Brain

LAWRENCE -- In a highly mobile society like the United States, people who relocate for work, school or simply to "wipe the slate clean" tend to jettison replaceable objects when they move.

According to a new study from the University of Kansas appearing in the journal Personal Relationships, the mindset that objects are disposable extends to social ties.

A new treatment for adults with lazy eye, a condition previously thought to be treatable only in childhood, is one step closer as a result of research from the University of Waterloo in Canada and Sun Yat-sen University in China.

Waterloo vision scientist Ben Thompson with collaborators from China have shown that low voltage electric currents can temporarily improve sight in adult patients with lazy eye, or amblyopia.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Researchers led by Adam T. Hirsh of the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis report that black and white Americans cope with pain differently and that blacks employ pain coping strategies more frequently than whites. The IUPUI review and analysis of 19 studies is the first to examine the entire published literature and quantify the relationship between race and the use of pain-coping strategies.

While the sexual abuse of children is currently an issue at the forefront of public life, concern has focused on the protection of children and the identification of perpetrators.

However, a new study by the Universities of Bristol and Durham for the NSPCC, hopes to refocus attention on what can be done to help the victims of childhood sexual abuse.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Teachers have long struggled to get children to sit still at their desks. But for children with ADHD, those orders might be counterproductive.

That's the research focus of Florida State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Michael Kofler, who is developing new, non-medication treatments for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). New research by Kofler at FSU's Children's Learning Clinic shows that children often fidget or move when they are trying to solve a problem, and that movement may have a positive effect on children with ADHD.

Ordinary sugar could become a contrast agent of the future for use in magnetic resonance tomography examinations of tumours. Malignant tumours show higher sugar consumption than surrounding tissue.

"If sugar replaces metal as a contrast agent in the body, it can also have a positive psychological effect and make patients calmer," says Linda Knutsson, senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden.

Feeding is essential for survival. Senses such as smell or sight can help guide us to good food sources, but the final decision to eat or reject a potential food is controlled by taste.

While the tongue is the main taste organ in humans and other mammals, insects not only have taste organs inside their mouthparts, but also on the body. Their legs, wings and ovipositor (the organ with which females lay eggs) can contain taste receptor neurons.

Does our brain perceive objects initially as a conglomeration of shapes, colours and patterns or does it instantly recognise the entire structure? An article by RUB philosopher Prof Dr Albert Newen provides the answer.

A laptop or a cluster of shapes?

Scientists from MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) and MSU (Moscow State University), under the leadership of Yan Ivanenkov, were first to develop a computer model predicting agrochemical activity - the beneficial influence of simple molecules on the plants. With the help of an independent test set and the results of their own study, they showed that the model has a high predictive power. The work is published in the scientific journal Phytochemistry.

A research group led by University of Tsukuba Professor Hideaki Soya and Professor Randeep Rakwal has investigated the effect on hippocampal function of the naturally derived pigment ASX, which is believed to have the most powerful antioxidant activity among carotenoids. Their results showed for the first time that giving ASX to mice for four weeks promoted neurogenesis in the hippocampus in a concentration-dependent manner, and elevated the learning and memory capacity of the hippocampus.

People who feel that their financial outlook is shaky may actually experience more physical pain than those who feel financially secure, according to new research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings indicate that the link may be driven, at least in part, by feeling a lack of control over one's life.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19, 2016 - A new medication reverses the blood-thinning effects of the anticoagulant dabigatran in patients suffering a brain bleed, potentially limiting the extent of bleeding, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2016.

Rutgers scientists have taken a step toward understanding how sexual aggression alters the female brain.

In a recent study in Scientific Reports, lead author Tracey Shors, professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Collaborative Neuroscience in the School of Arts and Sciences, discovered that prepubescent female rodents paired with sexually experienced males had elevated levels of stress hormones, could not learn as well, and expressed reduced maternal behaviors needed to care for offspring.

Why does sleeping on it help? This is the question tackled by new research at the University of Bristol, which reveals how brain activity during sleep sorts through the huge number of experiences we encounter every day, filing only the important information in memory.

Nowadays, the lives of the majority of all children with cancer can be spared. However, the cure for the disease comes with a price: some of the survivors will suffer long-term injury from the treatment. A study from Lund University in Sweden now shows that commonly used chemo toxins impair the eyesight in childhood cancer survivors in a way that indicates an impact on the central nervous system.

It was not the former patients' visual acuity that had been damaged; rather their eye motor skills - the eyes' ability to follow moving objects.