Brain

If you have to negotiate business with a narcissist or psychopath, you're better off doing it on Facebook, research from UBC's Okanagan campus shows.

In one of the first studies of its kind, UBC researchers found that traditionally successful manipulators who are classified as being part of the Dark Triad (DT)--people with narcissistic, psychopathic or Machiavellian tendencies--don't send very compelling online messages.

Scientists at Rutgers and Stanford universities have created a new technology that could someday help treat Parkinson's disease and other devastating brain-related conditions that affect millions of people.

The technology - a major innovation - involves converting adult tissue-derived stem cells into human neurons on 3-D "scaffolds," or tiny islands, of fibers, said Prabhas V. Moghe, a distinguished professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University.

National Institutes of Health-funded scientists have developed a 3D micro-scaffold technology that promotes reprogramming of stem cells into neurons, and supports growth of neuronal connections capable of transmitting electrical signals. The injection of these networks of functioning human neural cells -- compared to injecting individual cells -- dramatically improved their survival following transplantation into mouse brains. This is a promising new platform that could make transplantation of neurons a viable treatment for a broad range of human neurodegenerative disorders.

Los Angeles, Calif., USA - A hands-on workshop titled "Documenting Obesity and Underweight in Clinical Dental Settings" will take place today at the 45th Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental Research. The AADR Annual Meeting is being held in conjunction with the 40th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.

Exposure to common air pollutants during pregnancy may predispose children to problems regulating their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors later on, according to a new study led by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health within Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Gender-specific differences between the levels and structures of proteins present in the white matter and the mitochondria of the brains of men and women suffering from dementia have been revealed for the first time in a study published in the open access journal Molecular Brain.

DARIEN, IL - A new study is the first to report that the relationship between nightmares and suicidal behaviors is partially mediated by a multi-step pathway via defeat, entrapment and hopelessness.

The human brain has a prodigious demand for energy -- 20 to 30% of the body's energy budget. In the course of normal aging, in people with neurodegenerative diseases or mental disorders, or in periods of physiological stress, the supply of sugars to the brain may be reduced. This leads to a reduction in the brain's energy reserves, which in turn can lead to cognitive decline and loss of memory.

MINNEAPOLIS - Women may have a better memory for words than men despite evidence of similar levels of shrinkage in areas of the brain that show the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the March 16, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

DALLAS, March 16, 2016 -- A healthy heart may have major benefits for preventing the decline in brain function that sometimes accompanies aging, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers studied a racially diverse group of older adults and found that having more ideal cardiovascular health factors was associated with better brain processing speed at the study's start and less cognitive decline approximately six years later.

WACO, Texas (March 16, 2016) - Many people dream of working from home. And with today's technology -- everything from phone calls and email to texting and videoconferences -- maintaining 'virtual' communications with the team seems to be easier than ever.

But is virtual teamwork productive? Are managers really getting the most out of their teams when virtuality is involved?

Well qualified bumblebees are not prepared to share their pollinating knowledge with less experienced bees, according to new research carried out at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

"Like other pollinators, bees face complex routing challenges when collecting nectar and pollen - they have to learn how to link patches of flowers together in the most efficient way, to minimise their travel distance and flight costs, just like in a traveling salesman problem," said lead author, Dr Mathieu Lihoreau.

Applying an electric current to the brain can help recovery from stroke, Oxford University researchers have found.

A team from Oxford's Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, led by Professor Heidi Johansen-Berg and Dr Charlotte Stagg, studied the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to support rehabilitation training. The technique involves placing electrodes on the scalp to pass a constant low current through a particular area of the brain.

In 1958, an amateur fossil collector named Francis Tully discovered a prehistoric animal so bizarre that it could only be termed a "monster." Nearly sixty years later, Field Museum scientists, along with colleagues at Yale, Argonne National Laboratory, and the American Museum of Natural History, have finally figured out what it is.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- In the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, patients are often unable to remember recent experiences. However, a new study from MIT suggests that those memories are still stored in the brain -- they just can't be easily accessed.

The MIT neuroscientists report in Nature that mice in the early stages of Alzheimer's can form new memories just as well as normal mice but cannot recall them a few days later.