http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Breakfast might be the most important meal of the day, but up to 60 percent of American young people consistently skip it. Now, Heather Leidy, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, says eating a breakfast rich in protein significantly improves appetite control and reduces unhealthy snacking on high-fat or high-sugar foods in the evening, which could help improve the diets of more than 25 million overweight or obese young adults in the U.S. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-protein-rich-breakfasts-unhealthy-snacking-evening.html Health Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:51:31 EST news283535433 (Medical Xpress)—When the mind is at rest, the electrical signals by which brain cells communicate appear to travel in reverse, wiping out unimportant information in the process, but sensitizing the cells for future sensory learning, according to a study of rats conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-reverse-impulses-useless-prime-brain.html Neuroscience Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:05:53 EST news282902745 The stick can work just as well as the carrot in improving our performance, a team of academics at The University of Nottingham has found. A study led by researchers from the University's School of Psychology, published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience, has shown that punishment can act as a performance enhancer in a similar way to monetary reward. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-academics.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:51:47 EST news282397900 In the din of a crowded room, paying attention to just one speaker's voice can be challenging. Research in the March 6 issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron demonstrates how the brain hones in on one speaker to solve this "Cocktail Party Problem." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-cocktail-party-problem-focus-speaker.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:00:08 EST news281792854 Scientists at the University of Essex have been working with NASA on a project where they controlled a virtual spacecraft by thought alone. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-minds-thought-controlled-virtual-spacecraft.html Neuroscience Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:10:03 EST news279270541 Magnetic fields produced by the naturally occurring electrical currents in the brain could potentially be used as an objective test for schizophrenia and help to better understand the disease, according to new research published today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-brain-insight-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:00:07 EST news278790004 Pentagon-backed scientists on Monday announced they had created a robot hand that was the most advanced brain-controlled prosthetic limb ever made. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-mind-controlled-paralysed.html Neuroscience Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:13:41 EST news274943613 By studying how birds master songs used in courtship, scientists at Duke University have found that regions of the brain involved in planning and controlling complex vocal sequences may also be necessary for memorizing sounds that serve as models for vocal imitation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-songbirds-brain-circuits.html Neuroscience Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:55:22 EST news267119707 Columbia neurophysiologist David Sulzer took his first piano lessons at the age of 11 and was playing his violin and guitar in bars by age 15. Later he gained a national following as a founder of the Soldier String Quartet and the Thai Elephant Orchestra—an actual orchestra of elephants in northern Thailand—and for playing with the likes of Bo Diddley, the Velvet Underground's John Cale and the jazz great Tony Williams. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-neuroscientist-david-sulzer-brain-music.html Neuroscience Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:53:44 EST news265362815 Although many areas of the human brain are devoted to social tasks like detecting another person nearby, a new study has found that one small region carries information only for decisions during social interactions. Specifically, the area is active when we encounter a worthy opponent and decide whether to deceive them. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-brain-center-social-choices.html Neuroscience Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:00:10 EST news260712291 Listening to a single voice in a crowded cocktail party sometimes seems like picking a needle out of a haystack, but new research shows that people may be better at this than expected. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-audible-haystack.html Medical research Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:54:44 EST news259566859 Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) in Japan have uncovered two brain signals in the human prefrontal cortex involved in how humans predict the decisions of other people. Their results suggest that the two signals, each located in distinct prefrontal circuits, strike a balance between expected and observed rewards and choices, enabling humans to predict the actions of people with different values than their own. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-humans-decisions.html Neuroscience Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:00:04 EST news259411496 (Medical Xpress) -- Anyone who has seen a newborn in a hospital NICU knows the image is shocking. Wires and electrodes designed to monitor vital signals such as heart rate, brain signals and blood oxygen levels are taped over the frail newborn’s head, face and body. Skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby that doctors say all newborns need to develop a sense of security and bonding becomes challenging, if not impossible. Parents seeing their precious baby this way may also feel terrified and helpless. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-mom-dad-wires.html Medical research Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:10:01 EST news259401118 Further work carried out on mice suggests that this gene plays a part in motor network cross-over. Cross-over is a key factor in the transmission of brain signals, because it allows the right side of the brain to control the left side of the body and vice versa. This research has been published in The American Journal of Human Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-left-mimics-genes.html Genetics Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:43:25 EST news248701396 A hard probe inserted in the cerebral cortex of a rat model turns nearly as pliable as the surrounding gray matter in minutes, and induces less of the tough scarring that walls off hard probes that do not change, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-probe-softens-insertion-scarring.html Neuroscience Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:46:55 EST news239532397 (Medical Xpress) -- Taking another step towards creating devices that could be meshed with brain function to help those with brain damage, or perhaps one day, to improve on abilities, researchers at Tel Aviv University, led by Professor of Psychobiology Matti Mintz, have developed an adjunct to a part of a rat brain. The team, who will be presenting their results this month at a biotechnology meeting in the UK, has created a computer chip that is able to emulate one of the functions of the rat cerebellum. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-israeli-artificial-rat-cerebellum.html Medical research Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:50:01 EST news236423549 A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has discovered a novel way to convert human skin cells into brain cells, advancing medicine and human health by offering new hope for regenerative medicine and personalized drug discovery and development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-gladstone-scientist-human-skin-cells.html Neuroscience Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:50:01 EST news231074897 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bringing the real world into the brain scanner, researchers at The University of Western Ontario from The Centre for Brain and Mind can now determine the action a person was planning, mere moments before that action is actually executed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-future-actions-human-brain.html Neuroscience Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:02:12 EST news228578476 Two studies featuring research from Weill Cornell Medical College have uncovered surprising details about the complex process that leads to the flow of neurotransmitters between brain neurons -- a dance of chemical messages so delicate that missteps often lead to neurological dysfunction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-clock-brain.html Neuroscience Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:44:39 EST news227969053