http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A specific region of the brain is in play when children consider their identity and social status as they transition into adolescence—that often-turbulent time of reaching puberty and entering middle school, says a University of Oregon psychologist. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-biology-tied-social-reorientation.html Neuroscience Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:00:03 EST news285955011 A report from the University of Freiburg that is published in one of the last issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics address the presence of cerebral abnormalities in eating disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-cerebral-abnormalities-disorders.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:33:37 EST news284204009 It is possible to tell who a person is thinking about by analyzing images of his or her brain. Our mental models of people produce unique patterns of brain activation, which can be detected using advanced imaging techniques according to a study by Cornell University neuroscientist Nathan Spreng and his colleagues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-mental-picture-fmri.html Neuroscience Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:04:13 EST news281696642 More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. But treating and studying chronic pain is complex and presents many challenges. Scientists have long searched for a method to objectively measure pain and a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital advances that effort. The study appears in the January 2013 print edition of the journal Pain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-discovery-eventually-chronic-pain.html Medical research Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:00:09 EST news275246604 Researchers in the voice, speech, and language branch of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the brain activity of rappers when they are "freestyling" – spontaneously improvising lyrics in real time. The findings, published online in the November 15 issue of the journal Scientific Reports, reveal that this form of vocal improvisation is associated with a unique functional reallocation of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and proposes a novel neural network that appears to be intimately involved in improvisatory and creative endeavors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-brain-freestyle-rap-reveals-characteristic.html Neuroscience Thu, 15 Nov 2012 10:51:44 EST news272199098 (Medical Xpress)—The human brain likes to make predictions about how the world works. Imagine, for example, that you move to a new town. At first, you don't know where to go for dinner. But after weeks of trying different restaurants, you pick a favorite, a little Thai place that makes the best green curry. Several months later, however, you notice the curry isn't as spicy and the vegetables seem undercooked. At first you give your favorite place the benefit of the doubt. But after a few more so-so dinners, you suddenly realize that something must have changed—perhaps the owner hired a new chef—and your notion that this is the best place around is no longer valid. So you begin searching for a new favorite restaurant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-beliefs.html Neuroscience Tue, 09 Oct 2012 06:58:05 EST news268983677 Ancient Greek philosophers considered the ability to "know thyself" as the pinnacle of humanity. Now, thousands of years later, neuroscientists are trying to decipher precisely how the human brain constructs our sense of self. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-self-awareness-humans-complex-diffuse-previously.html Neuroscience Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:06:55 EST news264874007 (HealthDay) -- Children with autism given a squirt of a nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin showed more activity in brain regions known to be involved with processing social information, a small study found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-nasal-hormone-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Wed, 16 May 2012 16:10:02 EST news256399301 (HealthDay) -- The ability to make decisions in new situations declines with age, apparently because of changes in the brain's white matter, a new imaging study says. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-brain-hamper-decision-making-age.html Neuroscience Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:40:01 EST news253892437 A network of brain regions which is activated during intense aesthetic experience overlaps with the brain network associated with inward contemplation and self-assessment, New York University researchers have found. Their study sheds new light on the nature of the aesthetic experience, which appears to integrate sensory and emotional reactions in a manner linked with their personal relevance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-aesthetic-appeal-neurological-link-contemplation.html Neuroscience Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:27:09 EST news253790814 (PhysOrg.com) -- If you find yourself more of a follower than a social leader, it may something to do with the wiring in your brain. According to a new study in Science, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science have discovered a location in the brain that is active in alpha mice but not in their subordinate cage mates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-social-hierarchy-prewired-brain.html Neuroscience Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:02:23 EST news236599317 Take your time. Hold your horses. Sleep on it. When people must decide between arguably equal choices, they need time to deliberate. In the case of people undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease, that process sometimes doesn't kick in, leading to impulsive behavior. New research into why that happens has led scientists to a detailed explanation of how the brain devotes time to reflect on tough choices. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-deep-brain-tough-choices.html Neuroscience Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:18:25 EST news236175492 The research, led by Dr Clea Warburton and Dr Gareth Barker in the University's School of Physiology and Pharmacology and published in the Journal of Neuroscience, has investigated why we can recognise faces much better if we have extra clues as to where or indeed when we encountered them in the first place. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-met-scientists-brain.html Neuroscience Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:40:02 EST news231669040 (Medical Xpress) -- The real world is, in a word, cluttered – but thanks to evolution, we (and other mammals) have no trouble detecting objects in visually complex natural environments. Determining precisely how this occurs is a deceptively complex task, since the retinal and neural mechanisms responsible for simpler percepts – lines, edges and the like –do not account for this survival skill – in fact, they actually interfere with it. Recently, however, scientists have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to elucidate the top-down processes by which high-level cortical areas that deal not with simple percepts, but rather abstract perceptual categories, actually prepare lower-level visual brain centers to perceive detail amidst disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-categories-high-order-brain-centers-pave.html Neuroscience Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:02:38 EST news229589974