Brain

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A new brief, 5-question screening tool can help clinicians identify which veterans may be at greater risk of violence, according to a new study led by a UNC researcher.

A moderate dose of MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly, that is typically nonfatal in cool, quiet environments can be lethal in rats exposed to conditions that mimic the hot, crowded, social settings where the drug is often used by people, a study finds. Scientists have identified the therapeutically-relevant cooling mechanism to enable effective interventions when faced with MDMA-induced hyperthermia. The study, publishing tomorrow in the Journal of Neuroscience, was conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Intramural Research Program (NIDA IRP).

Centenarians are more likely to die of pneumonia and frailty or "old age" and less likely to die of the chronic conditions often associated with old age, such as cancer or ischemic heart disease, compared with older adults younger than 100 years, according to a study by Catherine Evans and colleagues from King's College London, London, UK. Centenarians were most likely to die in a care home (61%) or hospital (27%) and less likely to die at home (10%) or in hospice care (0.2%). Higher care bed capacity was associated with fewer deaths of centenarians in hospital.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Eating, like breathing and sleeping, seems to be a rather basic biological task. Yet chewing requires a complex interplay between the tongue and jaw, with the tongue positioning food between the teeth and then moving out of the way every time the jaw clamps down to grind it up.If the act weren't coordinated precisely, the unlucky chewer would end up biting more tongue than burrito.

By discovering and quantifying the "limbus effect," Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have advanced the state of the art for human iris recognition systems.

While the iris is a proven and reliable biometric for verification or identification, non-ideal images -- such as those captured off axis -- are problematic. Reasons include cornea refraction and the limbus effect, causing iris recognition performance to decrease and in many cases fail entirely.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Children who are physically fit have faster and more robust neuro-electrical brain responses during reading than their less-fit peers, researchers report.

These differences correspond with better language skills in the children who are more fit, and occur whether they're reading straightforward sentences or sentences that contain errors of grammar or syntax.

PHILADELPHIA (June 2, 2014) – A new study from researchers at Drexel University adds evidence that using common antidepressant medications during pregnancy may contribute to a higher risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children, although this risk is still very small.

ROSEMONT, Ill.—In the past 13 years, nearly 2,000 veterans returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with injuries requiring amputations; 14 percent of those injured veterans required upper extremity amputations. To treat veterans with upper extremity amputations, scientists continue to pursue research and development of bionic arms and hands with full motor and sensory function.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark have discovered that children who later develop autism are exposed to elevated levels of steroid hormones (for example testosterone, progesterone and cortisol) in the womb. The finding may help explain why autism is more common in males than females, but should not be used to screen for the condition.

Funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), the results are published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have identified a compound, called 2-PMAP, in animal studies that reduced by more than half levels of amyloid proteins in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease. The researchers hope that someday a treatment based on the molecule could be used to ward off the neurodegenerative disease since it may be safe enough to be taken daily over many years.

TEMPE, Ariz. — During the past few decades, the field of biology has dramatically expanded, incorporating many diverse sub-disciplines and specialty areas such as microbiology and evolutionary biology. However, teaching biology to undergraduate students has not kept pace with the changes, and core biology curriculum varies widely from university to university, and classroom to classroom.

Toronto – Want to be able to smell the roses?

You might consider buying into a neighbourhood where there are more sit-down restaurants than fast-food outlets, suggests a new paper from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

The paper looks at how exposure to fast food can push us to be more impatient and that this can undermine our ability to smell the preverbal roses.

May 30, 2014 – For patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) that can't be controlled by medications, a minimally invasive laser procedure performed under MRI guidance provides a safe and effective alternative to surgery, suggests a study in the June issue of Neurosurgery , official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons .

DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that blue-enriched light exposure immediately before and during the evening meal may increase hunger and alter metabolism.

Results show that blue-enriched light exposure, compared with dim light exposure, was associated with an increase in hunger that began 15 minutes after light onset and was still present almost two hours after the meal. Blue light exposure also decreased sleepiness and resulted in higher measures of insulin resistance.

Until now, scientists have not known exactly how inflammation weakens the Blood-Brain Barrier, allowing toxins and other molecules access to the brain. A new research report appearing in the June 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal solves this mystery by showing that a molecule, called "microRNA-155," is responsible for cleaving epithelial cells to create microscopic gaps that let material through.