Brain

Is the juicer you purchased recently gathering dust in the pantry? Are you still wearing your fitness tracker?

Humans are creatures of habit, and a new USC-led study shows that this tendency influences whether we adopt new products or services.

The research team found that consumers were likely to resist products that require some change of habit, but they cottoned onto products that fit easily into existing routines.

Netflix binge-watching versus a hike in the woods. A cheeseburger versus kale salad. Fentanyl versus Tylenol. New UC research from the University California, Berkeley, suggests our brain activity could be influenced to make the healthier choice.

In recording moment-by-moment deliberations by macaque monkeys over which option is likely to yield the most fruit juice, UC Berkeley scientists have captured the dynamics of decision-making down to millisecond changes in neurons in the brain's orbitofrontal cortex.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by impaired social interactions and repetitive behaviors, often accompanied by abnormal reactions to sensory stimuli.

Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and the University of Tübingen have identified proteins in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid that reflect nerve cell damage. The results of the study, published in the journal Neuron, suggest that the concentration of these 'neurofilament light chain proteins' could provide information about the progression of neurodegenerative diseases and the effects of treatment. Such a biomarker would be valuable for developing therapies.

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report they have developed an experimental laboratory test that accurately clocks the "speed" of human brain tumor cell movement along a small glass "track." The assay, so far tested on the cells of 14 glioblastoma patients, has the potential, they say, to predict how quickly and aggressively a given cancer might lethally spread.

June 9, 2016--(BRONX, NY)--Using an advanced imaging technique, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System were able to predict which patients who'd recently suffered concussions were likely to fully recover. The study also sheds light on the brain's mechanisms for repairing or compensating for concussion injuries--information that could speed the development of therapies. The study was published online today in the American Journal of Neuroradiology.

WASHINGTON -- Skilled readers can quickly recognize words when they read because the word has been placed in a visual dictionary of sorts which functions separately from an area that processes the sounds of written words, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) neuroscientists. The visual dictionary idea rebuts a common theory that our brain needs to "sound out" words each time we see them.

Philadelphia, PA, June 9, 2016 - Addiction may be viewed as a disorder of reward learning. To date, addiction research has focused on the molecular adaptations through which memories of exposure to abused substances are encoded and maintained by nerve cells.

Move over sniffer dogs, people who witnessed a crime are able to identify criminals by their smell. Police lineups normally rely on sight, but nose-witnesses can be just as reliable as eye-witnesses, new research published in Frontiers in Psychology has found.

The QUTIS group, led by the Ikerbasque professor Enrique Solano, is a world leader in theoretical proposals for quantum simulation and quantum computation with superconducting circuits and other quantum technologies, which are carried out and verified at major international scientific and technological labs. The American company Google has one of the most advanced labs in this field and is a world leader in this technology.

Young people are less likely to be ageist when their friends have friendships with older adults, research led by psychologists at the University of Kent has shown.

Even when young adults have no social contact with older adults in their everyday life, if they are aware of a friend who is friends with an older adult this can increase their positive attitudes towards older adults as a whole, the researchers found.

A University of Liverpool study published in the British Medical Journal has found the UK population's cardiovascular health is not being supported enough by the NHS Health Check programme.

Researchers from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, led by Dr Chris Kypridemos and Dr Martin O'Flaherty working with colleagues from the University of Manchester, have examined the potential impact of universal screening for primary cardiovascular disease prevention (NHS Health Checks), on disease burden and socioeconomic health inequalities.

Analysis of a wealth of new data contradicts an earlier claim that LB1, an ~80,000 year old fossil skeleton from the Indonesian island of Flores, had Down syndrome, and further confirms its status as a fossil human species, Homo floresiensis.

New Haven, Conn.-- Obesity is linked to changes in our gut microbes -- the trillions of tiny organisms that inhabit our intestines. But the mechanism has not been clear. In a new study published in Nature, a Yale-led team of researchers has identified how an altered gut microbiota causes obesity.

A research team from Oxford University have shown how different colours of light could affect our ability to sleep.

The researchers, led by Dr Stuart Peirson from Oxford's Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute were aiming to understand why exposing mice to bright light caused two - physically incompatible - responses.