Brain

The use of smartphones and tablet computers during evening hours has previously been associated with sleep disturbances in humans. A new study from Uppsala University now shows that daytime light exposure may be a promising means to combat sleep disturbances associated with evening use of electronic devices. The findings are published in the scientific journal Sleep Medicine.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Condescending comments, put-downs and sarcasm have become commonplace in the politically charged workplace, and a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University business scholar shows how this incivility may be spreading.

Reporting in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Russell Johnson and colleagues found that experiencing such rude behavior reduces employees' self-control and leads them to act in a similar uncivil manner.

We are "culturally biased" right from the cradle and we tend to prefer information we receive from native speakers of our language, even when this information is not transmitted through verbal speech. Hanna Marno, researcher at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste (together with other colleagues among whom Jacques Mehler and Marina Nespor, professors at SISSA, -that coordinated the study- and Yamil Vidal, SISSA Ph.D.

A new scientific study puts the final nail in the coffin of a long-standing theory to explain human's remarkable cognitive abilities: that human evolution involved the selective expansion of the brain's prefrontal cortex.

It does so by determining that the prefrontal region of the brain which orchestrates abstract thinking, complex planning and decision making contains the same proportion of neurons and fills the same relative volume in non-human primates as it does in humans.

A novel PET radiotracer developed at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is able for the first time to reveal epigenetic activity - the process that determines whether or not genes are expressed - within the human brain.

LA JOLLA, CA - August 10, 2016 - A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), suggests that increased levels of a molecule in the brain, called hypocretin, may contribute to cocaine addiction.

The research, published recently online ahead of print in the journal Biological Psychiatry, shows that blocking hypocretin may reduce compulsive drug-seeking behavior in rat models of cocaine addiction.

A research project has shown that an experimental model of Alzheimer's disease can be successfully treated with a commonly used anti-inflammatory drug.

A team led by Dr David Brough from The University of Manchester found that the anti-inflammatory drug completely reversed memory loss and brain inflammation in mice.

Nearly everybody will at some point in their lives take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; mefenamic acid, a common Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug (NSAID), is routinely used for period pain.

Eating a Mediterranean diet can slow down cognitive decline.

The Mediterranean diet can improve your mind, as well your heart, shows a study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

Following a Mediterranean diet was shown to be associated with slower rates of cognitive decline, reduced conversion to Alzheimer's, and improvements in cognitive function.

How to be a healthy eater depends on culture. A recent study shows that in the U.S. and Japan, people who fit better with their culture have healthier eating habits. The results appear in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"Our results suggest that if you want to help people to eat healthier--or if you want to promote any type of healthy behavior--you want to understand what meaning that behavior has in that culture, and what motivates people to be healthy in that culture," says lead author Cynthia Levine.

University of Helsinki researchers have previously demonstrated that a point mutation in a gene of serotonin 2B receptor can render the carrier prone to impulsive behaviour, particularly when drunk. Now the research group has established that the same mutation may shield its bearers from obesity and insulin resistance, both of which are associated with type 2 diabetes.

A study published by The BMJ today provides more details of an association between Zika virus infection in the womb and a condition known as arthrogryposis, which causes joint deformities at birth, particularly in the arms and legs.

Microcephaly (a rare birth defect where a baby is born with an abnormally small head) and other severe fetal brain defects are the main features of congenital Zika virus syndrome. However, little is still known about other potential health problems that Zika virus infection during pregnancy may cause.

The Piltdown Man scandal is arguably the greatest scientific fraud ever perpetrated in the UK, with fake fossils being claimed as evidence of our earliest ancestor.

Published 100 years on from Dawson's death, new research reveals that the forgeries were created using a limited number of specimens that were all constructed using a consistent method, suggesting the perpetrator acted alone.

It is highly likely that an orang-utan specimen and at least two human skeletons were used to create the fakes, which are still kept at the Natural History Museum.

Investigators eager to uncover the genetic basis of autism could now have hundreds of promising new leads thanks to a study by Princeton University and Simons Foundation researchers.

Bright light combined with caffeine can improve driving performance and alertness of chronically sleep deprived young drivers, according to a Queensland University of Technology road safety study.

Dr Shamsi Shekari, from QUT's Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) presented her findings at the 2016 International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology held in Australia this month.

Among patients with severe aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation, the use of a cerebral protection device (a filter that captures debris [tissue and plaque] dislodged during the procedure) reduced the number and volume of brain lesions, according to a study appearing in the August 9 issue of JAMA.