http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Vertebrates are predisposed to act to gain rewards, and to lay low to avoid punishment. Try to teach chickens to back away from food in order to obtain it, and you'll fail, as researchers did in 1986. But (some) humans are better thinkers than chickens. In the May 8 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers show that the level of theta brainwave activity in the prefrontal cortex predicts whether people will be able to overcome these ingrained biases when doing so is required to achieve a goal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-theta-brainwaves-ability-built-in-bias.html Neuroscience Tue, 07 May 2013 17:00:05 EST news287141209 The image of an object, when projected into the eyes, may take on the most diverse shapes depending on the chosen point of view, as this can change its distance, perspective and so on, yet generally we have no difficulty in recognizing said object. This is a well-known notion that concerns humans and primates, yet now Alireza Alemi-Neissi, Federica Rosselli and Davide Zoccolan of SISSA (the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste) have shown that also rats possess such a sophisticated visual recognition ability, and that their brain employs complex strategies. The study has been just published in The Journal of Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-rats.html Neuroscience Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:01:52 EST news284281303 Antipsychotic administration in the elderly is associated with an increased risk for cerebrovascular accident, more commonly known as stroke; a new study published in Biological Psychiatry provides additional insight into this important relationship. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-elderly-antipsychotics-newly-linked-specific.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:23:12 EST news282223386 Studying what makes us want to eat, could help devise approaches to prevent obesity, which is becoming widespread in Europe http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-brain-mechanisms-food-reward.html Neuroscience Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:18:31 EST news282223105 Much to the chagrin of parents who think their kids should spend less time playing video games and more time studying, time spent playing action video games can actually make dyslexic children read better. In fact, 12 hours of video game play did more for reading skills than is normally achieved with a year of spontaneous reading development or demanding traditional reading treatments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-action-video-games-boost-skills.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:31:04 EST news281277053 Neuroscience researchers from Tufts University have found that our star-shaped brain cells, called astrocytes, may be responsible for the rapid improvement in mood in depressed patients after acute sleep deprivation. This in vivo study, published in the current issue of Translational Psychiatry, identified how astrocytes regulate a neurotransmitter involved in sleep. The researchers report that the findings may help lead to the development of effective and fast-acting drugs to treat depression, particularly in psychiatric emergencies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-astrocytes-depression-therapy.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:05:04 EST news278154298 Babies only hours old are able to differentiate between sounds from their native language and a foreign language, scientists have discovered. The study indicates that babies begin absorbing language while still in the womb, earlier than previously thought. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-womb-babies-language-mothers.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 02 Jan 2013 04:26:10 EST news276323163 A team of researchers led by Hiroyuki Nakahara and Shinsuke Suzuki of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute has identified a set of brain structures that are critical for predicting how other people make decisions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-brain-decision-making-circuits-simulate-people.html Neuroscience Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:44:04 EST news274697030 (Medical Xpress)—A drug that works through the same brain mechanism as the fast-acting antidepressant ketamine briefly improved treatment-resistant patients' depression symptoms in minutes, with minimal untoward side effects, in a clinical trial conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The experimental agent, called AZD6765, acts through the brain's glutamate chemical messenger system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-experimental-agent-briefly-eases-depression.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:19:31 EST news274436364 (Medical Xpress)—Meditation can change the way a person experiences pain, according to a new study by UW–Madison neuroscientists. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-meditation-expertise-pain.html Neuroscience Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:16:10 EST news272268964 A novel brain mechanism mediating the inhibition of the critical breathing muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has been identified for the first time in a new study, offering the possibility of a new treatment target for sleep-related breathing problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-mechanism-muscle-paralysis.html Sleep apnea Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:20:01 EST news272219887 New findings presented today report the important role sleep plays, and the brain mechanisms at work as sleep shapes memory, learning, and behavior. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-reveal-brain-mechanisms.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:32:01 EST news269613111 Nausea is a common and distressing side effect of many drugs and treatments. Unlike vomiting, nausea is not well understood, but new research by University of Guelph scientists may soon change that. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-disgusted-rats-scientists-nausea-cancer.html Neuroscience Fri, 05 Oct 2012 12:42:16 EST news268659677 With the discovery that the unconscious mind plays a key role in the placebo effect, researchers have identified a novel mechanism that helps explain the power of placebos and nocebos. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-placebo-response-pain-nonconscious.html Medical research Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:00:12 EST news266491942 (Medical Xpress)—Professional ball game players report the sensation of the ball 'slowing-down' just before they hit it. Confirming these anecdotal comments, a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that time is perceived to slow down during the period of action preparation, as the result of an increased intake of visual information. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-ready-steady-sportsmen-ball.html Neuroscience Fri, 07 Sep 2012 06:50:57 EST news266219450 (Medical Xpress)—Like a melody that keeps playing in your head even after the music stops, researchers at the University of Illinois's Beckman Institute have shown that the beat goes on when it comes to the human visual system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-brain-visual-entrained-future-events.html Neuroscience Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:33:54 EST news265383222 Neuroscientists from Wayne State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are taking a deeper look into how the brain mechanisms for memory retrieval differ between adults and children. While the memory systems are the same in many ways, the researchers have learned that crucial functions with relevance to learning and education differ. The team's findings were published on July 17, 2012, in the Journal of Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-team-memory-children-adults.html Neuroscience Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:43:23 EST news262352594 Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, finds that prolonged exposure to a high-fat diet reduces the quality of sleep in rats. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-weight-gain-high-fat-diet-active-period.html Health Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:20:02 EST news261115500 Obesity is increasing worldwide in adults and children and is currently viewed by many as one of the most serious threats to public health. It is likely that solutions to the obesity pandemic will require changes in public policy and that scientific insight into obesity will be invaluable for guiding those changes. Now, a new review of human brain imaging studies published by Cell Press in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism suggests that a major reason for the dramatic increase in obesity may be a heightened sensitivity to heavily advertised and easily accessible high-calorie foods. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-heightened-sensitivity-cheap-high-calorie-food.html Medical research Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:00:01 EST news252845334 A first-of-its kind series of brain studies shows how an adult learning a foreign language can come to use the same brain mechanisms as a native speaker. The research also demonstrates that the kind of exposure you have to the language can determine whether you achieve native-language brain processing, and that learning under immersion conditions may be more effective in reaching this goal than typical classroom training. The research also suggests that the brain consolidates knowledge of the foreign language as time goes on, much like it does when a person learns to ride a bike or play a musical instrument. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-immersion-foreign-language-adults-retain.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:00:07 EST news252152368 Working memory, which consists in the short-term retention and processing of information, depends on specific regions of the brain working correctly. This faculty tends to deteriorate in patients with schizophrenia, as it does in healthy aged subjects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-memory-deficits-schizophrenic-patients-healthy.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:20:01 EST news249210260 Research published by Cell Press in the January 12 issue of the journal Neuron provides fascinating insight into a newly discovered brain mechanism that limits the rewarding impact of cocaine. The study describes protective delayed mechanism that turns off the genes that support the development of addiction-related behaviors. The findings may lead to a better understanding of vulnerability to addiction and as well as new strategies for treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-brain-negative-impact-cocaine.html Neuroscience Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:01 EST news245504340 Doctors use similar brain mechanisms to make diagnoses and to name objects, according to a study published in the Dec. 14 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE and led by Marcio Melo of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-doctors.html Neuroscience Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:27:06 EST news243106017 Someone with the condition known as grapheme-color synesthesia might experience the number 2 in turquoise or the letter S in magenta. Now, researchers reporting their findings online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 17 have shown that those individuals also show heightened activity in a brain region responsible for vision. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-explores-collide.html Neuroscience Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:50:01 EST news240765263 (Medical Xpress) -- What drives addicts to repeatedly choose drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, overeating, gambling or kleptomania, despite the risks involved? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-scientists-brain-circuitry-linked-healthy.html Neuroscience Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:00:31 EST news239200577 New research shows that you can reduce racial prejudice simply by having a person mimic the movements of a member of the race he or she is prejudiced against. The method may work by activating brain mechanisms that contribute to feelings of empathy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-prejudice-imitation.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:25:46 EST news236859936 Research to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, finds that alterations of meal-related gut hormone signals may contribute to the overall effects of exercise to help manage body weight. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-effects-meal-related-gut-hormone.html Health Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:49:15 EST news229657737 (Medical Xpress) -- Perhaps the most puzzling symptom of anorexia nervosa -- a disorder that tends to occur in young women -- is the refusal to eat, resulting in extreme weight loss. While most people have a great deal of difficulty in dieting and losing weight, particularly if a diet extends over many months or years, individuals with anorexia nervosa can literally diet themselves to death. In fact, this disorder has a very high death rate from starvation. A new study, now online in the journal International Journal of Eating Disorders, sheds light on why these symptoms occur in anorexia nervosa. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-pleasure-anxious.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 20 May 2011 08:47:35 EST news225100027 Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have developed a mouse model of major depressive disorder (MDD) that is based on a rare genetic mutation that appears to cause MDD in the majority of people who inherit it. The findings, which were published online today in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics EarlyView, could help to clarify the brain events that lead to MDD, and contribute to the development of new and better means of treatment and prevention. This report also illustrates an advance in the design of recombinant mouse models that should be applicable to many human diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-mouse-depression.html Genetics Thu, 19 May 2011 04:04:30 EST news224996648 A new study uses creative engineering to unravel brain mechanisms associated with one of the most fundamental subjective human feelings: self-consciousness. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 28 issue of the journal Neuron, identifies a brain region called the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) as being critical for the feeling of being an entity localized at a particular position in space and for perceiving the world from this position and perspective. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-neurorobotics-reveals-brain-mechanisms-self-consciousness.html Neuroscience Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:53:14 EST news223127543