Brain

The human language centre is located in the left hemisphere/part of the brain. Sometimes this area is damaged after a stroke. The consequence may be that the patient has difficulties in finding words or to understand language, aphasia. Today, patients are treated using general language training programmes, based on symptoms.

"Strokes strike individually. This is why it is vital to find the right treatment for each patient," says Professor Karsten Specht at the Department of Biological and Medical Psychology at the University of Bergen (UiB).

New analysis may help patients

ATLANTA--Young African-Americans often hold a distorted view of their personal risk for a stroke, two nursing researchers at Georgia State University's Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and Health Professions say in a recently published study in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing.

Dawn Aycock, assistant professor, and Pat Clark, professor, examined the accuracy of risk perception by comparing a group of young rural African-Americans' perceived risk to their actual risk of stroke.

Companies advertise "BPA-free" as a safer version of plastic products ranging from water bottles to sippy cups to toys. Many manufacturers stopped used Bisphenol A to strengthen plastic after animal studies linked it to early puberty and a rise in breast and prostate cancers.

Yet new UCLA research demonstrates that BPS (Bisphenol S), a common replacement for BPA, speeds up embryonic development and disrupts the reproductive system.

Pedestrians feel safer in streets illuminated with white light than in those illuminated with yellowish lights (technically called 'sodium-yellow'), even when the former are more polluting in certain aspects. One of the possible reasons is that this kind of light allows a better identification of human faces.

This news release is available in French.

An international team, made up of researchers from the University of Granada, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of South Florida, has linked the symptoms of schizophrenia with the anatomical characteristics of the brain, by employing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Their research, published in the academic journal NeuroImage, could herald a significant step forward in the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.

Jan. 29, 2016 - Research from several personality and social psychologists show that entertainment media with positive content or conciliatory messages can contribute to positive relationships between members of different ethnic groups and genders.

Improving Perceptions

From sitcoms to music videos, entertainment media offers a reflection of parts of American culture. Sohad Murrar, University of Wisconsin-Madison, showed the power of entertainment media to promote positive intergroup relationships in a series of studies.

Proton beam therapy--a more precise form of radiotherapy--to treat the childhood brain cancer medulloblastoma appears to be as safe as conventional radiotherapy with similar survival rates, according to new research published in The Lancet Oncology journal today. Importantly, the findings suggest that proton radiotherapy may not be as toxic to the rest of a child's body as conventional radiotherapy. The study was led by Dr Torunn Yock, Massachusetts General Hospital, Proton Center, Boston, MA, USA, and colleagues.

The use of proton radiotherapy to treat the most common malignant brain tumor in children is as effective as standard photon (x-ray) radiation therapy while causing fewer long-term side effects such as hearing loss and cognitive disorders, according to a study receiving online publication in Lancet Oncology. The paper from a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators describes patient outcomes an average of seven years after proton therapy for medulloblastoma, a fast-growing tumor that develops in the cerebellum at the base of the brain.

Jan. 29, 2016 - In recent years, text messaging and social media (e.g., Facebook), have become an integral part of how people interact with their social networks. In fact, many adolescents and young adults now use text messaging and social media more than in-person interactions.

January 29, 2016 - Two things people always need in life: food and love. According to psychologists, understanding the forces that drive both our hunger and our desire could help us eat healthier and have more satisfying relationships.

First Impressions: Photo, video, or in-person?

January 29, 2016 - As New Year's resolutions come and go, one area many people focus on is their health and weight. With Americans tipping the scales more than ever, social and personality psychologists are at the forefront of understanding the psychological motivations for healthy food choices and consumption patterns.

First impressions of food: Growing up poor's long-term impact on eating patterns

TORONTO, January 29, 2015 -- 'Practice makes perfect' may be a cliché but a new brain study out of York U affirms this age old theory.

In this study, Faculty of Health researchers were looking at fMRI brain scans of professional ballet dancers to measure the long-term effects of learning.

Why are things so small, so significant? A new video series created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBCUniversal News, sheds light on this question.

"Nanotechnology: Super Small Science" is a six-part series and shows viewers how atoms and molecules that are thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair can be used as building blocks to create future technology. The series features a dozen world class American researchers, including quantum physicist and National Medal of Science winner Paul Alivisatos.

Negative attitudes to ageing affect both physical and cognitive health in later years, new research reveals. The study from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), at Trinity College Dublin, further reveals that participants with positive attitudes towards ageing had improved cognitive ability.

Key findings: