Brain

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Approximately one in four teens in the United States will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts believe a major contributing factor is the failure of many teens to use condoms consistently and routinely. Now a new study provides some insight into some of the factors that influence condom use among teenagers.

Although Sarah Palin's entry into the 2008 presidential race has energized the religious right within the Republican Party, don't expect religion to be a major issue in this year's election, says University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) political communications expert Larry Powell, Ph.D. The move away from overt religious appeals may be due to an effort to avoid what Powell calls the "Pharisee Effect."

A pilot program called the College Screening Project, a suicide prevention outreach program, was successful in identifying and treating college students with severe depression and feelings of desperation that may have led to suicide. The study, supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), was conducted with Emory University students over six college semesters from 2002-2005.

Diabetes can make the beautifully stratified retina look like over-fried bacon.

A drug known for it pain-relieving power and believed to stimulate memory appears to prevent this retinal damage that leads to vision loss, researchers say.

The PhD defended by Juan Carlos Gómez-Esteban at the University of the Basque Country analysed the results of the clinical research undertaken at the Movement Disorders Unit at Cruces Hospital since 1998. It involved a study of the most efficacious surgical operations undertaken and pharmaceutical drugs used to treat these disorders as well genetic studies carried out to date.

If you had a choice between receiving $1,000 right now or $4,000 ten years from now, which would you pick? Psychologists use the term "delay discounting" to describe our inability to resist the temptation of a smaller immediate reward in lieu of receiving a larger reward at a later date. Discounting future rewards too much is a form of impulsivity, and an important way in which we can neglect to exert self-control.

New research at the University of Haifa identified a specific protein essential for the process of long term memory consolidation. This is the latest of several discoveries that are leading us towards a better understanding of one of the most complex processes in nature – the process of memory creation and consolidation in the human brain. This latest research was published recently in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience.

NEW YORK – A simple blood test to detect whether a person might develop Alzheimer's disease is within sight and could eventually help scientists in their quest toward reversing the disease's onset in those likely to develop the debilitating neurological condition.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Americans are spending increasing amounts of time hanging around virtual worlds in the forms of cartoon-like avatars that change appearances according to users' wills, fly through floating cities in the clouds and teleport instantly to glowing crystal canyons and starlit desert landscapes.

Simply fun and games divorced from reality, right?

Not necessarily so, say two social psychologists from Northwestern University who conducted the first experimental field studies in the virtual world.

A new American Cancer Society study sheds light on the ten to fifteen percent of lung cancers that are caused by factors other than tobacco smoking. The study analyzed data on lung cancer occurrence among lifelong nonsmokers in North America, Europe, and Asia and found that lung cancer death rates among never-smokers are highest among men, African Americans, and Asians residing in Asia. The review, the largest to date of lifelong nonsmokers, also suggests that the death rates among never-smokers have remained stable over the past several decades.

A drug used to increase blood production in both medical treatments and athletic doping scandals seems also to improve memory in those using it. New research published in the open access journal BMC Biology shows that the memory enhancing effects of erythropoietin (EPO) are not related to its effects on blood production but due to direct influences on neurons in the brain. The findings may prove useful in the treatment of diseases affecting brain function, such as schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Vitamin B12, a nutrient found in meat, fish and milk, may protect against brain volume loss in older people, according to a study published in the September 9, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87 underwent brain scans, memory testing and physical exams. Researchers also collected blood samples to check vitamin B12 levels. Brain scans and memory tests were also performed again five years later.

Toronto, CANADA – People who make a full recovery from head injury often report "mental fatigue" and feeling "not quite the same" – even though they scored well on standard cognitive tests.

Now brain imaging experts with Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute in Toronto have found a distinct "brain signature" in patients who have recovered from head injuries that shows their brains may have to work harder than the brains of healthy people to perform at the same level.

Patients who require therapy to lower their blood pressure following a stroke do not appear to be at a higher risk for bleeding or other adverse outcomes after receiving anti-clotting therapy, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Pain appears to be more common in individuals with Parkinson's disease than in those without, suggesting that pain is associated with the condition, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.