Brain

It's conventional wisdom that practice makes perfect. But if practicing only consists of watching, rather than doing, does that advance proficiency? Yes, according to a study by Dartmouth researchers.

In a study titled "Sensitivity of the Action Observation Network to Physical and Observational Learning" published in the journal Cerebral Cortex in May 2008, Dartmouth researchers determined that people can acquire motor skills through the "seeing" as well as the "doing" form of learning.

Leuven, Belgium – Schizophrenia is a disease that strikes an average of 4000 Belgians every year. The causes of this psychiatric disorder are not yet clear. But now, VIB researchers connected to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven have discovered that a disturbed cleavage of the Nrg-1 protein lies at the basis of the development of the disease. Greater understanding of this molecular process is a first step toward improved diagnosis and more effective treatment of schizophrenia and other related disorders.

What is schizophrenia?

The damage to brain tissue seen in Huntington's disease may be caused by an overactive immune response in the bloodstream and the brain, according to new findings from two teams of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and University College London. The findings will be published online July 14 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Asian-American immigrants who came to the United States before they were 25 years old have poorer mental health than their compatriots who came to this country when they were 25 or older, according to data from the first national mental health survey of Asian-Americans.

With their waiting rooms crowded and exam rooms full, many physicians say they are too busy to be good communicators. Those who study physician time-management think otherwise. Certain communication skills can foster efficiency and effectiveness during an office visit without sacrificing rapport with patients, according to researchers at the University of Washington (UW) and the University of Rochester.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, is a step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors, similar to the tumor that Senator Ted Kennedy is suffering from.

Psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Richard A. Abrams, Ph.D., professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, have shown that to see objects better, you should take the matter into your own hands.

They have demonstrated that humans more thoroughly inspect objects when their hands are near the object rather than farther away from it. They posit that this processing exists because humans need to be able to analyze objects near their hands, to figure out how to handle them or to provide protection against them.

Dr. Yuri Lvov, a professor of chemistry and T. Pipes endowed chair in micro and nanosystems at Louisiana Tech University, and Anshul Agarwal, a Louisiana Tech doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering feature their cancer drug reformulation work in the most recent issue of Pharma Focus Asia, one of the largest and most respected pharmaceutical science journals in the world.

"This is the largest Asian pharmacological journal and is turned to by millions of people working in the medical industry," says Lvov.

ORLANDO, Florida – Eighty-three percent of athletes who had "Tommy John" elbow reconstruction surgery were able to return to the same or better level of play, according to a study released today at the 2008 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting at JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes. While reassuring to athletes, the study authors find the trend of more and more young athletes requiring the surgery, alarming.

Children between the ages of seven and 12 appear to be naturally inclined to feel empathy for others in pain, according to researchers at the University of Chicago, who used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans to study responses in children.

A typical symptom of Parkinson's disease is tremor in patients. A group of scientists, including Professor Peter Tass from Forschungszentrum Jülich have succeeded in demonstrating the mechanisms which cause the so-called tremor: neuron clusters in the depths of the brain drive the tremor. This discovery supports Tass' research activities aiming at developing a therapy for Parkinson's disease. A new deep brain pacemaker is to bring cells out of the diseased mode for good.

Researchers at Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada have found clear evidence that increases in the size of the brain ventricles are directly associated with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Ventricles are fluid-filled cavities in the brain. The research, led by Robarts scientist Robert Bartha, shows the volume of the brain ventricles expands as surrounding tissue dies. The research is published online in the neurology journal Brain.

A questionnaire of Swiss schoolchildren has revealed the extent of truancy and school fear. The research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, links truancy and school fear to life events, parental behaviour and school environment.

Providing preventive treatment for malaria, given once per term, dramatically reduces rates of malaria infection and anaemia among schoolchildren, and significantly improves their cognitive ability, according to new research published today in the Lancet.

EDITOR'S PICK: Why men are more at risk of diseases caused by blood clots than women

Being male increases your risk of diseases caused by the inappropriate formation of a blood clot (a process known as thrombosis), such as heart attack and stroke, but the reasons for this are not completely understood. However, Ethan Weiss and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, have used a mouse model of thrombosis to shed new light on this matter.