Medical research

Studying fruit flies to better understand depression

Human beings and fruit flies have very little in common—at first sight. However, by studying these flies, it is in fact possible to find out more about human nature, particularly when it comes to depressive disorders.

Neuroscience

Tracking the neurons that make us social

Human beings, like most mammals, need social interactions to live and develop. The processes that drive them toward each other require decision making whose brain machinery is largely misunderstood. To decipher this phenomenon, ...

Neuroscience

Blink: The link between aerobic fitness and cognition

Although exercise is known to enhance cognitive function and improve mental health, the neurological mechanisms of this link are unknown. Now, researchers from Japan have found evidence of the missing link between aerobic ...

Neuroscience

Neuronal circuits in the brain 'sense' our inner state

Animals have an innate preference for certain scents and tastes. Attractive scents are linked to things like good food. Less attractive scents—that of spoiled food, for example—instinctively give the animal a signal which ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Can gut infection trigger Parkinson's disease?

A new study by Montreal scientists published today in Nature demonstrates that a gut infection can lead to a pathology resembling Parkinson's disease (PD) in a mouse model lacking a gene linked to the human disease.

Neuroscience

Researchers decode how the brain miswires, possibly causing ADHD

Neuroscientists at Mayo Clinic in Florida and at Aarhus University in Denmark have shed light on why neurons in the brain's reward system can be miswired, potentially contributing to disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Why do you want to eat the baby?

What woman has not wanted to gobble up a baby placed in her arms, even if the baby is not hers? This reaction, which everyone has noticed or felt, could have biological underpinnings related to maternal functions. For the ...

page 1 from 2