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Dmitri Lovetsky/AP
Scientists are finally beginning to understand proprioception, a sense that tells us where our body is in space. Much of what they’ve learned comes from a study of two girls with a rare genetic disorder. That study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Read more at NPR.org
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A functional MRI study of 17 people who have been blind since birth found that areas of the brain usually devoted to visual information become active when a blind person is solving math problems. The study was published in the journal PNAS.
Read more at NPR.org
Synapses in human neurons. Heather de Rivera, McCarroll lab
Genetic analysis, involving nearly 65,000 people, finds a surprising risk factor for schizophrenia — a variation in an immune molecule best known for its role in containing infection. The findings, published in the journal Nature, also support the emerging idea that schizophrenia is a disease of synaptic pruning, and could lead to new approaches to treating this devastating illness.
Read more at ChildrensHospital.org
A new map based on brain scan data collected by the Human Connectome Project. The data revealed 97 new regions, bringing the total to 180. Matthew F. Glasser, David C. Van Essen.
In what many experts are calling a milestone in neuroscience, researchers published a spectacular new map of the brain in the journal Nature, detailing nearly 100 previously unknown regions — an unprecedented glimpse into the machinery of the human mind.
Read more at NYTimes.com
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While still experimental, deep brain stimulation with implanted electrodes is being tested as a way to ease dementia in patients with Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions. Could it work? Recent studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Neurosurgery, and Molecular Psychiatry suggest it just might.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Hundreds of thousands of people suffer brain injuries each year. Sometimes the damage is caused by something that seems innocuous, like a stumble or a bump on the head. When should you see a doctor?
Read more at NPR.org.
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A recent study published in the journal Neurology found eighteen months after a concussion or other traumatic brain injury, two-thirds of the patients were still sleepy during the day. And most were unaware of their symptoms.
Read more at NPR.org.
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If you have an Internet connection, you’ve probably read at least one story in the past couple of days claiming that science has shown that dogs hate being hugged. Those at The Washington Post’s Speaking of Science squeeze the life out of this misleading science coverage.
Read more at WashingtonPost.com.
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Teenage brains are more susceptible to drug abuse, but it’s often hard to find treatment. It’s even harder to find evidence-based treatment designed for youth. But that’s starting to change.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Roughly 2.5 million Americans are addicted to heroin and opioids like Oxycontin. Researchers say addiction takes over the brain’s limbic reward system, impairing decision making, judgment and recovery.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Young adults who watch at least three hours of TV a day might end up with less cognitive function by middle age, a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry finds. That’s especially true if they’re sedentary couch potatoes.
Read more at NPR.org.
Courtesy of Oregon Health & Science University
A mouse’s brain clears out toxins during periods of deep sleep — including toxins that form sticky plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Could the same hold true for people?
Read more at NPR.org.
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By assessing the strength of certain connections in the brain with an MRI test, researchers report in the journal Nature Neuroscience that they were often able to tell whether children and adolescents had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
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Dr. Bennet Omalu’s discovery of a new degenerative brain disease among football players inspired a movie-and the wrath of the NFL.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Recent research published in the journal PNAS hints at how the human brain is uniquely able to recognize and enjoy music. Timing in your brain is nearly everything.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Young adults who watch at least three hours of TV a day might end up with less cognitive function by middle age, a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry finds. That’s especially true if they’re sedentary couch potatoes.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Brain cells that track our location also can track time and distance, a new study published in the journal Neuron finds. This could explain how the brain uses place and time to organize memories throughout our lives.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Fear campaigns can motivate people to quit smoking or eat less. But fearmongering can go too far. When is scaring for health’s sake acceptable, and when is it distasteful?
Read more at NPR.org.
Katherine Streeter for NPR
Infection and autoimmune activity result in inflammation. And psychiatric researchers now suspect that inflammation may play a role in some cases of depression and other mental illnesses.
Read more at NPR.org.
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The Duponts in Louisiana loved their mutt Melvin so much they jumped at the chance to replicate him. Melvin is gone now, but he’s left behind two clones, Ken and Henry.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Math anxiety is much like other fears, say scientists who scanned the brains of third-graders. Fortunately, new research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicates that one-on-one tutoring soothed the fear circuit in anxious kids’ brains and improved performance, too.
Read more at NPR.org.
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It’s been known for awhile that reading to a young child is associated with good outcomes, including language development and school success. But what remains unknown is the mechanism for these outcomes. A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, examines the unexpectedly complex interactions that happen in the brain when you put a small child on your lap and open a picture book.
Read more at NYTimes.com.
Ben Allen/WITF. Cris and Valerie Fiore hold one of their favorite pictures of their sons Anthony (with the dark hair) and Nick. Anthony died from a heroin overdose in May 2014 at the age of 24.
Federal law requires insurance firms to cover treatment for addiction as they do treatment for other diseases. But because addiction treatment is so different from treatment for other medical issues, it’s hard to figure out exactly what equal treatment looks like, and some families say that drug users aren’t getting the care they need.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Most studies of music’s ability to ease pain have been small. But an analysis pooling the best research, published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet, builds a strong case, doctors say that a dose of music reduces the need for painkillers.
Read more at NPR.org.
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When he killed himself at 50, former NFL player Dave Duerson’s brain showed serious damage, likely from hits during his football career. His son now questions the gamble of playing the game.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Last year the nation’s pediatricians said middle and high schoolers shouldn’t start school before 8:30 a.m., so they can get much-needed sleep. But almost all schools start before that, the CDC finds.
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Lorenzo Gritti for NPR
Dozens of games and apps claim to improve your memory or make you smarter or reduce stress. But do they really? In October 2014, 75 scientists signed a letter to the brain training industry, criticizing companies for exaggerating claims and preying on the anxieties of customers. Now game developers say the next step is clinically valid poof of cognitive gains, and one developer (also a neuroscientist) is looking for the best proof he can get — FDA approval — and he’ll start with his game NeuroRacer which already has results published in the journal Nature.
Read more at NPR.org.
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In a new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a psychologist says there could be a simple way to make calorie-packed foods like French fries or ice cream seem unappealing, even a bit disgusting. Others are less sure.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Reports from parents and a growing number of studies over the past 10 to 15 years suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), especially more severe ASD, are prone to gastrointestinal disorders. In a new study in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Disease, researchers crunched three large databases to create what they believe is the largest study to date of the link between autism spectrum disorder and inflammatory bowel disease.
Read more at ChildrensHospital.org.
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The path from scientific discovery to media sound bite can be perilous, says commentator Tania Lombrozo, and it should be traversed with care. Take for example how the media is covering a recent paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease about the risks and benefits of coffee consumption.
Read more at NPR.org.
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You are probably at least a little bit racist and sexist and homophobic. Most of us are. And before you get offended, try taking one of the popular Implicit Association Tests. They measure people’s unconscious prejudice. These tests find that most people trust men or women, white people over minorities, and straight people over queer people.
So, what are we to do? Scientists are working on ways to train our brains away from deeply held prejudices — including hacking your subconscious while you sleep. Yes, it sounds like a scam, but the results, published in the journal Science, show that it’s possible.
Read more at NPR.org.
Francisco Seco/AP
To the ranks of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, researchers have added a sixth: “oleogustus,” or the taste for fat. But nutrition scientist Rick Mattes says it’s far from delicious. Found in rancid food, it’s often an unpleasant warning. The finding was announced in the journal Chemical Senses last month.
Read more at NPR.org.
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The placebo effect is already known to be pretty bizarre, but a new study has ramped up the weirdness factor. Researchers have found that people can be trained to believe in a placebo so much, it still works even when they’re told it isn’t real medicine.
Read more at iflscience.com.
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Have you ever struggled to finish a level of Candy Crush or complete a Sudoku puzzle in the evening but breezed through it the following morning? The reason may please anyone who’s been told they spend too much time in bed asleep. A new study suggests that ‘sleeping on it’ can improve problem solving.
Read more at iflscience.com.
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We know that a gene can determine how strongly we experience bitter flavors. Scientists wanted to know if this was also true for sweet. Their study shows genetics may affect our taste for sugar, too.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Try to look inside the brain and you’re not going to get very far. But photoacoustic imaging may be a solution for the shortcomings of conventional imaging. It uses lasers to make the brain sing.
Read more at NPR.org.
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A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that may improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study of the physical effects on the brain of visiting nature.
Read more at NYTimes.com.
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A teenager from the U.K. has designed what could be a minimally invasive test that offers an early Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Grammar school student Krtin Nithiyanandam from Surrey is one of 90 regional finalists in the 2015 Google Science Fair.
Read more at iflscience.com.
Emily Strange
Mice given even brief opportunities to solve puzzles are less likely to become addicted to cocaine, a study has found. The research adds to an increasing body of work suggesting that addiction is in large part a reaction to living in an intellectually and emotionally unsatisfying environment, and indicates that intellectual stimulation could be more lasting than has been realized.
Read more at iflscience.com.
Courtesy of Tal Cohen
A very rare genetic mutation causes some people to develop Alzheimer’s in their 30s. It also makes these people the ideal candidates for tests of potential Alzheimer’s drugs.
Read more at NPR.org.
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In recent years, a body of research has shown that beneficial microbes play a critical role in how our bodies work. And it turns out there’s a lot of communication between our gut and our brain.
Read more at NPR.org.
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The latest accomplishment for gene therapy involves mice with inherited deafness. Meanwhile, the drugmaker Novartis is conducting the first trial of gene therapy for people with hearing loss.
Read more at NPR.org.
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When you have to remember many things at once, you might try to juggle all those to-do items in your head simultaneously. But new scientific research published in the journal Nature suggests there might be a better approach.
Read more at NPR.org.
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Scientists say they can now download signals from your brain — and translate them back into a picture that you saw. The images aren’t crystal clear, but you can make out what’s going on.
Listen to the story at NPR.org.
Photograph by Jack Wilgus of a daguerreotype of Phineas Gage in the collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus.
Thanks to painstaking historical analysis of primary sources (by Malcolm Macmillan and Matthew Lena) – much of it published between 2000 and 2010 – and the discovery during the same time period of new photographic evidence of post-accident Gage (see image, right), it is now believed that Gage made a remarkable recovery from his terrible injuries. He ultimately emigrated to Chile where he worked as a horse-coach driver, controlling six horses at once and dealing politely with non-English speaking passengers. The latest simulations of his injury help explain his rehabilitation – it’s thought the iron rod passed through his left frontal lobe only, leaving his right lobe fully intact.
Read more at BPS Research Digest.
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When people saw photos that linked a famous person with a famous place, it changed the behavior of certain neurons in their brains. And it changed their memories, too.
Read more at NPR.org.
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The rich array of microbiota in our intestines can tell us more than you might think.
Read more at NYTimes.com.
Illustration by Benjamin Arthur for NPR
Anxious mice calm down when they get an infusion of gut microbes from mellow mice. That has scientists wondering if gut microbes play a role in the human brain, too. Research on that is only just beginning. But it’s intriguing to think there could be a real truth to the phrase “gut feelings.”
Listen to the story, read more, and watch a video at NPR.org.
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A large, international study found that kids born to older parents had higher rates of autism. Having a teen mom or parents with a large gap between their ages also increased the autism odds.
Read more at NPR.org.
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The antidepressant Prozac selectively targets the chemical serotonin. When the drug was introduced in the 1980s, it helped solidify the idea in many minds that depression was the result of a chemical imbalance. But the real story is far more complicated.
Read more at NPR.org.
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