http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news from Vanderbilt University Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world has become the focus of considerable research in recent years. One of the potential benefits of these studies could be definitive diagnoses of mental health disorders ranging from bipolar to post-traumatic stress disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-validating-brain-resting-state.html Neuroscience Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:00:04 EST news290855785 "Aiden, look!" piped NAO, a two-foot tall humanoid robot, as it pointed to a flat-panel display on a far wall. As the cartoon dog Scooby Doo flashed on the screen, Aiden, a young boy with an unruly thatch of straw-colored hair, looked in the direction the robot was pointing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-humanoid-robot-children-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:02:51 EST news283014163 Imagine suddenly being able to hear the words and tone of the person across the table from you in a crowded restaurant when once you only heard overwhelming noise. Or speaking on the telephone with confidence because what you hear is now crisp and clear. Longtime cochlear implant users are reporting such dramatic improvements in their hearing, thanks to new image-guided programming methods developed by Vanderbilt University researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-hifi-cochlear-implants.html Other Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:04:47 EST news281783078 Disruption in the body's circadian rhythm can lead not only to obesity, but can also increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-circadian-clock-linked-obesity-diabetes.html Medical research Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:00:01 EST news280670192 (Medical Xpress)—We know that casting a ballot in the voting booth involves politics, values and personalities. But before you ever push the button for your candidate, your brain has already carried out an election of its own to make that action possible. New research from Vanderbilt University reveals that our brain accumulates evidence when faced with a choice and triggers an action once that evidence reaches a tipping point. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-scientists-neurobiology-decision.html Neuroscience Tue, 08 Jan 2013 09:03:00 EST news276858116 Why do our brains make more mistakes when we act quickly? A new study demonstrates how the brain follows Ben Franklin's famous dictum, "Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-insight-haste.html Neuroscience Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:00:01 EST news271506968 The dream of regaining the ability to stand up and walk has come closer to reality for people paralyzed below the waist who thought they would never take another step. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-exoskeleton-advanced-degree-independence-people.html Medical research Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:47:42 EST news270838050 When people – and monkeys – look at faces, a special part of their brain that is about the size of a blueberry "lights up." Now, the most detailed brain-mapping study of the area yet conducted has confirmed that it isn't limited to processing faces, as some experts have maintained, but instead serves as a general center of expertise for visual recognition. Neuroscientists previously established that this region, which is called the fusiform face area (FFA) and is located in the temporal lobe, is responsible for a particularly effective form of visual recognition. But there has been an ongoing debate about whether this area is hard-wired to recognize faces because of their importance to us or if it is a more general mechanism that allows us to rapidly recognize objects that we work with extensively. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-brain-auto-experts-cars-people.html Neuroscience Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:00:10 EST news268308899 (Medical Xpress)—Women are better than men at recognizing living things and men are better than women at recognizing vehicles. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-sex-guys-cars-women-birds.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:40:49 EST news267118839 Take a millionth of a human brain and squeeze it into a special chamber the size of a mustard seed. Link it to a second chamber filled with cerebral spinal fluid and thread both of them with artificial blood vessels in order to create a microenvironment that makes the neurons and other brain cells behave as if they were in a living brain. Then surround the chambers with a battery of sensors that monitor how the cells respond when exposed to minute quantities of dietary toxins, disease organisms or new drugs under development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-vanderbilt-led-team-microbrain-drug.html Medical research Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:00:04 EST news262345926 In a process akin to belling an infinitesimal cat, scientists have managed to tag a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of single molecules for the first time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-probing-roots-depression-tracking-serotonin.html Neuroscience Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:52:41 EST news260092342 A pair of neuroscientists from Vanderbilt and Harvard Universities has proposed the first neurobiological model for third-party punishment. It outlines a collection of potential cognitive and brain processes that evolutionary pressures could have re-purposed to make this behavior possible. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-crime-neurobiological-roots-modern-justice.html Neuroscience Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:20:01 EST news253973711 A study using a procedure called the rubber hand illusion has found striking new evidence that people experiencing schizophrenia have a weakened sense of body ownership and has produced the first case of a spontaneous, out-of-body experience in the laboratory. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-body-mind-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:00:05 EST news239289360 How the brain controls impulsive behavior may be significantly different than psychologists have thought for the last 40 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-insight-impulse.html Neuroscience Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:44:52 EST news233945073 Preschool teachers' use of sophisticated vocabulary and analytic talk about books combined with early support for literacy in the home can predict fourth-grade reading comprehension and word recognition, new research from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College finds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-robust-preschool-effects-language-literacy.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:01:25 EST news232894502