http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A brain-training task that increases the number of items an individual can remember over a short period of time may boost performance in other problem-solving tasks by enhancing communication between different brain areas. The new study being presented this week in San Francisco is one of a growing number of experiments on how working-memory training can measurably improve a range of skills – from multiplying in your head to reading a complex paragraph. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-tasks.html Neuroscience Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:50:01 EST news285263384 For the first time, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) have used a new combination of neural imaging methods to discover exactly how the human brain adapts to injury. The research, published in Cerebral Cortex, shows that when one brain area loses functionality, a "back-up" team of secondary brain areas immediately activates, replacing not only the unavailable area but also its confederates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-reveals-human-brain-injury.html Neuroscience Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:53:06 EST news277552374 Parents often wonder how much of the world their young children really understand. Though typically developing children are not able to speak or point to objects on command until they are between eighteen months and two years old, they do provide clues that they understand language as early as the age of one. These clues provide a point of measurement for psychologists interested in language comprehension of toddlers and young children with autism, as demonstrated in a new video-article published in JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-video-based-language-toddlers-children-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:57:20 EST news274719422 A century and a half ago, French physician Pierre Paul Broca found that patients with damage to part of the brain's frontal lobe were unable to speak more than a few words. Later dubbed Broca's area, this region is believed to be critical for speech production and some aspects of language comprehension. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-neuroscientists-broca-area-subunits-function.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:40:53 EST news269592007 A major study of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and the risk that a child will be born with a neurodevelopmental disorder has found strong links between maternal diabetes and obesity and the likelihood of having a child with autism or another developmental disability. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-maternal-obesity-diabetes-autism-developmental.html Autism spectrum disorders Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:01 EST news253087182 A primary characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is impairments in social-communication skills. Children and adolescents with social-communication problems face difficulty understanding, interacting and relating with others. University of Missouri researchers found that children who receive more intensive therapy to combat these impairments, especially at early ages, achieve the best outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-children-autism-benefit-early-intensive.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:04:47 EST news236430279