Brain

Organizations have logos, sports teams have mascots, countries have flags and national anthems. In marketing plans and political campaigns, a good logo is considered an essential tool for building brand identity.

New research at the University of California, Davis, shows that logos do far more -- creating the impression that a group is unified, effective and coordinated, even when the members of the group don't really seem that way on their own.

WASHINGTON (April 15, 2016) -- Georgetown University researchers are reporting the first case of Alzheimer's disease diagnosed in an HIV-positive individual. The finding in a 71-year-old man triggers a realization about HIV survivors now reaching the age when Alzheimer's risk begins to escalate.

Irvine, Calif., April 15, 2016 -- Using cutting-edge imaging technology, University of California, Irvine biologists have determined that uncontrolled fluctuations (known at "noise) in the concentration of the vitamin A derivative Retinoic acid (RA) can lead to disruptions in brain organization during development.

Identifying how a cell responds to a signal made by another cell, despite the level of noise present, may improve our understanding of developmental disorders.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The ubiquitous nutrition facts panel has graced food packages for many years. But can it be improved?

Results from a study led by Michigan State University and featured in a recent issue of the journal Food Policy indicates the answer is, "Yes."

Obesity is a serious and growing global health crisis. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 40 percent of the world's adults are overweight - a number that's doubled since 1980. While many factors contribute to this epidemic, improving food labeling could be one tool to fight it.

The worldwide reliance on burning fossil fuels to create energy could be phased out in a decade, according to an article published by a major energy think tank in the UK.

Professor Benjamin Sovacool, Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex, believes that the next great energy revolution could take place in a fraction of the time of major changes in the past.

After a stroke, there is inflammation in the damaged part of the brain. Until now, the inflammation has been seen as a negative consequence that needs to be abolished as soon as possible. But, as it turns out, there are also some positive sides to the inflammation, and it can actually help the brain to self-repair.

"This is in total contrast to our previous beliefs", says Professor Zaal Kokaia from Lund University in Sweden.

New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) shows that men and women with diabetes (both types) face not only reduced overall life expectancy, but also higher numbers of years living with disability compared to those people without diabetes. The research is by Associate Professor Dianna Magliano and Dr Lili Huo, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues.

University of Texas at Arlington researchers have found that by age 3 environmental influences such as parenting are relevant factors in the development of toddlers' self-control when they are asked not to do something they want to do, such as run into the street or eat a forbidden snack.

DURHAM, N.C. -- It's a long-simmering debate in juvenile justice: Do young offenders become worse because of their experience with the justice system, or are they somehow different than people who don't have their first criminal conviction until later in life?

"There seems to be a lot of evidence that people who are convicted early are more heavily involved in crime," says postdoctoral researcher Amber Beckley at Duke University, who has a new study out on the topic that appears online in the Journal of Criminal Justice.

New York, NY, April 14, 2016. In a recent study, researchers found evidence of a compromised dopamine system in heavy users of marijuana. Lower dopamine release was found in the striatum - a region of the brain that is involved in working memory, impulsive behavior, and attention. Previous studies have shown that addiction to other drugs of abuse, such as cocaine and heroin, have similar effects on dopamine release, but such evidence for cannabis was missing until now.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Research strongly suggests that sleep, which constitutes about a third of our lives, is crucial for learning and forming long-term memories. But exactly how such memory is formed is not well understood and remains, despite considerable research, a central question of inquiry in neuroscience.

New research reveals the severe mental health problems experienced by men and women trafficked to the UK for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and forced labour, including high levels of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The study, led by King's College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, found that of 150 people trafficked to the UK from more than 30 different countries, nearly 80 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men reported high levels of depression, anxiety or PTSD.

Falling asleep and waking up are key transitions in everyone's day. Millions of people have trouble with these transitions - they find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, and hard to stay awake during the day. Despite decades of research, how these transitions work - the neurobiological mechanics of our circadian rhythm - has remained largely a mystery to brain scientists.

University of Texas at Arlington researchers have found that by age 3 environmental influences such as parenting are relevant factors in the development of toddlers' self-control when they are asked not to do something they want to do, such as run into the street or eat a forbidden snack.

Why do we sometimes decide to take risks and other times choose to play it safe? In a new study, Caltech researchers explored the neural mechanisms of one possible explanation: a contagion effect.

The work is described in the March 21 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.