Brain

Older adults who take college courses may increase their cognitive capacity and possibly reduce their risk for developing Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

The researcher Olga Peñagarikano, a Ramón y Cajal researcher in the Department of Pharmacology at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Medicine, and who has broad experience in the study of the neurobiological causes of autism and intervention in the oxytocin system as a potential treatment for this condition, has contributed towards a piece of research carried out by a team at the University of California, Irvine.

A classroom program that helps teachers adapt their interactions with students based on individuals' temperaments may lead to more student engagement in kindergarten, more teacher emotional support to kindergarten and first grade students, and better classroom organization and less off-task behavior in first-grade classes, according to research by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Dealing with a major stressful event appears to make some older adults better able to cope with the ups and downs of day-to-day stress, according to new research from North Carolina State University.

"Our study tells us that there's no expiration date on the impact of life-changing, stressful events," says Shevaun Neupert, an associate professor of psychology and co-author of a paper on the work. "And the study tells us that many people actually weather these major stressors and emerge more resilient and less easily influenced by daily stresses."

More sex may not always make you happier, according to new research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

"Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week," lead researcher Amy Muise said. "Our findings suggest that it's important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner, but you don't need to have sex everyday as long as you're maintaining that connection."

Australian scientists have discovered a new virus carried by one of the country's most common pest mosquitoes.

The new virus -- known as Parramatta River virus -- infects only mosquitoes and doesn't pose any direct health risks to people, according to University of Queensland (UQ) and University of Sydney researchers.

Dr Jody Hobson-Peters, of UQ's Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, said the discovery could pave the way to stopping outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease.

Don't believe the hype when you see those creams and ointments promising to prevent or reduce pregnancy stretch marks. Dermatologists are still learning about what causes stretch marks in the first place, and skin stretching is not the only risk factor.

"Most of the existing products aren't based on solid scientific research," said Frank Wang, M.D., assistant professor and dermatologist at the University of Michigan Health System. "Very few to none of the items touted to prevent or fix stretch marks really work."

It's tempting to believe the violin was created in the mind's eye of its most famous craftsmen: the Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri families.

After all, the beloved musical instrument is a thing of beauty. Art, you might say.

But researchers at the University of Iowa say it's time to take a radically new look at the evolution of the violin--and other inventions, for that matter.

The daughters, but not the sons, of women who give birth at age 30 or older are more likely to experience symptoms of depression as young adults, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"This study suggests that older maternal age is associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in young adult females," said Jessica Tearne, a doctoral student at the University of Western Australia and lead author of the study. It appears in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- After a disaster or national tragedy, bits of information often are found afterward among vast amounts of available data that might have mitigated or even prevented what happened, had they been recognized ahead of time.

In this information age, national security analysts often find themselves searching for a needle in a haystack. The available data is growing much faster than analysts' ability to observe and process it. Sometimes they can't make key connections and often they are overwhelmed struggling to use data for predictions and forensics.

Consumers of self-help books are more sensitive to stress and show higher depressive symptomatology, according to a study conducted by researchers at the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal (Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal) and the University of Montreal, the findings of which were published in Neural Plasticity.

When parents have high hopes for their children's academic achievement, the children tend to do better in school, unless those hopes are unrealistic, in which case the children may not perform well in school, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

University of Helsinki researchers have identified a genetic mutation which renders carriers susceptible to particularly impulsive and reckless behaviour when drunk. More than one hundred thousand Finns carry this mutation.

Many Finns know somebody whose behaviour becomes excessively strange and erratic when drunk. They are said to be unable to "hold their liquor", and others are surprised at how inebriated they become from just a small amount of alcohol. Since the trait seems permanent, it can be assumed that there are underlying biological factors.

WASHINGTON - Research biologists, chemists and theoreticians at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), are on pace to develop the next generation of functional materials that could enable the mapping of the complex neural connections in the brain. The ultimate goal is to better understand how the billions of neurons in the brain communicate with one another during normal brain function, or dysfunction, as result of injury or disease.

What's in a name? In the case of the usernames of video gamers, a remarkable amount of information about their real world personalities, according to research by psychologists at the University of York.

Analysis of anonymised data from one of the world's most popular computer games by scientists in the Department of Psychology at York also revealed information about their ages.