Brain

TORONTO, February 2, 2016 -- Demand for child and youth mental health care has been steadily rising throughout the health care system in Ontario, Canada, with the biggest growth being felt in emergency departments.

These are among the findings of a new study from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

It's a fishy situation: On the one hand, multiple scientific studies have found that eating seafood helps protect against dementia. On the other hand (or fin), seafood also is a source of the element mercury, which has been thought to cause damage to cells in the brain, contributing to cognitive impairment.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have identified a faulty signaling pathway that, when corrected, in mice ameliorates the symptoms of Rett syndrome, a devastating neurological condition. The findings could lead to the discovery of compounds or drugs that may benefit children affected by the disease, says neurobiologist Jeffrey Macklis, Max and Anne Wien Professor of Life Sciences in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Center for Brain Science, at Harvard University, who directed the work.

From academic honors to "employee of the month" awards, we are regularly exposed to and made aware of the exemplary performance of others. Many believe such recognition not only acknowledges the individual but also motivates others to strive toward greater achievement.

But new research suggests that exposure to exceptional performance can sometimes have the opposite results, effectively discouraging people from higher-level performance.

In a study of deceased individuals, moderate seafood consumption was correlated with lesser Alzheimer disease neuropathology, and although seafood consumption was associated with higher brain levels of mercury, the higher mercury levels were not correlated with more Alzheimer disease neuropathology, according to a study in the February 2 issue of JAMA.

The question of what sets humans apart from other animals is one of the oldest philosophical puzzles. A popular answer is that only humans can understand that others also have minds like their own.

But new research suggests that ravens - birds singled out by many cultures as a symbol of intelligence and wisdom - share at least some of the human ability to think abstractly about other minds, adapting their behavior by attributing their own perceptions to others.

New research published Feb. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that older adults with a major risk gene for Alzheimer's disease known as APOE?4 who ate at least one seafood serving per week showed fewer signs of Alzheimer's-related brain changes. In contrast, this association was not found in the brains of volunteers who ate fish weekly but did not carry the risk gene.

Fetal development has been known to play an important role in social interaction, a fundamental behavior found in nearly all organisms, and later adult social behaviors. Autism, a highly heritable neurodevelopment disorder that causes difficulties with social interactions, has been postulated to be caused by neuron overgrowth in the prenatal period, although the precise timing and cause of this overgrowth has been unknown.

The effect of aging on cognitive processes such as learning, memory and logical reasoning have so far been studied almost exclusively in people.

Using a series of touchscreen tests, Lisa Wallis and Friederike Range of the Messerli Research Institute at Vetmeduni Vienna have now studied these domains in pet dogs of varying ages. The study was conducted with 95 Border Collies ranging in age from five months to 13 years. The dogs regularly came to the Clever Dog Lab on the Vetmeduni Vienna campus accompanied by their owners to conduct the tests on a touch-sensitive monitor.

Women may be friendlier than men, but that doesn't mean they like putting up with jerks.

A new study led by a Michigan State University psychology professor suggests women are more likely than men to get irked at irritating or boorish behavior exhibited by acquaintances, friends or partners.

Philadelphia, PA, February 2, 2016 - A new study by Neil Harrison and colleagues published in Biological Psychiatry suggests that a brain reward center, the striatum, may be directly affected by inflammation and that striatal change is related to the emergence of illness behaviors.

Inflammation increases the risk for depression. More specifically, inflammation induces behavioral changes similar to depression that are often associated with illness, including fatigue, difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation, and reduced experience of pleasure.

Purity is the moral foundation that drives people apart - and a glue that keeps them together, a new study shows.

The study, led by USC researchers, combined computer science, moral psychology and sociology of networks research techniques to determine how five basic moral concerns - care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and purity/degradation - may widen or narrow the social distance between people.

Many programs to reduce bullying in primary and secondary schools have proven ineffective, but a new UCLA-led study finds one that works very well.

The study of more than 7,000 students in 77 elementary schools in Finland found that one program greatly benefited the mental health of sixth-graders who experienced the most bullying. It significantly improved their self-esteem and reduced their depression.

Stopping the growth of blood vessels in tumours is a key target for glioblastoma therapies, and imaging methods are essential for initial diagnosis and monitoring the effects of treatments. While mapping vessels in tumours has proven a challenge, researchers have now developed a combined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultramicroscopy 'toolkit' to study vessel growth in glioma models in more detail than previously possible. Their study is to be published in the journal eLife.

BOSTON - A researcher at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) warns that Zika virus could spread quickly to and potentially within the US. The mosquito-borne virus, which is believed to cause microcephaly in infants who are exposed in utero, causes rash and flu-like symptoms in adults and children who have been infected. Zika virus dates back to 1947; however, the first well-documented outbreak in humans was not reported until 2007.