Brain

It was as plain as the beak on a bird's face. Cornell ornithologist and crow expert Kevin McGowan recalls the day in the late 1990s when he first saw stuffed specimens of the New Caledonian crow.

"I remember saying to a student, 'I don't know what this bird does, but it does something different from any other corvid on Earth because its bill is so weird,'" said McGowan, project manager for distance learning in bird biology at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

PRINCETON, N.J.--People in the workplace may adjust their behavior to break stereotypes about themselves or match the stereotypes of others -- even if it means playing dumb or giving the cold shoulder, a Princeton University study finds.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, shows that managers play down their competence to appear warmer to their subordinates while the subordinates hide their own warmth in an effort to appear more competent.

The neurotransmitter dopamine is essential to correcting vocal mistakes, suggests a study on Bengalese finches. The Journal of Neuroscience published the research, led by Emory biologist Samuel Sober, who uses Bengalese finches as a model to understand how the brain learns.

• Liberals more likely than conservatives to use 'Aha!' strategy to solve problems
• People don't consciously choose an insight versus analytic approach in their thinking
• Thinking defaults automatically to particular approach of problem solving

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Big differences in the ways conservatives and liberals think about solving the nation's most pressing problems couldn't be more apparent during this presidential election cycle.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Hispanic Americans report fewer pain conditions compared with non-Hispanic white or black Americans, according to a critical review and analysis of more than 100 studies on pain experience and pain management among Hispanic Americans. The first work of its type was conducted by researchers from the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis led by clinical health psychologist Adam T. Hirsh.

Changes in cognitive function and memory decline form a normal part of aging. However, in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment (the pre-dementia phase of Alzheimer's disease), these changes occur more quickly. There are currently no effective treatments for these diseases. Physicians and researchers are constantly looking for new treatment methods that will maintain their patients' cognitive performance and independence for as long as possible.

Today, Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed too late. In collaboration with a research team at the university and German Center for Neurogenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Göttingen, Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed a blood test that may potentially facilitate detection of Alzheimer's at an early stage. It is based on an immuno-chemical analysis using an infrared sensor. The sensor's surface is coated with highly specific antibodies which extract biomarkers for Alzheimer's from the blood or the cerebrospinal fluid, taken from the lower part of the back (lumbar liquor).

When we remember events which occurred recently, the hippocampus is activated. This area in the temporal lobe of the brain is a hub for learning and memory. But what happens, if we try to remember things that took place years or decades ago? Neuroscientists at the Ruhr-University Bochum and the Osaka University have been able to give some answers to this question. They reveal that the neural networks involved in retrieving very old memories are quite distinct from those used to remember recent events.

HOUSTON - (March 14, 2016) - In the last 40 years, obesity has more than doubled around the world. In the United States, the average American is more than 24 pounds heavier today than in 1960. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Washington are studying the problem of obesity from the inside out.

Biology lessons teach us that the brain is divided into separate areas, each of which processes a specific sense. But findings to be published in eLife show we can supercharge it to be more flexible.

Scientists at the Jagiellonian University in Poland taught Braille to sighted individuals and found that learning such a complex tactile task activates the visual cortex, when you'd only expect it to activate the tactile one.

Marshall University School of Pharmacy 4th-year student Jennifer C. Miller, B.S., along with Inder Sehgal, D.V.M, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at the school and a graduate veterinarian, recently published an instructional design and assessment article in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, effectively marking the first time a school of pharmacy student has published as first author in a peer-reviewed research article since the school's inception in 2012.

Brides and the bereaved beware: You, like many shoppers, may have a tendency to reject thriftiness when your purchase is a matter of the heart, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

People are reluctant to seek cost-saving options when buying what they consider sacred -- such as engagement rings, cremation urns, or even desserts for a birthday party -- for or to commemorate loved ones. The paper, published in the most recent volume of Judgment and Decision Making, is the first to examine the implications of this phenomenon.

The fossilized remains of a new horse-sized dinosaur reveal how Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relatives became top predators, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

SALT LAKE CITY, March 14, 2016 - For humans to understand speech and for other animals to know each other's calls, the brain must distinguish short sounds from longer sounds. By studying frogs, University of Utah researchers figured out how certain brain cells compute the length of sounds and detect short ones.

The remains of a new species of horse-sized dinosaur reveal how Tyrannosaurus rex became one of Earth's top predators, a study suggests.

The discovery unearthed in Uzbekistan provides key insights into how a family of small-bodied dinosaurs evolved over millions of years to become fearsome giants.

The study shows that the dinosaurs -- known as tyrannosaurs -- developed huge body sizes rapidly right at the end of the age of dinosaurs, and that their keen senses, which evolved earlier in much smaller species, enabled them to climb to the top of the prehistoric food chain.