https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The human brain constantly adapts in response to experiences, forming new connections between neurons and reorganizing existing ones. The brain's ability to adapt in response to experiences is known as neuroplasticity. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-brain-memory-gate-cryo-em.html Mon, 18 May 2026 13:51:16 EDT news698315449 A new study is the first to show that two of our most sophisticated cognitive functions, using and understanding language and being able to sense how other people feel, have distinct origins in the brain in young children—matching what we know about the adult brain. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-children-born-complex-cognitive-functions.html Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:20:08 EDT news696519061 Easter is around the corner, and it's time to start thinking about how to decorate your eggs. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-easter-eggs-dyed-eaten-safe.html Fri, 03 Apr 2026 04:35:38 EDT news694409678 Fortifying staple foods with essential vitamins and minerals is a cheap and effective way to ensure that people have access to nutrients that may be lacking in their normal diets. These efforts have countered debilitating deficiencies that lead to conditions like rickets and pellagra, and have increased health and well-being around the globe. A new study appearing in The Lancet Global Health provides the first comprehensive global analysis of the impact of current food fortification programs—both the health benefits and costs. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-food-fortification-billion-nutrient-gaps.html Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:30:01 EDT news693763501 A landmark research paper for the first time maps the genetics of how individual regions of the brain age—and why some of those regions are the very ones most ravaged by Alzheimer's and dementia. Published in the journal GeroScience, the paper is titled "Deep Neural Networks and Genome-Wide Associations Reveal the Polygenic Architecture of Local Brain Aging." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-scientists-genetics-brain-ages-region.html Thu, 26 Mar 2026 06:42:24 EDT news693726081 In a new study, scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) and University Hospital Magdeburg demonstrated that the spinal cord is far more than just a transmission pathway that transmits sensory stimuli from the body. Instead, sensory stimuli are processed in the spinal cord before reaching the brain. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-highway-spinal-cord-processor-sensory.html Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:22:04 EST news656857321 A company in Ecuador that processed the cinnamon used in flavored applesauce pouches destined for the American market is the likely source of lead contamination in those products, U.S. investigators said. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-cinnamon-processor-ecuador-culprit-tainted.html Wed, 07 Feb 2024 13:00:01 EST news626532662 As seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, detection methods that are rapid, simple, accurate, and sensitive are vital for detecting viral pathogens and for controlling the spread of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, laboratory-based methods often require trained personnel and involve complex procedures. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have combined their efforts to develop an instrument that can be clipped on to a smartphone to rapidly test for Zika virus in a single droplet of blood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07-smartphone-clip-on-zika-virus-blood.html Fri, 29 Jul 2022 17:54:51 EDT news578336086 When it fires, a neuron consumes significantly more energy than an equivalent computer operation. And yet, a network of coupled neurons can continuously learn, sense and perform complex tasks at energy levels that are currently unattainable for even state-of-the-art processors. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-silicon-neurons-dimension-processors.html Thu, 04 Jun 2020 09:07:03 EDT news510480415 A device to mix liquids using ultrasonics is the first and most difficult component in a miniaturized system for low-cost analysis of sputum from patients with pulmonary diseases such as tuberculosis and asthma. The device, developed by engineers at Penn State in collaboration with researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Washington University School of Medicine, will benefit patients in the U.S., where 12 percent of the population, or around 19 million people, have asthma, and in undeveloped regions where TB is still a widespread and often deadly contagion. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-07-on-chip-processor-point-of-care-asthma-tuberculosis.html Fri, 31 Jul 2015 02:58:49 EDT news357530317 When managing, assigning each task to a specialist is often the most efficient strategy. Most researchers regard the brain as working similarly, with each region specialized to a given task. But Johns Hopkins neuroscientists have found, in rats, that the brain's primary visual cortex (VC) not only portrays the visual world but can also drive the timing of actions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brain-lowly-visual-processor-sophisticated.html Mon, 06 Apr 2015 17:20:27 EDT news347559614 Several states and cities have and continue to propose a tax on soft drinks in an effort to curb obesity. In November, voters in Berkeley, California, were the first to approve such a tax. But Iowa State University researchers question whether it will have the desired effect. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-12-professors-effectiveness-tax-soda-sweetened.html Thu, 04 Dec 2014 07:30:01 EST news336899351