http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A team of American and Italian neuroscientists has identified a cellular change in the brain that accompanies obesity. The findings could explain the body's tendency to maintain undesirable weight levels, rather than an ideal weight, and identify possible targets for pharmacological efforts to address obesity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-key-shift-brain-overeat.html Medical research Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:14 EST news286466031 Feeling frisky? If so, chances are greater your estrogen level –– and, perhaps, fertility –– are hitting their monthly peak. If not, you're more likely experiencing a profusion of desire-deadening progesterone, and the less fertile time in your cycle. Oh, the power of hormones. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-ucsb-hormone-sexual-young-women.html Medical research Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:36:14 EST news286126565 Predicting the winner of a sporting event with accuracy close to that of a statistical computer program could be possible with proper training, according to researchers. In a study published today, experiment participants who had been trained on statistically idealized data vastly improved their ability to predict the outcome of a baseball game. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-memory-winner.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:00:19 EST news285854423 (Medical Xpress)—New research from social psychologists at Indiana University Bloomington suggests that feeling powerful might protect against the debilitating effects of negative stereotypes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-power-diffuse-effects-negative-stereotypes.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:05:59 EST news284814351 A UT Dallas study has found that people who come from families with members who are encouraging and engaged with one another tend to have marriages with more positive outcomes later in life. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-good-marriages-teens-happy-homes.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:50:01 EST news283072660 People who are at greater genetic risk of schizophrenia are more likely to see a fall in IQ as they age, even if they do not develop the condition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-schizophrenia-genes-chance-iq-loss.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:15:47 EST news280664138 (Medical Xpress)—The reason why some people are worse at learning than others has been revealed by a research team from Berlin, Bochum, and Leipzig, operating within the framework of the Germany-wide network "Bernstein Focus State Dependencies of Learning". http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-brain-sensory-sufficiently-team.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:50:02 EST news279973192 UT Dallas researchers are recruiting patients for a new study aimed at determining a connection between hearing deficits and the likelihood of falls. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-aids-falls.html Health Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:50:02 EST news279373080 All parents know the infant milestones: turning over, learning to crawl, standing, and taking that first unassisted step. Achieving each accomplishment presumably requires the formation of new connections among subsets of the billions of nerve cells in the infant's brain. But how, when and where those connections form has been a mystery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-brain-circuit-voluntary-movements.html Neuroscience Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:00:05 EST news278160799 All living cells keep their cellular calcium concentration at a very low level. Since a small increase in calcium can affect many critical cellular functions (an elevated calcium concentration over an extended period can induce cell death), powerful cellular mechanisms ensure that calcium concentration quickly returns to its low level. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-key-mechanism-calcium.html Neuroscience Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:16:08 EST news276430561 A monkey would probably never agree that it is better to give than to receive, but they do apparently get some reward from giving to another monkey. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-decision-group-effort-brain.html Neuroscience Sun, 23 Dec 2012 13:00:30 EST news275488984 The initial excitement of hearing a new song fades as it's replayed to death. That's because the brain naturally functions as a kind of ticking time bomb, obliterating the thrill for artistic sounds, images and words by making them familiar over time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-pursuing-literary-immortality-illuminates-mind.html Neuroscience Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:03:41 EST news274633289 (Medical Xpress)—At a Bloomington, Ind., toy store, kids ages 8 to 12 gather weekly to trade Pokemon cards and share their mutual absorption in the intrigue and adventure of Pokemon. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-pokemon-rare-iu-face-recognition.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:26:49 EST news273929193 Stroke patients who have difficulty paying attention to part of their visual field may perform better when offered a reward, a study by Imperial College London and Brunel University researchers has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-reward-visual-awareness-patients.html Neuroscience Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:29:32 EST news273158939 (Medical Xpress)—A similar, insidious craving plagues all addicts, no matter the substance of choice. A new study published in NeuroImage from Center for BrainHealth scientists Dr. Francesca Filbey, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and doctoral student Samuel DeWitt has found that for binge-eaters, as with all addiction sufferers, the compulsion to overeat is rooted in the brain's reward center. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-overeating-aid-obesity-metabolic-psychological.html Neuroscience Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:50:01 EST news273136534 An Indiana University study in the Journal of Child Neurology proposes an innovative treatment for developmental coordination disorder, a potentially debilitating neurological disorder in which the development of a child's fine or gross motor skills, or both, is impaired. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-unique-treatment-children-developmental-disorder.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 26 Nov 2012 05:26:14 EST news273129960 What types of public messages will most likely deter drug and alcohol abuse or dissuade people from engaging in risky behavior? Negatively framed messages may not be an effective way to reach those most in need of persuasion, suggests a new study in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors by researchers from Indiana University and Wayne State University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-neuroimaging-negative-messages-effective-substance.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:55:12 EST news273128090 Caenorhabditis elegans, with just 302 neurons, has long been considered an ideal model system for the study of the nervous system. New research, however, is suggesting that the worms' "simple" nervous system may be much more complex than originally thought. In a new study of worm locomotion, researchers show that a single type of motor neuron harbors an entire sensorimotor loop. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cell-sensory-motor-output-worm.html Neuroscience Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:00:28 EST news272714199 Common wisdom has it that if the visual cortex in the brain is deprived of visual information in early infanthood, it may never develop properly its functional specialization, making sight restoration later in life almost impossible. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-mind-eye-scientists.html Neuroscience Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:00:07 EST news271506734 (Medical Xpress)—The Who asked "who are you?" but Dartmouth neurobiologist Jeffrey Taube asks "where are you?" and "where are you going?" Taube is not asking philosophical or theological questions. Rather, he is investigating nerve cells in the brain that function in establishing one's location and direction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-explores-brain.html Neuroscience Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:09:35 EST news269881764 A study by researchers from Emory University and Indiana University found that the beneficial effects daily exercise can have on the regeneration of nerves also require androgens such as testosterone in both males and females. It is the first report of both androgen-dependence of exercise on nerve regeneration and of an androgenic effect of exercise in females. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-role-androgens-testosterone-nerve.html Neuroscience Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:00:03 EST news269499339 An Indiana University study has provided preliminary evidence that by measuring brain activity through the use of neuroimaging, researchers can predict who is likely to have an easier time getting off drugs and alcohol, and who will need extra help. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-relapse-recovery-neuroimaging-substance-addiction.html Neuroscience Sun, 14 Oct 2012 12:19:06 EST news269435938 Most people equate "gray matter" with the brain and its higher functions, such as sensation and perception, but this is only one part of the anatomical puzzle inside our heads. Another cerebral component is the white matter, which makes up about half the brain by volume and serves as the communications network. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-white-dogs.html Neuroscience Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:49:22 EST news267724155 A new study published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience by researchers at the Center for BrainHealth at UT Dallas and UT Southwestern found brain-based differences in how women with and without anorexia perceive themselves. The findings shed light on how brain pathways function in ill and fully recovered individuals who have had anorexia nervosa. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-brain-function-differences-women-anorexia.html Neuroscience Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:40:29 EST news267090011 New research examining auditory mechanisms of language learning in babies has revealed that infants as young as three months of age are able to automatically detect and learn complex dependencies between syllables in spoken language. By contrast, adults only recognised the same dependencies when asked to actively search for them. The study by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig also highlights the important role of basic pitch discrimination abilities for early language development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-babies-ability-complex-language-outshines.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:00:23 EST news266500899 Have you ever noticed how tiresome it can be to follow a conversation at a noisy party? Rest assured: this is not necessarily due to bad hearing – although that might make things worse. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have found that adverse listening situations are difficult for the brain, partly because they draw on the same, limited resources supporting our short-term memory. The new findings are particularly relevant to understanding the cognitive consequences of hearing damage, a condition that affects an increasing number of people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-noisy-toll-short-term-memory.html Neuroscience Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:59:56 EST news266151583 Tokyo Tech's Yoshihiro Miyake and colleagues have developed an innovative, non-invasive therapeutic intervention that may improve the mobility, stability, and quality of life of Parkinson's disease patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-tokyo-tech-walkmate-quality-life.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:29:36 EST news265361361 Studies of lucid dreamers visualize which centers of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-seat-meta-consciousness-brain.html Neuroscience Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:57:48 EST news262605426 UT Dallas researchers recently demonstrated how nerve stimulation paired with specific experiences, such as movements or sounds, can reorganize the brain. This technology could lead to new treatments for stroke, tinnitus, autism and other disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-brain-tinnitus-treatments.html Neuroscience Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:02:31 EST news261914544 Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) use sound or touch to help the visually impaired perceive the visual scene surrounding them. The ideal SSD would assist not only in sensing the environment but also in performing daily activities based on this input. For example, accurately reaching for a coffee cup, or shaking a friend's hand. In a new study, scientists trained blindfolded sighted participants to perform fast and accurate movements using a new SSD, called EyeMusic. Their results are published in the July issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-device-images-music-individuals-vision.html Neuroscience Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:33:24 EST news260706783