkle treatment say. Traces of the toxin turned up in the rats' brain stems three days after it was injected into their whisker muscles, Bloomberg reports. A dermatologist says the findings call for further investigation,...

A Coffee a Day May Keep Dementia Away: Study

Daily caffeine helps protect the brain from damaging cholesterol

(Newser) - A daily fix of caffeine helps shield the brain from the damaging effects of cholesterol, which is apparently the way coffee helps reduce the risk of dementia, new research suggests. The "blood-brain barrier" protects the brain from toxins in the bloodstream, but scientists have discovered that cholesterol makes it...

Pesticides Linked to Parkinson's
Pesticides Linked to Parkinson's
Mar 30, 2008 2:18 PM CDT

Pesticides Linked to Parkinson's

Risk is greater to home gardeners than via exposure at work

(Newser) - People exposed to pesticides ran a 1.6 times higher risk of developing the neurological disease Parkinson’s, reports a new study of 600 participants. "Recreational pesticide use in the home and garden was more of a source of exposure than occupational use,” says one researcher. Experts now...

Tiny Shocks Win by a Nose
Tiny Shocks
Win by a Nose
Mar 28, 2008 4:00 PM CDT

Tiny Shocks Win by a Nose

Sense of smell shows electric response; technique could help PTSD patients

(Newser) - Electric shocks can sharpen the sense of smell, a finding that suggests new ways of altering sensory perception, the Chicago Tribune reports. MRIs showed subjects’ brains actually changing after researchers administered tiny shocks, which improved their ability to distinguish between similar smells. Because many psychological conditions relate to the senses,...

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