Brain

Learning a first language is somewhat effortless. We start learning from our parents before we can even remember and the words and sounds are imprinted in our memory at an early age. Learning a new language as an adult is much more difficult, involves a lot of hard work, and you may never have the same fluency as with your first language. The same is true of songbirds. Zebra finches learn their song when they are young by listening to their father's or tutor's song.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic is highlighting the potential merits of using precision medicine in prescribing antidepressants. Details appear in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Eleven percent of Americans 12 years and older have been prescribed antidepressant medication, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2005-2008. These medications are regularly prescribed in psychiatric, pediatric, adolescent, family and general medicine clinics nationwide.

An automated camera system was able to learn how to better film basketball and soccer games - and smoothly recover from mistakes - by watching human camera operators, scientists at Disney Research report.

The result was footage without much of the jerkiness that plagues automated cameras, said Peter Carr, senior research engineer at Disney Research.

"Having smooth camera work is critical for creating an enjoyable sports broadcast," Carr said. "The framing doesn't have to be perfect, but the motion has to be smooth and purposeful."

Philadelphia, PA, June 21, 2016 - A study published in Biological Psychiatry reveals a new link between low levels of the thyroid hormone thyroxine during pregnancy and risk of schizophrenia in the offspring.

Low levels of free thyroxine in pregnant women, referred to as hypothyroxinemia, are associated with abnormalities in cognitive development similar to those in schizophrenia, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Hypothyroxinemia is also associated with preterm birth, a risk factor for schizophrenia.

Jurors who are allowed to take and review notes during court trials are less likely to forget critical evidence, a new University of Liverpool study has found.

This finding has important implications for justice, as jurors who forget critical trial evidence often reach different verdicts to those who remember it.

Drugs used to treat diabetes could also be used to treat Alzheimer's disease, and vice versa, according to new research from the University of Aberdeen.

This is also the first study of its kind to show that Alzheimer's disease can lead to diabetes, as opposed to diabetes occurring first as was previously thought.

The study reports that Alzheimer's Disease and type 2 diabetes are so closely related that drugs currently used to control glucose levels in diabetes may also alleviate the symptoms and progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Delirium, or the medical term for experiencing sudden confusion, is upsetting for both older adults and their families. In fact, it is one of the most common complications older adults face after surgery (a time often referred to as the "post-operative" period).

Friend requested by mom, dad and the math teacher? When teen and adult worlds collide on social media it can be weird and awkward at times, but research from Drexel University suggests these socially messy interactions can turn out to be valuable life experiences.

Northwestern University's Ken Forbus is closing the gap between humans and machines.

Using cognitive science theories, Forbus and his collaborators have developed a model that could give computers the ability to reason more like humans and even make moral decisions. Called the structure-mapping engine (SME), the new model is capable of analogical problem solving, including capturing the way humans spontaneously use analogies between situations to solve moral dilemmas.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - A common problem with some scientific research, particularly projects studying human health, is that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to prove that a specific action directly causes an effect. For example, scientists have found that those who smoke cigarettes also are more likely to suffer from depression. However, scientists cannot uniquely determine whether smoking directly causes depressive symptoms, or if those with depression are more likely to cause health damaging behaviors, including smoking.

June 21, 2016 - A recently introduced technology called the Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) can provide a less-invasive approach for difficult-to-treat aneurysms of the arteries supplying blood to the front of the brain, reports a study in the July issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, published by Wolters Kluwer.

Grandparents may be some of the best storytellers around, in the sense that they usually have plenty of stories to tell. What they're not always as good at, however, is staying on topic when they regale others with their tales.

Indeed, what might begin as an account about their snowy trek to school could easily go off on tangents about the time they visited the Grand Canyon or their granddaughter's recent soccer game.

A study of patients in a Minnesota county suggests the incidence (new cases) of parkinsonism and Parkinson disease may have increased over the past 30 years but that trend may not be genuine and must be confirmed in other populations, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.

A previous study suggested smokers may have reduced risk of Parkinson disease (PD) and speculated the decline in smoking by men in the U.S. after a peak in the 1940s and 1950s could result in an increase in PD incidence decades later. That theory has not been tested empirically.

A university degree is linked to a heightened risk of developing a brain tumour, suggests a large observational study, published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Gliomas, in particular, were more common among people who had studied at university for at least three years than they were among those who didn't go on to higher education, the data show.

The researchers base their findings on more than 4.3 million Swedes, all of whom were born between 1911 and 1961 and living in Sweden in 1991.

Athens, Ga. - A team of researchers led by psychologists at the University of Georgia have found that the silencing of a specific gene may affect human social behavior, including a person's ability to form healthy relationships or to recognize the emotional states of others.