Brain

Washington — New research released today demonstrates the brain's remarkable capacity to repair itself. The animal studies, which propose ways to prevent or limit damage after blood and oxygen deprivation and blood clots, were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

Stroke is the number one cause of long-term disability and the third leading cause of death in the developed world. Limiting the damage caused by stroke would improve patient prognosis.

Chronic drinking is associated with neurocognitive deficits due to neuropathological changes in the structure, metabolism, and function of the brain. One of the consequences of neuropathological brain abnormalities in the cerebellum of alcoholics has been impairment of motor functioning. A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a finger-tapping exercise has found a weakened relationship between frontal lobe and cerebellar activity in alcoholic individuals.

Washington — Research released today shows that scientists are finding new tools to help understand neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and fragile X syndrome. These studies show in new detail how the brain's connections, chemicals, and genes interact to affect behavior. The research findings were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science health.

Washington — New research identifies the brain chemicals and circuits involved in mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, giving potential new directions to their treatment. In addition, research with children shows that early-life depression and anxiety changes the structure of the developing brain. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

Washington — Research released today uses the latest genetic tools to explore how stress alters brain function, leading to anxiety, depression, and other stress-related mood disorders. The research was presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – High school health classes fail to help students refuse sexual advances or endorse safe sex habits when teachers focus primarily on testing knowledge, a new study reveals.

But when teachers emphasized learning the material for its own sake, and to improve health, students had much better responses. In these kinds of classrooms, students had lower intentions of having sex and felt better able to navigate sexual situations.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study suggests that sex during adolescence can have lasting negative effects on the body and mood well into adulthood, most likely because the activity occurs when the nervous system is still developing.

While the research used laboratory animals, the findings provide information that may be applicable to understanding human sexual development.

A provocative new article in the American Journal of Education argues that many teachers in the age of rigid curricula, high-stakes testing, and reduced classroom autonomy are finding it difficult to access the "moral rewards" of their profession. This demoralization of teaching threatens to drive away even the most passionate and dedicated of teachers.

People who are alcohol-dependent and who also carry a particular variant of a gene run an increased risk of premature death. This is a recent finding from the interdisciplinary research at the Department of Psychology and the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

After only four years of problem drinking, a significant decrease in the function of the serotonin system in women's brains can be seen. This is the system that regulates such functions as impulse control and mood. It takes 12 years before a corresponding decrease is seen in men. This is the conclusion of multidisciplinary research carried out at the Department of Psychology and the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

CAMDEN — How the brain perceives color is one of its more impressive tricks. It is able to keep a stable perception of an object's color as lighting conditions change.

Sarah Allred, an assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers–Camden, has teamed up with psychologists from the University of Pennsylvania on groundbreaking research that provides new insight into how this works.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For decades, scientists have dreamed of building computer systems that could replicate the human brain's talent for learning new tasks.

MIT researchers have now taken a major step toward that goal by designing a computer chip that mimics how the brain's neurons adapt in response to new information. This phenomenon, known as plasticity, is believed to underlie many brain functions, including learning and memory.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Patients with cancer, heart disease and other chronic illness struggle not only with complications inherent to their disease, they also experience an involuntary loss of weight and muscle mass triggered by the body's natural response to infection and inflammation. Increasing nutrition intake does not mitigate the process and there is no treatment.

A high childhood IQ may be linked to subsequent illegal drug use, particularly among women, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The authors base their findings on data from just under 8,000 people in the 1970 British Cohort Study, a large ongoing population based study, which looks at lifetime drug use, socioeconomic factors, and educational attainment.

WASHINGTON -- Skilled readers can recognize words at lightning fast speed when they read because the word has been placed in a visual dictionary of sorts, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) neuroscientists. The visual dictionary idea rebuts the theory that our brain "sounds out" words each time we see them.