Philadelphia, PA, December 4, 2013 – Depression is a serious mental illness that has many negative consequences for sufferers. But depression among pregnant women may also have an impact on their developing babies.
Brain
Baicalin, a type of flavonoid extracted from the dried root of Scutellaria baicalensis georgi, has been shown to effectively inhibit cell apoptosis. Colistin sulfate, a cyclic cationic polypeptide antibiotic, has been shown to have renal and neurological side effects. Dr. Hong Jiang and colleagues from Northeast Agricultural University assumed that baicalin would suppress colistin sulfate-induced neuronal apoptosis. In a study by Jiang et al, PC12 cells were pretreated with baicalin (25, 50 and 100 μg/mL), and exposed to 125 μg/mL colistin sulfate.
With few exceptions, cells don't change type once they have become specialized — a heart cell, for example, won't suddenly become a brain cell. However, new findings by researchers at UC Santa Barbara have identified a method for changing one cell type into another in a process called forced transdifferentiation. Their work appears today in the journal Development.
Like humans, some song sparrows are more effusive than others, at least when it comes to defending their territories. New findings from the University of Washington show that consistent individual differences exist not only for how aggressive individual song sparrows are but also for how much they use their signals to communicate their aggressive intentions.
Exercise may benefit older people with dementia by improving their cognitive functioning and ability to carry out everyday activities, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. However, the authors of the review did not see any clear effect of exercise on depression in older people with dementia and say that more evidence is needed to understand how exercise could reduce the burden on family caregivers and health systems.
Among fourth-year medical students completing an 8-week obstetrics/gynecology clinical rotation, there was a positive association between attendance at clinical and tutorial-based activities and overall examination scores, according to a study appearing in the December 4 issue of JAMA, a medical education theme issue.
Wolves can learn from observing humans and pack members where food is hidden and recognize when humans only pretend to hide food, reports a study for the first time in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology. These findings imply that when our ancestors started to domesticate dogs, they could have built on a pre-existing ability of wolves to learn from others, not necessarily pack members.
DURHAM, NC -- A smartphone app that turns gamers into airport baggage screeners is showing that finding weapons and other illegal items isn't all that easy, even when you're looking for them.
Duke University researchers analyzed data from searches of 20 million virtual suitcases in the game Airport Scanner created by Kedlin Co. and found that users failed in most cases to identify objects that occurred only rarely.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.—December 3, 2013) St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified an enzyme that can halt or possibly even reverse the build-up of toxic protein fragments known as plaques in the brains of mice with Alzheimer's disease. The research appeared in a recent edition of the scientific journal Nature Communications.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—December 3, 2013—For some, the disease multiple sclerosis (MS) attacks its victims slowly and progressively over a period of many years. For others, it strikes without warning in fits and starts. But all patients share one thing in common: the disease had long been present in their nervous systems, hiding under the radar from even the most sophisticated detection methods. But now, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have devised a new molecular sensor that can detect MS at its earliest stages—even before the onset of physical signs.
Dec. 3, 2013 (Toronto) - People who carry a high-risk gene for Alzheimer's disease show changes in their brains beginning in childhood, decades before the illness appears, new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) suggests.
TORONTO, ON – Fear of being single is a meaningful predictor of settling for less in relationships among both men and women, a new University of Toronto (U of T) study has found. The results are published in the December edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
A successful joint collaboration between researchers at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and the startup company TyrNovo may lead to a potential treatment of brain diseases. The researchers found that TyrNovo's novel and unique compound, named NT219, selectively inhibits the process of aging in order to protect the brain from neurodegenerative diseases, without affecting lifespan. This is a first and important step towards the development of future drugs for the treatment of various neurodegenerative maladies.
New Rochelle, NY, December 3, 2013—"Appearance exposure" on the Internet has been linked to body image disturbance among adolescent girls. A new study that links specific Facebook activities, but not overall Facebook use to body dissatisfaction and a drive for thinness in teen girls is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
Pioneering research conducted at Western University (London, Canada) points to a promising avenue for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): utilising neurofeedback training to alter the plasticity of brain networks linked to the condition.