A recent study links anxiety behavior in rats, as well as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans, to increased myelin—a substance that expedites communication between neurons—in areas of the brain ...
Jan 6, 2022
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Scientists in recent years have developed ways to measure biological age by tracking chemical changes in DNA that occur naturally as people age but occur at different times in different people. These so-called "epigenetic ...
Dec 6, 2021
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284
How is it that a chef can control their knife to filet a fish or peel a grape and can wield a cleaver just as efficiently as a paring knife? Even those of us less proficient in the kitchen learn to skilfully handle an astonishing ...
Nov 24, 2021
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322
Imagine you are in a meadow picking flowers. You know that some flowers are safe, while others have a bee inside that will sting you. How would you react to this environment and, more importantly, how would your brain react? ...
Nov 12, 2021
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266
The inhalation of carbon dioxide (CO2) by mice a few hours after they formed a new fearful memory makes that memory stronger, so that the mice show more distress when they are prompted to 'retrieve' (ie, recall) it. That ...
Nov 8, 2021
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70
Being bullied leaves a biochemical footprint in the brain. Protein lactylation is a very recently discovered post-translational modification of protein that involves the addition of a lactyl group to lysine residues. Researchers ...
Oct 12, 2021
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135
We're all familiar with the startle reflex—that sudden, uncontrollable jerk that occurs when we're surprised by a noise or other unexpected stimulus. But the brain also has an important pre-attentive mechanism to tamp down ...
Aug 9, 2021
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433
Chronic stress is a well-known cause for mental health disorders. New research has moved a step forward in understanding how glucocorticoid hormones ('stress hormones') act upon the brain and what their function is. The ...
Aug 6, 2021
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237
Exposure to a traumatic experience can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an incapacitating disorder in susceptible persons with no reliable therapy. Particularly puzzling is understanding how transient exposure ...
Aug 4, 2021
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488
Can you remember the smell of flowers in your grandmother's garden or the tune your grandpa always used to whistle? Some childhood memories are seemingly engrained into your brain. In fact, there are critical periods in which ...
Jul 6, 2021
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