Brain

A new study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 2 could rewrite the story of ape and human brain evolution. While the neocortex of the brain has been called "the crowning achievement of evolution and the biological substrate of human mental prowess," newly reported evolutionary rate comparisons show that the cerebellum expanded up to six times faster than anticipated throughout the evolution of apes, including humans.

The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. New research publishing online October 2 in the Cell Press journal Neuron provides insights into what happens in our brains when curiosity is piqued. The findings could help scientists find ways to enhance overall learning and memory in both healthy individuals and those with neurological conditions.

In 1897, Emile Durkheim, the father of sociology, speculated that religion could protect against against suicidal impulses. In the century that followed, numerous studies attempted to either prop up or debunk this theory, focusing primarily on Christianity, which condemns suicide as the worst of sins.

Building on the poverty relief success achieved through self-sustaining high-tech "smart villages," Malaysian innovators have created blueprints for an urban counterpart that combines affordable homes, food security and sustainable jobs, aiming to solve the growing global problem of squalid city slums.

Have you ever ordered more food at a restaurant than you intended? There are elements of dining rooms that actually prime you to eat more food. One such element is the weight of those dining with or near you. This new Cornell University study found that the body type of your dining partner, or that of those dining nearby, may actually influence how much you serve yourself and how much you eat!

This news release is available in German, Spanish, French and Japanese.

This news release is available in French, Spanish and German.

Published today in PLOS ONE, the study is the first in the world to show that it is possible to predict abstract judgments from brain waves, even though people were not conscious of making such judgments.

The study also increases our understanding of impulsive behaviours and how to regulate it.

It found that researchers could predict from participants' brain activity how exciting they found a particular image to be, and whether a particular image made them think more about the future or the present.

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder both appear to be associated with dendritic spine loss in the brain, suggesting the two distinct disorders may share common pathophysiological features, write author Glenn T. Konopaske, M.D., and colleagues at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., and Harvard Medical School, Boston.

People who are prone to delusions gather insufficient information before making decisions, according to research published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, led by PhD student Leslie van der Leer, assigned participants a computer task in which they observed the colour of a black or white fish caught from one of two lakes and were then asked to choose to see further fish or decide on one of the lakes as the source of that sequence of fish.

How can parents with the autoimmune disorder celiac disease prevent or delay the condition's development in their children? The results of an international study led by investigators associated with the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) challenge some of the current thinking on possible measures to take. The report in the Oct.

(Boston) — Glioblastma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most lethal primary brain tumors, with median survival for these patients only slightly over one year. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), in collaboration with researchers from the City of Hope, are looking toward novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of GBM in the form of targeted therapies against a unique receptor, the interleukin-13 receptor α chain variant 2 (IL13Rα2).

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Relational aggression, or "mean girl" bullying, is a popular subject in news and entertainment media. This nonphysical form of aggression generally used among adolescent girls includes gossiping, rumor spreading, exclusion and rejection. As media coverage has illustrated, relational aggression can lead to tragic and sometimes fatal outcomes. Despite these alarming concerns, little has been done to prevent and eliminate these negative behaviors.

People who are unable to button up their jacket or who find it difficult to insert a key in lock suffer from a condition known as apraxia. This means that their motor skills have been impaired – as a result of a stroke, for instance. Scientists in Munich have now examined the parts of the brain that are responsible for planning and executing complex actions. They discovered that there is a specific network in the brain for using tools. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Researchers have discovered a new type of brain activity that underlies the timing of voluntary actions, allowing them to forecast when a spontaneous decision will occur more than a second in advance. 'Experiments like this have been used to argue that free will is an illusion, but we think that this interpretation is mistaken,' says Zachary Mainen, a neuroscientist at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, in Lisbon, Portugal, who led the research, published on Sept. 28, 2014, in the journal Nature Neuroscience.