Brain

As early as 1836, the German physiologist and anatomist Friedrich Tiedemann, in an article in the Philosophical Transactions, expressed his opinion that "there is undoubtedly a connection between the absolute size of the brain and the intellectual powers and functions of the mind". With the advent of brain imaging methods (e.g., MRI, PET), reliable assessments of in-vivo brain volume and investigations of its association with IQ are now possible.

Antipsychotic drugs are initiated in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) more frequently than in the general population - already 2-3 years before the Alzheimer's diagnosis, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. Most commonly, antipsychotics were initiated during the six months following the Alzheimer's diagnosis; however, the incidence of new antipsychotic users was high also later on. The results were published in British Journal of Psychiatry.

University of Liverpool experts have warned that proposed government welfare changes have serious implications for child health.

Dr David Taylor-Robinson and colleagues from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society believe health outcomes for children and young people in the UK will become worse under the new proposals after studying two recent reports from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Resolution Foundation.

Empathy - the ability to identify and understand other people's emotions - has many components, some sophisticated and involving complex thought processes, others basic but essential nonetheless. The latter include joint attention - which is activated by direct eye contact between two or more individuals, and allows them to focus their attention on the same object; and facial mimicry - the tendency to reproduce on one's own face the expressions of emotion seen in others.

New research involving a psychologist from the University of York has revealed for the first time that both belief in God and prejudice towards immigrants can be reduced by directing magnetic energy into the brain.

Dr Keise Izuma collaborated with a team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to carry out an innovative experiment using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a safe way of temporarily shutting down specific regions of the brain.

Poor children will be hit hardest by government welfare cuts, warn experts writing in The BMJ this week. David Taylor-Robinson and colleagues at the University of Liverpool say the welfare changes heralded in the chancellor's summer budget have serious implications for child health.

They point to two recent reports from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Resolution Foundation.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Sleep is usually considered an all-or-nothing state: The brain is either entirely awake or entirely asleep. However, MIT neuroscientists have discovered a brain circuit that can trigger small regions of the brain to fall asleep or become less alert, while the rest of the brain remains awake.

ATLANTA--Incarcerated youth who have suffered head injuries, traumatic experiences and mental illness diagnoses are more likely to abuse multiple inhalants, according to researchers at Georgia State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In space, there is no "up" or "down." That can mess with the human brain and affect the way people move and think in space. An investigation on the International Space Station seeks to understand how the brain changes in space and ways to deal with those changes.

CINCINNATI - A new computer program that analyzes functional brain MRIs of hearing impaired children can predict whether they will develop effective language skills within two years of cochlear implant surgery, according to a study in the journal Brain and Behavior.

In the journal's Oct. 12 online edition, researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say their computer program determines how specific regions of the brain respond to auditory stimulus tests that hearing-impaired infants and toddlers receive before surgical implantation.

BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA, and CARDIFF, UK -- Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have used a noninvasive light-based imaging technology to literally see inside the living brain, providing a new tool to study how diseases like dementia, Alzheimer's, and brain tumors change brain tissue over time.

The work is reported by Woo June Choi and Ruikang Wang of the UW Department of Bioengineering, today in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, published by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

A team of UCLA scientists has found that brain areas linked to social behaviors are both underdeveloped and insufficiently networked in youths with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to study participants without ASD.

The findings, which appear in the online issue of the peer-reviewed journal Brain and Behavior, provide insight into how the brains of children and adolescents with ASD might be organized differently than youths without the disorder, says study first author Kay Jann, a postdoctoral researcher in the UCLA Department of Neurology.

October 13, 2015. Kessler researchers assessed moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) for frontal behavioral syndromes and cognitive function. Their finding suggest that adding the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale to neuropsychological assessment may yield useful information about the behavioral sequelae of TBI. The article, Assessing frontal behavioral syndromes and cognitive functions in traumatic brain injury, DOI:10.1080/23279095.2013 was published in Applied Psychology: Adult.

Worldwide, more than 20% of persons over the age of 85 suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD). Deposits of beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptide represent an important target for research into AD. These peptide fragments, which accumulate in the brains of AD patients, play an important role in the pathogenesis of AD. A research team headed by Prof. Dr.

Gene therapy preserved vision in a study involving dogs with naturally occurring, late-stage retinitis pigmentosa, according to research funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings contribute to the groundwork needed to move gene therapy forward into clinical trials for people with the blinding eye disorder, for which there is currently no cure.