University of Minnesota researchers control flying robot with only the mind

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Researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering have developed a new noninvasive system that allows people to control a flying robot using only their mind. The study goes far beyond fun and games and has the potential to help people who are paralyzed or have neurodegenerative diseases.

Award-winning researcher developed a method to accurately compare concert hall sound

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Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed a method that allows accurate comparisons of concert hall acoustics. The leader of the research group, Associate professor Tapio Lokki, was presented with an International Commission for Acoustics Early Career Award today in Montreal, Canada. The award was given to professor Lokki for outstanding contributions to room acoustics, and in particular for the novel subjective and objective assessment methods of concert halls.

Use caution with computerized concussion test, UT Arlington researcher says

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Newly published research from an international team featuring UT Arlington assistant professor Jacob Resch has reaffirmed questions about portions of the popular computerized concussion assessment tool ImPACT.

When administered as it is in a clinical setting, the test possessed strong reliability on some evaluation factors. But, on other factors, it miscategorized healthy participants as impaired as much as 46 percent of the time.

Sleep study finds important gender differences among heart patients

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Many women get too little sleep, despite considerable evidence showing the importance of sleep to overall health. Now a new UC San Francisco study has discovered another reason why inadequate sleep may be harmful, especially to women and their hearts.

Study expands concerns about anesthesia's impact on the brain

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CINCINNATI – As pediatric specialists become increasingly aware that surgical anesthesia may have lasting effects on the developing brains of young children, new research suggests the threat may also apply to adult brains.

Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report June 5 the Annals of Neurology that testing in laboratory mice shows anesthesia's neurotoxic effects depend on the age of brain neurons – not the age of the animal undergoing anesthesia, as once thought.

Strength in numbers when resisting forbidden fruit

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A new study from the University of British Columbia helps explain how people become obsessed with forbidden pleasures.

The study, which will appear in an upcoming edition of Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience journal, shows that when people are forbidden from something, it takes on a new level of focus.

Neurochemical traffic signals may open new avenues for the treatment of schizophrenia

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Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have uncovered important clues about a biochemical pathway in the brain that may one day expand treatment options for schizophrenia. The study, published online in the journal Molecular Pharmacology, was led by faculty within the department of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at BUSM.

Teacher collaboration, professional communities improve many elementary school students' math scores

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 5, 2013 — Many elementary students' math performance improves when their teachers collaborate, work in professional learning communities or do both, yet most students don't spend all of their elementary school years in these settings, a new study by UNC Charlotte researchers shows. The U.S. Department of Education funded the study, which the journal Sociology of Education recently published.

Helicopter takes to the skies with the power of thought

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A remote controlled helicopter has been flown through a series of hoops around a college gymnasium in Minnesota.

It sounds like your everyday student project; however, there is one caveat…the helicopter was controlled using just the power of thought.

The experiments have been performed by researchers hoping to develop future robots that can help restore the autonomy of paralysed victims or those suffering from neurodegenerative disorders.

Older adult clumsiness linked to brain changes

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For many older adults, the aging process seems to go hand-in-hand with an annoying increase in clumsiness — difficulties dialing a phone, fumbling with keys in a lock or knocking over the occasional wine glass while reaching for a salt shaker.