Some studies of at-risk populations suggest that up to half of the people tested for HIV never return to the doctor's office to find out their test results. While many of these people may simply forget to return or deem the results unimportant, it is likely that a portion of people don't return because they don't want to know the results.
Brain
Breastfeeding longer is associated with better receptive language at 3 years of age and verbal and nonverbal intelligence at age 7 years, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.
Evidence supports the relationship between breastfeeding and health benefits in infancy, but the extent to which breastfeeding leads to better cognitive development is less certain, according to the study background.
Glucose intolerance or insulin resistance do not appear to be associated with pathological features of Alzheimer disease (AD) or detection of the accumulation of the brain protein β-amyloid (Αβ), according to a report published by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication.
Glucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus have been proposed as risk factors for the development of AD, but evidence of this has not been consistent, the study background notes.
A good state of mind — that is, your happiness — affects your genes, scientists say. In the first study of its kind, researchers from UCLA's Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and the University of North Carolina examined how positive psychology impacts human gene expression.
What they found is that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on the human genome.
The threat of infants being killed by unrelated males is the key driver of monogamy in humans and other primates.
The study by academics from UCL, University of Manchester, University of Oxford and University of Auckland, is the first to reveal this evolutionary pathway for the emergence of pair living.
The team also found that following the emergence of monogamy males are more likely to care for their offspring. Where fathers care for young, not only can they protect infants from other males, but they can also share the burden of childcare.
Hamilton, ON -- Researchers at McMaster University have discovered a solution to a long-standing medical mystery in Huntington's disease (HD).
HD is a brain disease that can affect 1 in about 7,000 people in mid-life, causing an increasing loss of brain cells at the centre of the brain. HD researchers have known what the exact DNA change is that causes Huntington's disease since 1993, but what is typically seen in patients does not lead to disease in animal models. This has made drug discovery difficult.
Human bodies recognize at the molecular level that not all happiness is created equal, responding in ways that can help or hinder physical health, according to new research led by Barbara L. Fredrickson, Kenan Distinguished Professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Boston, MA, July 29, 2013 -- While most children cannot be shielded from emotionally traumatic events, clinicians can target those who are most vulnerable to developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a large study from Boston Children's Hospital. Findings appear online in the August issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, accompanied by an editorial.
PITTSBURGH -- Diets lacking omega-3 fatty acids—found in foods like wild fish, eggs, and grass-fed livestock—can have worsened effects over consecutive generations, especially affecting teens, according to a University of Pittsburgh study.
Published in Biological Psychiatry, the Pitt team found that in a rodent model second-generation deficiencies of omega-3s caused elevated states of anxiety and hyperactivity in adolescents and affected the teens' memory and cognition.
Hamilton, ON, July 29, 2013 – Job applicants interviewed through video conferencing come across as less likeable, a new study from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University has found.
The study, conducted by Greg Sears and Haiyan Zhang when they were PhD students at DeGroote, shows that using video conferencing for job interviews disadvantages both employers and candidates.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Less contact during practice could mean a lot less exposure to head injuries for young football players, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Virginia Tech.
How do you know that the cookies are still there although they have been placed out of your sight into the drawer? How do you know when and where a car that has driven into a tunnel will reappear? The ability to represent and to track the trajectory of objects, which are temporally out of sight, is highly important in many aspects but is also cognitively demanding. Alice Auersperg and her team from the University of Vienna and Oxford show that "object permanence" abilities in a cockatoo levels apes and four year old human toddlers.
(SALT LAKE CITY)—Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has long been considered the most effective treatment of medication-resistant or refractory depression, millions of people who might benefit don't take advantage of it because of the treatment's side effects and public misperception of the procedure.
It happens to all of us at least once each winter in Montreal. You're walking on the sidewalk and before you know it you are slipping on a patch of ice hidden under a dusting of snow. Sometimes you fall. Surprisingly often you manage to recover your balance and walk away unscathed. McGill researchers now understand what's going on in the brain when you manage to recover your balance in these situations. And it is not just a matter of good luck.
By observing the eye movements of schizophrenia patients while playing a simple video game, a University of British Columbia researcher has discovered a potential explanation for some of their symptoms, including difficulty with everyday tasks.