Brain

Ever wonder how flies are so incredibly good at zipping off to avoid that swatter? A new study using high-resolution, high-speed imaging of flies in action has identified an important part of the answer: rather than just taking off, the flies' tiny brains first calculate where the threat is coming from, allowing the insects to carefully prepare themselves to spring toward escape.

PASADENA, Calif.--Over the past two decades, Michael Dickinson has been interviewed by reporters hundreds of times about his research on the biomechanics of insect flight. One question from the press has always dogged him: Why are flies so hard to swat?

"Now I can finally answer," says Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

DURHAM, N.C. – An ultrasound probe small enough to ride along at the tip of a catheter can provide physicians with clearer real-time images of soft tissue without the risks associated with conventional x-ray catheter guidance.

Duke University biomedical engineers designed and fabricated the novel ultrasound probe which is powerful enough to provide detailed, 3-D images. The new device works like an insect's compound eye, blending images from 108 miniature transducers working together.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Intravenous magnesium sulfate supplementation before preterm delivery cuts the risk for handicapping cerebral palsy in half, according to research led by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) obstetrician Dwight Rouse, M.D., and published in the Aug. 28 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

GENEVA, Switzerland - Recent advances in cervical cancer prevention mean that controlling the disease in developing countries is becoming feasible for the first time, experts say.

DALLAS – Aug. 28, 2008 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in mice that the brain must create new nerve cells for either exercise or antidepressants to reduce depression-like behavior.

In addition, the researchers found that antidepressants and exercise use the same biochemical pathway to exert their effects.

In the last two months CDP has teamed up with a range of the UK's major public sector organisations to extend its corporate supply chain work and create a standardised approach to the provision of key climate change information throughout the respective supply chains.

The organisations, based in the UK, include:

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

We all know the famous saying: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," but is this proverb actually true?

According to some researchers, words may pack a harder punch that we realize. Psychologists Zhansheng Chen and Kipling D. Williams of Purdue University, Julie Fitness of Macquarie University, and Nicola C. Newton of the University of New South Wales found that the pain of physical events may fade with time, while the pain of social occurrences can be re-instantiated through memory retrievals.

Irvine, Calif. — By analyzing light from small, faint galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, UC Irvine scientists believe they have discovered the minimum mass for galaxies in the universe – 10 million times the mass of the sun.

This mass could be the smallest known "building block" of the mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter. Stars that form within these building blocks clump together and turn into galaxies.

A new study has unraveled some of the mysteries of the cocaine-addicted brain and may pave the way for the design of more effective treatments for drug addiction. The research, published by Cell Press in the August 28 issue of the journal Neuron, identifies specific brain mechanisms that underlie addiction-related structural changes in the brain and provides surprising insight into how these changes may actually defend the brain during excessive drug use.

Although the idea that instrumental learning can occur subconsciously has been around for nearly a century, it had not been unequivocally demonstrated. Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the August 28 issue of the journal Neuron used sophisticated perceptual masking, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to show that instrumental learning can occur in the human brain without conscious processing of contextual cues.

DALLAS – Aug. 27, 2008 – Increased connections among brain cells caused by excessive drug use may represent the body's defense mechanism to combat addiction and related behaviors, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

Jerusalem, Israel – August 27, 2008 – Mainstream belief regarding identity theory tends to portray adolescents as the sole agents involved in their identity development. However, a new article in the Journal of Research on Adolescence reveals that parents are concerned, involved, and reflective participants in their children's identity formation.

Finnish scientists have identified genes that may predispose to anxiety disorders. Research conducted under the supervision of Academy Research Fellow Iiris Hovatta have focused on genes that influence human behaviour, and some of the studied genes show a statistical association with specific anxiety disorders. The work is carried out as part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO).