Brain

(Boston) — Geneticists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have reported the world's first series of cases of prenatal diagnosis for women at risk of having a child with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Earlier, the Center for Human Genetics team published the first molecular prenatal diagnosis of TSC. The current study details the sequencing of the TSC genes (TSC1 and TSC2) analysed in 50 completed pregnancies. These findings appear in the March 2009 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

(Seattle, WA; Vancouver, BC)-- New studies in the United States and Canada show that educational materials aimed at preventing shaken baby syndrome increased knowledge of new mothers about infant crying, the most common trigger for people abusing babies by shaking them. The study of mothers in Seattle is featured in the March issue of Pediatrics, and a partner study in Vancouver, British Columbia appears this month in The Canadian Medical Association Journal.

UK astronomers, using a telescope aboard the NASA Swift Satellite, have captured information from the early stages of a gamma ray burst - the most violent and luminous explosions occurring in the Universe since the Big Bang. The work was published on Friday 27th February in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

A popular smoking cessation drug dramatically reduced the amount a heavy drinker will consume, a new Yale School of Medicine study has found.Heavy-drinking smokers in a laboratory setting were much less likely to drink after taking the drug varenicline compared to those taking a placebo, according to a study published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Craniosynostosis develops in the womb and affects one in every 2500 live births. Bones in the skulls and face of sufferers fuse together prematurely causing a range of distressing developmental problems. Some of the affected children also suffer from defects in the limbs, brain, kidneys and lungs. Depending on the severity of their disease and its underlying cause, children suffering with craniosynostosis survive from as little as a few days to as long as early adulthood.

Young men who have served in the British Armed Forces are up to three times more likely to take their own lives than their civilian counterparts, research published tomorrow (March 3) has found.

Researchers at The University of Manchester's Centre for Suicide Prevention linked UK military discharge data between 1996 and 2005 with details of suicides collected by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicides and Homicides.

Do you have a picky preschooler who's avoiding their vegetables? A new Cornell University study shows that giving vegetables catchy new names – like X-Ray Vision Carrots and Tomato Bursts – left preschoolers asking for more.

Electronic media are playing an increasingly more important role in education and training. School and universities are availing of these new educational channels, and there is also an increasing level of vocational training performed via the computer.

Crayons – new learning, fast and user-specific

Amsterdam, 02 March 2009 – Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin on February 12th, 2009, a special issue of Behavioural Processes "Comparative Cognition in Context" was published by Elsevier.

Guest edited by Karen Hollis, the special issue features 16 papers – original research articles as well as insightful theoretical reviews – by leading researchers in the field of comparative cognition, demonstrating how animals perceive, learn about and understand their physical and social worlds.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A Brown University study of stroke victims has produced evidence that the frontal lobe of the human brain controls decision-making along a continuum from abstract to concrete, from front to back.

Abstract actions can be controlled at an abstract level, such as deciding to make a sandwich, or at more concrete and specific levels, such as choosing a sequence of movements that make the sandwich.

Educational materials on how to deal with crying newborns lead to increased knowledge about infant crying and behaviours that are important to preventing shaken baby syndrome, found two new studies being published online March 2 in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/press/do-barr.pdf and Pediatrics.

Boston, Mass. -- A longitudinal study of infants from birth to age 3 showed TV viewing before the age of 2 does not improve a child's language and visual motor skills, according to research conducted at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. The findings, published in the March issue of Pediatrics, reaffirm current guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that recommend no television under the age of 2, and suggest that maternal, child, and household characteristics are more influential in a child's cognitive development.

A study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and Vanderbilt University have identified a specific gene variant that links increased genetic risk for autism with gastrointestinal (GI) conditions.

The findings suggest that disrupted signaling of the MET gene may contribute to a syndrome that includes autism and co-occurring gastrointestinal dysfunction, says principal investigator Pat Levitt, Ph.D., director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and chair-designate of the Department of cell and neurobiology.

To mark UNESCO's International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), six leading astronomers from the UK, the US, Europe and Asia write in March's Physics World about the biggest challenges and opportunities facing international astronomers over the next couple of decades.

Many of those challenges are purely scientific, including the quest to clarify the true nature of dark matter and dark energy; the search for extra-terrestrial life among the myriad of extrasolar planets that are set to be discovered; and finding the first stars that formed after the Big Bang.

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - It's estimated that more than a half million kids in the U.S. go to the hospital each year with a concussion.* That's an average of a kid per minute- every minute of every day. Some concussions are worse than others but it might surprise you to know that almost all of them are treated the same. New research is pointing toward a more sophisticated way of diagnosing and treating concussions in kids.

13 year old Dustin Edens had to work on his game by himself for a few days, after a recent run-in with a teammate during basketball practice.