Brain

PITTSBURGH -- Chalk up one more task a smartphone app may do better than you: figuring out your privacy settings.

A field study suggests a personalized privacy assistant app being developed at Carnegie Mellon University can simplify the chore of setting permissions for your smartphone apps. That's a task that requires well over a hundred decisions, an unmanageable number for the typical user.

The privacy assistant can learn the user's preferences and quickly recommend the most appropriate settings, such as with which app to share the user's location, or contact list.

Eph receptors and their partner proteins, the ephrins, are vital for intercellular communication. In the developing brain, they guide young neurons to the right partner cells by repulsion. They also play important roles in cell migration, regeneration, neurodegenerative diseases and the development of cancer. Until recently, scientists assumed that ephrin/Eph signal transmission could only occur through direct cell-cell contact.

BINGHAMTON, NY - Wearable devices can give away your passwords, according to new research.

In the paper "Friend or Foe?: Your Wearable Devices Reveal Your Personal PIN" scientists from Binghamton University and the Stevens Institute of Technology combined data from embedded sensors in wearable technologies, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, along with a computer algorithm to crack private PINs and passwords with 80-percent accuracy on the first try and more than 90-percent accuracy after three tries.

LA JOLLA--A small stretch of ribonucleic acid called microRNA could make the difference between a healthy adult brain and one that's prone to disorders including schizophrenia.

Scientists at the Salk Institute discovered that miR-19 guides the placement of new neurons in the adult brain, and the molecule is disrupted in cells from patients with schizophrenia. The findings, published in the journal Neuron on July 6, 2016, pave the way toward a better understanding of how the adult brain controls the growth of new neurons and how it can go wrong.

By activating particular neurons, we may be able to influence alcohol drinking behavior, according to new findings published by researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

The group's prior research showed that alcohol consumption alters the physical structure and function of neurons, called medium spiny neurons, in the dorsomedial striatum. Essentially, they found that activation of one type of neuron, called D1, determines whether one drink leads to two. Now, they've discovered the ones that tell us to stop.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Children with attention problems in early childhood were 40 percent less likely to graduate from high school, says a new study from Duke University that examines how early childhood characteristics affect academic performance.

People with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), or impulsive aggression, have a weakened connection between regions of the brain associated with sensory input, language processing and social interaction.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have developed a pioneering new technique that could revolutionise the surgical treatment of epilepsy.

The team of scientists, led by Dr Marc Goodfellow and Professor John Terry, have developed the ground-breaking new method that can identify the specific regions of the brain that trigger seizures in people with epilepsy.

In a study appearing in the July 5 issue of JAMA, Blayne Welk, M.D., M.Sc., of Western University, London, Canada, and colleagues conducted a study to assess the association between gadolinium exposure and parkinsonism, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor and impaired muscular coordination.

Driving is possibly one of the most complex procedures humans engage in on a regular basis. Operating a motor vehicle involves a wide range of cognitive processes that require the ability to judge distances, manage multiple stimuli simultaneously, react quickly in an emergency, maintain attention for long periods of time, and correctly interpret traffic signs and signals.

Tobacco and cannabis are two of the world's most popular drugs, used respectively by 1 billion and 182 million people worldwide (World Health Organization; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). The adverse health effects of tobacco are well known.

Scientists from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, have discovered how the brain controls our breathing in response to changing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

The control of breathing is essential for life. Without an adequate response to increased carbon dioxide levels, people can suffer from breathing disturbances, sickness, and panic. In worst-case scenarios, it can lead to premature death, as in sudden infant death syndrome.

Goats have the capacity to communicate with people like other domesticated animals, such as dogs and horses, according to scientists from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

In a new paper in the journal Biology Letters, researchers from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences found that goats respond to people by gazing at them when facing a problem they cannot solve alone, and their responses change depending on the person's behaviour.

Philadelphia, PA, July 5, 2016 - A new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging reports a neural signature of emotional adaptation that could help researchers understand how the brain adapts to childhood adversity and predict which kids may be vulnerable to developing later psychopathology.

Water is liquid at room temperature - astounding for such a small molecule. Insights into the causes are provided by a new simulation method, which has its origins in brain research.

Using artificial neural networks, researchers in Bochum and Vienna have examined the atomic interactions of water molecules. Based on their findings, they explain the melting temperature of ice and the density maximum at four degrees Celsius - based solely on computer simulations.