Brain

Researchers at VIB-KU Leuven have managed to get a clearer view on the roots of dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary twisting movements. Led by Rose Goodchild (VIB-KU Leuven) and supported by the Foundation for Dystonia Research, the VIB scientists unraveled the mechanism by which DYT1 dystonia - the disease's most common hereditary form - causes cellular defects. The findings shed new light on this poorly understood condition - and may, ultimately, lead to new medical approaches to overcome it.

A new study has found that having a positive relationship with a teacher around the age of 10-11 years old can markedly influence the development of 'prosocial' behaviours such as cooperation and altruism, as well as significantly reduce problem classroom behaviours such as aggression and oppositional behaviour.

The research also found that beneficial behaviours resulting from a positive teacher-student relationship when a child is on the cusp of adolescence lingered for up to four years - well into the difficult teenage years.

Sharing with others and getting something back: Preschoolers expect someone who has benefitted from their generosity to reciprocate when an opportunity arises to do so.

Researchers from Aalto University and the University of Wisconsin utilised a TMS-EEG device, which combines transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG, to examine how the brain activity of people in the restful non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is affected by whether they dream or do not dream.

Recruiters for violent extremist groups, just like screenwriters and marketers, use storytelling techniques to craft their messages. Analyzing those narratives and producing counter-narratives may be one way to cut the success of terrorist recruitment, according to researchers.

Schizophrenic psychoses are a frequently occurring group of psychiatric disorders caused by a combination of biological, social and environmental factors. These disorders are associated with changes to the brain structure: for example, the hippocampus in the temporal lobe is usually smaller in affected individuals than in healthy ones. It is not yet known whether these changes to the brain structure are a result of the disorders and their accompanying medications, or whether they are already present before the onset of symptoms.

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.

By sticking to the Mediterranean diet the study showed that people had slowed rates of cognitive decline, reduced conversion to Alzheimer's, and improved cognitive function.

Philadelphia, PA, August 9, 2016 - Prion diseases are deadly neurodegenerative disorders in humans and animals that are characterized by misfolded forms of prion protein (PrP). Development of effective treatments has been hampered by the lack of good experimental models. In a new study published in The American Journal of Pathology, researchers describe the distinct stages of prion disease in the mouse retina and define an experimental model to specifically test therapeutic approaches.

Magicians use sleight of hand to confuse you about where an object is. But could they make you believe that you saw a non-existent object disappear?

A team of experimental psychologists at Oxford University developed their own magic trick to find out. Their results are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

PHILADELPHIA -- (August 8, 2016)--One of the many reasons tumors are so difficult to treat is that they are able to adapt whenever they are exposed to unfavorable conditions. Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, is one example of a phenomenon that should weaken the tumor, but instead, the malignant cells are able to compensate and drive more aggressive disease behavior.

Researchers Find Brain's 'Physics Engine'Predicts how world behaves; among 'most important aspects of cognition for survival'

Whether or not they aced the subject in high school, human beings are physics masters when it comes to understanding and predicting how objects in the world will behave. A Johns Hopkins University cognitive scientist has found the source of that intuition, the brain's "physics engine."

HOUSTON - (Aug. 8, 2016) - While binge eating affects about 10 percent of adults in the United States, the neurobiological basis of the disease is unclear. Researchers at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital found that certain neural circuits have the ability to inhibit binge-like eating behavior in mice. Their report appears today in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Scientists say they are a step closer to providing effective treatments for three "neglected" diseases after making a chemical which can kill the parasites that cause the illnesses.

Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and human African trypanosomiasis (also known as sleeping sickness) affect 20 million people worldwide and lead to more than 50,000 deaths annually.

The diseases are caused by infection from parasites which have some similar biology and genomic sequence, suggesting that all three diseases could be cured with a single class of drug.

In the retina of mice, a new type of neuron that falls outside century-old classifications has been discovered.

Neurons are nerve cells involved in receiving or sending signals. The new cell, which the UW Medicine researchers conducting the research named GluMI (pronounced "gloomy") acts like one class of neurons but anatomically resembles another.

The discovery is bound to excite vision researchers, said Luca Della Santina, one of the study's co-lead authors and a former postdoctoral student in the University of Washington Department of Biological Structure.

Scientists have clarified details in understanding the beneficial function of a type of protein normally associated with prion diseases of the brain, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (commonly known as mad cow disease) and its human counterpart, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.