Brain

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by intelligence quotient (IQ) testing that tells them little to nothing about the long-term learning potential of their children.

That's because these tests are scored according to the mean performance of children without disabilities. The result is that the raw scores of many children with intellectual disabilities are converted into the lowest normalized score, typically a zero.

DURHAM, N.C.—Neuroscientists from Duke University Medical Center have discovered that older people use their brains differently than younger people when it comes to storing memories, particularly those associated with negative emotions.

The study, appearing online in the January issue of Psychological Science, is a novel look at how brain connections change with age.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The landmark "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" report revealed major insights into bisexual behavior and orientation -- without even using the word "bisexual" -- when it was published 60 years ago by pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and his research team at Indiana University.

The iconic "Kinsey Report" unveiled the seven-point Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, commonly known as the Kinsey Scale, as a tool to gauge a person's sexual orientation or experiences with both sexes.

Researchers in this week's PLoS Medicine present a new tool called the "Dirty War Index (DWI)" based on the laws of war, a tool which identifies rates of prohibited or highly undesirable ("dirty") war outcomes, such as torture, child injury, and civilian death.

Anyone will tell you that stress is bad for the heart. Many people also know about the toxic effects of anxiety and depression. But how exactly do these negative emotions cripple the cardiovascular system—and what can be done about it?

Allergic rhinitis does not appear to be associated with snoring or daytime sleepiness, but individuals with obstructed nasal passages are likely to experience both regardless of whether they have allergies, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study of college freshman suggests that African Americans may obtain higher grades if they live with a white roommate.

A detailed study of students at a large, predominantly-white university revealed that while living with a white roommate may be more challenging than living with someone of the same race, many Black students appear to benefit from the experience.

For African American students, this could translate into as much as 0.30-point increase in their GPA in their first quarter of college.

HOUSTON (Dec. 15, 2008) – A newly published genome sequence of a breast cancer cell line reveals a heavily rearranged genetic blueprint involving breaks and fusions of genes and a broken DNA repair machinery, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Genome Research.

A person's unconscious attitudes toward science and God may be fundamentally opposed, researchers report, depending on how religion and science are used to answer "ultimate" questions such as how the universe began or the origin of life.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – December 15, 2008 – Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine compared narrow-band imaging (NBI) without high magnification to standard white light colonoscopy in differentiating colorectal polyps during real-time colonoscopy and found that NBI was not more accurate than white light colonoscopy. The study found, however, a significant learning curve for these experienced endoscopists using NBI as a new diagnostic tool. Once this learning curve was achieved, NBI performed significantly better.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 15, 2008 -- Researchers at Harvard University have discovered that our experience of pain depends on whether we think someone caused the pain intentionally. In their study, participants who believed they were getting an electrical shock from another person on purpose, rather than accidentally, rated the very same shock as more painful. Participants seemed to get used to shocks that were delivered unintentionally, but those given on purpose had a fresh sting every time.

Why do Gap brand jeans appeal to people who seek intimacy in relationships? It may be a result of their upbringing. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, people's relationship styles can affect their brand choices.

In psychology, different relationship styles are known as "attachment styles," and study authors Vanitha Swaminathan, Karen M. Stilley (University of Pittsburgh), and Rohini Ahluwalia (University of Minnesota) explored the ways attachment styles influence brand choices.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that early humans could have walked successfully on a 'flexible' flat foot, similar to modern day gibbons.

The arched 'rigid' foot of modern humans – thought to have appeared approximately 1.8 million years ago – is best adapted for upright walking, but scientists have found that early humans once had 'flexible' feet and could have walked on the ground some years earlier.

December 15, 2008, Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Australian scientists at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), have developed a new system to screen for compounds that can inhibit one of the processes that takes place during the progression of Alzheimer's disease. In a paper published in the November issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, folate is shown to be beneficial in the screening system.

December 15, 2008, Amsterdam –Very few species spontaneously develop the cognitive, behavioral and neuropathological symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet AD research must progress at a more rapid pace than the rate of human aging. Therefore, in recent years, a variety of animal models have been created – from tiny invertebrates with life spans measurable in months to huge mammals that live several decades. A special issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (December 2008), assembled by guest editor Diana S.