Brain

(MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.) February 6, 2012 -- The Fogarty Institute for Innovation announced today that it has launched its Advanced Endovascular Training Fellowship. This unique, year-long clinical training program for postgraduate physicians, which begins July 1, 2012, will provide Fellows with broad exposure to all aspects of endovascular patient care, with an emphasis on interventional training. Fellows will also engage with the Fogarty Institute's early-stage medical device start-up companies and assist in the process of developing technologies to improve patient care.

Bethesda, Md. -- Researchers have long known that specific parts of the brain activate when people view particular images. For example, a region called the fusiform face area turns on when the eyes glance at faces, and another region called the parahippocampal place area does the same when a person looks at scenes or buildings. However, it's been unknown whether such specialization also exists for visual working memory, a category of memory that allows the brain to temporarily store and manipulate visual information for immediate tasks.

Welders who are exposed to manganese from welding fumes, risk developing increased clumsiness – and the result may remain decades after exposure has ceased. This is the finding of a study at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, of former shipyard workers.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Researchers have found a way to study how our brains assess the behavior – and likely future actions – of others during competitive social interactions. Their study, described in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use a computational approach to tease out differing patterns of brain activity during these interactions, the researchers report.

To explore the most intricate structures of the brain in order to decipher how it functions – Stefan Hell's team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen has made a significant step closer to this goal. Using the STED microscopy developed by Hell, the scientists have, for the first time, managed to record detailed live images inside the brain of a living mouse. Captured in the previously impossible resolution of less than 70 nanometers, these images have made the minute structures visible which allow nerve cells to communicate with each other.

The report card is in, and the online dating industry won't be putting this one on the fridge. A new scientific report concludes that although online dating offers users some very real benefits, it falls far short of its potential.

Unheard of just twenty years ago, online dating is now a billion dollar industry and one of the most common ways for singles to meet potential partners. Many websites claim that they can help you find your "soulmate." But do these online dating services live up to all the hype?

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Whether enlisting the help of a grandmother or a friend or the magic of Cupid, singles long have understood that assistance may be required to meet that special someone.

Today such help is likely to come from online methods of matchmaking. But online dating, according to new Northwestern University research, depends largely on ineffective algorithms and profiles for finding potential love interests.

Toronto – What does "free time" mean to you? When you're not at work, do you pass the time -- or spend it?

The difference may impact how happy you are. A new study shows people who put a price on their time are more likely to feel impatient when they're not using it to earn money. And that hurts their ability to derive happiness during leisure activities.

A worker experiencing the stress of intense workdays might develop somatic symptoms, such as stomach ache or headache, which will eventually lead to taking leave of absence. But when the individual's supervisor offers emotional and instrumental support, the employee is more likely to recover without needing to take that extra afternoon or day off. This has been shown in a new study from the University of Haifa, soon to be published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.

Cultural differences between the West and East are well documented, but a study shows that concrete differences also exist in how British and Chinese people recognise people and the world around them. Easterners really do look at the world differently to Westerners, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Tampa, Fla. (Feb. 3 , 2012) – Repeated, low-dose injections of mononuclear cells derived from human umbilical cord blood (MNC hUCB, tradename: U-CORD-CELL™) have been found effective in protecting motor neuron cells, delaying disease progression and increasing lifespan for mice modeling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, report University of South Florida researchers and colleagues from Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., and the Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Detroit - A Wayne State University researcher believes studying people's ability to find their way around may help explain why loss of mental capacity occurs with age.

Scott Moffat, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and gerontology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Institute of Gerontology at WSU, said studies have demonstrated reliable differences in navigation and spatial learning tasks based on age. Younger adults tend to outperform their elders in spatial navigation, Moffat said, and people seem to start switching navigational strategies with age.

Online dating has not only shed its stigma, it has surpassed all forms of matchmaking in the United States other than meeting through friends, according to a new analysis of research on the burgeoning relationship industry.

New York City, February 6, 2012 – Programs that support parents during their child's early years hold promise for obesity prevention, according to a new study in the online February 6 issue of Pediatrics.

Today, one out of five American children is obese. Young children who are overweight are five times more likely than their peers of normal weight to be obese by adolescence. Obese children and adolescents, especially low-income and minority youth, are at increased risk for a range of medical, social and academic problems.

When a friend tells you she had a rough day, do you feel sandpaper under your fingers? The brain may be replaying sensory experiences to help understand common metaphors, new research suggests.